As with most pasttimes, table-top roleplaying requires certain tools. Here is your bare minimum kit:
System
There are hundreds of game systems available. Some of the most popular are:
- Dungeons & Dragons – High fantasy; relatively simple system.
- Pathfinder – High fantasy, an extension of a previous D&D version; moderately complicated.
- d20 – Generic, similar to D&D; moderately complicated.
- GURPS – Generic; simple or complicated depending on playing style. Leans toward storytelling.
- Warhammer – Dark fantasy; simple system.
- BESM – Anime-based.
- Exalted and Scion – Martial arts fantasy; moderately complicated. Leans toward storytelling.
- World of Darkness – Horror fantasy, including Vampire: The Masquerade and other sub-games; simple system.
- Palladium – Dystopian; extremely complicated.
- Call of Cthulhu – Horror; moderately complicated.
- Mutants & Masterminds – Superhero fantasy; based on d20.
Before choosing a system, glance over the core books in your local games-/bookstore, research them online, and talk about them with the people you’ll be playing with. If you’ve previously played under a GM who ran a fun game, find out what system they were using and what others they recommend.
GURPS is my personal favorite and always has been, since it can handle any genre (or lack thereof). Throughout this series, I will assume that the reader is using GURPS.
Once you’ve settled on a system, there are various books you can purchase (or, in some cases, download for free) in order to play. To run a GURPS game, you need Basic Set: Characters and Basic Set: Campaigns.
Most systems also have add-on books. For example, GURPS 4e offers addons for Space, Fantasy, Supers, Infinite Worlds, and so on.
Modern systems usually have free, downloadable/printable resources on their official website.
Summary: Acquire the books central to the system; also check out the supplemental books and the official website’s resources.
Organization
Once you start gathering material with which to run games, you’re going to need to keep it organized. Otherwise, you could be in the middle of a game and suddenly forget where you put the next monster’s stats or the map for the next area.
For those who won’t be able to play with a computer or laptop at hand, there are many old-fashioned options. Papers can be stored in a three-ring binder, with monsters, story notes, maps, and so on filed separately.
If you wind up using plastic/pewter miniatures, you can get a cheap plastic bin to store them in. If you use paper stand-ups, you can either flatten or unfold them between games.
There are lots of smartphone apps on the market that help with running a campaign, including die rollers and random item generators.
Finally, if you’ll be able to use a laptop/computer, you can keep all of these notes and resources stored digitally. Character sheets can be saved in a variety of formats, usually both editable and printable.
My suggestion would be to first make folders for campaigns. Within those, make folders for each type of resource, such as ‘Maps’, ‘Story Notes’, ‘PCs’, ‘NPCs and Monsters’, and so on. Within these, save all your resources or put shortcuts to them if you have them organized elsewhere.
Summary: Create a coherent system in which you’ll be able to find what you need when you need it.
Resources: NewbieDM on DM notebooks, Gnome Stew’s GM tools
Screen
As a GM, you’ll sometimes have to roll the dice or make notes that you don’t want the players to see. You’ll also need to consult the same few charts over and over again until you have them memorized. A handy way to solve both these problems is to print out or buy a GM screen for your system.
Most systems offer a screen that you can either print out and assemble yourself or buy pre-made and printed on card stock. You can also make your own.
If you’re using a laptop, you can obviously use the screen to hide what you’re doing.
Summary: Buy, print out, or create a screen from behind which you can run the game.
Resources: Mediocre Tales’ custom screen, Campaign Mastery’s screen hacks
Character Sheets, NPCs, and Miniatures
Later on in the series, we’ll talk about whether you should create the characters or let your players do it. Either way, you’ll need a printout or editable digital copy of your system’s character sheet. If printing, try to make at least two printouts for each expected player so that you have extra in case they bring a friend or want to change characters.
Once you know basically what the characters will look like, and especially if you’re going to be playing using combat maps, you’ll need to print out or find some miniatures. They can be either folded paper slips with the character’s picture, or painted/pewter figures.
Finally, you’ll need NPCs, including extras, allies, villains, and monsters. You’ll soon learn which ones you need specifically, but for now, find out how your system handles their character sheets and look for some miniatures for them. Some systems have pre-written monsters available in ‘monster manuals’; have this on hand so you can pull out the ones you need.
Summary: Copy or print off some character sheets and NPCs; print/assemble or buy miniatures.
Resources: Chaotic Shiny’s random PC/NPC generators, BehindTheName’s name generator, RPGlife’s miniatures index,
Maps
The two kinds of maps are world (showing landmarks, towns, and areas of interest) and combat (close-up, has squares/hexes in which characters stand). You’ll almost always need the first and will probably want to have the second on hand.
You can buy reuseable grid playmats for combat, on which you can write using washable marker. As for maps specific to your story, you have several options: You can use premade maps but change the names to suit your purposes, or you can design your own.
Summary: Construct a basic map of the area or even world, and then keep specific, close-up maps on hand for combat and other specifics.
Resources: Chaotic Shiny’s random map generators, RPGLife’s maps index,
Dice
If you’re playing in person and either love dice or don’t have access to a computer/cellphone, you’ll need a set of dice. Depending on your system, you’ll either need a full set or just a couple of six-sided dice.
Resources: Joe’s Random Number Generator, RPGLife’s dice-roller
Other
Here’s a massive list of other resources.
About Fiona Canteberry
A novelist from northwest Arkansas, Fiona's range of topics include writing, tropes, and self-improvement. She goes by 'FekketCantenel' online.
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