Apart from the actual game itself, what is involved in my ideal session? This has evolved over time and, although I have less time than ever, my expectations are higher than ever.
First off, I have completely gone off theatre of the mind and now expect miniatures and battle maps. I’m not a wargamer at heart, but a very visual person. I dislike having the confusion of where everyone is in a combat or even an action scene, so like to have it all laid out in front of me. I’m even moving increasingly toward 3D set ups, where I can using game terrain. I’ve found that the third dimension adds even more to the game, as we’ve had some amazing multi-story battles and even fights with combatants in trees that have added atmosphere to the game. Where I can’t get the appropriate terrain, I’ll use full colour battlemaps that are appropriate to the scene. I’m off using the gridded maps that you draw on completely now.
I also need some good visuals, so would want images for all PCs and major NPCs. Face cards are a great addition to the game and I typically will provide tent cards to my players showing their picture and name (possibly class/occupation) so that everyone can see clearly who/what everyone else is. I will also use face cards for my major (and sometimes minor) NPCs so that people can associate a face with a name. Again, I’m a visual person, so this is important.
I like thematic elements too, so if using a game with playing cards, will try to find a deck that suits the theme, as well as images for a GM’s screen that suit the game/setting. If I’m playing at home, I’ll try to have music in the background that fits the game.
Finally, it’s important that everyone’s focused on the game itself and not anything else. I find that the visual elements help do that. While some might say it’s distracting, I think it’s actually more immersive to see who is who, what is what and where everything is in the game. Especially if you have well-painted minis and awesome terrain, people will be drawn into the game completely. Even outsiders will want to join in, if only to play with the cool stuff.
To go with my miniatures, I try to have appropriate terrain or features (like in the picture above, I printed out a chaos symbol for the floor of the Chaos Temple. As well, I like to use the miniature markers (available here on the Stuffer Shack!) to mark conditions on characters (Shaken, etc.) as well as number grunts when it becomes important.
Finally, and still more work, I like to have cards for gear (showing what it can do, or at least for inventory purposes) as well as cards for important clues in a game featuring a mystery. The last one is something that I’ve discovered and is particularly useful when your mystery spans several game sessions that might cover months of real time. It’s a way for players to easily reference what they learned and piece it together.
I realize my ideal session is not for everyone, but that’s what I like.
Justin Schmid
Justin started tabletop gaming in 1983 with Basic D&D (red box) and never looked back. He runs and plays in a wide variety of games, including Savage Worlds, Dungeon World, Trail of Cthulhu and many, many more.
He also writes professionally for role-playing games, including writing and creating Night's Edge an Alternate Reality Universe for Cyberpunk 2020. He went on to write eight more adventures and sourcebooks in the Night's Edge line, adding vampires and other supernatural perils to the already dangerous world of Cyberpunk.
As a freelance writer, he wrote The Bermuda Triangle for Call of Cthulhu, Shadows of the Mind, and Psi Wars for Conspiracy X and contributed to Last Unicorn's Star Trek RPG, as well as to Cybergeneration sourcebooks, and many other games.
When he's not creating imaginary worlds for his daughter, he's running games for his friends and writing new adventures or designing new game systems. He currently lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Very nice setups. I also prefer using miniatures, but abstract movement into Fate-type zones rather than strict grids. I’m about to go to Ontario, and will try to get a 5e game going with family. I can’t bring the minis with me, so I’m going to try using Roll20.net on a tablet.
Good luck with Roll20, I’ve heard great things about it. I’ve mostly played with Fantasy Grounds, but I’m curious to try out Roll20 one of these days.