Gyld Goodies

I am a Gm who loves convince and who loves when there are accessories to help keep track of things. Gyld was the first shop I ever bought Gm accessories from that wasn't a GM screen (or dice). I originally purchased the initiative cards but then also went and bought the GM pack as I was loosing so many of my notes in different notebooks for session planning, I would like to point out that accessories are not needed to play or enjoy table top games, but I do occasionally get different things to help keep track of stuff.

Combat Encounter

The thing I like about this sheet pad is it allows for planning for BBEG encounters or large encounters in general. Each sheet lets you list the abilities, stats and information needed to run an encounter. I also love that there is damage tracking at the bottom. I have used this part at the bottom to keep track of mob, or if the BBEG has minions/spawns.

Session Sheet

I love using the session sheet. On these papers you can write out all of the information about your table such as players, level, what they are. I like to put how close they are to level in the character information part. The bottom half is where you can write out all of the ideas or parts that you want to hit in the session in an outline format. You can also check off next to the pieces that were completed, the xp received for it and what type of encounter it was (role play, combat, puzzle/trap).

Initiative Cards

These double sided card stock tents all you the dm to see common important character information on the back side while players get to see initiative order on the front side facing them. On both sides there is a small amount of space for you to write any special notes you have about the pc or monster. You get 10 in a pack, and I can use one pack of these cards for two tables worth of games. The table who I am currently running for will have the player side out and the table's cards who are not currently there I flip to the monster side for use. This has AC, max hit points, spell save dc and passive (I usually have perception) spots for player information.

Thoughts from the Fox

The Combat Encounter sheets have been super handy, especially if I am adding homebrew pieces in, or have a BBEG with numerous mobs/minions/spawns. I use the upper half of the sheet to write information about the main BBEG and then the bottom is used for the minions. An example of this would be using the top part for my vampire lord and then the bottom I split it in half; the first four being other vampires in the thrall and the last four being some flavor skeletons. The bottom half are just plain creatures to up the action economy in the Bad Guy's favor so they don't need a whole lot but the upper half I can use the lines to write down cool things I wanted to add into combat or any extra actions they may be able to take. I find it helps to write out legendary actions and such here too.

My most used type of sheet that I use is the Session sheet. I love writing things out (not in detail) and make sure that there is a variety of encounters that my players are going to have. I should note that I over prep. Most times there will only be a few things a session that get checked off as completed on the session outline sheet, but I do keep the sheet around until the things are completed as one session sheet can last me 1-3 sessions depending on how much role play my players engage in. It is also handy for me to have a visual of what encounters there are. I try to break things up to make sure that there are not too many combat encounters in a row and try to make sure that there is a mostly equal amount of role play, combat and puzzles/traps for the players to deal with.

Overall I have been happy with my purchases from Gyld. I would say that after further inspection and use I personally only would continue to restock the combat and session sheet pads for my dm inventory. The initiative cards are great for PCs but there is not the same level of information show for the monster cards. If you pair the initiative cards with the combat encounter cards you do make up for the lack of information on the encounter card. My main thing is I want things to be "a good deal" as TTRPGs are expensive. If I'm going to get some "extra" stuff that I know isn't needed to run the game I want to make sure that the functionality is worth the price. For me, $9 for a set of 10 cards isn't really something I want to budget for. I usually have 4-5 people at my table and I have 4 games running (not including one shots). The better deal that I liked was the "DM Pads-3 Pack" which is where I got two combat encounter pads and one session sheet pad for $20. Each of the pads have 50 sheets and was much more "worth" getting as it will last for numerous groups for many sessions worth of material.

Liked something that you saw? Check out the Gyld store online for these goodies and more. Gyld also has dice (some for death saving throws some for bardic inspiration), along with map pads and other accessories to bring to your D&D table.