Laptop DM - What do I need?

[DMFTodd]

Are there any DM aid programs that run on Linux? Or on a Mac?

CrystalBall is the only one for the Mac I know of. Not sure what it does.

PCGen, a character generator, is Java so it runs on anything.

 

[Slipshod]

How is it treating you?

NEway, let's see how this baby handles.

How has it been treating you? I can't get it to stay running for any length of time before it stops responding to mouse input. It's bad enough that in the 3 days I've had it I haven't been able to successfully input my gaming group's 6 second-level characters yet. So far I've only gotten the 3 in, and that's been a royal pain in the ass.

I'm seriously thinking about heading back to DM Genie, it might not have all the wiz-bang features; but at least it works. At this point if I tried to run a game using RPM the group would string me up.

 

[noretoc]

How has it been treating you? I can't get it to stay running for any length of time before it stops responding to mouse input. It's bad enough that in the 3 days I've had it I haven't been able to successfully input my gaming group's 6 second-level characters yet. So far I've only gotten the 3 in, and that's been a royal pain in the ass.

I'm seriously thinking about heading back to DM Genie, it might not have all the wiz-bang features; but at least it works. At this point if I tried to run a game using RPM the group would string me up.

Your doing better than me. I installed and it woudn't run Got an error. Luke says that happens when you update over an old one. to read the notes on his website. Well, funny thing was I didn't update, but downloaded the full version on a fresh machine. Then I searched his website for these "notes" and couldn't find anything. Infact the website is very confusing. Then he emailed me back to say basically he didn;t know what was wrong (Sorry, I thoguht you wrote the thing and might have an idea how it worked) and asked me if I was sure I downloaded the right thing. Well, i replied that I can tell the difference between an update and a full version and he hasn't gotten back to me. Back to DM genie for me, and I recommend everyone to stay away from RPM. Not only does it have a ton of problems, but apparently the guy who wrote it dosen't know how it works.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[Luke]

Luke says that happens when you update over an old one. to read the notes on his website. Well, funny thing was I didn't update, but downloaded the full version on a fresh machine. Then I searched his website for these "notes" and couldn't find anything. Infact the website is very confusing. Then he emailed me back to say basically he didn;t know what was wrong (Sorry, I thoguht you wrote the thing and might have an idea how it worked) and asked me if I was sure I downloaded the right thing. Well, i replied that I can tell the difference between an update and a full version and he hasn't gotten back to me.
...
apparently the guy who wrote it dosen't know how it works.

Sorry for the rant.

I know exactly how it works, and I haven't made any further replies to your last e-mail, because I'm currently unable to make any further suggestions, based on what you've told me.

The notes that you can't find are within 5 lines of where you downloaded the full install, and on the same line as where one gets the "update only".
They read:

[Update Download] : (click to download).This is a much smaller download. Use only if you already have v4.2.0 or greater installed.

Your reported error is one where you have a problem starting up, and the message is that a function in a DLL (which I create) cannot be found.

Technically, I can tell you that I create that DLL, and I use the DLL. Hence the only way to get a mismatch as you reported is to apply an "update only" which gets the latest executable, but ends up trying to use a very different, old version of the troublesome DLL.

Hence, my pointing you to the notes above. I realize that you claimed to have done the full install, and never applied the update smaller update. For that reason, I double and triple checked that nothing "old" had somehow crept into the full install. I tested by downloadeding the full install, from the website, onto different computers that had never had RPM installed before. It all worked.

Not only that, but it seems to have worked for very many hundreds of people who have recently downloaded. Yes there were a handful that reported a similar problem, and it seems that all of them, hadn't noticed the instruction at the download area, regarding versions older than v4.2.0. To my knowledge, everyone, except for you, has fixed the problem by following the instructions for a full download.

Given your difficulty in finding notes exactly at the place that you made the download, and that you've reorted an error that seems impossible given your claims about not applying an update, I'm currently stuck as to how to progress this issue. Seems like its just you. I don't wish to denigrate you (as you denigrated RPM and my understanding of my own program), but when you make a public comment creating the impression that you did, I think that it needs to be explained a bit better, publicly.

Apologies to anyone reading for the public uselessness of this. I felt that Noretoc's aggressive and denigrating post required some explanation.
I won't respond further to this issue publicly.

 

[Slipshod]

Your doing better than me. I installed and it woudn't run Got an error.

Sorry for the rant.

Try downloading the full install again. I've downloaded and installed it on two different computers in the last week, and never had a problem getting it to start. Maybe there was a problem with the installer when you downloaded it, and there is a newer one that resolves it; or maybe there was an issue with the download itself?

Luke did finally figure out the problem I was having, and gave me a good workaround to use until the next update comes out. It's stable enough now that I can give it a whirl with the gaming group on Wednesday and not have to worry about about rope and torches.

The program is really nice when it works. It works more with the style of gaming that I want (this related to the debate between Todd and Luke), which is the ability to automate as much as I like. I think with some QA effort to further stabilize it, it will be awesome. Luke seems to be as response as he can be (considering the time-zone difference and having a full-time job), and wants to resolve bugs. It's just a matter of being able to get him an exact description of the problem and a way to reproduce it.

I was finally able to run through a mock-combat with the PCs in my group last night, and while there's still a few "getting used to the interface" issues for myself, the combat went off smoothly and was easier to manage that my first combat in Dm Genie. I particularly like how it manages combat as a work-flow, prompting you for damage if (and only if) you hit the target, as well as prompting for critical threat rolls and cleave actions as appropriate. My group is new to v3.5 D&D (we've been playing Shadowrun for the past 4 years), and having a gentle "guiding hand" with the rules is helping both me and the players get adjusted to the ruleset.

The next version (which will include the fix for the problem I hit) should be entirely useable.

 

[noretoc]

Try downloading the full install again. I've downloaded and installed it on two different computers in the last week, and never had a problem getting it to start. Maybe there was a problem with the installer when you downloaded it, and there is a newer one that resolves it; or maybe there was an issue with the download itself?

Luke did finally figure out the problem I was having, and gave me a good workaround to use until the next update comes out. It's stable enough now that I can give it a whirl with the gaming group on Wednesday and not have to worry about about rope and torches.

The program is really nice when it works. It works more with the style of gaming that I want (this related to the debate between Todd and Luke), which is the ability to automate as much as I like. I think with some QA effort to further stabilize it, it will be awesome. Luke seems to be as response as he can be (considering the time-zone difference and having a full-time job), and wants to resolve bugs. It's just a matter of being able to get him an exact description of the problem and a way to reproduce it.

I was finally able to run through a mock-combat with the PCs in my group last night, and while there's still a few "getting used to the interface" issues for myself, the combat went off smoothly and was easier to manage that my first combat in Dm Genie. I particularly like how it manages combat as a work-flow, prompting you for damage if (and only if) you hit the target, as well as prompting for critical threat rolls and cleave actions as appropriate. My group is new to v3.5 D&D (we've been playing Shadowrun for the past 4 years), and having a gentle "guiding hand" with the rules is helping both me and the players get adjusted to the ruleset.

The next version (which will include the fix for the problem I hit) should be entirely useable.

I would have loved to have tried whatever might have worked, but now I am not so inclined. If he had said what he did in the above post to me in email, (in a nicer way of course) I might have thought there would be a way around it. Instead I got a response which seemed to be like he was questioning my ability to read simple instructions. Then when I told him I downloaded the correct version his response was "are you sure you didn't unzip anything" (meaning the update). Then I asked him what the fix would be if I had indeed made a mistake, and never heard back. While there might be a fix now I am not intrested. If he wants to sell a product, than he shouldn't treat his customers like fools. Instead of giving me the benefit of the doubt and possibly trying to come up with a solution, or simply telling me that he didn't have one yet, but if he found out, he would let me know, he decided to ignore me. It took a post to a public forum about it to get a response from him. I stand by my recomendation. Get DM genie, and try it out. Or DM familliar if you want a lighter version. Both are great. Leave RPM to thoes who don't care for curtesy.

 

[Luke]

...seemed to be like he was questioning my ability to read simple instructions...

Not at all. I simply need to very clearly double check with people what they've done. I quite often end up trying to sort out people's issues, and quite often it ends up with somebody saying something along the lines of "Oh, yes, that's right. I did do that. Silly me...".
RPM has thousands and thousands of downloads, and over time, although the percentage occurrence for this sort of thing is quite minimal, it seems a lot to me, since I'm where it ends up at.
I make no judgements of any individual, but I do learn a certain process that is important to follow because it saves precious time.
Occassionally I get stumped, and a set of quick e-mails can turn into a break of a few days whilst I try to sort something out, and perhaps even hope to see if somebody else is similarly affected. In your case, you unfortunately chose to interpret that as being ignored and forgotten. I'd recommend a simple e-mail to query an incident status first, and then perhaps vent with a nasty comment on a public board after that.
I have just under 3,500 e-mails in my inbox for the last 11 months (spam etc already removed), and a very similar amount of replies from me in my Outbox. On top of a personal life and doing actual RPM development, it keeps me pretty busy. Generally people don't have an expectation that I'll always get back to them within 2 days (especially for stuff under investigation) - but it looks like I lucked out pretty badly with expectation and demands this time...

Not that it matters to you (but it might to others): it appears that the standard installer I use can do some funny things under certain conditions.
It appears that the installer won't necessarily over-write old files with new files (even with a newer date stamp) if you have an old copy of the program that you install on top of.

So it seems that the answer is simply to install the full installation into an empty directory, or make sure that you uninstall the old version first.

There you go. Mea culpa. I'm flabbergasted that the installer won't automatically install newer files on top of older ones, but that seems to be the issue.

Luke

 

[Kichwas]

I run from my laptop and tend to have five applications going:

The 3.5 Encounter EL & XP calculator
a Kalamar names generator
Jamis Buck's Treasure Generator
Netscape
Notepad

I have a wireless network here, so I can get away with the online stuff.

I use notepad to track plot developments in a text file and look up those things I wish to have happen that night, which I keep in a sort of rough outline.

 

[Kichwas]

My players take combat and rules very seriously, and they actually *like* seeing me look things up when there's even a hint of discord.

My style is more story and imrpov based, but I do rules lookup at the table as well - I task a player with it, and ask for a quote.

I'd rather we be right on the rules than have to deal with an inconsistancy.

 

[SpecialK]

Let me just start by saying that I'm not affiliated with any software/company. I'm just Joe user.

When my game got to mid level and opponents' stat blocks ran a page long and opponent's numbers were in the twenties and thirties, the game broke down. I couldn't keep track of everything. To keep the game flowing, opponents were not played to the best of their abilities and encounters ended up being short-changed. The PCs got off too easy. I turned to some electronic aids for help. I first looked at some Excel spreadsheets that were not really meant to be used in game. They helped minimally. I needed much more and read about RolePlayingMaster. I downloaded it didn't have any trouble getting it installed (as others have). But I've now really tried it 3-4 times without success. It's just too complicated and non-intuitive. There's no easy way to get up and running quickly. And I REALLY wanted it to work for me. Ultimately I turned to DM Genie and have had pretty good success with it. It's more intuitive and has a nice tutorial to guide you through getting started. Once you get started, no problem. I ran my first session with it, and it significantly helped out in complex combat, keeping track of XPs, organizing the adventure, weather conditions, player and enemy conditions, generating opponents' on-the-fly and easy lookup of spells, skills and feats. Also, it can accomodate 3.0 and 3.5 rules (important since my current campaign is 3.0 and future campaigns may be 3.5).

Perhaps if RPM had a good walk through tutorial it would replace DM Genie for me. But for now, it's DM Genie.

Hope this helps.

So I'm going to be restarting my high level campaign soon. (Players keep pestering me.) Given the amount of information I will need to keep track of I'm thinking about becoming a Laptop DM.

I have a AMD K6/2 500Mhz laptop that is otherwise unused so I figured I could devote it to gaming.

What software, PDFs, etc. should I get to help me run my game efficiently?

Thanks,