My last Dungeons and Dragons experience involved an old beat up version of the first edition player's handbook, pencils and lots of graph paper. Tracking pencil scratches on paper and thumbing through endless pages of power descriptions, every turn, was somehow "enough" for a middle-schooler. Now we have beautifully output custom character sheets combined with color coded power and item cards that remove the necessary calculations that casual players find esoteric and undesirable. Combine these new innovations with ready to play plastic miniatures and convenient dungeon tiles and you have an extremely attractive visual experience that plainly just looks "fun." I quickly realized however that I was back in middle-school once we rolled for initiative.

I am not familiar at all with the Dungeons and Dragons that has existed for the past 18 years (God I am old), but I do know that good number powers in 4th Edition have tendency to offer bonuses to allies and penalties to monsters. Even at level one, depending on what class you choose, every one of your powers can grant pluses to attacks, give your fighter extra damage and even lower that goblin's armor. We quickly reverted to scratching notes on paper to keep track of the numbers being thrown around the table. There were many points of damage added after a players turn had ended due to someone "remembering" the bonus he gave. Thankfully we had a compassionate DM.

There had to be a better way. I consulted with a veteran player in the office who had a long standing regular DnD group. He informed me that they used candy placed by the figures to represent buffs and de-buffs. While interesting, non-descript tokens did not satisfy my User Interface pangs. As a Warlord, I had no choice but to try and develop a solution for myself and my players.

My DM's first attempt at tracking status effects was to buy blank fluorescent round stickers, from the grocery story, and simply stick them onto the miniature. The effect would be written plainly on the sticker. It was convenient enough but the stickers fell apart quickly and weren't very attractive, visually. I decided to expand on this, utilizing my design skills combined with blank reusable decal paper purchased from online retailers.

The UI sort of fell into place after that. Each decal contained the name of the power used, the bonus or effect it gave and depending on the shape (circle or square) it was either a bonus or penalty. Also, the color of the decal is associated with the color coding of the powercard so that you can tell instantly if the effect resulted from an At-Will (Green), Encounter (Red), Daily (Gray) or Utility (Blue). I also managed to figure out a solution for our Invoker's "Wall of Light," combining plastic sheeting cut into 1 inch squares with labeling.

Needless to say, my DM and fellow players were thankful when I handed each a sheet of decals. Especially our Pally and Warrior who often mark monsters, every turn. Rounds move much faster now that our DM doesn't have to ask about effects on every monster turn. We have grown to depend on these decal markers as much as the Character Creation tool and the ever-present Powercards.