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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Levitator" data-source="post: 4079581" data-attributes="member: 40099">Once again, someone comes on here to ask for advice on the best ways to use a laptop with their gaming, and it turns into a "Laptops Are Good" VS "Laptops Are Evil" thread.  If people hate laptops so much, why are they responding on a thread asking for help in implementing one into a game?To the OP, you can save the SRD to your desktop, so that you can access it offline.  Having an internet connection would help access other things that might help your game, but there are also a ton of free programs out there that can be used offline.  Name Generators, Dice Rollers, Inn Generators, Character Sheet Generators, Initiative Trackers, etc.  I don't like having 20 different programs to keep track of, which is why I spent the money on DM Genie.  it handles every aspect of my game and there is not a single program available that does what DM Genie.  I believe it's $35, but has a fully functional 60 day trial.  They also just announced that they will be making a DM Genie v4, which will be designed for 4th Edition.  I have no plans to switch myself, but for anyone going to 4th edition, this may be a cheaper alternative to DDI.There are some other really good game management programs out there, but they don't have the capabilities or customization that DM Genie has.  Some of the ones that come to mind are Roleplaying Master, D&D Manager, and Campaign Suite, just a few that come to mind.In addition to game management, virtual tabletops are also very popular right now.  There are a lot of them out there, both free and paid programs.  Virtual Tabletops replace the battlemat in a conventional game.  I am currently using Maptools.  It's free and one of the most full featured VTT's out there.  VTT's are great for our group because it saves a lot of time setting up encounters and can be used at our tabletop, or online when we can't get everyone together in person.  I also like that it saves a ton of space, and there are thousands of beautiful maps available online that we much prefer to grease pencil marks on a dry erase board.  I also don't miss digging through all my mini boxes to set up encounters on the fly.  I can just drag and drop my creature tokens right onto the VTT.  One of the best things about Maptools is that it has dynamic light sources, vision and FOW, which is functional and still in development.  It also has individual PC views, so each person only sees what their character can see.  This really adds to immersion and reduces metagaming.If you want some leads on free software, drop me an IM and I'll send you a bunch of links that you might find useful.  If you like the idea of using a laptop at your gaming table to help you, then by all means try it.  Nobody here has the insight to tell you if it's a good idea for you or not.  But then, if you hated laptops like some people apparently do, you wouldn't have posted questions on how you might implement one into your game now, would you?  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Here are some links to the programs that I use:<a href="http://www.dmgenie.com" target="_blank">DM Genie</a><a href="http://rptools.net/doku.php?id=maptool:intro" target="_blank">Maptools</a> <a href="http://ebon.pyorre.net/" target="_blank">Ever Changing Book of Names</a> <a href="http://www.aarg.net/~minam/npc2.cgi" target="_blank">James Buck NPC Generator</a> Hope this helps!  <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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