$20 for everything you need to run Dragons of Stormwreck Isle 

OH MY GOSH I had never thought about using wrapping paper as a battle mat! It's genius!!!

Please keep doing more projects like this! It's fun seeing someone who can run a game with these price restrictions!

I've been using wrapping paper for years people are always shocked when I tell them. Very nice to someone sharing how to budget game

I am a theatre of the mind DM, but there is great inspiration in here to help paint the picture in the players head. The npcs, monsters and general maps at least are awesome. The beads though look sick.

This video was actually really inspiring. Like other comments, wrapping paper is the biggest takeaway

I love sparky's little gremlin's face

''not going to win any awards for my drawings'' and here I am looking at you thinking ''fuck if I could even draw half as well''

This is awesome! Amazing work!

Absolutely amazing work!

Oh my goodness - this rocks - thank you for these stellar ideas!

An idea I got from someone on reddit, use little pictures of the monsters and glue them to the bottom of the glass pieces facing up.

This was an excellent video and I appreciate it!

This is fantastic! Thank you! Is there any place where I can find a list of the glass bead characters and symbols you made and what they were used for in the game? I am just learning with my son and will try to be the dungeon master for the first time. We got all the supplies, but I am still a tad confused. For example, in your photo, you have the three zombie sailors with 3 additional glass bead symbols. If anyone can help, I would appreciate it!

So I put together a shopping list, and set out yesterday morning to get at least part of this accomplished. At Dollar Tree, I picked up markers, the nail polish, the wrapping paper, some various size head paint brushes, and a 5-pack of snack sized Heath bars. Don't judge. I then went to Walmart, and picked up several bottles of acrylic paints. The ONLY place I could find the flat glass marbles online, aside from Amazon, was Michael's, and that is across town. Instead, I went to Hobby Lobby, where I found the roughly 25mm size, which is what I wanted, and even better, they are currently on sale 40% off. So I spent the rest of the early afternoon making my tokens. I'm not artistic, at all. Stick figures, at best. So I decided to go with some generic icons to represent three different monster categories. I used crossed swords to represent humanoid monsters, animal paws for animals, and a rough drawing of a crown for the minor bosses. Since this will be the first campaign with a new group, and one new to 5e, I'll be running the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, so I also made one token for the human fighter they will need to rescue. I painted the bottom of his token yellow, though in the future I think I will go with more of an orange-yellow. For monsters, they got red. Lastly, I covered each side with the clear nail polish and let it all dry. Aside from my crude icons, they look really good. I may practice more, and I will likely make a bunch more of these to serve as minions for larger scale battles. I'll probably go with a skull to represent undead when I make those. I have to draw out the maps on the wrapping paper next. I just have to worry about two maps to start, and I may connect my TV to my computer and project the digital maps to it, and tape on the paper so I can trace the rough image. Again, I'm not an artist lol. The one thing I didn't do was get the extra large popsicle sticks. I couldn't find any in the stores, and I forgot to look for them online. It's not that big a deal, but I do want to become more craft-ish. But I'm glad this video just randomly popped up as a suggestion. I wouldn't have found it otherwise, and I would be scratching my head over how I was going to afford the things I would need to better entertain my group.

This is an awesome idea for a kids set.

glass beads, huh. where the heck do I find those?

I’m trying to learn to be the DM from this game and I’ve never played before. I also haven’t got the book, I’ve just ordered it so I want to be prepared. I thought I could help you maybe see the struggles I’m going through with understanding this video 😊 So main thing I am battling with understanding is the enemy tokens and the symbols on them. The 8 differently coloured tokens I have no idea what they represent.. maybe the characters, but there are only five characters, so I think that needs further explanation. Also I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what you used the wrapping paper for until I read the comments, I just got poster boards for it. Maybe it’s me but I thought it could be clearer that you’re using it as the map paper. I don’t know, maybe I’m just bad at learning 😂but those are my tips

This makes me want to play in person. I haven’t had a chance to play in person since the pandemic started. This looks like a great budget way to create an amazing experience for players in person.

The wrapping paper idea is genius! And right after I just dropped $20 on a battlemat🤦🏼‍♂️😂

'Not gonna win an award for my artwork anytime soon'........ Proceeds to draw an octopus better than anything I have ever drawn ever

Those glass beads are effing gorgeous! Next time at the crafts store, gonna pick some up 😊

Referred here by Sly Flourish and boy was it even better than I imagined! What a great video and truly inspiration!

Fantastic. I'm an avid scenery builder myself, but I'm often told how daunting the hobby (of building stuff) looks from the outside. This makes it so much more accessible

Those glassbead minis are AMAZING!!! I need to try that. (=

This is why I love D&D

Very clever. A great video topic that goes beyond the standard stuff people make on RU-vid.

Maaan, you single handedly made me want to play D&D again, which hasn't happened in years that I've enjoyed playing other TTRPGs. Congratulations, your maps, accessories, drawings and your crafty ideas are really lovely, I have a lot of fun discovering your content. Keep up the good work ! (and please move to France next to my house, would love to play at your table :D )

What I did for the maps. Draw an outside view. Then inside based on how many rooms. When the players enter a new room then I place down the room. Instead of lifting cards to reveal what is inside.

Super creative and inspiring. Love the content. Keep it up!

Wait, your dollar store doesn't have cheap paints? Also, I have heard of using glass beads as markers, but never thought of painting them... so much easier than hunting more colours

Awesome! Do you have any videos on how you make and paint the items and monsters using the clear stones? That is really cool but it went a little fast for me

Petition to change it to the Dollar-Twenty-Five-Cent Store

Awesome vid! It makes me tempted to try and play with minis again once my groups are back in person. You usually have such awesome terrain in your videos I'd love to see more terrain making videos!

I’m definitely going to use glass beads to make tokens. That’s brilliant.

This content got me excited. You make great content brother.

Tremendous stuff! I've talked to several people that are put off from trying D&D because they think it's expensive. Don't get me wrong, miniatures are rad and I love painting them but they're far from necessary. Kudos for showing new players some awesome alternatives!

Excellent work on such a cheap budget!

Wry creative! Lol very creative!

I love the balance you strike between effort and ease. Enough terrain and details to enhance play but not so much that it becomes a full time job. Your drawings are actually really nice.

The index cards made me think of Pokémon. Imagine Pokémon they game esque combat, with all the options laid out, and you can choose quickly, instead of having to cycle through the options in your mind. And if your stuck,just pick one at random.

Ketchup and mustard as paint? Brilliant! Seriously though. Everything really is brilliant.

SlyFlourish sent me, amazing work! Inspiring stuff 😊

I can't wait for this guy to hit 100k he deserves it...the random dice map generation videos are so fun and helpful

Was that Captain Moonscar from Scooby Doo on Zombie Island? (also, the glass bead concept is FANTASTIC. I use colored ones for my games but I never thought to paint the bottoms!!!!)

You are amazing!

This is awesome! I'm sure the same idea can be applied to Spelljammer then?

Oh no not dollar tree actually that's a great idea.

Or you could had done all of it with index cards ala ICRPG style... Regardless, great material here homie

This makes things much more "doable" - thanx

This is great

You folks over seas have no idea how fortunate you are with these prices, lol. Cool video, man!

Thanks so much for this awesome idea! Im currently making these up for our first session on the weekend! What are the tokens on the far right? The rest make sense but i can't work out what those are for

Painting glass beads to use as minis is BRILLIANT!

Super f'n clever!

I can't happen to find the glass beads on amazon can someone help me out?

Awesome.

Wish they had hex grid wrapping paper!

Nice!!

I love the minimalist approach.

Ha! I spotted a redraw of my Jiro the Kobold piece at 4:55. 🙂 Some really cool stuff here.

Im starting my first campaign in a few days. Thank you so much :)

Yeah I love it! So good it's a great start and you can build easily from there with these skills

F$^# the algorithm I needed this like 2 days ago!

Your drawings are awesome! The materials look very nice as well

Love this, never played dnd but really want to

OH NO! My car doesn't have an 'O' gear! Now I'm never going to be able to follow along :(

Great inspirational video

the dreadful monster drawings are very 1e, very retro

My DM just uses his son's lego minifigures LOL

I never knew some wrapping paper had 1 inch square grid work! While I want to put my miniatures to use, the glass beads with paint are not bad to distinguish great axe from shield/sword from polearm or beast, maybe a lightning bolt for arcane casters or holy symbol for clerics. I suggest using different background colors to distinguish swords man 1 from 2 or 3 and so forth. guess the clear nail polish helps them keep the drawing as the beads rub against each other in transit.

Amazing job! This is a great video to show how easy it truly is.

this is amazing! i'm about to start running this story with my friends as our first dnd game. my only gripe is that i wish you had gone into a bit more detail about what you were making and how many of each piece we need, the glass beads for example. i know this is already a year old but would it be possible for you to make like an inventory list of everything you made in this video for the game?

Nicely done!

Effin' great work! This is awesome!

What an awesome and thoughtful way to setup! This looks great

That's pretty great. Minis and terrain that are super detailed tend to take over the imagination - they "become" the action in the player's mind. Less detailed, but still polished, stuff like this leaves room for the imagination to take over.

hahahahah "put it in O for onward" 😂

Great vid!

Nice! What time does the game start?

I used my copy machine

Alternatively, and hear me out, you could spend hundreds and get addicted to 3d printing in resin.

Can you do one for the dragon of icespire peak essentials kit. I just started playing and really enjoyed this video.

What are the dog paw ones?

Outstanding!! Thanks for the inspiration and this excellent content.

Some of your shots and editing choices were rather neat. Also the beads are such a good idea.

This is a brilliant video! Great work! Subscribed!

Love what you do! Thanks for all the work and care you put into these videos :)

What if... i am not skilled enough to draw like that?

Just awesome

I'm a new player and want to play with my friends and this video is excellent to help them visualize the scenery, This is great: I'm also a crafter and I have everything in the video at hand. Thanks for sharing this way I don't have to spend more than what I already have.🥳

This is amazing. Can't wait to try this out, thank you so much!

Really well done and inspiring! Using wrapping paper that has 1 inch squares on the back is genius!

wow

Roma chto ti delaesh

Cool I don’t have the artistic ability to do that though

Amazing!! Great work bro

Too awesome for words. Great job!

4:41 Didn't realize that the new adventure was on moonscar island 😆

This was great. ❤

Hey man I love this video! I am expecting my Starter Set to arrive next week and wanted to know if you could provide a list of the exact monster count that are in this set so I can start making my own monster tokens. It would really help me a lot. Thanks