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100% GMing
Treasure Tables is dedicated to game masters, offering GMing advice and ideas and a community of GMs helping each other run great games since 2005. I'm Martin Ralya, and I've been GMing since 1989 and writing for the RPG industry since 2004.
How Do You Use Props?
Mon. October 10, 2005
It’s day 10 of the Blogging for GMs project, and I’d like to talk about props. (My internet connection was down all weekend, which is why I had to skip days 8 and 9 of the project — sorry about that!)
I’ll share the story of my favorite prop to get things rolling, but I’m more interested in hearing your answer to this open question: how do you use props in your game?
What got me thinking about this topic was my friend Don Mappin’s post about props, Props for the Peeps. His post is the best overview of using props in your game that I’ve ever read, largely because it addresses what props are for, and it’s well worth a look.
As far as my own experiences go, I was pretty into props when I first started GMing, and I’m much less into them now. I don’t know exactly why things changed, but I suspect it has a lot to with time constraints — I was 12 when I started GMing, and I had a lot more free time then than I do now, at 28!
At the same time, as a player I love props — simple or elaborate, it doesn’t matter: I like having stuff to interact with at the table. That’s part of the reason why I’m curious how TT readers employ props in their game — I wouldn’t mind getting fired up about props again from the GMing end of things, because they can be a lot of fun.
My favorite prop that I’ve ever made was kind of a two-parter. Part one was the actual prop: a message written in a fantasy language on something that looked like parchment. In its own right, it was a pretty average prop. The second part is what made it interesting: when the player handed it to a sage to get it translated, the sage named an enormous price; the player said no — so the sage tore up the message.
The player came up with the idea of gluing it back together with flour and water — which was setting-appropriate, and actually works — and with me helping (as an NPC), we did just that. I was pretty young at the time (maybe 14 or 15) and I probably wouldn’t have torn up the message if this had come up in a more recent game — but at the time, we both had a lot of fun with it.
Of the props you’be used for your game, which ones are your favorites? Do you use props at all — and if not, why? Any tips for speeding up the process, or making props that look elaborate but are actually quite simple?
More posts about: Blogging for GMs Project, Props and Ambience
Comments
14 Responses to “How Do You Use Props?”
I got an email from Philip, who runs 2d10.org, about his approach to props.
Philip makes episode teasers and other images, and they’re quite cool — here’s an example: Episode 4: Sewer Jacks Fallen Leaves. Thanks, Philip!
I’m in the same boat; while I like props as a player, I rarely take the time to make them as a GM. They’re very good at making things concrete– and I know that for some players, they’d work much better than any description. Time always gets into the ideal though…
I actually wish more published modules came with handouts for this reason. Or even with a supplemental packet of handouts, like the one Chaosium did for Beyond the Mountains of Madness: along with the GM’s screen and map, it had a player map, boat tickets, an expedition patch and other goodies. You didn’t need any of them for the game (hence, the supplemental pack), but they were neat.
I like the idea of props, but I tend to use relatively few props, at least those that people typically consider - I do use counters and miniatures on a battlemat to run battles or otherwise show layouts of places, and those certainly count as props (especially since I have started to use Fiery Dragon Press’s Counter Collection Digital to print out the numbers of certain things I need - though other times I just use generic counters).
I did draw up a map the PCs found for them. I have also photocopied props out of modules to hand out.
Frank
With 3.x D&D, I don’t think of battlemaps and minis/counters as props anymore, like I might have with earlier editions. Now, they’re very close to just being required game elements.
True, although if effort is made to use appropriate minis or counters, they have some prop value. I’ve actually always played fairly tactical (just not with all the options), so I don’t consider them to have changed all that much.
Frank
Props are something I never got enough of as a player. Now that I’m DMing a campaign in Eberron, I have begun to use props, including campaign maps, letters, newspapers, and other plothook devices.
The Dragonshards and Sharn Inquisitive from Wizards and Korranberg Chronicle are all useful. I pick and choose, and have created my own version of the Sharn Inquisitive using the various stories from online. I even went so far as to lay the paper in tea to give it a parchment feel.
Cameron, I don’t suppose you have samples of some of your props — in particular, the newspapers — online, do you?
“The second part is what made it interesting: when the player handed it to a sage to get it translated, the sage named an enormous price; the player said no — so the sage tore up the message.”
LOL- Classic!
Anyhow, I like props quite a bit and try to always incorporate some into the game. I find that anything the players can “hold” helps draw them into the game. Theres always letters and such in the game, sometimes riddles etc. One of my favorite props was a “book”- in reality, only maybe 2-3 pages but like 5 counting the covers. I stapled the pages together and even drew a symbol on its cover. The book was the “bible” of an evil god. Of course, clues were hidden in the text and there was a part that said . I came up with the text by reading lyrics to black metal music.
I had an artifact sword that had it’s own sheet of paper complete with an image I found on the web. That seemed to go over well.
Of course, I do use maps for battle and I enjoy giving them some detail, not just a grid of squares. I’ve made a “ship” map for a ship-ship sea battle (Pirates). In my next run, Id like to try one of the neat looking paper castles.
I ran Return to the Tomb of Horrors and that boxed set has many nice props in it. Thats a good place to look for inspiration (even if the module is a cosmic beatdown).
-Judas
(Judas) In my next run, Id like to try one of the neat looking paper castles.
I don’t have nearly enough minis to make those work properly (I mainly use counters), but man do they look sweet! I like that there are prop sets for other genres as well, like sci-fi.
[...] 3. Use props. From the simplest to the most elaborate, few things connect in-game events to the act of playing the game like props. I posed an open question about props to TT readers a little while back, and there are some handy tips in that post and its comments: “How Do You Use Props?” [...]
I just found this article about props — where to find them, and how to use them: DM Props. It covers some good ground.
Not online. I do have them on my home pc. They’re in word format so I could easily upload them. Like I said, I used almost all WotC content and fit them into a one page newspaper style sheet.
[...] 1. LARPS involve walking around and interacting with lots of players. This isn’t the way a traditional tabletop game works, obviously, and you might be surprised at how refreshing it can be to shift perspectives. 2. The players drive the story. This is true in some RPGs, but certainly not all — and in most games, everyone interacts quite a bit with the GM, which isn’t always the case in LARPs. 3. You can watch multiple GMs in action. Seeing how 2+ GMs divide up their tasks is quite interesting, and even though some of the tasks are different in a tabletop game, there are enough commonalities to make for a good learning experience. 4. LARPs tend to use props well. Props can be time-intensive to create, but seeing them in action can be just the thing to get your creative juices flowing. (I wrote about props here on TT, in “How Do You Use Props?“) 5. Look for tricks on creating ambience. Whether it’s background music, scenery or even just their choice of locations, I’ve played in some LARPs that did this well — often with minimal use of sets and props. (”Creating Ambience” here on TT covers this topic.) 6. Beef up your improv skills. Gaming involves improvisation by default, but in a LARP you have less to fall back on than in a tabletop game. They often have minimal rules, and in the case of one-shot LARPs (like those at cons) there’s no setting or background info to absorb — which means you spend several hours doing everything by the seat of your pants. [...]