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Laptop DM - What do I need?
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<blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1366949" data-attributes="member: 151"><p>Laptops have proliferated at my table, it seems, and as DM, I think I'm the guilty party. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p> </p><p>My players tend to keep laptops for quick access to the SRD (my personal favorite version is <a href="http://www.geocities.com/sovelior/srd/description.html" target="_blank">Soveilor's SRD variant</a>), keeping records for the story hour, and doing mathematical calculations.</p><p> </p><p>I use DM Genie (as does at least one player) for it's ease of use, and ability to play the game the way that I want to. I haven't tried RPM lately, but both it and DMF didn't really match my style, and the interfaces weren't intuitive to my way of working. All three products have deep features, but DM Genie was the only one where I felt I could get at them without a lot of work. RPM, in particular, has lots of features that I wouldn't take advantage of, even though they looked nice, such as the campaign tools.</p><p> </p><p>Running an Epic Level game (6 players of 22nd/23rd levels), a typical combat may have 25 active spell effects, all interacting in odd ways. Being able to pull that kind of data up with no fuss...<em>fast</em>...is what I need. DMGenie's ability to create creatures on the fly, apply a template and then add class levels, is huge. The same applies to importing stat-blocks. Ultra-fast access to spell lists is very nice, and sold the program to at least one player for that feature alone.</p><p> </p><p>DM Genie has it's failings, too. Some effects aren't implented well (not nearly so much as RPM does, with its much better calculation of stacked effects), and importing creatures can be a challenge, as the intepetation of stat-blocks is finicky. Creation of custom-effects or non-core material has to be created, of course, and isn't always easy.</p><p> </p><p>Truthfully, none of the three products listed here will serve you poorly. They are all quality products, afaik, and well supported by their creators.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="WizarDru, post: 1366949, member: 151"] Laptops have proliferated at my table, it seems, and as DM, I think I'm the guilty party. :) My players tend to keep laptops for quick access to the SRD (my personal favorite version is [url="http://www.geocities.com/sovelior/srd/description.html"]Soveilor's SRD variant[/url]), keeping records for the story hour, and doing mathematical calculations. I use DM Genie (as does at least one player) for it's ease of use, and ability to play the game the way that I want to. I haven't tried RPM lately, but both it and DMF didn't really match my style, and the interfaces weren't intuitive to my way of working. All three products have deep features, but DM Genie was the only one where I felt I could get at them without a lot of work. RPM, in particular, has lots of features that I wouldn't take advantage of, even though they looked nice, such as the campaign tools. Running an Epic Level game (6 players of 22nd/23rd levels), a typical combat may have 25 active spell effects, all interacting in odd ways. Being able to pull that kind of data up with no fuss...[i]fast[/i]...is what I need. DMGenie's ability to create creatures on the fly, apply a template and then add class levels, is huge. The same applies to importing stat-blocks. Ultra-fast access to spell lists is very nice, and sold the program to at least one player for that feature alone. DM Genie has it's failings, too. Some effects aren't implented well (not nearly so much as RPM does, with its much better calculation of stacked effects), and importing creatures can be a challenge, as the intepetation of stat-blocks is finicky. Creation of custom-effects or non-core material has to be created, of course, and isn't always easy. Truthfully, none of the three products listed here will serve you poorly. They are all quality products, afaik, and well supported by their creators. [/QUOTE]
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