5 Uses for Pogs at the Gaming Table

I was recently forced to clean out my closet back home (thanks, mom) and came across several cool items that had slipped out of memory and time: a wind-up Pac-Man with a ghost in its mouth, a working Donkey Kong Jr. tabletop mini arcade machine (sweet!), and a set of pogs complete with two slammers and a shredder.

I immediately figured several uses for pogs at the gaming table.

Mini-Markers

Is your critter flying, immobilized, or taking ongoing damage? Need to remember which shadow hound is marked even after it ports away and then back? Stick a pog under his base and you’ll realize at a glance that something is up.

Yar, I'm unattractive.

Pocket Points

For years in our games we’ve encouraged good roleplaying, heroic acts, and hilarious jokes with pocket points—by-session finite tokens awarded by players, to players. Each token is worth XP or is cashable as a +1 to a roll of the player’s choice, and they aren’t likely to forget they have them if you hand them a pog with a cool picture on it.

Money and Props

At the height of pog popularity they were banned from many schools since playing for keeps was too much like gambling (start ‘em early, I always say). Take a cue from those little miscreants and use the pogs as prop coins in a treasure hoard or as currency in a gambling skill challenge (a hand of poker or blackjack is quick and easy to set up).

That slammer could easily pass for currency from a far-off land.

Mini-Extenders

Got the perfect mini(s) for your upcoming battle, but they’re the wrong size? Toss a pog or a slammer underneath to beef up its base and keep the general visualization strong for your players (it looks just like this, except bigger, hence the large base). The average pog can pass for a large-sized base, with some slammers fitting large-sized just-so.

As the Miniatures Themselves

I haven’t applied scissors and glue to make 2D “miniatures” since the day the D&D Miniatures game was released and all those little plastic beauties became within easy reach. However, pogs often have interesting critters painted onto them, some of which may work for impromptu miniatures. Being flat you’ll be able to put it anywhere without losing line-of-sight to the rest of the action on the table, and when the critter dies you don’t even have to bother removing it from the table.

If you’re cleaning out the old toybox and come across some pogs, don’t toss them; bring them to your next session and put them to use.

What About You?

What do you use to mark minis at the table? Any organizational tips for disorganized DMs? Know how to make the old plastic window on top of a miniature arcade machine clean, clear, and white again? Let us know with a comment!

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