…i’m tempted to say physical dice, but in truth i have many sets and switch them out for each campaign, so my most-used accessory is probably my nice padded rolling tray, followed closely by my staedler stick eraser…

…my most-used books, despite my meticulously-curated physical and PDF libraries, have turned out to be the player’s handbook and dungeon master’s guide on DnDbeyond; i always keep them open on an ipad stand during gameplay because it’s really tough to beat indexed hypertext for ready-reference during gameplay…my players use the heck out of my shared campaign subscription, but it’s becoming tougher now that DnDbeyond defaults to 2024 rules, so that use pattern may well change as the platform evolves…

…even as a player, though, i feel like a good DM’s screen might be quicker!..the problem of course is tabletop real estate, but it seems like there’s an untapped market for player’s reference screens during remote sessions, where most folks have more tabletop real estate to play with physical accessories…

…i’m considering crafting a player’s reference screen with panels focused on core rules, house rules, and class rules which can be readily swapped-out…

For d&d? 5e.tools’s DM screen on a laptop is excellent, it has an encounter tracker, calendar, dice roller, and I can pin whatever rules and statblocks I need this week.

Also a giant battle mat is really useful.

Historically it would be either my 2nd edition Werewolf the Apocalypse book, Paladium Fantasy Core book, or WEG’s Star Wars d6 core book.

Currently my 5e.2024 PHB.

I’m primarily playing Pathfinder 2 these days, so I make a lot of use out of digital resources like Pathbuilder and pf2easy.com. I also lean pretty heavily on Trilium for session prep and notes, but I’m a chronic over-preparer and struggle with improvising the world on the spot.

I use a lot of roll tables during prep. I have several of the Gamemaster’s Guide to ____ books on my shelf that I pull out whenever I’m wireframing a dungeon, and I have a lot of the Raging Swan pre-built settlements that I leaf through and drop into my world when the players need a town to come across.

I also find myself turning to GM advice books every few months, just to skim over things. Right now, So You Want to be a Game Master, Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering, and Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master (Eh? Ehhhhh?) seem to be the ones that end up on my desk. I can safely assure you, one of the advice sinks in, but I usually have my best streaks of sessions after reviewing things like these.

I also find myself returning to modules from 3.x. They were the ones I first played, and they’re (mostly) pretty easy to convert to PF2. We’re currently just wrapping up Forge of Fury – or we will, once I finish converting the Allip.

Playing PF2e mostly these days and the Archives of Nethys are my life raft. I would be utterly lost without them. That and Pathbuilder to help have a handy character sheet accessible for theory crafting or whatnot.

Otherwise, I use the compendium in Foundry to look up conditions or rules on the fly.

Although when I GM I use Notion for prep, Lazy Dungeon Master’s Guide for some guidance here and there, and just a lot of flying by the seat of my pants. :B