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Message: <blockquote data-quote="evildmguy" data-source="post: 1331688" data-attributes="member: 6092">Greetings!There have been some very good responses here!  I think, going back to the OP, the important question is what does your group like?  What does your group want out of gaming?  Some people like the wargaming and the minute details.  The players like being able to use the rules to get all of the advantages they can.  While these are game terms, they can be translated into game mechanics.  (Surprise, taking aim, getting an advantage in some way.)  If this the type of game you play, then I agree getting RPM, DMF, hyperlinked SRD, etc. is exactly what you want.  I personally don't like all of those details.  Combat is the place, imo, where DND (d20) really slows down.  I found that after having a thrilling combat, that took half of the gaming time, I forgot why it was important and why it happened!  I did get caught up in the excitement of the fight, don't get me wrong, but the fight itself is usually only one part of the story.  For me, it isn't the story itself.[btw, I am not implying that the above programs can't be scaled down to the level I talk about.  I don't have any experience using them, so I can't comment as to whether they can do that or not.]  Therefore, I used, and I couldn't find it on ENWorld anymore, Alessio Pauri's Combat Manager.  It was a very simple, straight forward program that tracked combat, spells, and options.  I would say it speeded up my d20 combat by 33%+!  In fact, combat was going so fast, my players were complaining they didn't have time to think about what they wanted to do!  That, to me, was nice because we went from being able to do at most one combat per session to being able to do three or four and still have a lot of time to role play.  That was my goal.  (This program, in showing me the to hit and damage at the same time, also allowed me to add more description into combat, by knowing these things all at once.  Again, something that I wanted to do.)  My other goal was to add more detail, but to have it in the background.  Instead of needing to spend hours creating weather systems, using WM I was able to let that create the weather and I merely added it into my description.  It allowed me to be more consistent and add more important details in without letting those details take up more time than they should.  That's also where BLAZONS! and the other programs came in as well.  Therefore, all of the programs I listed helped me reach my goals, as I stated above.  As I said, it wasn't important to me to know all of the modifiers in any particular situation.  I am lucky in that my players are willing to trust my judgement calls for the modifiers.  If it is in question, I look it up after the game, see how close I was, tell everyone and next time we discuss, briefly before the game, what everyone wants to do.  Hopefully, my advice, as well as the good advice of others, can help the OP reach their goal as well!Good discussion!  Thanks!edg</blockquote>

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