Tabletop roleplaying games like D&D are all about that shared experience, making memories together with friends around the table as you battle adversaries and overcome incredible odds, retelling the heroic stories every time you get back together.

As a Games Master looking to immerse players into the world you create isn’t always as easy as just sitting down to start describe the world around them. Players may take time to settle into the storytelling particularly with a new group, at the beginnings of a new campaign, or just with their new character, they may feel a bit disconnected.

We love using props in our home games as a way to give players that connection, provide a spark of creativity and increase the level of role playing in a group. We see this time and time again, particularly with newer players, giving them something physical to pick up, and inevitable fiddle with, adds more sensory data to their mental imagery and helps lock them into the game.

What we’ve always struggled with is the crazy amount of time and money it took to craft individual props from scratch. If a GM chose to use props and physical puzzles it was a bit of a commitment and inevitably it became really important that the players found the ring or figurine as it took so much time and effort to create. The group dramatically failing successive investigation checks to miss the secret desk draw or hidden latch goes from being a GM shoulder shrug to a bit of a gut punch as that epic prop you spent ages making stays behind the GM screen.

That’s the whole reason behind our Puzzles & Props campaign!

kickstarter.com/projects/puzzles-and-props

We want to make it easy for the GM to have props on-hand without killing your budget and taking away all that time that you really want to spend on creating a new pantheon or an economic system for the next town. Help immerse players into the world being created for them, solidify those memorably moments into something physical.

We saw this being showcased in the latest campaign of Critical Role when one of the new first-time players went through great lengths to loot a magical ring off an enemy corpse. Despite all the back and forth trying to get this ring of invisibility off the body, as soon as the combat was over and the party went onto the next thing the ring was forgotten. Three weeks later in the last battle of the last episode the ring resurfaced and was finally slipped onto a finger and used. Had the wonderful Aabria Iyengar gone and jumped on her 3D printer after the session and pulled off a beautiful ring to present to her player at the next session it would have been used a lot more than just that once! Plus that player has a cool memento from the campaign and the cool stuff she did.

Does your group of adventurers square off against a recurring villain, someone who becomes their ongoing nemesis, ever thwarted by the heroic deeds of your party? It is easy to write into the conflicts the pair of majestic lions flanking the villain at each encounter. As a GM you will most likely sit back and watch some party members become ridiculously jealous and all of a sudden really want nothing more than to have a pair of pet lions… In preparation for the final encounter and potential victory you can print of a physical statue of two golden lions, something they are surely going to discover if they get a chance to loot the big bad. Present this wonderous loot to the party as a conclusion to that story arc and watch them go wild.

But it’s not just rewards for your parties obsessive looting of every pocket and every chest in the dungeon. Physical props can be perfect for the puzzles you bring into your games.

Not every problem can be solved with sheer muscle power. For those tasks that rely on intelligence, investigation and a little bit of luck, pulling out a physical puzzle can be perfect for the adventuring group. Put a real-world puzzle on the table and see all of your players instantly lean forward, engaged and interacting with each other trying to solve it. Physical puzzles also remove that chance of miss-interpreting something you said when describing a puzzle, lessening the chance that the barbarian just starts punching things.

Having access to a collection puzzles and props that you can 3D print in between sessions means your players can have trinkets to remember the amazing time shared together. It stops you having to use the same puzzle over and over again, taxing the minds of your players and their characters. Most of all it immerses your players in the world you all create together, giving them a touchstone that will bring them into their character each and every session.

Get notified on launch and don't miss the super-discounted Early Bird:

kickstarter.com/projects/puzzles-and-props

Meanwhile, you can grab a FREE STL of a Ring of Spell Storing, prepared both for FDM and resin printing:

Props&Beyond