During all of my group's many attempts at running/playing WFRP3, we found that using counters to track things like the A/C/E pools, and placing counters for all the various mechanics in the game became difficult to keep up with.

So how do you handle multiple monsters and their tokens, wound counters, A/C/E counters.. do you just have separate little piles for all of this? Does that get difficult or annoying to track?

Mostly I'm just interested in how GM's are handling the things that we found difficult.

Thanks.

I'm using a combination of the chits and a whiteboard. Some things, like recharges and progress tracks, are easier for me to manage with the chits, but other things, like monster damage and A/C/E pools are easier on the whiteboard.

I use a 3x5 card and write down the name of the opponents by group (one card for each henchman group type for example), and I use colored glass beads: red for A, green for C and yellow for A. Depending on how many groups I usually pre-load the cards with the number of A/C/E beads, when the red gems on the card are gone, that NPC type no longer can use Aggression. If I have a lot of groups, though, I will add the beads instead; if their Aggression is 3 then 3 red beads means they're out.

I can't say that saves a lot of space, but it does cut down on the confusion. As for wounds, I merely use the old skool pencil on the cards, and draw criticals when appropriate.

Pretty much by the book except we use glass gems instead of the tokens that came with the game. But our wizard still prefers to use tokens for his Power because he just keeps a bunch on his sheet and can flip them over when they are 'powered.'

Like HedgeWizard, piles of coloured gems for ACEs: they're pretty straightforward unless you have many different types of monster.

Also, we use pen and paper for wounds and just use the wound cards for crits.

To save my books, I simply photocopied the bestiary 'cards' and put them in plastic wallets - then I use a dry erase marker and write all over them. There are enough counters on the table for me already, so I did not really want to add more...

Let me set up my answer by telling you what I do for D&D4 first. For each encounter I have a single shet of paper with each monster stat block and an initiative track. I fill in initiatives at the start of combat and keep track of monster hit points and conditions all on that one sheet.

For WFRP3 I've started doing something similar. I have a single sheet of paper with the monster stat lines and I mark off the pool dice as they get used and wounds as they get taken. I have 1-2 sets of action cards (plus some homemade ones) to use since I usually have two different groups of monsters on the board at the same time. I use the standard init track, though. I can probably get the sheet of paper down to a half-sheet for stats but am still playing around with it a bit. I use recharge tokens on monster action cards like normal.

Mark

I use the monster page in protective binder sheets. I write on them with wet erase markers and wipe it off after the adventure. Works Great.

Post it notes stuck to the pages as necessary.

I tend to cheat like a M.F. when I GM to keep the action going so I don't pay too much attention to it. When it comes to wounds, I just write it down. Forget the cards except for crits.

jh

I'm going to go with a single A/C/E pool shared by all enemies in an encounter. I'm not going to fiddle around with a dozen different piles of tokens, when in the end it doesn't make that much of a difference anyway.

I have a little 5x8" binder in which I keep small monster cards (two per page) in plastic sleeves. I use a wipe-off marker to keep names and stats on each card. I set those up before games. Each card also has a big box marked off for wound counters, and little boxes for ACE counters from which I remove pieces as necessary:

I'd be happy to share the printouts if anyone wants them; they may not have enough info for everyone, but they work for me. I have to admit, though, that the pile of counters gets complicated when henchmen have a total of, say, more than 20 WP, but then I just end up using the wipe-off marker to keep track. Whatever works at the moment!

Please upload your printouts to the HAMMERZEIT site: 74.53.20.230/hammerzeit/

jh

Well - since we are used to playing Arkham with a number of expansions the table actually looks pretty bare

For what it is worth, we use the wound chits from Runebound instead of cards except for chits. We use endurance counters from the same game for recharge, the visuals are better. We are also using nice glass tokens for fortune points. Other than that our group has had no problem - perhaps it is just what we are used to - certainly didn't disturb the storytelling.

TonyACT said:

Those are excellent ideas. I was just thinking how I could use my Runebound tokens with this game.

Thanks!

I used 3x5 cards as sort of a home made action card. I also summed up the stats and dice pools from the bestiary on various 3x5s just so they are ready.

Emirikol said:

Since they're graphics-heavy Photoshop PDFs, they're a bit too big for Hammerzeit's tiny filesize limit, unfortunately.

I threw them up on an old site, though. You can download a monster and henchman card here, a double-monster card here, and a double-henchman card here.

What I did is print off the monster tracking sheet off hammerzeit and slip it into one of those plastic 3 hole sheets so you can put it into a binder covered by the plastic.

Then I take an dry erase black marker and use that, it's really fantastic.

What I would like to find for stress/fatigue is a dial-type counter.

Rob

A simple iphone clicker app. would be cool for party fortune or Stess etc would be cool

I use three six-sided dice, each of a different color, to track these. I find them to take up less space than counters, and make combats with multiple enemies easier to manage.

You do have to watch out for the "helpful black cat of doom" - who likes to play with any counter or die on the table

By the way ... the FFG token packs are perfect for WFRP. They are not too small to handle, but not too large that they take up a lot of room. They are flat, so easily stackable, and they come in a good variety of colors to represent different things. I picked up some Red, Blue, and Gold packs and they help me immensely as a GM.