Doing it a little differently

[thorswulf]

I know the title leaves a lot open for discussion, but what I'm curious in is the way other sdid things "different" than the norm. For instance, I knew a guy when I was a teenager who mapped his entire world out on graph paper. Not hex paper or a plain map. It struck me as being a very simple solution that everybody else seemed to miss. Hex paper is great, but difficult to find at a local grocery store.

Another idea came from Bruce Quarrie's Fantasy Wargaming. He mentioned a fellow gamer who used a piece of styrofoam, and used pins and black thread to quickly define the rooms in his dungeon.

So my question to you is, what nifty ideas do you use or admire?

[Falconer]

We mounted a whiteboard on the section of wall behind where I (the DM) sit. Now, this whiteboard has a grid of tiny black dots which makes it easy to draw little sections of map. So we got different colored markers for that purpose. Also, the board is magnetic. Every character has a little “pawn” of a different color that is magnetic, and for monsters, we got a magnetic alphabet set, so that if they are fighting, say, six monsters, they could name their targets as A-F (a convention we started before we got the alphabet). I set up the marching order (per the Caller's instructions) on the board and use it as an aid to visualization of tactical situations.

The table itself is always overcrowded with people and food and drinks and sketches in progress. Regards.