Dming with a computer

[Goblyns Hoard]

The most useful thing I have is an Excel spreadsheet with the party in it and with all sorts of cross-references in it. So I can boost a strength value for one PC and the damage will change, or boost dex and AC changes. It's quite complicated in places and unfortunately not very easy to transfer to another party - adding in additional players would be a real pain (and something I may have to do soon as well). And there's no documentation about what changes things where - it's all in my head unfortunately.

The main reason I have it is that my players aren't really up on the rules for 3.5 - we're very character focussed and not really focussed on the rules. So I'm kind of holding it together for the group (though some of them are getting there). So it's very useful for me to know that I can make one change somewhere and have it taken into account in other things.

I've also added in a 'hidden player rolls' thing - at the beginning of each session each player gives me 10-15 d20 rolls, and then I use those for any checks which the player shouldn't know how well they did - spot, listen, appraise that sort of thing. Gives the player responsibility for the roll without giving away who rolled the 1 and who rolled the 20. When I need this roll I select a skill from a pick list and it tells me how well everyone did - using their individual skill bonuses. It's things like that - which can save time which I find incredibly useful in a computer.

I haven't tried DMgenie - but I do have E-Tools, and once when I had to pull together a 'hireling' for the party the players took a quick cigarette/toilet break and five minutes later I had a stat-block for someone that had only become important quarter of an hour ago. Not something I'd want to do for an important NPC, but when it's a simple roll that needs filling (in this case a dwarven tunnel-guide) and you don't need to make a lot of tough decisions on feats and skill choices you can throw out a complete character in 5 minutes even if you're crap at math like me.

 

[schporto]

I'll add one more bit to those 'go slow' comments - practice. While this sounds a little odd, I'm serious. Get the program (whatever you decide to use) and run several mock combats with it first. Make something 'wrong' happen, and figure out how to handle it. As for tools, I like using a few.
PCGen - I use this for making up stat blocks, and generating all the bad guys.
RP Tools - Right now I'm only using their map tool. But the initiative tool looks pretty good too.
Other then that, pdfs, word docs, online srds (or offline versions) etc.
One approach is to look at what the computer could do for you. I found organizing initiative was quite cumbersome for my group (7 players, and a couple monsters takes a bit to organize), so I asked the players - they said yeah I could roll for them. Save a bunch of useless time. I am lucky to have the computer by the TV so can display a dm's map on map screen, while a players map is slowly revealed on the tv. Eliminates mapping from the players need to do so, which nobody really wanted to do.
Good luck with it though.
-cpd

 

[Scribble]

I use one when I DM all the time. A laptop and it's great!

I use THIS SRD in Firefox, and think the tabs are an excellent feature.

I make sure to open the onscreen DM's screen, a tab for monsters, a tab for skills, feats, and spells.

I also open some of the pdf books I regularily use in their own tabs.

Pretty much just makes checking rules and such quick and easier then lugging books around.

I don't bother with the tracking programs and stuff...

 

[ken-ichi]

Agree with the comments to go slow. I went from doing everything on paper by hand to trying out DMGenie to running my campaign solely using DMGenie.
I am a pretty computer literate person, but did find the learning curve to be fairly high. For about 2 weeks I did nothing but play around with the program. I input the characters and ran through some mock combats by myself to gain proficiency with the program. I worked on creating and modifying creatures to better understand that part. All before I ever tried to use it in a game.
One thing to note is that using a computer program is not a replacement for knowing the rules well. In fact sometimes you need to know the rules better than average when you start using a program so that you can recognize when something is wrong.

On the positive side I used DMGenie very successfully to run an entire campaign. I input the monster groups and treasure into the program and updated any changes to the characters like leveling before the game session. I then was able to keep track of spell durations and who had what items. My players were more focused on the role playing and interaction parts and did not want to focus as much on tracking durations and such so it worked out well for me I let the program track all of those things which let me focus on giving the players my attention.

I liked DMGenie so much I learned how to do scripting for it and have input all of the things from the Eberron books that I have. I now have the ability to let the program track nearly everything for me.
Now I just need to get my laptop working again.

 

[Halivar]

It was easier and more natural for me to use the computer as my only DM resource, because I'd already switched to paperless gaming in campaigns I play in. After I got to the point that all I needed was OpenOffice, PCGen, and an on-line SRD, I stopped bringing my books. If I'm using a prestige class, spell, or feat from a companion book, I add it to the PCGen custom list files. After I got proficient with this, I went ahead and switched my DM'ing to this method. I keep a web-browser open with bookmarks to several different NPC and tresure generators in case players leave the beaten path. I also keep the basic plot outline and NPC stat-blocks in an OpenOffice file.

When I first switched to using a laptop as a player, I got wierd looks. It's somewhat gratifiying that, after two months, one of my entire gaming groups has made the switch, too (sans DM). Now, hopefully the character sheets won't start piling up on our gaming room floor.

 

[Mercule]

Another programmer here, telling you to go slow. It's really, really, really easy to get so many tools that you spend more time playing with your computer than you spend playing with your players.

Here's what I use:

I prep my adventures using Word and PCGen (and, occasionally, CC3). Those are notes that are handy and on the laptop.

I use PCGen to handle combat initiative and NPC hit points. For one game, I have a copy of all the PCs, so things run really smoothly. For the other, I think they are going to be giving me a copy tonight, but I've been just manually entering in their names, init, and hp each session.

I use Excel to track "unknown" items. The spreadsheet has grown in complexity over time, but the simplest form was to use the row number as the item number given to players. They new "wand #43", but I had a note that it was a wand of magic missle with 12 charges left. Now, I track descriptions (potion color, sword designs, etc.), where the item currently is (in the care of Alaster, sold to the garrison, etc.), what the GPV is (I often prefill the list with treasure I expect the PCs to find, which sometimes gives them a clue they should search more if the numbers aren't sequential), and the room/NPC/etc. where the item was originally found.

I occasionally use http://d20srd.org, but we use so many expansion books that it's almost more frustrating to see only half the rules.

 

[Aus_Snow]

It's really, really, really easy to get so many tools that you spend more time playing with your computer than you spend playing with your players.

Um, yeah. That's just about how things went when I tried to 'go digital' in the worst way, a while ago. Now, in Windows, I just use Word, Acrobat, occasionally Excel, a couple of tiny little freebie apps downloaded recently. . . and that's about it. Oh, and the Campaign Planners (but that's Acrobat I guess).

Actually, I also use an *offline* html SRD. That's the most useful access method + format for me.

 

[Job]

I'd like to echo the comments from Ken-ichi regarding the use of DM Genie, or any computer tool for that matter.

Agree with the comments to go slow. I went from doing everything on paper by hand to trying out DMGenie to running my campaign solely using DMGenie.
I am a pretty computer literate person, but did find the learning curve to be fairly high. For about 2 weeks I did nothing but play around with the program. I input the characters and ran through some mock combats by myself to gain proficiency with the program. I worked on creating and modifying creatures to better understand that part. All before I ever tried to use it in a game.

DM Genie presents a very busy user interface and a lot of flexibility, so it does take a fair amount of practice to learn, but once you've climbed the learning curve, DM Genie proves itself to be a very useful tool for managing one's game. As with Ken-ichi, prior to ever using it in-game, I took my time learning it, entering PC's and monsters, and running mock combats. I also only used one or two features at the start, primarily for tracking PC stats and looking up monsters and spells, and then later moved on to using it to manage combat.

On the positive side I used DMGenie very successfully to run an entire campaign. I input the monster groups and treasure into the program and updated any changes to the characters like leveling before the game session. I then was able to keep track of spell durations and who had what items. My players were more focused on the role playing and interaction parts and did not want to focus as much on tracking durations and such so it worked out well for me I let the program track all of those things which let me focus on giving the players my attention.

I've now been using DM Genie to run my campaign for over a year with excellent results. I constantly cross-check it's calculations with my players to ensure accuracy and, much much more often than not, DM Genie has it right. If I do find an error, it's almost always because I've set something up incorrectly. I trained my players to always tell me the actual diceroll amount, without bonuses, to enter (so that DM Genie calculates the total with bonuses), but I also occasionally ask them what they calculate the final roll to be so that I can crosscheck the results for accuracy.

The problem mentioned about having a PC wear multiple sets of armor for an incorrectly high AC was long ago fixed and now, even if the DM mistakenly sets the PC as wearing multiple sets of armor, the system does not allow the AC's to stack.

Job.

 

[3catcircus]

(SNIP)

I liked DMGenie so much I learned how to do scripting for it and have input all of the things from the Eberron books that I have. I now have the ability to let the program track nearly everything for me.
Now I just need to get my laptop working again.

Is there a good solid reference for the scripting? I bought DMGenie and I'd like to see all the different variables and built-in functions and try to adapt them for custom stuff from the non-SRD books. Currently, I've tried using the Cleric Domains as a template to create the Ardent Mantles from Complete Psionic since they are similar in function (i.e. choose a domain, and gain spells at each level associated with that domain is similar to choose a mantle and pick powers at each level associated with that mantle), but ended up having to reference each power associated with each mantle as an "Ardent" power: i.e. instead of listing it as "Freedom 2" I have to list it as "Ard 2" in order to get the powers to come up as available to the Ardent. Even then, I still can't "learn" them. The errors resulting seem to indicate that "ArdentMantles" isn't valid ("ClericDomains" is.)

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The problem mentioned about having a PC wear multiple sets of armor for an incorrectly high AC was long ago fixed and now, even if the DM mistakenly sets the PC as wearing multiple sets of armor, the system does not allow the AC's to stack.

Job.

Yeah, it was kind of a nightmare scenario and of course not entirely the program's fault.

It was an NPC (well, a bunch of them), and he didn't give them multiple sets of armor, he just gave them an untyped AC bonus because he didn't know where their armor went to.

Mind you, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the vanishing armor glitch vanished but the error was a bit more involved.