Inside My DM's Toolkit - Essential Gear for Every Dungeon Master 

Those UV pens give me an idea. Going to make notecards for special items, armor, weapons my players come across. This let's me give them other traits (like a hammer that let's you reduce an enemies AC by 1 if you get a crit) but could add magical properties like does fire damage with the UV pens. They'll only find this out if they do an acrane check on it :P

Speaking of dice, I find that having smaller dice to be very useful (d2's and d3's). They are great to add in combinations with other dice to generate numbers that the standard dice struggle with. For example, need to generate a number between 1-300, roll percentile dice and a d3.

The use of the beads for condition markers is quite clever.

this is my favorite such video I have watched so far as it has some actual funky ideas that I feel a strong urge to include in my first DM session

Brilliant GM kit and video! Thanks for sharing!

Nice! Some of these gave me cool ideas, it'd be cool to get an updated version of this.

Thinking of doing an updated version of this video, with my most recent additions - would this be something people would be interested in? 🤔

Two and a Bit years later... I'd love a Updated version of this to see how much your kit has changed! :)

The old-school Red Basic Set you have there is from 1983, part of the BECMI series of boxed sets put together by Frank Mentzer. Each box contained the "complete" rules for the D&D game up to a certain level. The red box (Basic) covered levels 1-3, the blue box (Expert) covered 4-14, etc... Each set also expanded on different things not specifically covered in previous sets, as well as adding new monsters, spells, items, etc... The sets all did come with dice and the crayon, but those metal minis weren't included... someone must have just tossed those in there. ;-) There was also a version from 1981 that is famously called the B/X or Moldvay/Cook sets. That was also a red (more magenta, really) set for Basic and a blue box for Expert. There was a planned Companion set, but they ended up scrapping this particular line to do the BECMI one I described earlier, which did get a Companion set. And if you go even further back in time... there was a 1977 Basic set printed, famously called the Holmes rules. This one was in a blue box and never had anything beyond those rules that covered levels 1-3. Later printings even said to simply go out and get the AD&D game if you want to expand your game further. heh Some printings of this even lacked dice because of a shortage TSR was having at the time, so it included sheets of chits you could cut out and put in bags or mugs or something to pull from when you needed a random number rolled. Gotta love that!

Love this! The invisible ink pens are awesome!

Not a bad set up. Make use of what you have. Scents are something i have to try and use.

I like the mood and weather dice

Consider a set of Boggle dice to generate names. You can grab a couple dice to generate that NPC's name your party adopted and you did not have any name already set up. Also useful to name a Magic Item such as Gr'nards Mace of Retribution.

In my toolkit there is a small hourglass, I use all the time. It always freaks out my players when they see the time passing, but having no idea what's going to happen when they run out of time

PC Nameplates is a gem of an idea. Thanks!

the mood die reminds me of monster reaction rolls from b/x dnd. basically, just roll 2d6 and consult a table to find out how a monster reacts to a particular pc. the roll is modified by the pc's charisma modifier

nice kit! my party gained 2 players and suddenly i can’t fit everyone at my table so im gonna have to start driving out with my stuff. i’ve got most things in there aside from the special dice and pens, those scent ones are super cool. After a few weeks of gathering stuff, ive got 3 boxes i’ll bring with me : one for the dwarven forge build in anticipating needing, one for miniatures and scatter terrain, and one holding my GM screen, dice, rolling tray, a pencil case, condition rings, ipad, notebook and a portable bluetooth speaker. I love the idea of the players making name tags, waves away the immersion break of “uhhh what’s your name again?”

So many great ideas, thank you!

Alright! Very useful video fulled with tools for extra immersion! Hope you do more vids. Im soon gonna dare start as a fresh d.m for 3 friends. At least for 1 buddy + sidekick to compensate, sonce the other two are parents..though they seemed interested. I got this Game master companion from Dragon Shield which I have filler with stuff from ALL dnd starter kits, two dm kits dungeon+wilderness, fill at least two of the included foam trays with minis and might have room for the d.m book. HOWEVER. I had to use my 35 liter backpack to add the rest of my books, tool cards, spare dice, pens, pensils, sharpener and Cards for monsters, spells etc. Like to be prepared *cough*

I started playing D&D in 1978. I’m thinking of getting back into it as in basically disabled. The first “starter” set was the “basic” set and was a sky blue in 1978. I don’t have it any more. The version you have there is about six years into the game. It was pretty much the same thing less the figures and crayon.

Underrated Channel

Love the set up :)

ticky tack is infinitely useful for holding things in place

I have several GM kits, depending on the game I play/direct. The common items are dice (at least 3 sets of d4, d6, d8, d12 and d20, and 10 d10), dry-erase pens, blue, black, and red pen, pencil, small notebook, some A-4 paper in a transparent plastic sheet (you can use that as a dry-erase board!), and either my phone or tablet, and a laptop (Google Docs is an invaluable asset when coupled with GIMP and some basic edition capacity); finally, I have some small and light tokens on different colors, and some cheap white plastic checkers pieces I can use the Dry-erase pen on for enemies if needed. For Cyberpunk games I use a hacking deck I made before Talsorian decided they had to sell one for their RED version, with some main NPCs, all printed in paper then sleeved in Magic TG-sized cheap plastic protectors with some cards on the background (either useless Magic ones, or cheap card games ones). Miniatures for player characters (or even NPCs), I either grab from my collection or print myself, there are some STL for 6mm-scale games quite good if I need minimal size. As for generating content, I have a Tarot Deck, TvTropes, and the internet, so I copy, adapt and recycle shamessly for important NPCs, main or secondary plots, etc...

One of my favorite sets of die is a 13 peice set from d3 to d100

That red box is in really good condition. I imagine you have that in plastic when you are not show-and-tell on video.

The red box wasn't for first edition, and certainly wasn't the first boxed set. Original D&D came in a wood patterned box about a decade before that in 1974. The game was then split into AD&D (aka 1st edition) and Basic D&D. What you have there is the third version of the BD&D basic set.

You've got some really cool unique tools

Nope - the red set was not the first started box. There was at least one - maybe two before that. I had them. They were a blue/colored box.

I need to know where u got that attack land dice there is so much potential funny moments that can be made with that die

More dnd vids?

Meeples minis is an amazing set of wooden minis

Basic D&D wasn’t a starter set and didn’t come with any minis. Those were added by someone else.

those metal mini's are not original to the 1e starter set

the D&D first edition Box set was not a Starter set, the Box was the actual BASIC D&D Rules versions and the Books were the Advance D&D Version, Both were Originally printed in 1977, the Basic Box set has had multiple Reprints, with Different Art, yours Red Box should either be 1983 but didn't come with miniatures, they were sold separately, there were also, expansions to the 1983 version basic Set... 2. Expert > 3.Companion Rules > 4.Master Rules > 5.Immortal Set ... this all said, the new 5e Starter set .. Sucks, very little in the box, few paragraphs to help a new GM learn, No Player sheets or even How to make characters, the Essentintials is a Little better, It has more dice which is good, they finally figured out no one wants to roll one dice multiple times, it also has character sheets, Maps But money value .. Pathfinder Beginner box is Just over the top, has Huge Map, 150+Standees, the DIce are Color Coded to learn which is which easier, there are Action/Conditions cards for new Players and Player Sheets are a Booklet, with a great explanation for what each part is, as well as Black sheets and a walk thru to make your own characters. I grew up playing 1e when it came out, and still prefer it over 5e.

aaaaaagh. All the cool gadgets here that I wanted to get are no where to be found. Out of print, out of business etc. Dissapointeeeeeeeeeeeed

Why do all D&D players have purple hair. Is it because their personality is bland?