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<blockquote data-quote="Tav_Behemoth" data-source="post: 1959445" data-attributes="member: 18017">I used to use a laptop much more than I do now, using Excel to handle initiative, perform calculations in combat, etc. The experience of being a tournament DM at GenCons this year drove me to a more seat-of-the-pants approach; now there are still situations in which I might work up an Excel file, but a lot of times I'll just have a list of hit points, armor classes, and attack bonuses and run from there.The one thing I still depend heavily on a laptop for is rules references. I like the hyperlinked SRD developed by stephenh, refined by TheRaven, and expanded as the SwoRD <a href="http://www.behemoth3.sword" target="_blank">here</a>. I prefer it to the Sovelior/Sage because it's faster to cross-reference: in each monster entry, clicking on the name of its spell-like ability takes you right to the description of that spell, and links there can take you to other related topics. Using this, I can settle rules questions faster than three different players all looking it up in their PHBs at once!For the Masters and Minions books, we built hyperlinks to the SwoRD into the PDF, so that as you read you can follow links to the rules referenced by the text. When I'm putting together an adventure at home, I'll often do something similar with Word, cutting and pasting from the SwoRD web page to make a hyperlinked document - this is especially useful for an encounter with a spellcaster with lots of spells that might be used.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tav_Behemoth, post: 1959445, member: 18017"] I used to use a laptop much more than I do now, using Excel to handle initiative, perform calculations in combat, etc. The experience of being a tournament DM at GenCons this year drove me to a more seat-of-the-pants approach; now there are still situations in which I might work up an Excel file, but a lot of times I'll just have a list of hit points, armor classes, and attack bonuses and run from there. The one thing I still depend heavily on a laptop for is rules references. I like the hyperlinked SRD developed by stephenh, refined by TheRaven, and expanded as the SwoRD [url=http://www.behemoth3.sword]here[/url]. I prefer it to the Sovelior/Sage because it's faster to cross-reference: in each monster entry, clicking on the name of its spell-like ability takes you right to the description of that spell, and links there can take you to other related topics. Using this, I can settle rules questions faster than three different players all looking it up in their PHBs at once! For the Masters and Minions books, we built hyperlinks to the SwoRD into the PDF, so that as you read you can follow links to the rules referenced by the text. When I'm putting together an adventure at home, I'll often do something similar with Word, cutting and pasting from the SwoRD web page to make a hyperlinked document - this is especially useful for an encounter with a spellcaster with lots of spells that might be used. [/QUOTE]

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