#23: Using Props

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/kosher/kosher23.phtml

Summary:

Fiction, computers, dry erase boards, music, and other props for RPGs.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/kosher/kosher23.phtml) for more information.

[Grop]

Hello, I know a variant of the erase board that costs little room: an horizontal one, mounted on four feet (like a small table) so that you can place it on your gaming table, draw on it (and use tokens such as dice to represent the positions of characters) and still use the table area under it, thanks to the feet.

It can not be very large, of course. The one we use is about 60x40x20cm (like, say, a board 2 feet long and 15 inches wide, mounted on feet 8 inches high) and we also use a spare board (same area, two faces and no foot) to pile up on the main one, in case we would switch places without erasing anything.

BTW, a GM I know (the one that seems to have invented the table-shaped erase board) loves to uses props in is Chtulhu games: he even larps some investigation scenes, where PCs have to search a prepared room in his place. It's just great when you find a match box wearing the address of a bar under a piece of furniture (don't worry, it does not prevent us from rolling *many* perception tests in the same session)

[renatoram]

On the subject of images and portraits of PGs and PNGs, I have a couple of suggestions:

1 - Character portraits: if you (as the GM) or some collaborative player have computer graphics skills you can easily generate very evocative touchups.

Look at these two characters in my upcoming Victoriana Campaign (where I'll be a player). The text is in italian (our language), sorry, but since we are talking 'bout the images I think you will not mind :-)

My character: a canine journalist beastman (middle class)
http://sagojobygaslight.pbwiki.com/Graham%20O'Shaughnessey

A rarity: an upperclass canine beastman
http://sagojobygaslight.pbwiki.com/Sir%20Didymus
(obviously "inspired" by Labyrinth's Didymus)


2 - Images (in general): to keep things organized you can use a tool that permits you to "tag" images. For example Picasa (win), F-Spot (linux), or iPhoto (OSX). This way you just have to plan a little bit in advance and tag your collection with words relating both subject and mood of the image ("pier", "building", "gloomy", "tomb", "happy", and so on). Maybe add a keyword for your campaign, as a fast catchall.

I almost forgot: if you know you will have a fast internet connection you can just as well use Flickr!

Then, keep the app open on your GMing Laptop, and pick the tags needed for the scene: you'll find your images right away!
(this method can obviously be used with a file browser, if you have one that supports tagging, like Nautilus in linux with the leaftag extension http://www.chipx86.com/blog/?p=155 )

Have fun!


Bye, Renato

[angelicmadrigal]

I actually used to use props as a Player back in the days when I first started gaming. Especially letters and stuff.

[Midwinter]

Almost each and every of the PCs and NPCs in our "Vampire" Campaign gets his own picture. The search for a fitting actor, artist etc. is actually a bit like the casting process of a movie - "yes, he looks good, but do I believe him to be a Mafia don?". Meanwhile we have some 900 MBs of jpgs to fall back on, so for every role there surely is a pic to use.
We try to avoid the "Tom Cruise problem" described in the column by mostly using (yet) unknown actors and actresses, supporting cast of movies and the like.

During the 10 years of our campaign, we have used almost every prop and handout imaginable. Letters and other documents (the best things I ever created was a 20 page transcript of an interrogation by the Inquisition which took the players quite a while to analyze, and an ancient looking arcane scroll which was so genuine looking that the players - not the characters! - barely dared to handle it), specially prepared and mixed sound effects, PowerPoint presentations (one was even designed to look like a police database and could be used by the players to retrieve important information), coins, daggers and what not.

But we have also coined the term "to do an Emmerich", referring to Roland Emmerich, director of movies like "Independent Day" and "The day after tomorrow". "ID4" and "Day after tomorrow" are fun to watch, no doubt, but sometimes the special fx overwhelm the story. So, whenever a Storyteller, Gamemaster or whatever you may call the devine power that runs a game hands out props, documents and the like en masse to distract from a plot hole, he's "doing an Emmerich".
To keep a long story short: Use props only to support the story - don't rely on them as the foundation of your game (and believe me, this happens faster than you think; I know what I'm talking about, because I did a lot of Emmerichs...;) ).

[GoldenApe]

I used a rubik's cube as a prop once, to represent an artifact they found. I painted it black and then painted symbols on each of the squares.

It was a lot of fun, that cube.