5E Action Tokens

I’ve been running Dungeons & Dragons in its many incarnations and iterations since 1986, and the newest version—5th Edition—for the past few years. 5E has quickly become my favorite version of the game. It captures much of the feel I loved from the classic 1E & 2E eras while featuring streamlined gameplay and mechanics that are specific enough to avoid much confusion. Major props to the design team for creating a version of D&D that I love writing for, running, and playing.

If there’s one small quibble, it’s that the action economy during combat and action scenes can confuse some players. And by this I mean that each round a character can ...

• Move (up to walking speed)

• Take one action (an attack or many other options)

• Bonus action (only when a spell, special ability, or feature uses them)

• Reaction (opportunity attack, readied action, or specific spells—taking place on another character or creature’s turn)

Each of the above can be done once per round, becoming available again at the start of a character’s new turn. And the more cool/effective things you can cram into one round, the better off things usually go for the heroes. I’ve noticed that two types of players tend to have trouble remembering how this works: newbie gamers (who are already absorbing a lot of new concepts and rules) and old grognards who have played a bunch of D&D but are used to older editions that didn’t break up action using these terms.

When pondering how to help my players—and possibly for convention and in-store events I run using 5E—I came up with the idea of making some kind of aid. Enter 5E Action Tokens!

(Top Row: Original hand-drawn alpha version. Middle Row: A-side of the beta version. Bottom Row: B-side of the beta version.)

The concept is simple, a marker that can sit in front of the players and remind them of the four action categories open to them each round. I also thought of tying the action types to a symbol or icon that could be reflected on a character sheet for a quick visual reminder, making it easy to scan for the things still on the menu for the current round. (For example, the halfling monk shown on the character sheet in the photo below might use an action for his primary attack, but has several options for his bonus action and also has two possible reactions that could occur before his turn comes around once more.) I thought about creating cards—and still might create a card-based version of this idea—but thought poker chips might be more fun while taking up less room on the table.

I scored some basic poker chips from the local big box store in the games aisle and used small stick on circular labels I had laying around to create the hand-drawn Alpha mockups. From there I grabbed some printable labels of the same size and used freely-available icons for the Beta versions. And that’s where we’re at right now! Since I had five different colors of chips, I chose white to represent an Inspiration marker for when players earn a bonus through roleplaying or generally being awesome—a dungeon entrance on one side, a dragon head on the other. (See what I did there?)

The current plan is to work the icons onto a new character sheet design and use the tokens in the upcoming session of my home campaign, and do the same for the D&D event I’m running in a few weeks at Hypericon in Nashville, Tennessee. (Hope to see you there!) I want to get some honest feedback from players and I’d love to hear what you think as well.

I’ve put the DIY files for the Beta version up on my Patreon campaign for supporters of any level, so if you want to try this idea without much effort, a single dollar can score you the files, materials you’ll need, and simple instructions. If you’d like to wait for something professionally produced and less amateur-hour, I’m gauging response to this idea and looking into the idea of manufacturing this as an official product from Signal Fire Studios at an unknown point in the future.

Is this something you might try for your campaign? Do you have any other thoughts about the concept? Let me know what you think! Thanks everyone, and Game On.

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Dungeon gate and spiked dragon head icons by Delapouite provided under CC BY 3.0. Walking boot, Pointy sword, Back and forth, Sands of time, and Beveled Star icons by Lorc provided under CC BY 3.0.