DIY Corner: Condition Markers ( A Tabletop Tokens Add-On)

This isn't a full-on DIY Corner, but rather a Supplemental add-on to the post I previously made about making your own tokens for your tabletop tactical play. This method is cheap (relatively) and lets you customize your tokens to match your campaign style, your personal aesthetics, and your part preferences. Also, they cost out to about 27 cents a token. Pretty cheap.

I'm using them and the players are loving them. But I have three spell casters in my group and they are constantly casting hold spells, chromatic orbs, and all of that jive. For large battles and small, you need some condition markers.

Whilst tooling around on the Interwebs recently, I stumbled across a site that was selling pendant supplies (the cabochons and epoxy stickers I use for the tokens being, in the parlance of our times, otherwise known as "pendant supplies"). As I was glancing down the page, I noticed the glass cabochon embedded in a colorful ring, you know, to make a pendant.

It was these. They are bottle caps, painted a solid color and flattened into a crimp so that they can be used for crafting. Or in my case, poisoning player characters.

There are basically two kinds of conditions you need to keep track of; that master list that is printed in every DM screen and on every cheat sheet that exists for D&D these days. And then there's the special effects that get applied to characters like Rage and Hunter's Mark. I haven't added them all up but it's roughly twenty or so, depending on what you need help keeping track of.


These things are easy to get in bags of 100--more than you'll ever need, but if you want a wide variety of colors, you may need to truck over to eBay, where several sellers have multitudes of colors for not a lot of money.

All you have to do is mark them with a Sharpie (and use a fine tip, here, because the regular Sharpies are a little too fat to use on such a small space). In fact, I dropped the past tense on a lot of my tokens and wrote "Poison" instead of "Poisoned." You might think two letters doesn't make a difference, but trust me, unless you have tiny handwriting, it does. And I don't need to tell you to use a light colored Sharpie on the dark caps, do I? Please tell me not to worry.

Once marked, a handy cheat sheet (color coded) clips to your screen and you are all set.

To use, let's go to the tactical simulation. Oh, no! Looks like Padraic the Cleric of Knowledge and his trusted man-at-arms are engaged in combat with a Deep One and a Cultist. Jinkies!

Padraic is quick to cast a curse on the cultist in order to help out his buddy. So the cultist gets the metallic orange condition marker, and it's just that easy.

But the Deep One bites Padraic, and now he's poisoned, so he gets the bilious green condition marker and all of his rolls are at disadvantage now! And he keeps that ring until he can clear the condition. Thankfully, a quick prayer to Minerva and he's back in business.

And what about those pesky large (and larger) tokens we've heard so much about? Here's our hapless duo all entangled with a skeleton horde. That's gonna leave a mark!

Good thing Padraic brought his holy symbol on this little jaunt. A quick turn undead attempt and the skeletons back off and start running for the exit. Take that, boneheads! Just put the condition on top of the token and it's the same thing. You can even stack these condition markers up.

Note that if I wanted to, I could totally make a condition marker for Turned Undead. If I wanted to. I do not. But if I did, I could. I'm not even joking about this. I just pick a colored bottle cap, grab a Sharpie, and blammo. Please and thank you. Done and done. But I do not want to do that.

I made five of each condition just to keep everything nice and even. On the off-chance that you care, I will list what colors I used for each condition. You do you, though; pick colors that make sense in your brain.




Blessed--Metallic Gold
Blinded--Black
Charmed--Pink
Cursed--Metallic Orange
Deafened--White
Frightened--Yellow
Grappled--Light Blue
Hunter's Mark--Dark Green
Incapacitated--Dark Blue
Invisible--Metallic Silver
Paralyzed--Maroon
Petrified --Gray
Poisoned--Light Green
Rage--Red
Restrained--Orange
Stunned--Purple

There's plenty of other one-off conditions and lots more colors. I only did what I needed, and I'm going to wait until I need another condition before committing a color.

I really like the home-made feel to this solution. I remember when we had to make our own character sheets. We made our own dungeons. We scrounged everything we were using to play the game. I love all of the accessories that are available for D&D these days, but sometimes, it's better to DIY.

DIY Corner: Inspiration Tokens

One of the great additions to 5e D&D is the concept of inspiration, a way to instantly reward good role-playing, puzzle-solving, decision-making, or any other in-game thing a player does that the DM deems noteworthy.

The current rules suggest using a poker chip to give to the player with inspiration as a token to remind them and you that they get a do-over roll by handing it in.

You're probably award of the multitude of metal coins available to gamers great and small, ranging from the baffling to the bewildering, in a multitude of styles, and that's not counting the metric ton of inspiration counters, coins, tokens and d20 holders that can be found in all corners of the Internet with a simple search.

I'm not knocking any of those things. They are great. I've ended up with a few metal coins and tokens as ancillary throw-in items, and again, they look just fine and would doubtless make perfectly serviceable inspiration tokens.

But I wanted something a little different.

I love the idea of a durable poker chip, because players are, in very general terms, ill-tempered savages. The only problem is, modern poker chips are liberally festooned with card pips, aces of spades, and other gambling symbols, as well as being colorful and cheerful and oh just never mind. You could special order some chips, but that costs a ton of money. Likewise wooden nickles, although if I had my druthers, I'd use them exclusively. They look and feel old and you can put what you want on them. Now I just need to justify spending a hundred and fifty bucks to get 4 Inspiration Tokens and I'm all set!

While we wait for that little miracle to occur, I found a solution in the form of vintage poker chips. I was originally looking for anything that looked old, like something made out of Bakelite, but really quickly I stumbled across these. Look! It's a dragon! Or is that a griffin? They are old clay chips from the 1920s or 1930s. And as you can see, they are perfect.






There are a lot of other styles out there, moons and stars, owls, laurel wreaths, sailing ships, lighthouses, and so on and so forth. You can find them in groups of 1 to 12 (or more) and they are relatively inexpensive. I scored a lot of around a 140 chips for twenty bucks plus shipping. With so much surplus chip action at my disposal, I decided to experiment a bit.








Beige is boring. I wanted something that looked like a metal coin; that would be cool. However, I don't usually like the resulting texture of metallic paints, so instead, I used Rub 'n Buff. It's a wax polish with metallic pigment. It comes in a variety of colors, but I'm using silver.

To apply, you just need a little dab. That button will completely cover four chips, and then some. You can apply it with a brush or a sponge, but I think it works best if you do it using your finger. You get a feel for what it does and according to the manufacturer, the more you rub it, the more buff it gets. That feels like a come-on, but you never know with this stuff.

I apply the Rub 'n Buff in linear strokes, all going the same direction. This is because doing it the other way makes for an uneven coat. The goal is to lightly hit the surface, ignoring the small grooves that make up the dragon (griffin?). Do one side at a time, waiting for it to dry each time. It doesn't take long. Then you go around the edge and you are done. Unless you don't want to be.

You can do a thin wash and hit the groove if you want, or you can get a soft sponge and push/press the silver leaf into the grooves, and then smooth it out again. You can even paint the whole chip beforehand. You have options, here.


Now, let's talk about the aforementioned "variety of colors" that Rub 'n Buff comes in. This stuff is designed to add accents to furniture and other decorative pieces. In a weird fit of pique, I bought a set of 12 different tubes, just to try them out for myself.

 This is one of the many shades of gold they make. They work as well as the silver leaf and look pretty good. I put a black wash on the chip before I applied the Rub 'n' Buff so that the dragon (griffin?) would stand out more.

This is their antique white finish. It's intended to be a highlight for distressed wood. It's not metallic and the results are not good. But this is what it looks like.

This is their Spanish Copper, and I expected it to be more metallic than it was. The light is great on this chip, but under normal conditions, it's very dark and not so great.

This is another of their gold colors, this time over a red chip (hence the color of the dragon [griffin?]) They have like four different varieties of gold, so it's really just a question of brightness and personal tastes. I prefer the silver, but that's me.

Here's one I did for my ongoing Eldritch Piracy game. I did a black wash after the Rub 'n Buff dried, and the results were so-so. Better to paint the chip before and then do a light drybrush with your finger to apply the silver.

There is also a patina color that you can apply over their metallic brass. I tried it, but you have to be very sparing with it, and I could never get it to look right. But if you can, I'd do these chips in Grecian Gold and hit the anchor with a touch of the patina and call it a day.

And if you want to get really crazy, here's a two-color Rub 'n Buff project, using Silver Leaf and Antique Gold. I primed the chip with flat black, and lightly applied the silver leaf. When it was dry, I carefully, oh so carefully--maybe too carfully--hit the anchor with the gold. It looks okay, and with touch-ups, it'll look super swell.







The colors of Rub 'n Buff that yielded the best results for this particular project were the silver and gold, hands down. But your mileage may vary. You could even paint them (and seal them) some other color. Silver and Gold are the two colors of Rub 'n Buff you're most likely to find in craft stores. Anything more exotic than that and you'll have to mail order it.

One quick warning about these chips; they are durable, but not indestructible. I've dropped a chip from a height of about five feet onto a concrete floor and it shatters like rock candy. For flipping across the table, they hold up just fine.

I think these inspiration tokens add a little something extra to the game; it's not a prop, but it's more than a check box on a character sheet. And there's something tactile about handing it to the DM to get that extra roll. Everyone's game is different, but these suit my play style perfectly.

DIY Corner: Tokens for your Tabletop

I love the theater of the mind style of gaming, but that is more and more becoming not an option for me. My players, bless their hearts, need a little visual input or they are swimming in molasses when it comes to making a decision or even sometimes just picturing the scene.

I've tried everything; papercraft terrain, battlemats, printed tiles, D&D dungeon tiles, and on and on and on. I've used 28mm scale minis, cardboard stand-ups, and flat tokens. With the exception of 3D printed terrain, I've literally tried everything, and while I like some of the more elaborate costructions, such as papercraft terrain, I always fall back on battlemats and tokens.

I like the battlemat option because it's re-usable, of course, but it conveys the bare minimum amount of tactical information to a player without supplanting imagination. Tokens, too, are really inexpensive and useful in this regard. 4th edition D&D threw a lot of cardboard tokens at consumers, and while they were okay, the trade dress on every punch-out disc made the artwork muddy up.

I wanted to use this system for my current game, Eldritch Piracy, but I didn't want to spend a ton of cash. However, I was going to need special tokens for certain monsters and it was only natural that I made my own. Here's what they look like (click pics to enlarge).


Pretty nifty, eh? Now, I can't take credit for the idea, but I can't exactly give credit, either. There's versions of this idea floating around online and on The YouTube. However, I don't think anyone has put this version of these tokens online. In any case, here's the set up.

My work space. Note that these materials are for 1" tokens, which means they are perfect for starter games and games where you want a lot of adversaries to throw at players. These things are very inexpensive, and dead simple to make.

These are clear epoxy Bezels (or Cabochons), used in jewelry making. They are clear with adhesive on the back side. Cool.

These are 1" foam rubber (non-stick) furniture pads. You will have to look around for these. Scotch makes them in a tan color. The secret is to look for rubber or foam rubber. Most pads you will find are felt. This will not work. Okay, it will work, but not as well. These are self-adhesive, too. Peel and stick. Just like the movie stars.

This is an optional product. You'll only need it if you get glass cabochons because those are not self-adhesive and this stuff is specially formulated to work with glass cabochons and dry crystal clear. I'll explain later.

This is the most expensive piece of hardware you'll need. I got mine for nine bucks. It's a circular hole punch that makes 1" circles. I think you can see where this is going.

Start with your artwork. I made a color copy of one of my sheets of Pathfinder Pawns, but you can use anything that will stamp out into a 1" circle. If your computer skills are mighty, you can resize player artwork to make personalized character tokens.  I have not tried this with Magic: the Gathering cards (they may be too big) but I am willing to bet they would work, too.

Basically, anything you want to make a token out of. Cut into strips slightly wider than 1". This is on cardstock, for durability and also for slightly better color reproduction.

I have non-player characters that will be around for the whole campaign, so they get a token, for when they are taken hostage or infected with eldritch ennui. This is not a lawyer (Jedi hand wave) this is an eager young scholar.

Use the trapping window under your hole punch to eyeball the token. What you see is what you will get, so make sure you have all that you want in the circle.

Now, punch that sucker out. Viola. Step one.

Next, peel off one of the furniture pads. The back side is surprisingly sticky so handle it by the edges.

Now, affix the circle, artwork up, to the bottom of the furniture pad. You only have one crack at this, so what I would do is cradle the base in your fingers, and use your finger tips to align the cardstock circle. Once it's directly over the pad, you can lower it carefully into place. You may mess up once or twice. No biggie. You'll get the hang of it quickly.

Now peel off one of the epoxy bezels, again, handling it by the edges because there's sticky stuff on the back.

Now repeat the above step, holding the pad and artwork in your fingers and using your finger tips to position the bezel and lower it down slowly. Your fingers act as guides so that you can't stick the bezel half-on, half-off. There is a very fine tolerance, and you may feel a slight overlap, but if you can live with it, it's not a problem.

This is what it looks like. Lightweight, durable, easy to store and carry, easy to see on the table, and not apt to slide around, thanks to the textured underside.

If you want something a little nicer, a little more permanent, and a little more high-end, you can get the glass bezels and do the same construction. I think you can see even in this crappy photo that the glass bezel is taller, more rounded, and has a slight magnifying effect that I think looks really cool.

Line your monster up and make a 1" token.

This is where the Mod Podge Dimensional Magic comes in. Spread a thin coat evenly on the back of the bezel.

Attach your artwork, face down, so that it can be seen through the bezel. You have a couple of seconds to position the circle, or use the finger-guide thingy I just taught you.

It takes a few minutes to dry, but when it does, wow! The glass really amplifies the artwork and it's just awesome.

As before, take the furniture pad and stick it to the back of the bezel and cardstock. The textured side is on the outside of the sandwich; the adhesive will stick to the cardstock and be quite durable.

And there's the finished token.
















These tokens are really economical to make, mere pennies a piece. I use the glass bezels for my players so they sit up a little higher than the monsters. It should be noted that you can, if you want to, make the same things in 1.5", 2", and 3" tokens; they have those sizes in all of the above supplies. Fair warning, though: the bigger the token, the more expensive it gets. The hole punchers quickly become twenty dollar items. The plastic epoxy bezels aren't as round nor as sticky. And the furniture pads? What a headache. So, you may want to investigate alternatives to this set-up for the larger creatures.

But for skeleton armies? Hordes of orcs? Goblins by the gross? A brace of the city guard? You can't go wrong with these.