Laptops - What programs or resources do you use to help you run or play your games?

[Janx]

I've used a variety of tools over the years, some homebrew, some not.

Originally, I wrote a map maker and monster stat block generator, treasure roller for 2e on the Apple IIe. that actually worked pretty well.

Later, in DOS, I used an app called Campaign Manager. It had a ton of table files with a macro language, so I could generate encounters, treasure, etc, and copy paste it into WordPerfect.

I used iRoNY games web-site of mapping tools to generate world maps andf such

I later used TSR's tools, which also had RTF files of all the books I owned.

In the Windows/Internet era of 3e:

I used to use the original Dungeon, NPC, Town, Treasure generators that were later hosted on ENworld, but have since vanished.

I used NPCgear, a java app to generate the gear for an NPC (why couldn't the NPC generator have that functionality)


I used to use a 3e site for managiing my PC, but WotC gave them grief and eventually they shut down.


Nowadays, I use d20srd.org and hyperlink relevant bits to my word document adventure


I use Excel to run my PCs during the game at the table, it's OK, but easier to work with than PCGen, which is too focused on printing char sheets.

My printer's been out of ink for years, so I rely on NOT having to print anything out.

I use Paint.NET which is a free paint program, better than MS Paint, less featured and easier to use than Gimp or PhotoShop.

I'd consider MasterPlan, but it's a 4e app, and I'm a 3.5e guy (not going to spend more money on gaming books).

 

[Irondeacon]

DM Familiar at the table ( DM's Familiar - Become a Better Game Master ), with a couple of self generated tables in the integral Tablesmith random generator for NPC's on the street, etc. I have most of the monsters/feats/skills/items from the 3.5 sourcebooks pre-loaded in DMF, from their users support group.

The Keep from NBOS ( NBOS Software Home Page )for my overal "DM's Notebook", very similar to how evernote works, but I can run it from my flash drive, and have access no matter what PC I'm using.

Hypertext SRD20, Scene Sound ( Scene Sound :: Scene Sound ), and Janice Buck's excellent 3.5 NPC Generator round it out.

The one indespensable? DM Familiar. Combat is quick, exp is easy to figure, and I never forget an option. Love it. I encourage anyone who plays 3.5, or PRPG, to try the free demo of DMF, The Keep, and Scene Sound.

Respectfully,
The Deacon
id fiat iron deacon si

 

[Stormonu]

During the session:

- Fantasy Grounds II (combat tracker & dice roller)
- Acrobat to access rulebooks
- Windows Media Player to play music (Orynn77, I have found that if you have your media files in 2 different formats - say .Wav & MP3 or MP3 & MP4 [quicktime format] or MP3 & Youtube video, you can play both at once - I often use sound effects and music this way, for example played spooky MP3 music for Ravenloft while also playing a quicktime MP4 "relaxational" thunderstorm)

Oddly, I tend to still keep my notes on paper and later put them into word documents.

Between games

- MS Word to write up adventures
- Dunjinni or Campaign Cartographer to make maps and battlemats
- Firefox to access my campaign wiki & messageboard

 

[Saracenus]

As the guy organizing D&D Encounters (DDE), Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) and the various World Wide Gameday (WWG) events at my local store I use a laptop a lot. I am in the process of making better use of it as a DM:

As Organizer:

Wizards Event Reporter (WER) now allows D&D Event reporting. It used to be only usable by the Magic crowd. Best thing ever. I can look up DCI numbers, I have a local database of all folks that have played at my events. I can report my tables offline and then upload if I have no WiFi.

DDI Compendium: Look up rules.

Twitter: twitter buffs for DDE.

As DM:

Adobe Acrobat - Putting together player and DM resources.
Photoshop - Most battlemap stuff. Print with PosterRazor.
MS Word - The usual
Excel - Not so much now.
Obsidian Portal - Campaign tracking.
PosteRazor - Printing poster maps using 8.5 x 11 sheets with overlap.
Character Builder - pure awesome
Adventure Tools Beta - needs some work, but still very good.

My new favorite program: Masterplan
Masterplan
Campaign tracker, combat tracker, hyperlinked to the nth degree. I am still learning its power. I will probably use this to design adventures of my own. i have been entering DDE in this and I have found all sorts of connections with it I would otherwise miss.

Oh yeah, Masterplan interfaces with Adventure Tools, D&D Compendium and iPlay4e.

My two coppers,

Bryan Blumklotz
Guardians of the Gameday
Guardians of the Gameday : Event Overview

 

[Obryn]

Alrighty. So I barely feel qualified to post this, having used it for exactly one session, but I think that Masterplan may change the entire way I run 4e forever. I know; it sounds extreme. But I got the go-ahead to use it for die rolls from my players, and at this point, I'm never going back. They concur - combat went considerably faster on my end.

And I'm only using the encounter-building parts. I've barely scratched the surface for map building, skill challenges, and entire adventure design. I think I could do it oh so easily with this program, though... It's insane.

OK, for starters, it sucked down absolutely every monster, magic item, and trap in the compendium. It took a while, but it was impressive indeed. Once that was done, I quickly created a "new" adventure, and started just creating combat trackers, more or less, for P1.

It honestly couldn't be any simpler. I drag & dropped the needed monsters, used +/- buttons to adjust their numbers, and basically was done. It has a ruler on the bottom to show my XP budget, and an estimate of the difficulty. I can change my number of players or their level, and it adjusts accordingly, allowing me to modify on the fly with ease. Oh, and it reformatted all the monsters for the new stat block format, even though they haven't been updated in the Compendium or Monster Builder yet. Insane!

In combat itself, it did almost everything. All my initiatives were rolled at once, and I had my players take over the big initiative board. Going from turn to turn, it reminded me of ongoing effects, remembered regeneration, applied ongoing damage, automatically tried to save out of effects, and reminded me to roll for recharge. (For some reason, it doesn't make those rolls itself that I saw.) I've forgotten to do all of these at one point or another.

All the stats were at hand. The monster attacks were all hotlinks, which I could click for an attack + damage roll. About the only rough spots were on area effects, where I needed to click it repeatedly for attack rolls while keeping track of the first damage roll. And sneak attack dice (or the equivalent) weren't rolled; I rolled them separately. It'd be great if those dice were hotlinked.

When my players did damage to a monster, it was a very quick process of clicking the monster and clicking Damage. It did the math for me. I could set a damage type, and it'd automatically apply resistances or vulnerabilities. When bloodied, monsters turned red, reminding me to throw a soda ring on them.

Seriously, I'm not going back. I urge every 4e DM to give it a shot.

-O

 

[karlindel]

Microsoft Word - for playing notes

Microsoft Excel - for magic item parcel allocation

Internet Explorer - for DDI access and sometimes to look things up or find a quick picture to show what I'm describing and help with imagery

Adobe Acrobat - to read .pdf files

 

[Slander]

VirtuaWin - Allows me to set up multiple virtual desktops available at a keystroke so my main screen isn't cluttered (a free Win XP version of the Spaces program someone mentioned above)

GridMove - Replicates the Win 7 snap feature for XP. Helps quickly manage multiple apps on one screen. The default templates are good, but customizing a template to work with the apps you use is definitely worth while.

My Notes Keeper - Campaign/notes/NPC management. I play fast and loose with stat blocks, so actual NPC creation software ends up being more work than typing out a few lines of stats, a brief set of tactics and then moving on. May not be optimal for everyone but works great for how I operate.

Solvier Sage SRD / Tabbed browser - Indispensable

PDF Reader

I have my players manage init, so I don't worry about that, but when we experimented with an all digital game, the RPTools suite (init, dice roller, maptool) were great.

Tried some different sound apps ... but it ends up being a lot for me to manage. Winamp with some playlists suffices if I even use music.

Freemind / Cmap - Not really used in game, but I mess around with 'em between games when I've got ideas I just want to get out of my head. Normally, I'll do them on paper and transfer them when I'm done so I can screw around with links and ideas.

 

[doctorhook]

*snip* Masterplan

Seriously, I'm not going back. I urge every 4e DM to give it a shot.

-O

Downloaded it. I've played with it for 30 seconds, I have no idea what I'm doing yet, but I'm already convinced!

PS: I must spread some more XP around before giving to Obryn again.

 

[Obryn]

Downloaded it. I've played with it for 30 seconds, I have no idea what I'm doing yet, but I'm already convinced!

PS: I must spread some more XP around before giving to Obryn again.

I've used it for the sessions since my original post, and my opinions haven't changed one bit. It's brilliant, and it's made my job a lot easier. (And with a two-month-old in the house, I need all the help I can get.)

-O

 

[xazil]

Virtual Combat Cards has been a good addition with the DMs in my group and made the laptop a feature behind the shields.

Treepad is a nice program that I've been using for management of notes since the 90s (MyNotesKeeper seems similar).

But Masterplan does look very nice.