Better Tabletop Initiative Cards

Gone are the days of hastily writing player character and enemy names on folded index cards and balancing them precariously on top of the dungeon master screen. I now have a better way to track initiative order that’s much more environmentally friendly, only requiring part of one tree instead of countless others spent in index cards.

I’m sure there are a variety of small dry erase boards available at Hobby Lobby. Instead I opted for a large sheet of MDF covered with a dry erase skin, and the power of the Xcarve CNC to cut custom sized 3″x4″ boards.

Once cut, I sanded the tabs off and cleaned up the boards a bit with some sandpaper. So beautiful.

For the holder, I cut a scrap piece of plywood to 36″, and then ran it through the table saw twice with a 15 degree bevel to get a nice canted lean for the boards. They fit tight enough to stay solid, but loose enough to let me slide them along the length when adding cards to the end.

Thirty minutes in the shop and we have a much better means of tracking initiative.