The Eclectic Otter: Off on an Adventure- How to Organize your Gear

My personal Pinterest account is a little out of control...

I realized earlier this week that I have 100 boards on Pinterest, but all of them represent some type of inspiration. My latest idea comes from an image that's appeared in my feed a lot recently. The link takes you to a series of pictures showing a character sheet organizer.The first few times I saw it I tried to determine what was used for the base and think of how I could make something similar.

Eventually my husband was able to identify it as the box from World of Warcraft Trading Cards and told me we even have a couple hiding out in our house. So I decided to make a couple to help keep us organized for games away from home. I'll show you how I customized the boxes as well as some alternative bases you could use to make a comparable box. Also as a bonus I've included another project we've been working on for my husband's campaign.

My first thought was to use one of the large PC game cases, but after looking at one more closely I'm not sure its the best plan. It does have the clips on the side and technically would work but I think the disc holder would be in the way. As an alternative (for those that don't want to buy the card sets) I was able to make a simple mockup using a large VHS case. I used cardboard to make a divider for holding dice and also duct taped on a flap to make a lid. If I were going to make one for actual use I would glue down the divider and use some other material for the hinge. My initial thoughts would be either ribbon or maybe a flexible plastic like from a milk jug so that it would be more durable. For the other side you could glue in some kind of binder clip and a loop of elastic to hold a pencil.

The basic card boxes look like this:

Remove the cards and fill it up with dice, minis, or other game supplies. Then all you need to be ready to roll is a new custom cover.

To Make a Case Cover:

Click File, New, Blank File. It will pop up a box like the one below. Enter in the size cover you need. The card boxes are 7.5 inches high by 11.75 but you might want to adjust it to 7.5 by 11 if you are printing on regular paper, otherwise you will end up losing part of the design.

I used the shape tool to add a rectangle to mark the spine portion and help with placement of other items. Then I added a text block to the left (back) side. I used it to type up the information about my background but you could put lots of stuff there. The inspiration piece used a reference for attacks of opportunity, another idea would be to make a kind cheat sheet for new players showing what modifiers they needed to add to their rolls to accomplish different actions. I also added name and other character info to the spine portion.

Finally I dropped in a character portrait for the front and used the paint bucket tool to fill in the remaining background. I also added a picture to represent a mysterious orb that my character has. For my husband's I put a magic circle on the back and made a transparent rectangle over it to help make the text more legible.

Curious about that stack of cards with the scimitar on top?

That's the bonus project I mentioned at the start of the post. Part of the fun of a RPG is gathering up cool weapons and other equipment but usually they are just numbers on your character sheet. We thought it would be nice to have a visual reference so we decided to make item cards. Hopefully it will add some visual inspiration to our games. It even opens up the way for more difficult upgrade decisions. Almost anyone who has played an online game has experience the difficult choice between a weapon that's super ugly but powerful or the less effective but awesome weapon. (My husband plays World of Warcraft and is constantly transmogrifying items so they look better with his armor.) They can also be used for items that are more a part of the plot than a piece of equipment, like a mysterious magical gem or a key to an unknown lock. We have also thought about making a deck with character portraits to use for NPCs. If you don't want to make item cards you could hold other things there like extra dice or maybe a critical hit/miss deck if your game uses one.

To Make the Cards:

Start by opening up the template for Item Card Fronts. (Download at bottom of post)

The screen should look like this:

Click on File and select Open to chose the photos you want to use for the cards. They will appear next to the template in the photo bin along the bottom of the screen.

Use the Move Tool to pull on of the pictures up onto the template. It will most likely either fill the background of the template or appear on top of everything. Now on the right hand sidebar grab the picture you just added and move it so it is directly above one of the card shapes. It will now hide that card shape.

In the same sidebar, right click on the picture and select Create Clipping Mask.

This will make it so that only the portion over the card is shown. It will also add a little arrow on the side to show what layers are clipped together.

Use the points on the corners and the move tool to resize and move the photo so that the portion you want is showing on the card. For some things, like swords, this can get a little weird. You will either need to focus in on a specific feature like the hilt or leave the background color showing along the edges.

Repeat these steps until you have all 6 cards filled and it's ready to print. If you want something on the back side check your printer instructions to see which way to turn your paper for two-sided printing. After you print the front open which ever template you want for the back, turn the page and re-insert it, print the template for the back side. I left the back sides colored to show where the edges are but you could change them to white if you didn't want to print the color.

We used the backs to give quick reference information for items attributes while leaving the main portion open for a description of special abilities or other notes about the item. We also plan to use them to make a portable mini spell book for any spellcasting characters we may play. You can print out just the spells you know or print them all but only take out the ones you have prepared for the day. With just a small stack of cards you can reference the exact damage for a spell without having to flip through pages of spells that aren't even for the class you are playing. Let me know if you have any other ideas for how to use cards I'd love to hear about it.

You can download the templates I made by clicking on the links below.

Templates:

Please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think or offering suggestions for improvement. Also this is my first attempt at adding a download so let me know if it's not working right and I'll try to get it fixed.