My Dungeon Master Toolkits, The Gear I Use and Why I Use it | House DM

Do you have a go-to DM toolkit? What are your essentials besides your notes and dice? If you're a traveling DM, do you bring more or less than what I show in this video? Let me know and thanks for watching!

Hand on heart I just clicked to see if that was really a Zippo lighter 😆

Little tip.... Always roll your maps/ plans , image side out. That way they don't curl on the tabletop when rolled out. I learned that lesson hard my first week working for a civil engineering firm. nice video

I prefer the minimalist kit, I find it increases immersion to have the most abstract representation possible so you can fill the void in with your descriptions

I love that you have a minimalist kit for after school and outdoor education I'm a high school teacher and this is exactly why my bag always has a bag of dice, assorted paper, and a massive pencil case of coloured pens. We're very lucky have a little lawn and when the weather is right I take them outside to feel the grass, breathe the air, smell the plants. These are usually our creative writing days and we use dice to help us make decisions when the choice paralysis starts setting in. DnD felt like a natural thing to introduce after that and they LOVE it, and especially because we're outside they get up, walk around, grab leaves off the ground to 'track' or point to distant points on the horizon. The importance of play in the life of a highschooler, who society has decided must outgrow it, cannot be overstated.

I’m a bit old at 58. Recently was diagnosed with a chronic illness and become disabled. Wanted to get back into RPGs. You’re video was helpful and impressive. Back when I was starting to learn DND, and before there were any specialized items you could buy, the minimalist kit I had was graph paper, dice, pencil, eraser, rule book, and book bag. So yeh, really all you need is imagination.

I like your kit! Another pro tip: buy a cigar box (find one with a latch!) from a tobacco store, you can get some nice ones for like $2-$5! I personally use spray adhesive or craft glue to attach the felt, but hot glue would definitely work. I also use 2 layers of felt for that little bit extra cushion. Anyway, now you have a rolling tray that you can pack stuff into and close up! I used one that I made like this for a long time, and it's honestly still dope and all my players are jealous of it! Plus, I added a divider that's half the height so I have a spot to set my dice in it when I'm not rolling them!

A portable chess and d20 kits. Chess is great, simple and versatile. You can use the diferent pieces to sign as pc/npcs/scenario. You have the squared grid. Or can flip the board to use as a dice case (I prefer it because normally play using theater of mind).

There are really great ideas in here. Wet-erase backgammon pieces, generic dungeon corner-pieces and doors, coins to use as meta currency, colored stones for treasures/monsters/etc, fire markers, keys to represent keys, IT ALL MAKES SENSE. I need to try some of this.

Wow, I didn’t know so many people use so many items to play dnd. I use a dm screen (if I remember to bring it), paper, a pencil and dice. Theater of the kind has always been favorite for me. Maybe I’ll have to try using miniatures some day 😁

I don't know if this counts as a minimalist kit item, but it's something I add to all my terrain builds now. Get some magnet tape and stick it to the bottom of your terrain pieces. You can get it in a pretty slim profile so it doesn't take up much space. Then you can lay down a magnetic white board and your pieces hold in place way better!

Outdoor educator team for the win! My summer camp kit is soooo heavy and I love seeing how folks slim down to the essentials

I used to feel I needed so many things and books with me. Learned over time that all I really do need is something similar to your own kit, along with just my Kindle.

I was camping with some friends and we spontaneously decided we wanted to play around the campfire. All we had were a few d20s. I just asked everyone what class they wanted to play and started DMing. We all had a good time!

I love how much you love DMing. It makes me smile.

I gm for Call of Cthulhu (or sometimes Indie games) but I love finding inspiration in other systems. My travel kit contains a gm screen, basic rules, flowcharts and Character creation overview (in transparent covers), character sheets, pencil and eraser, my favorite set of dice, my notebook + whatever scenario I plan to run. Most of the time I also bring a small Bluetooth speaker for background music. Love to see how people get creative!

I'm a traveling DM and it's not easy. At all. Everything I bring fits into a large box. 1- binder for notes/side quests/oneshots 2-folder with monster statblocks for the session. 3- Tomb of annihilation book 4- 3 large see through tackleboxes for minis 5- crown royal bag of dice. 6- small note pad On top of that I also bring a large case that fits the bigger minis that do not fit into the tackleboxes. Dragons/tomb tappers/froghemoth etc. The place i play has a VTT so all the terrain I built stays there as well to avoid carrying it back and forth. Once you've played with a vtt/terrain and minis you'll never want to go back to Theater of the mind.

1) I never burn sheets, because I don't do permanent death. I do Winchester death. Characters can be brought back, but almost always at a terrible price. 2) That dice box in your minimalist kit is badass and I'm totally going to make one at some point.

Very nice kits I like using minis and terrain I once DMed a game on the hiking trip. No dice no books no character sheets. More or less they told me what they wanted to do and I would nerrate what happened.

Love the compass idea! So simple but adds so much info for players!