How best to use the tools at my disposal?

[Zobmie]

Howdy, folks.

I'll be taking my first turn as DM soon when I run some friends through “Curse of Strahd”, and I'd like some input on how best to use the tools I have at my disposal.

So here's what I have and my initial ideas of how I'd use them:

• Laptop: I envision using this to run encounters and basically keep track of everything. I have no idea what software to use though. Fantasy Grounds? Roll20? Excel? Something I've never heard of? I'd love to hear what you all use.

• Ipad: I was thinking of using this to pass around game art (rather than hold up books).

• TV & SoundSystem: I'll have the TV in my living room connected to the laptop and I was envisioning myself running something like TabletopAudio for ambient sound and background music. Perhaps also using the TV as an extended screen for the laptop to share other information with the players.

So that's what I've got and how I'm planning to use it. I'd love to hear other ideas about how best to use the tools I have at my disposal.

Cheers!

 

[innerdude]

If you have a TV connected to the laptop, I highly, highly suggest checking out Tabletop Simulator on Steam.

I've tried using Roll20 and Maptools in the past, and just always found it clunky, hard to use, and just not intuitive enough to really be usable in a "live" session.

Once I got the hang of Tabletop Simulator --- ESPECIALLY the ability to do instant copy/paste of image URLs onto a "game board" and turn them into instant combat encounter maps --- my love of the program soared.

I doubt very much that I'll ever use a hand-drawn Chessex / Crystal Caste battle map ever again. There are a few pros and cons speed wise, and a very minor sacrifice in flexibility, but once you set up a basic "table" to play on, with all of the minis and tokens pre-set, and the "game boards" ready to swap map images in and out, it really adds a fun sense of atmosphere that a hand-drawn battle mat can't.

If you ever decide to play remotely, it also is super easy to set up to have people remotely join on other computers running Steam.

 

[Psikerlord#]

If you're using a computer I find bookmarking some good random generator sites (like random NPC names, or a token making site if you're going to use roll20 or whatever) a god send for when the players interrogate a random passerby, or wander off on a side trek.