How to Spruce Up Your Pencil and Paper RPGs

While traditional pencil and paper role playing games have seen a huge decline in the face of the rising popularity of video games, there are some dedicated players who remain true to their role playing roots. These people still gather in dark basements all around the country, rolling dice, filling out stat sheets and arguing over the effects of magical spells.

But because the majority of those who are fans of the traditional pencil and paper role playing games have been enjoying the hobby for years, they may have difficulty coming up with fresh material to keep their games fun and exciting for everyone involved. There are many things you can do however to spruce up your role playing games, and ways that you can keep your gaming group coming back for more week after week.

First of all, you may want to consider using miniature figurines for your game. These can be used to represent all of the characters and monsters in a scene, and allows players to better see the exact locations of each. Dungeons and Dragons has a great line of plastic collectible figures, and feature some of the more popular character and monster designs that have been introduced throughout the years. Huge miniatures like the massive red dragon may stand a foot or even taller - while the human sized miniature models are no more than a couple of inches in height.

You can also take advantage of the internet and some other role playing video games, too. You can have your players participate in mini-games for your story that may actually require they play a game on the internet in real life. If they win, their character moves on - if not, then they'll just have to face the consequences.

Maps and other hand outs can also be created on a computer, printed up, and handed out to the group as well. Documents like a king's proclamation or a wanted poster can actually be created and examined in person by your players, and game hints can even be hidden within the texts. Physical props work well, too. Things like decorative daggers, swords, and shields can be put on display to represent an actual in-game object, and old coins make good treasure for your heroes to collect, as well.

Music and sound effects can add a lot of life to your traditional, pencil and paper role playing games too. Try speaking in different voices when different characters are introduced, and you might want to have a CD player handy with a soundtrack or possibly even a disc of sound effects.