DM System

[Khaalis]

Hello All. I am looking at setting up a laptop as a DM resource center. It will contian lots of gaming materials such as adventure's, npc stat sheets, maps, etc. However,m I also want an easy way to track combat, xp, etc. I have done some research in the downloads section and there are just far too many entries to make heads or tails out of it all.

Since I know there are others who DM this way, what software/electronic aids do you recommend for this style of gaming?

Thanks!

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

If you're cheap PCGen can do some of that, though they don't have any of the WoTC sources anymore since the plug got pulled on their license but if you have time you can code that in yourself. DM Genie is probably better if you're willing to shell out for it. If you need an online gametable there are several free and pay programs for that OpenRPG is a good one. There are plenty of dice-rollers if you need one, I prefer the one in the Hypertext SRD. Just go to the dice roller page and save it the javascript that makes it work will come over in the associated file folder.

 

[Khaalis]

Thanks for the info. I'll be doing table top sessions, but I want to use the Laptop as a game control center rather than a dozen pads and 14 stacks of resources to dig through. I know I could throw together some spreadsheets for combat tracking, but I am sure it would recreating the wheel. As for DM Genie, have you seen this in action? I'll have to check it out to see exactly what it can/can't do. Thanks again.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Don't use DMGenie myself but there are literally dozens of people on this board that swear by it and it has a very good reputation.

Online Tabletops:
OpenRPG freeware
Cochinella Jabber Client (Its an online open-chat program) freeware
Gametable freeware
RPGui freeware

Character Generators
PCGen freeware current stable version is 5.10.1 (can be used to run games in GMGen tools)
DMGenie pay does same things as PCGen but better with many more resources available
Link to DMGenies site http://www.dmgenie.com/features.shtml
E-Tools pay don't know status is kind of old as a program

Other Miscellanious Tools
Cube's CR Based Treasure Roller freeware
Fractal World v4.0 freeware mapping
Wilbur freeware mapping
TiddlyWiki a simple Wikipedia that rests in a single HTML file, doesn't requires servers or programming to run god for keeping notes and such in


There are probably a lot more out there but those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head I have most of them and use several.

 

[LcKedovan]

Hey Khaalis,

I am in a similar position to you right now and have been evaluating different things to set up my "DM notebook toolbox" I just downloaded DMFamiliar last night. So far I am impressed with its simplicity, which for me is key. DMFTodd is often posting in here so I expect to see him comment on your post as well. Since it is a 30 day trial give it a try and see how it fits. The thing I like about it is that it does a fery specific job rather than trying to do too much at once. combat tracker, book resource, and campaign notes.

-W.

 

[kingpaul]

If you're cheap PCGen can do some of that, though they don't have any of the WoTC sources anymore since the plug got pulled on their license

Just to clarify, PCGen didn't have a license, CMP did.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Thanks tend to get the two of them mixed up.

 

[DMFTodd]

If you're looking for combat management, and I think that's the most productive thing a DM laptop can do for you, you have a couple choices: DM's Familiar (mine), DMGenie, the GMGen portion of PCGen (your only free choice), and Roleplaying Master. I'd take a look at each and see which one makes the most sense to you.

After combat management, having the rules at your fingertips helps a lot. The programs above do that to one degree or another. (I've never looked at GMGen, so I don't really know if it does or not).

Then comes ogranizing all of your campaign notes, world notes, pc notes, adventure notes, etc. - lots of standalone programs out there that do that but the programs above all help in that regard as well.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Yet another plug for DM Genie. It's extremely solid at both character generation and combat management. (I don't personally use it much for campaign/adventure design, but it does that too.)

In fairness, no matter which program you pick up, you're going to have to spend some time learning the interface and mastering it. At first, you'll be fighting the program and wondering why you spent money on it. As you gain familiarity with the program, you'll find it faster and easier.

 

[Redrobes]

Then comes ogranizing all of your campaign notes, world notes, pc notes, adventure notes, etc.

This is the area where ViewingDale can be at its most useful. If you have a lot of maps, whether your own hand drawn ones or from various other printed sources and you can get them into an image format on a laptop, then you can fit them all together into one large seamless expanse and use a zoom browser to navigate. You can attach notes, pics and any other file to the map at the location and scale to which it refers. In this way your campaign is indexed using the map and not via a heap of cross referenced documents. You can then mark up your maps as you campaign so that when characters return to an area it has that information from when you were last there. You can put your character icons on that map too of course.

There are no rules built into it, you will still need a character stat manager / initiative tracker / combat manager etc for the mechanics of the game.