TheRPGSite

So, thread for cool ideas on how to run good games, including strategies and props.

Index cards are handy for loads of things: spell cards, NPCs, equipment, etc.
I played a high level 3e game as a wizard, and I found an index card for each spell with colored paperclips to denote prepared instances of each spell handy -- cast the spell, pull off a clip (or move it to the other side, if I wanted to keep track of what my typical loadout was).

LEGO figures and minifigs. If you have kids or otherwise like LEGOs, they can make simple miniatures. Minifigs are nice because they fit on a single 'dot,' so the effective map is larger.

Tents. If you have a simple character sheet, you can fold it in the middle so it makes a little triangle/tent thingie in front of you. Can be handy if you have multiple things to track, almost like having a DM screen but not as tall.


In-game stuff:
Playing Delta Green, I found it was very conducive to busy people who sometimes couldn't make a game.
Basically, an 'adventure' was pretty much handed to the players: your bosses want you to investigate X. There was a lot of freedom to do things within that scope, limited oversight, yet the ability to yank people out or put new people in or just halt things, because it was all covert.

In other words, if someone didn't show up the next week, they were recalled to Washington for their day job. Oh well! Someone shows up? They are tapped as extra resources.

It's almost a railroad, except all the adventuring in the middle can be left utterly up to the PCs.

It made for a surprisingly easy game to run with people who weren't necessarily very good at motivation -- here's your mission, now GO.


Another set-up type thing that worked well was a fantasy game where the party were part of an extended family. And their people had been pushed out of their homeland by necromancers.
It gave an easy campaign goal (reclaim our homeland!), as well as party bonding (we are kin), but left a lot of freedom for the details. Family, after all, don't necessarily like each other or agree on ... anything.


Any interesting physical or game tricks/tips you have gleaned?

Quote from: Will;792636LEGO figures and minifigs. If you have kids or otherwise like LEGOs, they can make simple miniatures. Minifigs are nice because they fit on a single 'dot,' so the effective map is larger.

One of the other members in our gaming group - the other primary GM - has a shit-ton of Minifigs - standard and specialty-purchased ones. They've worked out nicely for the past half-dozen or so campaigns. He's got enough variety in his collection to handle most genres (fantasy, scifi, '20s horror). He's also got hex bases for them, for battlemap use. (And he's mostly a Gurps GM, so that's perfect for him).

QuoteAny interesting physical or game tricks/tips you have gleaned?

Nothing hands-on that immediately comes to mind. These days, pretty much everyone in my group has a tablet (mostly Surfaces). So at any time, nearly everyone will have rules docs, house rules, equipment lists, adventure logs, etc. on-hand, available and shared out. And, we have a dedicated 'gamer-stenographer' recording all our sessions to OneNote online, which is handy.

Quote...and props.

I run Call of Cthulhu about 75% of the time, so I'm all about the props.

I have found that having the PCs belong to an organization immensely facilitates play in the manner you describe with Delta Green, where the PCs do, in fact, belong to an organization. Military, investigative, espionage, executive, whatever - it doesn't really matter. The organization directs and supports the PCs, and often gives them license to, well, act like PCs.

-clash

Dice as a prop or figurine. Also coins work well, too, especially nickels for grids. One of the fun tricks is shake a bunch in your hand and then roll them out onto the table. Wherever they land is their placement.

Great technique for things like NPC crowds, debris piles, surprised monster groups, etc.

I'm getting MILEAGE out of the Fantasy Tool Cards (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/115224/Toolcards-Fantasy?manufacturers_id=5137&filters=0_44489_0_0_0) by Postworld games. I backed both Kickstarters, got a PILE of them from the first one. You can POD the cards from DriveThru!

Before a session I prep at least 20 NPCs. This way I can quickly grab a name and description. I then add notes as needed during play.

I personally use Evernote to organize my games. I am going to try the Realmworks tool again, but during the beta it wasn't shaping up fast enough for me to get into. Evernote is wonderful because I can prep on my PC, sync to my laptop, and back again. It's super handy. You can organize notebooks into "stacks", so it has a folder structure for the notes.

I like to build combat trackers in Excel, so I can just put in initiative and "sort" the list by that column.

I use a laptop with a 2nd monitor as my GM screen, and I do everything on the computer. If I can get proficient with Realmworks, I may put together a small computer with multiple monitor outputs. This way I can have a monitor facing the players, to show off images, maps, etc.

Johnn Four's Roleplaying Tip (http://www.roleplayingtips.com/blog/)s is a fantastic resource, great newletter, and his products are fun. Lots of great advice in there over the years.

I'm digging the Kobold Guides (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse.php?cPath=4291_19171) to world building, game design, magic, et al. In an "essay" format, so you can peruse for nuggets. :-)

Also, Engine Publishing  (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3323/Engine-Publishing?term=engine+&cPath=4291)guides are great (as is 1000 masks! NPCs!). I just picked up the art of improv one, just cracking it open this week. Good stuff here.

Of course, Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering (http://www.warehouse23.com/products/robins-laws-of-good-game-mastering) from SJGames is a great work for GMs. Good advice in here.

I swear, if I ever do finally publish a proper game, I will just build a GM's section with all these links in it. No need to waste a bunch of time on GM advice, when literally HUNDREDS of pages have been published on the art in recent years. :-)

Dice towers: These are pretty simple to make from foamcore board you can get from a dollar store and theres a pattern you can download even.

Some excess d6 make for viable quick minis when you just want to plot out marching order or a quick example of initial positioning. Coins and glass crafting gembeads work too. Also minis from board games. HeroQuest and HeroScape for example.

I keep around some examples of coin volume for my games. 1000 pennies (copper pieces) fits in a mason jar. 100 nickles (silver) fits in a asprin bottle. 100 quarters (gold) fits stacked in an old Chessex dice tube. Or any given one of those is fine for showing volume in a setting where all the coins are the exact same size.

Another option mentioned previously is stickering coins. you can get results like this. The files are on BGG for various appearances but I think you'l get the general idea.

(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1055106_md.jpg)

CCG cards. Using Magic: the Gathering cards is a great resource for wandering monster tables, artifact ideas, and enchanted "Mythal" effects. They even come color coded for terrain, rarity. And now they have enough Culture/Theme settings to adjust around those tropes, too (Mirage, Ice Age, Theros, Innistrad, Khans, Kanigawa, etc.).

Quote from: Opaopajr;792705CCG cards. Using Magic: the Gathering cards is a great resource for wandering monster tables, artifact ideas, and enchanted "Mythal" effects. They even come color coded for terrain, rarity. And now they have enough Culture/Theme settings to adjust around those tropes, too (Mirage, Ice Age, Theros, Innistrad, Khans, Kanigawa, etc.).

I'll add to this.

If you ever need a random fantasy idea to jump start your brain, go to gatherer (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx) and look at the bottom of the page for the "random card" button. Hit that and you'll get a random magic card. After you hit it once you'll notice the random card button is henceforth at the top of the page under the search bar.

Expanding on the CCGs beyond just M:tG:

L5R is good for East Asian tropes.

Vampire/Jyhad & Rage is good for Vampires, Werewolves, and other 'Ravenloft' tropes (albeit modernized). Great for NPCs.

Doomtown for Westerns.

Legend of the Burning Sands for Middle East, Africa, & India.

7th Sea for Swashbuckling Pirates.

Heresy for angels & demons & esoteric weirdness.

Netrunner for Shadowrun's tech side, and other low level sci-fi.

Disk Wars for some mass combat ideas.

etc.

There's real potential sitting in those piles of card stock.

Props:

Use index cards folded in half in front of players for character names for one shots.  Write with a marker, not a pencil, so you can see them across the table.

Or I suppose if you were really planning ahead, sticky name tags aren't that much.  I haven't done that yet.

9x12 foam sheets with one sticky side are like a buck each at craft stores.  If you use character tokens or wound and status counters, you can print out a sheet of those on card stock or regular paper, slap it on the sticky side of the foam, and cut out the pieces, for something easy to grab.

The times I've tried dice towers, someone always has to stretch across the table to reach the top.  Or slide it around; either way there's a very slight delay to it.  I do like playing with a dice corral of some sort in the middle of the table, to keep from chasing dice and put them somewhere everyone can see them.

Fill out index cards for NPCs with names, personality traits, common phrases, and maybe skills.  But NOT full character sheets or lengthy descriptions.  Hand them out to players to run anytime you're at risk of carrying on two sides of a conversation, or a PC is out of a scene.

Strategies:

Make notes after each game session.  During as well if you can, but without slowing play.  For me, the benefit going from no notes to short ones is even bigger than that going from short notes up to full session logs.

Have a setting-appropriate name list on hand for every game you run.

For me, contra the "don't prep" school of thought, do prep, but work on prep that won't be wasted.  Focus on things you can recycle and things you have a hard time improvising.

That said, don't get tied to it, be prepared to go somewhere else entirely.  Oddly, I somehow improvise better when I've prepped something else than when I just show up thinking I'll wing it.

Brainstorm.  I keep a notebook with me for ideas.  And for every distinct game I hope to run I start a dedicated notebook, to jot down notes about theme, encounters, hooks, characters.  That gives me kind of a setting bible (brief sometimes) up front, with more detailed prep and session notes behind that for games that actually get run.

Using third party generators and tables of any kind, cross out each result as you use it and write in something new.  Keeps the results fresh and makes it your own.

Quote from: flyingmice;792657I have found that having the PCs belong to an organization immensely facilitates play in the manner you describe with Delta Green, where the PCs do, in fact, belong to an organization. Military, investigative, espionage, executive, whatever - it doesn't really matter. The organization directs and supports the PCs, and often gives them license to, well, act like PCs.

-clash

This is part of the dynamic we have always used.  
Our system is called GuildSchool, because the choice of organizations you belong to determines your ability in your skills (in a skill based system).  But as you mention, it is a tremendous resource for giving the PCs a feeling of belonging and relationships right out of the gate.

I keep everything as wiki entries...and so it becomes very easy to use links to find anything.  Character sheets for PCs and NPCs use links right to spells and items, making everything incredibly easy to and access.  It also means that I can prepare stuff ahead of time and send it to the appropriate player when I wish.

Also, creating a setting/game index (httphttp://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/14955667/Index://) is something I always recommend.  As a setting develops, it becomes more and more of a resource.

I have poker chips in several colors I use on occasion. Just to represent any t hing I made need or as Karma/Drama/Beenies If I am playing a game with them.

I also have an old chart organizer that use to be used in hospitals a lot. It fit 5x8 index cards  called davie style card trays The cards laid in plastic holders that showed the bottom line. So on bottom line you write what the card holds and it was easy to flip to what you needed during game. Sort of self indexing. I used one to keep track of characters as one sheet served as char sheet , next page notes I needed. It was easy to update and organize.


I use a magnetic white board for Initiative, With Characters names on yellow magnetic strip and Enemy 1 through 5 on red magnetic strips. Then two white strips with event 1 and 2 to track anything else I needed.

Works well since pulling people out who are holding actions or tilting the name to indicate a held action is easy and everyone can see it. Keeping track of rounds or duration based effects use hash marks with a dry erase pen as you get to that player. Makes it very easy to run stuff even as complicated as high level 3.5 games.

Two props a friend of mine had in all of the games she was in (running or playing):

A large flexible laminated cloth grid. I'm not sure where she got it (I should ask her) or what it was made of -- it looked like stiff cloth, but had a plasticy surface that you can use markers on.

So, essentially, a foldable/rollable whiteboard.

Draw out the encounter, jot initiative and other details on the margin, and if you got interrupted mid-combat, just fold it up for next time.


The other prop that she also had was a huge bag of cardboard chits, with various pictures of people/monsters on them. I suspect it was some past D&D product.
But it essentially served as very easy 'minis' to move around the board. Some of the larger monsters were 10x10 or even 15x15, as needed.

A lot easier to travel with than actual minis.

(She bought them from somewhere, but I imagine if you are industrious you could probably do something useful with a printer and cardstock, maybe something sticky-backed and get an exacto knife)

The most recent games I have run have used a wall mounted whiteboard. Very Very handy for quick maps, writing up initiative order and other "what everyone needs to know" things. Apart from that, "stuff" seems to get in the way.

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;792841Apart from that, "stuff" seems to get in the way.

I've found that.  Various gimmicks over the years have fallen flat.  Realistic-looking prop maps?  Cool, the players say coolly, but aren't nearly jazzed enough for the work that goes into them.  Prop scrolls, complete with charring?  Much the same.  Things I do use?

* I am a staunch partisan of Chessex battlemats.  I use two, and the one I've owned the least amount of time is 25+ years old.  I could spend a great deal of time and money putting together dioramas, or I can do a quick sketch with wet-erase markers on the mat.

* SJ Games had cheap minis called Cardboard Heroes, once upon a time.  I never used the figures themselves, owning a large collection of lead minis, but the sets came with a good many 2-D full-color props: chests, "dropped" weapons, heaps of treasure, and the like.  I use *those* extensively.  Along with those, I've got a small box of teensy colored rocks -- we're talking 3-10 mm.  I get a fistful and toss them onto the map to represent broken terrain, works just fine.

* I've noted folks citing dry-erase boards for quick sketches and suchlike.  But honestly, I'm a fan of the plain old pad of white note paper.  Those provide sketches and notes that can stick around for years, if need be.

* I've never used a DM screen -- I've felt it to be a barrier between me and the players.  Instead, on my stand to my left, I've got a thin 3-ring binder with the pertinent charts and tables, marked with color-coded tabs which I can flip open in a twinkling.

* Save everything.  Everything.  All your adventure notes?  Stuff them in a folder.  NPC sheets?  Stuff those in a folder.  Make copies of PC sheets, and stuff those in a folder too.  Quite aside from the nostalgia factor of gazing at your campaign's past, ten, fifteen, twenty years down the road you'll be stuck for a plotline, and there it'll be.  Or you find you really need a key NPC and you don't feel like developing a personality, putting skills together, whipping up equipment ... but your buddy Sarah ran a great healer back a dozen years ago, and you remember a half-dozen quirky traits her character had off the top of your head, and hey! here's Magistra Elorie's sheet right here!  

Saved my bacon a number of times, I can tell you.

For minis, just use chess pieces. Cheap, plentiful, distinct, come in two colors to distinguish PCs/allies from antagonists, and abstract enough to force the players to use their underworked imaginations.

Excellent ideas guys.

Stuff I use:

Beer caps (reversed so the "top" is on the bottom) marked with numbers make great minions or monster tokens when you don't have any.

Laminated grid: In one of the core 3.5 books they give you this decent sized grid to use for your games. I laminated it (using the white plain grid) and put a plexi-glass cutout on top with dry-erase markers. This makes tracking spell areas, traps, hazards, and room details really easy instead of using the "official" maps and tiles WotC sells. Also, you can still use tiles from WotC and put the plexi-glass on top of that so it doesn't move when dice are being thrown around.

Plastic dice box: Sometimes when you buy dice they come in this little plastic box with a bottom. We often use these empty things to put our minis on to represent flying or height to add a 3D element to the game.

Sound effects: With technology becoming easier to access and smaller in size it's fun to cue up special sound effects on your smart-phone, ipod, ipad, mp3 player and use those little speakers they sell. I used this for one of our Halloween adventures with creaking doors, flying bats, moaning zombies, etc. Adds a special element to your game.

Reflavor / Refluff: By the time you've gamed with your friends or group long enough to know they're birthdays and kid's birthdays (which is irksome when they miss sessions due to it) it often becomes harder to deceive them from normal threats. For example, an adventuring party meets a warband of Orcs. There's a level of "Oh, yea we know how to bring these guys down." that's more from a player's perspective than a character's one. BUT when you reflavor them as some abhorrent monster with tentacles, fangs, and other visuals, they often get taken aback and approach the situation with FAR more caution, even if the monsters have the same exact "stats" as your orc warband.

Countdowns: In certain situations when you want to make things really dramatic, try employing a countdown to the encounter. And make it visual. I like to use a d8 or d10, ticking it off as rounds go by or perhaps when a player  does something good or bad or even the monster. For example, in our 4E Forgotten Realms game the PCs were attempting to stop a undead "ex"-cleric of Amaunator (wearing the Crown of Horns) who was slowly turning the second sun over Elurgard into a black sun that would give un-life to the thousands of bodies littered across the Field of the Dead in the Western Heartlands (for those FR enthusiasts here). The ritual was set into motion as the PCs faced off against him and each round that went by the d12 slowly ticked away. When the evil cleric would spend his turn furthering the spell, I'd tick off an additional point. Soon it became a "lets STOP that thing" instead of the often usual systematic slaying of monster then BBEG the players often employed.

Yeah, while I like the idea of LEGO minis, my concern is getting sucked into trying to represent everything. That's one area where I prefer dry erase, the ease of sketching out a map fast.

Quote from: Will;793152Yeah, while I like the idea of LEGO minis, my concern is getting sucked into trying to represent everything. That's one area where I prefer dry erase, the ease of sketching out a map fast.

One important thing to keep in mind when using Legos:

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!!!!!   :p

Quote from: Will;793152Yeah, while I like the idea of LEGO minis, my concern is getting sucked into trying to represent everything. That's one area where I prefer dry erase, the ease of sketching out a map fast.

Yeah, simplicity is the whole key to using tools. If it takes forever to set up and use, then it's probably best not to. It's one of the reasons why I don't like tiles. For one, they don't connect so any movement to the table, board, etc. from dice or bumps instantly messes the whole thing up. It's sort of a pet peeve of mine. Dry erase is much easier, just re-draw it.

Yeah, and watching the GM roll up her mat for next time... muuuch easier.

Still, man. So many LEGOs.

My ideal, I suppose, would be somehow making a LEGO flat which you could draw on.

Hmm. Maybe something transparent, with a plastic sheet backing, and you draw on the underside and shows through?

Index Cards for containers. Write "Oaken Chest X" on the back of an index card, perhaps with the word "Locked" under it. On the front, put any trap on the top line, then the contents of the chest below. Your notes include Chest X and the type of trap as well. Place the card face down on the table when found. If the players search for traps or try something to trigger any traps safely, your notes help you determine what happened. If not, and they just open it right away, they turn over the card and see immediately what happened, or what the chest contains.

Do the same for bags and sacks. Small bags can hold two items no larger than a dagger. Large sacks and backpacks hold up to six items around the size of a helmet. Instead of tracking weight, you can just count lines, with one item per line. Full bags weigh the same as a 5 pound bag of sugar, full sacks weight the same as a 30 pound bag of potatoes.

Use index cards to track which hand(s) a character has free. If carrying a bag or sack, place the card in front of the player. You can use index cards for shields, torches and lanterns, too. Anyone with only one card in front of them can draw a one-handed weapon, while those with no cards can use a two-hand weapon. To free up a hand, the player moves one card to the center of the table to represent dropped items, which anyone can grab later.

Track lighting on Torch Cards. Put a d6 on the card to represent the turn number when the torch is lit. GM can use a d6 to track the turn number, changing the number showing every turn. Whenever a torch's die result matches the GM's die, that torch goes out. Lanterns only go outevery eight hours, so they really don't need to be fussed over.

If no player has a torch or lantern card on the table, there's no light.

Egg Timer. (any clock timer, too)

Pacing is always a challenge as there's this temporal vortex in the middle of any public speaking. Also, when really in the zone it's hard to pull yourself out of it and keep on task, especially if the group split up.

And especially with splitting up, a great way to equitably distribute time and hold to it, very "set it and forget it."

Quote from: Opaopajr;793214Egg Timer. (any clock timer, too)

I had a hour glass (well actually a minute or so glass) that I used. I liked the old school feel of the sands slipping through the hourglass. Plus the players could see time passing.

Quote from: Bren;793215I had a hour glass (well actually a minute or so glass) that I used. I liked the old school feel of the sands slipping through the hourglass. Plus the players could see time passing.

It has a nice feel, but it's so quiet... After too many unhappy games of competitive Pictionary and the like (I mean, honestly, who takes Pictionary seriously?), it's easy to get in the zone and space on keeping an eye on the timer. But mainly I need the noise when managing groups that split up.

Otherwise, yeah, hourglasses are classier.

also for buff intensive games like 3.5

We had folded Index cards that had bonuses written on them with the type so If some one cast bless the Bless Index card would go on the table with Bonus and type on each side so everyone could see it.

Made life easier. Might be cool to do ones with conditions and just set it in front of players when they are effected. It would list restrictions etc.

A long time ago, I mapped out each room in a (smallish) dungeon so each room could be revealed as entered and laid out on the table.  A lot of work, since it was the 80s and I had nothing computerized to produce these; they were done with photocopies.  All of it stuffed in a carefully cross referenced notebook; the dungeon had a time limit so I wanted things to move quickly in the game session.

I have no idea how it would have worked out then; it was specific to a particular adventure and the party avoided the dungeon in favor of attacking Orcus's castle, and I never got motivated enough to repurpose it.  But I reused the idea much later and with less effort later, with the dungeon as explored pinned to a medium sized bulletin board (easier for multiple sessions) and that worked pretty well, although it oversimplified mapping difficulties (a big deal in early games I was in).

Quote from: Opaopajr;792705CCG cards. Using Magic: the Gathering cards is a great resource for wandering monster tables, artifact ideas, and enchanted "Mythal" effects. They even come color coded for terrain, rarity. And now they have enough Culture/Theme settings to adjust around those tropes, too (Mirage, Ice Age, Theros, Innistrad, Khans, Kanigawa, etc.).

Was just doing this today for my new 5e game worked really well and the pcs are now shit scared of snakes.

1) Really think hard about the opening scene (or session) of the game so that you can hook the players immediately and get them involved from the start.  For 1920's COC opening scene was a bar knuckle boxing match in a warehouse in Chelsea, MA.  For D&D, party was with whole town as a bound and gagged "wizard" was the centerpiece for a public hanging.  Present day game (players are running regular guys hiking the AT with no knowledge of games premise)  Near end of a 4 month hike, just off trail they come across a fresh body with throat cut ear to ear.  Another D&D, characters on a ship traveling across a great lake when storm breaks out and they and the boat captain are the only survivors that wash ashore.


2) List of first & last names so you can name that cop or sage or whomever on the fly;

3) Lower lights for horror and such.  Music that fits the theme.  In old days, for Shadowrun I played a lot of Queensryche (Seattle band with some urban, & sci fi themed songs).;

4) Try to describe scenes with some atmospheric detail before you get to the meat of the encounter.  Immerse them in their location.  "As you round the large rock on the mountain forest path you see a thin fog that partly obscures a 30 foot dark green moss-covered-wall with numerous small channels cut by downward flowing condensation.  A handful of what looks like light blue phosphorescent fungi pepper the wall as far as you can see.";

5) One or two appropriate "random" encounters all set and ready to go if you need it.  Sometimes these events can turn into a reasonably sized theme.

6) Have a few curiosities and magic items for random encounters.  short sword +1 with some interesting abilities, unusual wood carving that might get the party interested, page from a diary, etc.  Sometimes the PCs want to explore this stuff and it turns into something;

7) Take notes of stuff PCs do that gets them off track.  Could turn into something later.  Shadowrun game, PCs broke into an apartment.  Found and stole a spellbook.  Three sessions later, with another time to gather evidence and research,  that mage summons a fire elemental to appear in the party's room when they were taking some down time.  Back and forth with party and mage lasted for a few months as a running subplot.

With that fire elemental, one PC wanted to grab a fire extinguisher from the hallway.  We had an disagreement about how much time it would take.  I argue that with his bad die roll, he tripped, was frantic and couldn't locate it quick enough.  Finally decided to do a real life mock up and time it.  Guy runs outside to get it, door happens to slam shut on him and LOCK.  He banging on the glass . . . "guys, guys"  Laughed my head off.

Good luck

8) For modern and semi modern games.  Keep several interesting or creepy black and white photos of people handy that you can scrawl on the back of at a moments notice.  Works for COC, d20 modern, SR.

Many players of a certain age appreciate props.

9) Need a house layout on the fly.  Use the floor plan for the house you grew up in or grandparents house.  The way you describe it, players probably wouldn't make the connection anyway;

10) Need a semi important NPC on the fly, use a college prof you had with some quirks, or an old girl/boy friend no one knew about, or describe someone you saw in a coffee shop recently, or someone you met while traveling.

Along those lines:

http://www.listal.com/actors/1920s/all

(I looked into stuff like this when making characters for a standard Call of Cthulhu game -- great for the 'period' look for character portraits)

I am big fan of Index Card Tents for both the GM and players.

For conventions, it allows you to put the relevant info for the group on one side Name, Race/Background, Class/Role so everyone knows who is who and it adds to the immersion if players can easily use the PC names. And on the other side, I like to put key roleplaying traits and maybe some core stats for easy player reference.