Small props in games and journaling

How a little portal to that theater of the mind helps a lot, and why I made it into a full mechanic in STRIGA.

Most of the time we spend playing in a tabletop RPG is spent in our imagination, or what we often call “the theater of the mind”.
That is what makes RPGs great after all, the fact that it is an imaginative and collaborative story, where anything can happen and the limit is just your imagination.
Because of this non-tangible work we make when we play RPGs, I think the presence of small props when we play a game is super helpful.

WHY PROPS ARE COOL

A small prop like a map, a letter, or a hourglass, can really make a difference. It is a small portal to that world of the theater of the mind, bringing you a glimpse of what was just in your imagination a moment ago.
They can also enhance a puzzle, making it more easy to digest and solve. It doesn’t have to be a Da Vinci Code-type of puzzle, it could be even retrieving two pieces of a map to find a passage. While it is a simple and maybe even bland puzzle without a prop, having two pieces of paper that perfectly fit together and reveal the passage can be exciting for both players and GMs!

OKAY, BUT WHAT IF I DON’T THE SKILLS?

I hear this a lot, but trust me, you are just comparing yourself to talented cartographers or crafters that probably do this as a job.
Your stuff doesn’t have to be perfect! Even a simple prop does the job nicely because remember, what’s important is the fact that you brought that “small portal” to the table.
Buy one of those glass vials from the dollar store, fill with blue powerade and you got yourself a magic potion. A prop! (Just remember to drink it before the session ends, or that potion will have some real world magic you don’t wanna be the target of).

THE ULTIMATE SMALL PROP: THE JOURNAL

There’s one prop that blends perfectly both the importance of props and the gameplay of an RPG, and that is the journal.
Keeping a journal offers you a plethora of immersive vantages. You can do it both in-character and as a player, and can help you keep track of what is happening in your campaign.
Not only that, it provides a side-activity you can do in between sessions that can spark your creativity, and help you get in character.
You can even do it as a DM, transforming the journal into some sort of history book. I am currently doing it with my campaign and I’m having loads of fun.

This is also a great way to get creative, and learn while having fun. I have always thought that I had to improve my colored pencils skills since I never studied the medium, and since the journal is something personal and not something work-related, I can use it to test my colored pencils and learn.
They probably suck, but hey, who cares! It’s my journal, my experience in the game, and you are allowed to make mistakes, scribbles, doodles, and failures. And I guarantee you that the more pages you fill, the better you’ll get at it.

JOURNALING IN STRIGA!

So, when I designed my upcoming RPG “STRIGA”, which is all about exploring an underground lost city, journaling had to be a part of it.

This is why I included a Journaling mechanic that helps you write and sketch your journal with random prompts, and ties keeping a journal with the game by helping you level up, and by using the journals as a way to pass down information to your future characters.
That’s right. In pure OSR fashion, you have a good chance of dying. What happens to all the info and knowledge you gathered? Well, the journal is an item in the game, that can be found by other Characters, factions, heck, even villains.
Your journal went from the game, to reality, and back into the game!

You can find the pre-launch page of STRIGA riiiiight here, be sure to follow it so you don’t miss it when the crowdfunding drops.
We are still on the road for a May release, so subscribe if you don’t wanna miss it!