Index Cards Rule
Has this ever happened to you:
“Okay, so it’s Bob’s turn. Oh, shit, wait, I forgot to roll saves for those orcs at the end of their turn. Oh and I forgot to apply the ongoing damage from the poison to them. So let me just take a step back. Huh, that one orc should be dead from the ongoing damage already… wait, let’s just rewind for a bit. Oh, and that one was stunned so it shouldn’t have been able to take any actions…”
Fret not! Because finally there’s a solution!
Hi, I’m that guy who runs the Fuck Yeah Dungeons and Dragons shopping network, and I’m here to tell you about how cool index cards are. Observe.
And ordinary pile of stupid boring index cards transform into the most powerful tracking tool in the hands of an expert GM.
Have your players roll Initiative or some bullshit like that and then roll Initiative for monsters. Write down their Initiatives and names on a card.
Then put them in a nice pile in Initiative order.
And you can use these to track all kinds of information and have it all at hand whenever you have to remember it.
Keep track of monster hit points and conditions.
Keep track of save ends conditions. In here I’ve written the condition at the top so I remember to apply its effect at the beginning of Steve’s turn and also at the bottom to remind me that Steve gets to save against it at the end of his turn.
Like I wrote earlier, you can use this to keep track of important NPCs and factions. I even made a little countdown clock for their goal. When it’s full the zombie apocalypse happens. Every time the PCs fail to stop the cult’s evil plans or don’t do anything to stop them, the clock ticks forward.
And here’s the other side, for keeping track of important NPCs and other personas involved in the cult.
Like that’s just a few things you can do with index cards. They’re really cool.
You could theoretically use almost any kind of card for this but who wants to do that
