TOPIC: Binder of Sharing

I recently purchased some tokens from Trent and watched some of his videos and was inspired by what he called his "Binder of Sharing". This got me down the path of buying up tokens to create my own binder of sharing! I put in some treasure tokens, two sets "of the ancients" to help upgrade fellow adventurers to Level 5, and some other odds and ends. This got me thinking:

What would you put into a binder of sharing? And how many (i.e. 10xBead of Bounty)?

Any really cool effects that new players would enjoy? I'm trying to target beginners to intermediate, with a goal of enhancing their experience and getting them hooked on TD. Ideally these would be tokens I would keep in the binder safe and sound from Coach Room through Epilogue, and not weapons that could be lost. Cheap Potions/usable goods OK!

My "entry level" binder of sharing has a bunch of stuff that's nothing but upside and nothing you need to remember off the party card:
* Master Ale Drinker's beads
* Enchanter's Whetstones
* Ioun Stones Beryl Prism
* Saves tokens: Dandy Shirts, Beads of Resolve and Chugging, Earcuff of Reflexes, Rings of Iron WIll, Reflexes and Fortitude
* Melee enhancing tokens: Belts of the Brave, Ioun Stones Jasper Ellipsoid and Ruby Orb, Charms of the Fire Newt, Bracers of Fire/Lightning/Etc, Gauntlets of Ogre Power
* Spell enhancing tokens: Ioun Stones Ruby Pyramid and Opal Prism, Bracelets of Arcane Sight
* Missile enhancing tokens: Ioun Stones Ruby Spindle, Bracelets of Far Reach
* General ranged enhancing tokens: Lenses of Hunting, Charms of Targeting and the Wind

All of those are pure upside. I'd avoid anything with a whiff of penalty or effects that aren't on the party card.

I have

Master Ale Drinkers Beads
Charm of Synergy
+2 Cloak of Resistance
Ring of Treasure Finding
Belt of the Brave
Charm of Farsight

It’s enough to allow any group to run at HC in my opinion. Usually I play a healer class as well.

HP, saving throws, levels. Nothing that requires reading or memorizing the token.

Treasure enhancers are not good unless you want to run the risk of taking them out for audit every run

For loans to strangers, Try not to overwhelm new players by locking up a bunch of slots. Doing so ends up risking the feeling that someone else played their game for them.

It’s confusing enough, and part of the fun, to figure out how to equip your tokens without some stranger telling you “leave your waist, hands, pants, back slots open, it’ll be good - I promise!”

Good things to loan:

Slotless: Enchanters whetstone, greater mistletoe, thieves tools.

Slots new players won’t fill:

Up to 4 Iouns things like TE’s, the +1 saves, +2 melee damage rares.

Up to 2 Beads: Lucky Traveler, TE, or stalker beads.

1 or 2 charms: avarice, awakened synergy, or something that gives HP.

Other random things that might be nice:

A weapon that lets a bard do bardsong and attack (+1 blowgun flute, or I think the there is a new melee weapon this year).

Matthew Hayward wrote: For loans to strangers, Try not to overwhelm new players

^^ This!

In addition, please try not to overwhelm your friendly neighborhood player coach, who is probably math-ing these builds by hand from the token mat (and I completely agree that you don't want to physically put your tokens on others' mats), by asking us to mentally keep track of five extra stat modifiers we can't see.

Finally, keep in mind that you don't need a bunch of number boosts to play Normal, and having them when you don't need them doesn't necessarily make the game more fun.

Overall: keep it simple, less is more.

For Normal runs I usually only loan TEs; I do also enjoy giving each player 1 or 2 good standard-pack rares to keep.

(The calculus is a bit different for a group of intermediate players attempting HC, where you do need some number boosts, but IMO "less is more" still applies; a small number of tokens that grant large benefits is both more fun and less hassle than a full kitchen sink.)

I had thought of making the "don't overwhelm" comment above, but I didn't want to damper the excitement too much!

It's a good point though. I've seen a fully decked out character referred to as a Batmobile before. It's can be a lot of fun to drive a Batmobile, but the number of options and information you need to absorb is overwhelming!

Also, there's a certain pride people can get from making a go of using their own gear vs. winning on someone else's build.

Charms, Ioun Stones, Beads and slotless items are all great places to supplement because other players may not fill all those slots. And everyone loves more treasure, so that's a great place to share

I used to carry a bunch of spare rares with me for PUGs, but as others have mentioned it's often better to just let people have fun playing with the tokens they got out of their 10 packs. So nowadays I just carry a page of rare TEs covering a good mix of slots and a few slotless items like Totem of Heroism ("Hey, I see you don't have many tokens for your class, would you like to be level 5?"), Libram of Looting, etc which can help people without overwhelming them.

I would shoot for something where you can say, "ok every keep X slots open and you all get Y effect".

Personally I tend to offer everyone can be level 5, and get +4 treasure if you keep a ring, bead & charm slot open.

It's nice, but doesn't overwhelm and still let's people feel like their own equipment is useful.

With newbies, I've pretty much stopped lending tokens. Maybe a treasure enhancer or two or a Totem of Heroism for a spellcaster to give them more options. I think letting them get that "new" experience is positive. I definitely scale back my damage to their level and let them take the lead on puzzles. Letting them experience puzzle failure can also be positive at times and makes the healers in the group feel useful. I always have enough Potion's Death's Door or similar items to make sure they make it to Room 7. They're on their own after that.

If it's a veteran player who already has a good build, but initiates an ask to borrow things to improve their build, then I'm more open to lending a handful of legendary or relic tokens if they are thinking of playing Nightmare.

Picc wrote: Personally I tend to offer everyone can be level 5, and get +4 treasure if you keep a ring, bead & charm slot open.

What Ring, Bead, and Charm together convey 5th level and +4 treasure?

Matthew Hayward wrote:

Picc wrote: Personally I tend to offer everyone can be level 5, and get +4 treasure if you keep a ring, bead & charm slot open.

What Ring, Bead, and Charm together convey 5th level and +4 treasure?

tokendb.com/token/ring-of-heroism/
tokendb.com/token/bead-of-bounty/
tokendb.com/token/ioun-stone-platinum-nugget/

I mistyped. I should have said ring, bead & ioun (not charm)