Which is Best

[EdwardForrester]

Greetings to all,
I am looking for an all around program to keep track of the various 3.0 games I will have running soon. I will be running Swashbuckling Adventures from AEG and X Crawl from Pandahead Productions as well as keeping track of my 3.0 character sheets from other games I am in. Also I will be getting 3.5 for christmas so I will need something that will be able to do 3.0 and 3.5 stuff. I am wanting to know before I slap down my hard earn money which should I invest in. I will be looking for the following.

1. Easy to understand interface.
2. Good tech support
3. Various DnD Based Game Management (X Crawl, Swashbuckling Adventures,)
4. Ability to still manage 3.0 and 3.5 seperately.
5. D20 Modern management as well (I post this seperately because Modern is seperate from DnD)
6. Maps would be really nice as well.

That is all for now and thanks in advance for your time.

 

[ladyofdragons]

Keep track of what? in-game play? character management? Campaign information?

All of the programs I've seen for D20 have a limited time demo. I highly recommend downloading Campaign Suite, DM Genie, GMGen, RolePlayingMaster, and a couple other programs and testing them out to see which one can do most of what you'd like, in a manner you prefer. I haven't heard of any programs that do D20 modern yet, but I don't play it.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Keep track of what? in-game play? character management? Campaign information?

All of the programs I've seen for D20 have a limited time demo. I highly recommend downloading Campaign Suite, DM Genie, GMGen, RolePlayingMaster, and a couple other programs and testing them out to see which one can do most of what you'd like, in a manner you prefer. I haven't heard of any programs that do D20 modern yet, but I don't play it.

RolePlayingMaster has d20 Modern support, IIRC....my favorites of those are definatly RPM and DM Genie.

 

[DMFTodd]

Hard to answer until we know what you are looking for: A program for generating characters/NPCs? A program to use while gaming for managing combat? A program for tracking campaign notes, adventure notes, and everything else? A program for making maps? Online rules reference? etc.

Many of the programs out there do a variety of these things and many of them have free demos.

If you have a computer at the gaming table, then a program that does combat management is very helpful. Possibilities include: DM's Familiar, Roleplaying Master, DMGenie.

If you're not going to have a computer at the gaming table, then I find that NPC generation and monster advancement software to be the most useful. Possibilities include E:Tools, PCGen, Campaign Suite, DMGenie, Roleplaying Master. I think you'll find most of those to be lacking in the additional material you want. I find Campaign Suite to be the easiest one to add information to which is what you'll end up having to do.

 

[DMFTodd]

Hard to answer until we know what you are looking for: A program for generating characters/NPCs? A program to use while gaming for managing combat? A program for tracking campaign notes, adventure notes, and everything else? A program for making maps? Online rules reference? etc.

Many of the programs out there do a variety of these things and many of them have free demos.

If you have a computer at the gaming table, then a program that does combat management is very helpful. Possibilities include: DM's Familiar, Roleplaying Master, DMGenie.

If you're not going to have a computer at the gaming table, then I find that NPC generation and monster advancement software to be the most useful. Possibilities include E:Tools, PCGen, Campaign Suite, DMGenie, Roleplaying Master. I think you'll find most of those to be lacking in the additional material you want. I find Campaign Suite to be the easiest one to add information to which is what you'll end up having to do.

 

[EdwardForrester]

Apologies and Explantion

First off I apologize for the delay in response, life happens. But thanks for looking at my post.
Second, I will not have my computer with me when I game but I want to be able to do the following before and after the game.
1. Create and manage character sheets
2. Have minor encounters ready with creatures and treasure
3. Have the main quest ready with notes prepared.
4. Keep up with loot aquired by party
5. Maps ready for current locals (if possibile)
6. Stat generator for NPCs and villians
7. Lots of random generators for random this would be a plus

I think that is it, now I know a lot is just random DM stuff but it is what I want. I would like to be able to run an entire game from my pc and be able again to run all the various systems (X Crawl, Swashbuckling Adventures and 3.0 and 3.5) that I own or will own. If you all could point me in the right direction I would be greatful. And if you know straight up with is the best out there please tell me.

Thanks for your time

 

[EdwardForrester]

After looking at all of them I guess I have a few new things to ask. First off I remember a while back I had found a software program that you had various datafiles you could up load and everything was on click and drop menus and I can not remember the name. You would load on the list of books you wanted in your campaign and then you create what you wanted. Any thoughts let me know, the title screen was a guy in armor holding a torch.
Now seeing as how everything except R.P.M. uses Game Specific datafiles (and then only a few) I now ask this question. Which software is the easiest to import data into. DMFTodd said that would be Campaign Suite but I am curious as to other responses. What I will probably end up doing is getting which ever software then creating a game specififc data file download for the games I play.
Thanks for all your help.

 

[Max]

After looking at all of them I guess I have a few new things to ask. First off I remember a while back I had found a software program that you had various datafiles you could up load and everything was on click and drop menus and I can not remember the name. You would load on the list of books you wanted in your campaign and then you create what you wanted.

That sounds like PCGen. http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/

Any thoughts let me know, the title screen was a guy in armor holding a torch.

I believe Role Playing Master has a this graphic when you load the program.

Now seeing as how everything except R.P.M. uses Game Specific datafiles (and then only a few) I now ask this question. Which software is the easiest to import data into. DMFTodd said that would be Campaign Suite but I am curious as to other responses. What I will probably end up doing is getting which ever software then creating a game specififc data file download for the games I play.
Thanks for all your help.

Import from where? Or do you mean enter yourself?

IMO, Campaign Suite is the easiest to enter your own data into. They are currently in beta for CSX, which uses XML for the data. Custom character sheets are supposed to be easier under CSX, which would be great. http://twinrose.net/csxbeta.php

DM's Familiar (aka DMFTodd) is going to be able to share data with CSX, I believe. I am currently entering data for Sidewinder: Recoiled (a western game using d20 Modern http://www.doghouserules.net/ ). It has been very easy to enter in new feats, occupations, etc. As with anything, you need to learn some of the syntax used however it is quite easy to pick up.

CS does not do in game combat management, which isn't a priority for me since I play by email primarily. DMF does, and they work together. CS also works with Campaign Cartographer, which is the premier gaming mapping program (and priced accordingly http://www.profantasy.com/ ) if you want to map out your games.

Max

 

[DMFTodd]

DM's Familiar (aka DMFTodd) is going to be able to share data with CSX, I believe.

Not really. DM's Familiar can import a stat block. So you can use many of the character generator software to make a character and then easily get it into DM's Familiar.

My plan is to export the information in DM's Familiar into the Campaign Suite XML format. So any utility that made use of that information (printing for example) would work with DMF and with CS.

>> 1. Create and manage character sheets

You want PC/NPC generator software then. As noted, E:Tools, PCGen, RPM, DM Genie. IMHO, Campaign Suite is the easiest for adding classes, races, etc.

>> 2. Have minor encounters ready with creatures and treasure

Don't know what "ready" means or what you want it to do.

>> 3. Have the main quest ready with notes prepared.

Microsoft Word.

>>> 4. Keep up with loot aquired by party

Word.

>> 5. Maps ready for current locals (if possibile)

Campaign Cartography is the most advanced and powerful mapping software. It's also complicated and way expensive. Fractal Mapper, AutoRealm are others mentioned. Don't use any of them myself.

>> 6. Stat generator for NPCs and villians

PC/NPC software does that for you.

>> 7. Lots of random generators for random this would be a plus

E:Tools has a basic random tables thiing built in but by far the best random table generator is Tablesmith from MythosAkira.

 

[EdwardForrester]

If anyone has ever used the AD&D CD-Rom Core Rules 2.0 for 2nd ed I am looking for something that is that good for 3rd ed. Thanks though I at least know where to start.