I'd say have a go at them all, see what you like, what works best and by all means create your own little routine off the backend of them, as for tools no you don't need them, you be surprised how much tension your hands can take and I use to like te fact I can easily stop anytime if someone came or hide the fact that I'm doing it more with my hands.
Don't get me wrong things like the length aster and maybe
hanging will take you to the next level of tension over hands but you can make that call when need.