How to add ribbon bookmarks to a hardcover book: a step-by-step guide

For those who missed out on the Tales of Argosa kickstarter campaign or didn't manage to get a copy of the nice offset print version of the book (like me), here is a quick, cheap and easy way to add a ribbon bookmark or two to your hardcover print-on-demand (PoD) copy.

Well, the great thing about working on a PoD copy is you can customise and personalise the book to your heart's content without worrying about reducing the collection value of your precious offset copy.

Step 0  Gather what you need

(1) Your Tales of Argosa hardcover PoD

(2) Fabric glue: The best option here for its relatively quick drying (a few minutes), strong bonding (perfect on fabric), and elasticity (no damage on the book spine). However, super/instant glues are NOT recommended for the hard (to fold) layer on the book spine after drying. Hot glue might work, but can be tricky to apply for its very quick drying time and thick and hard to precisely control dose.

(3) Cloth ribbon: Your favourite pick. For more than one, colors in good contrast are preferred (e.g. scarlet and navy blue in my case. Gold and black also make a nice couple.) The most common width seems to be around 6mm. Can be found dirt cheap in any craft shop or on ebay.

(4) Double-sided tape: A short strip (~1 to 2 inches) is enough.

(5) A coffee stirrer: free in any cafe, or buy a bulk pack if you fancy making your own terrain models.

(6) A pair of scissors

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Step 1  Measure with the coffee stirrer
Open the hardcover book about in the middle. Insert the coffee stirrer into the slot between the outer cover and the inner spine. About 1 to 2 inches deep should be enough. Then make a mark on the coffee stirrer. 

Step 2    Prepare the ribbon strip(s)
Measure and cut a suitable length of the ribbon.
The ideal length = the length of the book + the depth of the mark on the coffee stirrer + 2 to 3 inches extra (the tail)

Step 3    Fix the ribbon(s) on the coffee stirrer
Cut and apply a strip of double sided tape on the coffee stirrer. Stick the (first) ribbon on the coffee stirrer. Pay attention to the direction (see Pic X). For each additional ribbon, apply a SMALL amount (long, 1mm thin strip) of fabric glue on the previous ribbon and press them together. Wait for the glue to dry (in my case 5 minutes).

Step 4   Install the ribbon(s) on the book spine
Apply a small amount on the surface area of the (topmost) ribbon adhered to the coffee stirrer. Spread out the book covers, and carefully slide the glued coffee stirrer inside the spine slot. Close the book and give some pressure on the spine and the ribbon for a minute or so. Then wait for the glue to dry up.

Step 5    Remove the coffee stirrer
The ribbon bookmarks should now be firmly in place. Gently pull out the coffee stirrer from the book spine. The double sided tape should remain on the coffee stirrer so no traces would be left on the ribbon(s) inside the spine. 

And voila! Have fun reading the book with the new nice bookmarks of your choice.

ToA Crawler Screen & Event Screen

These two screens are collections of content from the Tales of Argosa book and are reorganised in a handy format (1 pager). 

The "Crawler" Screen is compiled to supplement the official GM screen, in particular for hexcrawling and dungeoncrawling. Contains: All the tables and rules summary for Hexploration and Dungeon generations (1 page each), plus a summary of the summary of the rules based on the official cheat sheet.

The Event Screen combines the tables for Travel Events, Random Encounters, and Dungeon Events (with rules summary). This  may be useful if you want to have a set of event tables at hand to save page flipping, or to prevent your (drivethru) POD hardcover from falling apart too soon.

This piece of equipment may require the player's successful Perc (Eagle Eye*) check to read the fine print.

ToA Dungeon Time Tracker, Wilderness Travel Tracker

Dungeon Time Tracker is a tool to help structure dungeon crawling sessions using the classic 10-minute dungeon turn (p. 133). One page is enough for recording 4 hours (1 watch) of delving. Space is provided for recording PC actions, dungeon events, dungeon tally, and other essential information. Torch warning is indicated at the end of the hour (every 6th dungeon turn). 

Wilderness Travel Tracker is a tool to help keep track of hex crawling following the Travel Procedure (p. 134). One page is enough for recording a whole day (2 shifts, 6 watches). Space is provided for recording travel information, actions, events, etc. 

ToA Unique Feature Cards

ToA Unique Feature Cards

Another set of cards. Like the Spell Cards there are both large and small versions.

Large (6 per page), Small (12 per page)

ToA Chase Mat

This Chase Mat is designed to keep track of a chase situation in a physical form.
The sheet is ideal for using tokens or miniatures (even coins, beads, cubes, meeples, etc.) to represent the participants. Alternatively, you can simply write down the participants in the space provided.
The layout of the mat should be self-explanatory if you are already familiar with the chase rules (ToA, p. 72), or please read on.

How to use

• Place the two parties in the white space of the respective (CHASERS, QUARRY) areas.,
• Place the selected leaders of the current leg in both groups in the “Leader” boxes.,
• After the opposed Con(Athletics) check, place the leaders of both groups in the shaded “Used” panel. After everyone in the group has led a leg, move all used (NOT “Out of Chase”) characters back to the white space and continue.,
• Place any participants falling out of chase in the darker "Out of Chase" panel.,
• Update the running total of gaps in the "Gaps" boxes.,
• See the notes at the bottom of the mat for the rules summary.,
• An example of using the mat can be found here.

There are two slightly different versions. One is plainer and has a bit more white space. The other has a "Used" panel to help facilitate leader rotation.

Download here (plainer version) and here (with "used" panel). 

My new ToA journal is born today!

Another small addon today. Made a large ToA sticker and want to put it on a new dirt cheap notebook dedicated to my ToA games. I was struggling between two choices to stick it on. One is a black recycled fake leather with a more coarse surface, and the other one is blue and more rubber like plus a small pen holder on the side for my erasable black pen.

I finally decided on the blue one. 
By the way I like using those erasable pens. Darker and less effort than writing with pencils. No sharpener or a separate eraser needed.  The pen's cap is a special eraser without leaving crumbs. A 12 pen set costs 5 quid when I bought them. The notebook is 1 pound only. And I am happy.

And I just realise my notebook has a pocket built inside the back cover, and my mini character cards fit perfectly inside!!

Game on!

ToA Mini Character Sheets (bookmark & index card)

Two new sets of character sheets for Tales of Argosa in the size of bookmark and index card.

Download bookmark version here.
Download index card version here.

Giant sized Argosa hex mapboards (3' x 3')

A few weeks ago I made a big (about 3' by 3') physical mapboard version of the 6-mile hex map of Midlands using the file (4200 x 4500 PNG in 300 dpi) from the Community Content on the Pickpocket Press website. 

The image has been sharpened to bring out the hex grids more and sliced into 16 parts, then colour printed and laminated in matt pouches (the same goes for my Deck of Signs) to avoid sheen and make ink markings more durable. Finally, they are mounted on four A2 foam boards and trimmed along the edges.

You can get the (modified) map files here: full-sized, 2x2 (4 pieces), 4x4 (16 pieces suitable for A4/Letter).

ToA Card Sets (Monsters, Spells, Skills, Conditions)

Here are four sets of cards for Tales of Argosa to save the timing flipping back and forth and copying stats etc. during play. All the content comes from the ToA core rules. Thanks to Stephen Grodzicki for permission to use the material.

Monster Cards Link here

Spell Cards Link here (large) and here (small)

Skill Cards Link here

Condition Cards Link here

Wilderness Hexplore (Revised): A Gold Mine for Sandbox Gamers

Wilderness Hexplore (revised) is a collection of tables and materials based on the good old (totally UNrelated to the recent controversies) Judges Guild's series of supplements, such as the famous Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Ready Ref Sheets, and many others published in the 70s, almost half a century ago(!). The content stands the test of time and can still work smoothly with other hexcrawling gems like d30 Sandbox Companion and d30 DM Companion. This book is also a major source of inspiration for my own wilderness generator for Tales of Argosa (WIP). Do check it out!

OSR style tokens in capsule

An army of fantasy figure tokens in your hand!

I've been making tons of round (25mm) tokens using images from youseethis.blog and from Tales of Argosa and The Midlands using TokenTool.
Token is printed on 160gsm thick paper.
Numbering is handwritten (gotta find a white ink pen for dark background images).
The colour borders are made by using two round punches (22mm first, and then 25mm) on normal colour paper.
The case is some dirt cheap coin holder (search for coin holder 200pcs 25mm on amazon, just around 10 quids, have one set and may get more...).
Better tactile feel and more weight than thin paper tokens.
Waterproof, dustproof, moldproof (unlike wooden discs). No more worries about minis (no painting, no buying, no storage nightmare).
I can hold 200 of these capsules in a small box in one hand, and I can set up an encounter in a flash!

Monster Cards for Tales of Argosa

Just made a simple set of ToA Monster Cards to save time flipping the pages back and forth during encounters or copying the stats. 

Print and cut along the dotted lines, except for the few cards on the last few pages that have a dark solid line in the middle of the row (e.g. Dragon), which are meant to be folded up and glued together.

Best if laminated for dry-erase markers (in the blank space and the empty back), post-its, etc.

Download here.

Range Band Battle Mat! (revised 20250606)

Update (20250606): Enlarged (5"x6") central zone to accommodate more combatants.

Here is my custom battle mat for range band combat suitable for systems such as Tales of Argosa (Pickpocket Press) and Forbidden Lands (Free League).
The motivation of this little tool is to minimise the burden and possible confusion of verbal descriptions in combat situations measured in range bands. 
At first blush it looks darn simple. But it's more than meets the eyes. 

• Use any tokens or miniatures (25mm or smaller are ideal choices), or just beads/coins/cubes/meeples etc, to represent PCs and NPCs
• The battle mat divides the battlefield into two major areas: the central box and the outer ring.
• The central box represents what's "in focus", primarily where the PCs are and where melee combat takes place. Sorta like the centre stage in a performance.  The box can also function as the present dungeon room or things like that.
• To represent characters in melee (range) (~5 feet), just connect the tokens/bases. Ex: The warrior (white) and the doppelganger (red).
• Characters in close range (say <30 feet) but not in melee are placed somewhere within the box relative to the PCs. Ex: The corpse (blue) is in close range of the warrior (white).
• Characters placed in the outer ring are in far range (say 30~60 feet). The four sectors (front, back, left, right) indicate relative positions from the PC. Ex: The skeleton (yellow) and the troll (grey) are about 40 and 60 feet away from, and at the front of, the warrior (white) respectively.
• Characters placed outside the mat are considered to be very far away (60+ feet) from the PC. Ex: The feathered maw (green) is very far (60+ feet) away from the warrior (white), and the eye terror (sepia) is very, very far away.

There are some other uses of this mat, such as representing cardinal and ordinal bearing and clock positioning:

 

Not just that...

Once laminated, the battle mat is (dry/wet erase) marker-friendly. Place terrain models (trees, rocks, chests, etc.). Stick terrain markers with static clings (like those from Loke Battle Mats). And how about setting up a room/scene with index cards (like in ICRPG)? 

Someone points out in a discord discussion that my diagram looks similar to Prof Dungeoncraft's "Ultimate Dungeon Terrain" (UDT). Frankly, I was making this without ever thinking of his lazy susan build at all. What I had in mind was only "What should I do to best represent a range-band combat situation on a piece of paper?"

Instead of being a diorama design to showcase cool miniatures, my battle mat is made for using anything (even coins, beads, cubes, etc., or simply draw your stickman or smilies). It is practically a visualised (tactical) theatre of the mind. Unlike UDT, my mat emphasizes directions and (relative) positions as things are projected from the perspective of the PC(s). I don't even need to set up any room like in UDT. If that wall no longer matters, simply remove the drawing/sticker/block immediately. Is it necessary to use a larger token/figure for the Dragon? It doesn't really matter (that much). Moreover, my mat costs almost nothing, except for a pen(cil) and a piece of paper, and requires ZERO crafting. And personally using square/block shapes feel more intuitive than circles in a radar-like pattern (I'm not playing final fantasy anyways).

Interested? Grab it here (old), or here (revised)!