Software, Computers, Video Games and D&D UtilitiesGeneral discussion on computer software and hardware, PC and console games, and RPG utilities such as eTools, PC GEN, etc.
Once you get used to the idea of Wiki words, as opposed to tables of contents and tree views, it feels a bit liberating and becomes easy to use and reference with.
I feel I'd be remiss in not pointing out our Campaign Suite program. Of course it has tree-down dungeons, adventures, encounter tables - and everything has fully customizable editors (for the non technically inclined). The second version of the software is coming out this week, which brings complete XML functionality to the program - furthering the customizability of both input and output.
It would be really nifty if those of you who have organized your campaign(s) using various programs could put up some screen shots of various pages/trees/configurations/templates/etc. that you use... ...Anyone willing to share?
Happy to oblige. Here are some of my latest experiments in laptop-assisted game management. The screenshots below show DM Genie. The symbols on the map are hyperlinks to other tabs.
I also have RPM but I'm waiting for its author to resolve a few issues to do with calibrating maps so RPM can calculate distances. I've been keeping an eye on GM Gen, too. It seems to be getting there.
OneNotes: showing screen and tabs the other is the document published as a web page. But OneNote cost and I think some of the other programs handle things better but it is not bad.
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Happy to oblige. Here are some of my latest experiments in laptop-assisted game management. The screenshots below show DM Genie. The symbols on the map are hyperlinks to other tabs.
Hey, Mad God's Key, fun mod.
Anyhoo, it looks like a breeze to use during play from the screenshot, but...that looks like a lot of info to enter, especially for a published mod, which looks a heck of a lot easier to prep the old-fashoined way.
How was the info entered? Scanned? Typed? Typing it all in and hyperlinking it all sounds like it'd take longer than to actually play. Looks like DM Genie would be better to use in a my homebrew game, where I create most of the stuff already, than in my GH game, where the party is just starting RttToEE. I can't imagine putting that entire book into that program, my spare time is precious.
Ah yes. I have to say that were it not for a very good scanner with optical character recognition, I would not have entered so much info. Even with said scanner and OCR software, I should also mention that a twenty-four year career as a writer and editor helps to speed things along. I corrected all the typos in the original module, cleaned up some of the scruffier sentences, changed the names of the gods to fit my homebrew and re-set the text for clarity. I added a lot more NPCs and random encounters in the city (which is the PCs' base in my campaign). All of which took twice as much time as I would normally spend on preparation. However, a lot of the extra work I did will be reusable for much of the new campaign. I hope.
Preparing the follow-up adventure took much less time. I'm now spending as long on preparation as I used to, before I used software assistance (ie about eight hours) but I'm getting a lot more done in that time.
Posting a link to what the final "Campaign Export" looks like within Campaign Suite Extended - this includes a 10 room dungeon and 5 overland encounters.
You should note that these aren't blocks of text formatted together, but all the numbers and variables - from the statblocks for characters and creatures to the treasures - all have their own editors and generators.
Notes are all 'tree-able', and you can select if a note is open content, boxed text, shaded, etc (without any messy code editting.. just a check box for each).
A question for barsoomcore. How does a program go "kablooie" or become "hosed" and thus become beyond repair?
(SNIP -- lots of stuff about following proper backup procedures)
Obviously, if I followed proper backup procedures, my life would be much less interesting. Backups are for wimps!
soulcatcher: On my list of Things To Do When I Have Nothing Else To Do is "Spend a couple of days going through PCGen with a comb and sending a beautifully detailed bug list to the developers" -- I'll move "Doing the same with GMGen" up a notch on that list. I've been in software QA for many years and I know how valuable a good bug report can be.
Honestly, I'll get around to it someday. Some other day. For now, XCode is serving my needs.
Like I'd let somebody without a Mac into my gaming group...
But honestly, I keep a pretty clear separation between my notes and what I let my players see anyway, so being able to let them view it is not very important to me.
I have a tablet and am wanting to use it at the gaming table. what programs do you usually use? what would be your "ultimate gamer's tablet"
Sean
Hey calimedic911 Sorry! I had no idea this thread was still going on!
I find myself using Microsoft's Onenote 2003 more and more. You can paste all kinds of crap in there plus you can go back and forth from pen to typing, turn you pen marks into tex etc. I can actually hand draw maps, jot down notes etc. The possibilities are limitless really.
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Thanks HoE!
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