Props and your PCs

[Iuz the Evil]

Hey folks,

 

Just thought I would ask the question: what do you guys use for props in your campaigns? Do you use them at all? This is an open ended discussion regarding any sort of prop usage... music, art, photo-manips, what have you.

 

I myself have used a lot of music and lighting to set the tone for my players. Music (when I haven't had a hearing impaired player at the table) has really helped get everyone into full on "suspension of disbelief" mode. During fights I like Carmina Burana, music from the Conan soundtrack, and LOTR soundtrack for fantasy scenarios. Compilations of super-heroic movie themes, Cyber-punky soundtracks (like from Strange Days or Barb Wire - and yes, I know the second one was a terrible movie), and anything by John Williams is good stuff for my superheroic campaigns. Modern Pop, Metal, and the aforementioned Cyber-punky soundtracks for my "dark future" campaigns. I like to dim lighting when doing a horror theme, and have even busted out with unusual colored lightbulbs and candles - though I've always drawn the line well short of (/shudder) LARPing.

 

One time I brought in a twisted chunk of metal from a scrapyard as a prop to show what a villainous brick (I think it was Durak) had torn from a nearby automobile and hurled at a player with his "casual strength" (in that campaign I'd ruled that at 50% of listed strength you could use feats of strength as a 0 phase action as long as it wasn't an attack - for added superheroic juicyness). That got one of those fun "moments of silence" from everyone at the table every GM loves. And it's always been fun to bust out with the art around the table... I can only imagine the fun that occurs in Storn's groups with that respect, I've always had to swipe mine from the internet, college libraries, sketches derived from comics, etc. since I lack his artistic talent (like most people).

 

So what do you folks use in your campaigns? Inquiring GMs want to know!

[Doppler]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

While I do not use props, I definitely use body language and (nonviolent) creative movement in order to help express the character I'm playing.

[devlin1]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I use almost nothing. I don't bother trying to synch up music to specific "scenes" in the game. If someone wants to have something that's generally appropriate playing in the background, that's fine, but I'm not much of a background music kinda guy (if I put music on, it's because I want to hear it, not have it fill in the gaps). Nor do I dim the lights, find illustrative pictures on the Internet, or provide my players with handouts.

 

Unless, of course, it's a Paranoia game, in which case I have more props, forms, and audio elements than the game reasonably requires.

 

I certainly don't have a problem with the GM of a game I'm in using a bunch of props, but I tend to find that they're way more interested in them than I am.

[mattingly]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

In a cartoon game I run sometimes at cons, I make a "YIPE!" sign that I give to Wile E. Coyote's player.

[Doppler]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I certainly don't have a problem with the GM of a game I'm in using a bunch of props, but I tend to find that they're way more interested in them than I am.

 

 

 

BIIIINGO! I couldn't have said it better. Whoever it is that brings the prop seems to enjoy it much more than the other people.

[devlin1]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

"And here's a picture of the building."

"This is just an exterior shot."

"Yeah, that's what it looks like."

"So... is there a map?"

"No."

"Oh. Well, you can have this back."

"But did you look at it?"

"Yes."

"It's a picture of the building."

"Very nice. Can we, like, play now?"

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

Interesting perspectives... I actually was very resistant to using props. It was a suggestion of one of the players initially (a player that moved away shortly thereafter, and had little benefit from the suggestion). What really struck me as interesting was that the PCs not only verbalized enthusiasm regarding the use of props, but (what I consider a better measure of actual enthusiasm) they would bitch if I didn't use any for long enough once they became part of the ongoing campaign.

 

An example is that it's cool to get a verbal "your character recieves a writ of title to the estates in lower Montgren, and is invested with the order of the Ebon Raven"... it's cool-ER if you actually get handed the rolled up parchment scroll in Lucinda Blackletter (or another nice archaic script) complete with seal and bound in ribbon. Especially if you don't know it's coming. Hell it takes me five minutes for most of these things, anything that adds to the PCs enjoyment is worth a bit of my time... I just wondered if anyone else did the same.

[Blue]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I appreciate when a GM has some pics, especially if he has trouble describing our foe our the location.

 

I tend to draw the original characters in my campaign. I've made miniatures (from heroclix). I've constructed cardboard buildings. A couple people in our group have made buildings, castles, out of plaster, cardboard, stryofoam, etc. and in each case it HAS enhanced the game.

[devlin1]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I appreciate when a GM has some pics, especially if he has trouble describing our foe our the location.

 

I tend to draw the original characters in my campaign. I've made miniatures (from heroclix). I've constructed cardboard buildings. A couple people in our group have made buildings, castles, out of plaster, cardboard, stryofoam, etc. and in each case it HAS enhanced the game.

I do like using miniatures; if the prop in question is actually meant for the battlemat, then by all means I'm for it.

[proditor]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I use minis a lot and most of the props I use are mood based but also still miniature based. Like my group fought in a museum so I had a plastic dinosaur skeleton on a small podium in the middle of my museum map. I ahd some sarcophagi and suits of armor (Yes! Another use for all those D&D minis!) around the room as well. I find the players like it and helps to do 2 things: 1) Cover the wargaming aspect of who sees who and/or what. 2) Let's the players interact with the environment. "I move the sarcophagi so Mechassassin doesn't blast it...it's priceless!"

 

The second the props get to be a distraction though, they're gone.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I frequently make handouts (letters, pages torn from books, newspaper articles, letters of marque, pieces of ancient maps, and the like). I find it's cooler to hand someone an actual piece of paper than to say, "You find a blood-splattered letter on the floor." I sometimes find pictures on the Internet or books to help show the PCs what they're looking at. I often (always?) use miniatures and have a huge collection of miniatures props to lay out on the table. So that'd have to be a big "yes" for me.

 

My players seem to appreciate it. One of them even kept the "Official Invitation to the Queen's Celebratory Ball" that I sent them.

 

Bill.

[Storn]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

um... lots of art.

 

Not only do I generate copious amounts of art for RDU Neil's Champions game through the patronage of many here and the various superhero products that I illustrate (and he uses lots and lots of it).... I will draw quick sketches for my own Realms game. And I ruthlessly swipe others fantasy artwork.

 

But recently, I just started campaign arc that has WAR rolling across the Dalelands, invaders from Thay. I have several props for that. One map showing the intial amphibious landings of the Thay and where various Allied armies where. Then another map showing more detailed movement and most important resource points that either side can take to facilitate repair and recruitment of troops. It is glued to foamcore, so armies are represented by pushpins and can be moved around. Resource pts are also indicated by other colored push pins.

 

And then there are the army units themselves. I probably have 20 different types of units, each one has a counter with the stats, a picture (most of the pics are not mine, but were gleaned from my Fantasy Art Morgue). The counters are nice and large for easy manipulation (cav is 1.5x2.75, infantry is 1.5x1.75 and skirmishers are 1.5x1.5). They too are mounted on foamcore, which makes them easy to pick up and move around and gives the counters some stiffness.

 

But it was a lot of cutting, I'll tell ya. But they are beautiful, and look great marching in formation across the floor towards each other. And oh yeah! Figs are used to represent heros and are actually placed right on the large enuff counters.

[Tech]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I have created/burned a 2 CD set, possibly 3 CD soon, of music specifically for Champions games. I almost always try to have a picture for every single villain I use, sometimes even for a normal that I might use more than once. As for locale pics, that varies: it depends on if I can create the mood or not by mere words.

 

In one particular episode where our heroes go to another world, I had managed to find a perfect picture of the world my particular heroine was from. I got many oo's and ah's from the players while showing the picture. I simply could not have given the world justice by trying to describe it without a picture. A picture of say, the Louvre or an Ireland country surrounding, may be invaluable if one or two players have no idea what the locale looks like.

 

On the other hand, when your hero is tracking down a thug on the gritty part of town, a picture isn't necessary. The players imagination, in this case, may create a much better setting for them than showing a picture.

 

Often, I don't use the CD's and at other times, I do. I do use my voice to accent the villain, which is a lot easier since I've had voice-over training. Yeah, the occasional arm-waving happens and it's funny but if it helps, great.

 

Once in a long while, I pull out ye ol' battlemap and miniatures, and stage an episode just on that. In that case, the battlemap must be prepared ahead of time.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I use a LOT of music in my games ... every session usually has a soundtrack I also occasionally use items like letters, newspaper clippings, website mock-ups and illustrations. I have plans at some point to do "Season Finale" comic pages ... just gotta find the time to work on them

[Mortuorum`]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I try to find miniatures that reasonably-well represent my PCs and NPCs. I also use a fair number of pictures, mostly from HeroMaker, since it really seems to give the PCs an idea of who they're interacting with.

 

Aside from that, I have a handout at the beginning of every game that is relevant to the campaign -- most often a school newsletter (the PCs are students) or a list of headlines and related news stories. Some of the news stories are for "flavor", some foreshadow future scenarios and some have a direct bearing on the present game.

 

I also use Matchbox cars in street battles. They're easy to move around and fit my battlemat's scale pretty well.

 

I don't do a lot with music; I have a ten-month old and don't want to give the players something to have to talk over. I've never created a prop for a macguffin, although it's something I've considered.

[animemun001]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

Dark moody Game, I play Dark moody Music in the back ground

 

It's mostly my way of letting the players know that the game is going to be a of a serious bent.

for instance the campaign(it's Fantasy with supers) I'm running now has the usual dark overlord and his evil army sweeping through taking over the world bit by bit and the heroes need to defeat him before they can get home. Oddly enough this overlord they found out has his own set of super powers and when they arrived for the first encounter had there butts handed too them thinking he was just going to be only a slightly bigger problem than his army (which for them wasn't much)

[Redmenace]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I practically run a multi media event at this point.

 

Lighting:

I have a set of track lights, each of which has a seperate dimmer switch. Two of the three have normal lights and the last will be set up with colored light bulbs.

 

Red is used for events that take place on a ship in combat or sometimes a base under siege, after a serious hit I'll lower the normal banks and put the up on full to get an emergency lighting.

 

Green or blacklight usually denote something more specific such as green for a leaking reactor or blacklight for an alien world. Sometimes a specific villain will get a color but it is rare.

 

Blue and orange, I ran a vampire hunt where I slowly eased down the normal lights and upped the orange to denote the ebbing of the day and increasing vulnerability of the pcs. I reversed it for the slow creep of dawn at the finale. If you are interested in experimenting with lighting for mood this is a very good beginning.

 

 

For sound I rent a console video game cartridge. Most of these have a screen with volume controls for sound effects, music and dialogue. Originally I used the a Star Wars fighter game to get good space battle music and sound effects but there is no end to the game genres out there.

 

After setting up the game and sound settings, I set up a tapeplayer and record an hour or so. At this point my librairy of sounds and music covers all the major genres from car chases, (Project Gotham Racing), to Golden Age super heroes, (any of the Medal of Honor games) to Giant Japanese monsters, (War of the Monsters, great Silver age atomic menace music and often used by me for Champions in all eras).

 

Add to that an increasing army of scale props and custom heroclix minis. If those are the props you want, check out the new Digital Hero.

[Susano]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

In a cartoon game I run sometimes at cons' date=' I make a "YIPE!" sign that I give to Wile E. Coyote's player.[/quote']

 

Did the box of Pop-Tarts counts as a prop?

 

[Susano]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I frequently make handouts (letters' date=' pages torn from books, newspaper articles, letters of marque, pieces of ancient maps, and the like). I find it's cooler to hand someone an actual piece of paper than to say, "You find a blood-splattered letter on the floor." I sometimes find pictures on the Internet or books to help show the PCs what they're looking at.[/quote']

 

I've made letters and maps and the like before. I had a lot of fun using the archaic fonts set I had to create some hand-written notes from Jack the Ripper (and other killers) for one game, as well as a note found in a magician's house.

 

Music is used as well, and sometimes art ("it looks like this"). I created a soundtrack for my Kazei 5 game (2 CDs), and once made one for my Silent Mobius Zeta game (I need to recreate that one).

[Storn]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

When I walked into the game yesterday, I asked Neil if he had seen this thread. No.

 

But.

 

The man had done a PowerPoint presentation and projected against the wall as our UNITE team tried to come to grips with connecting the dots of several factions. It was a debriefing more than a briefing... but was very, very cool. That was a major use of prop!

[Blue]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

When I walked into the game yesterday, I asked Neil if he had seen this thread. No.

 

But.

 

The man had done a PowerPoint presentation and projected against the wall as our UNITE team tried to come to grips with connecting the dots of several factions. It was a debriefing more than a briefing... but was very, very cool. That was a major use of prop!

Wow! I'm not alone in wanting to do this! I felt so geeky.

 

I thought about doing one in PowerPoint, then I decided I didn't want 8 people crowded around my laptop, so I started thinking about a projector. When those turned out to be many hundred dollars, I dumped the idea. But every once in a while I ressurrect it and try to come up with excuses to do it ("I won't have to pass around pictures of the villains", "I can use it to show the altitude of the characters while the other two dimensions are shown on the battlemat", "I can make neat shadow puppets").

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

When I walked into the game yesterday, I asked Neil if he had seen this thread. No.

 

But.

 

The man had done a PowerPoint presentation and projected against the wall as our UNITE team tried to come to grips with connecting the dots of several factions. It was a debriefing more than a briefing... but was very, very cool. That was a major use of prop!

 

That is "freakin' awesome!"... I so want a PowerPoint projector now.

[Storn]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

Oh... it was awesome! Neil had the UNTIL logo up there, first screen said classified and for-your-eyes-only type bureaucraticspeak. Raven had a logo that he had found... then each faction had pictures... many of them pics that I had done for private commissions. We are talking alien invaders, Atlanteans, Raven, Fiacho & various Eurostar clones, a whole smorgasborg of dangling plot hooks and the beginnings of "relationship" maps between all these disperate elements.

 

I really felt like my PC was at a debriefing in a dark room in UNTIL HQ in Paris. It was really quite cool.

 

For the record, Neil doesn't own a projector, but signed it out from his job.

[Vanguard00]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

I haven't been in a FtF game for a while now, but the only real props we used were the usual: maps, pictures of places, buildings, etc; artwork for heroes and villains; occasional handouts.

 

Music didn't play a big factor (except as background noise), but the one I did that my players seemed to enjoy was changing my voice. I do fairly decent accents, idioms and the like. I can sound like a Scottish sailor one minute, a Chinese waiter the next, and finish it off with a redneck hillbilly from the Ozarks. They said it helped to bring the NPCs into focus having their own distinctive sound.

[RPMiller]

Re: Props and your PCs

 

Oh... it was awesome! Neil had the UNTIL logo up there, first screen said classified and for-your-eyes-only type bureaucraticspeak. Raven had a logo that he had found... then each faction had pictures... many of them pics that I had done for private commissions. We are talking alien invaders, Atlanteans, Raven, Fiacho & various Eurostar clones, a whole smorgasborg of dangling plot hooks and the beginnings of "relationship" maps between all these disperate elements.

 

I really felt like my PC was at a debriefing in a dark room in UNTIL HQ in Paris. It was really quite cool.

 

For the record, Neil doesn't own a projector, but signed it out from his job.

You know... PowerPoint files could be zipped and posted for all to enjoy...

 

 

 

hint, subtle hint, yes, very subtle.