DnD Condition Rings: ideas to help track at the table
As we’ve tried out more games and different types of character markers, we found a cool way to track temporary combat effects!
We tried out the DnD Condition Rings from Wasted Wizard, and they’ve been a fun tool to help us remember what conditions characters were under.
These rings are labeled markers that act as a base for standard sized minis. They’re used to note any status effects or conditions that a character in the game is experiencing by showing it right on the board so you don’t have to remember it or keep checking your notes during encounters and so everyone at the table can clearly see the status of other player characters and any NPCs that may be involved.
Much of this information is typically tracked in either player or GM notes, so it isn’t readily visible on the board, and it can require a lot of remembering or checking during a time in the game that also has a lot else going on (whether that be solving a puzzle map, resolving a combat situation, or exploring a trapped dungeon).
Being able to offload some of the brainpower for remembering “one more thing” in the game can really help when playing TTRPGs, but especially when playing TTRPGs with kids.
If folks don’t have to mentally keep track of all the status effects swirling around, new players are able to focus more on learning the system, and GMs can concentrate more on running the rest of the game.
Plus, the rings stack, meaning you can use them to track multiple conditions (which is when that brain offload starts getting more impactful), and they also still fit in the standard 1″ x 1″ grid on most RPG maps, so they’re not going to be bumping into each other or limiting you to only 1 ring per mini.
Each ring is color, word, and symbol coded, giving everyone different ways to observe them and understand their meaning (i.e. there’s alternatives for players who can’t read or players who are color blind).
I also liked that they came with a litte felt pad! The site for the rings says that it’s to help protect your terrain and minis, which I fully believe it does, but I found that it was most helpful in reducing the amount the pieces slid around on the map. Table bumps happen for everyone, but they definitely happen more often with young players, so reducing the amount that things tend to shift or fall over is a big deal.
We also found that for conditions that last for a specific period of time (like… you are hasted for 3 turns!), you can stack multiples of the same condition and then remove them each turn to count down to when the effect ends. This gives a great visual cue to show the count down for planning and further reduced the amount of paper-based tracking.
There’s four of each ring in a set, so the only downside we could really find was that if you had to apply a condition to more than 4 characters on the board OR you were using the multiple rings to countdown the effect wearing off, you could run out of rings unless you have a second set. That said, no one can predict how big your party is, and having this in sets of 4 seems pretty reasonable as an increment for getting game accessory sets, but I did just want to note that for folks looking to get this.
I hope this helps give you some ideas for your own game tables, and you can find the set that we use here on the Wasted Wizard website!
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