I kind of posted this topic once before - about what player aids you use to help keep you and your players thinking like 10 year olds. With renewed action on this board I would like to expand that a bit and ask What player aids do you use, period? Any pictures, music, items, etc? In other words, anything besides the book, paper, pencils and dice?

I for one give my players homework. It is dreaded but well received. If they do the homework i give them a 5-6 Boost for the following session. Examples have been - Come up with an example from TV or cinema of a character that fits your own Grimm character's archetype, bring a snack food to the next game that was your favorite when you were 10 years old, and (when the were going to the Land of Fear) decide what your character's greatest fear is.

I frequently look for pictures on the Net that I can show on the big screen when the players encounter them - different castles that they encounter, pictures of creatures/monsters they encounter (like bridge trolls, for instance) or spooky shots of creepy forests. This is how i ran across the fabulous pictures of Gary Busey as the GingerDead Man.

I made a storyteller screen with pictures from the Grimm book facing the players. I also have a horror theme track playing in the background as we play (Midnight Syndicate)

I would love to hear anything that the rest of you do.

Hmmm, it wasn't my intention, but did I did I ask my friend to watch Labyrinth before playing to get an idea for the sort of hostile environment he'd be in. He got the idea pretty quick. When his first reaction towards anything living was "I whip out my bat and prepare for battle", I shook my head and made sure he wasn't going to survive the Grimm lands if he didn't get out of the D&D mindset of "kill everything ". I do like your idea because it would certainly add to the atmosphere. I just made sure to have the NPC's subtly reminding him that his character was a kid which seemed to get him on track.

Hmm....i never actually thought about it....Players aides does seem like a great idea. Normally in the campaigns...I try to get the players to remember nursery rythms and stories. But they have to be the original storys if not they wont figure alot of things out or refrences.

Candy, items, and i would say self reflection would help a player. Get them to open up about what they wanted to be when they were kids.

I got this from Disney World a long time back, didn't think about using it for my players. But it's a snowglobe with a bunch of disney villains in it, with a wind-up music box that plays

That's great! Good idea.

maybe you will enjoy these. I made them on a site called Stripgenerator. they are of the very first encounter my kids had in GRIMM. They may not make much sense if you weren't there LOL