Greetings!
Just stumbled across this thread.
I recently bought a laptop for my gaming and I do have a monitor hooked up to it as well to be able to show my players what is on my screen. My intent was to have one place to store campaign notes and ideas as well as tools to use in game. To that end, here is what I use:
I use the combat manager, by Alessio Pauri which is on this site. I looked at DM's Familiar, RPM, and several others but this won out. I use this because it is quick and easy and does all that I need it to do to track combat. I only need to enter relevant combat data to get going. The latest version also came with a log which I could cut and paste and have a record of the battle. This was great! It speeded up combat so much and allowed me to focus on description, since it figured everything out for me. With its dice rollers and other options, I didn't even need dice! (For me, as the DM, I was okay with that.) My players only heard the clicking of my mouse and never knew if I was rolling for something or not!
Word and Excel were used heavily! Word for all of my notes, as well as mutliple note pages open for reference. Excel due to the many uses it has and for the generators created in excel. A really simple thing was to list the prices of items and then to figure out inflation or deflation amounts and apply it to prices.
Milieu Weather generator. I think that this is much better than Kami's Weather Generator. While Faenworks is working on a version 2.x, so for from what I have seen of 1.x, Milieu's is much better. The reports are more extensive, the interface much easier to use and the tools more extensive. It actually game up in gaming last night that I needed to know how far a shape changed flying character could see, given the current weather conditions, and Milieu's software figured it out for me! I was *so* impressed! (One caveat: I haven't gotten good responses from them but I didn't need tech support. I was just wondering if they were going to do any more, or updates. Again, though, I have had no problems with the software since I bought it five months ago.) I do highly recommend this program.
ProFantasy: I use the full suite of ProFantasy, including Fractal Terrains. (I did get them over a number of years, so I could spread out the cost of them.) I have done the trial version of NBOS and it is good but I found CC2 and related to be better. More control, more options and everything is done in the same interface. I don't need to run separate programs to run character sketcher, create heraldry or any of the other add ons. It does have a steeper learning curve but I have found this suite of software to be the best. I also liked that it is a full AutoCAD system, just watered down. It also output to multiple different types of files, including graphics. Fractal Terrains can make an animated gif with the world you create! It is all of these little features that have convinced me I made the right choice.
Overseer3D: Okay, I really like this and I do use it when I can. It converts CC2 maps into full 3D models that you can then walk thru and explore. You can even record avi's to show your players later. You can vary the weather and time of day. You can also set textures to make it look more real. There are also a lot of keys that aren't documented but help with movement around a map. There are three big caveats with this program. One, they don't seem to be supporting it anymore. I think the company is doing a new project but I don't know if it was related to this. Two, by the programmer's own admission, the code is buggy and a memory hog. As such, on my laptop (1.7GHz, 128Meg Ram) it will not run very well if other programs are running. It also doesn't load up my big maps, which my desktop had no problems doing. Three, with no support, the CC2 symbols sets that it will convert to 3D are limited and shrinking with every new ProFantasy release. I found, as I did my maps, that I was limiting myself in my creation of 2D maps to make maps that were compatable enough to become 3D maps. Having said all of that, I wish I could use it more. I am trying to make smaller maps, which load fine even with many other programs running. I also found that all maps I tried to convert from the FR Atlas *did* work and look good in 3D. I might have needed to make some "tweaks" here and there but it was good.
*whew that last one was long!*
I use the Everchanging Book Of Names, by Sami Pyorre. I have nothing against other ones, and they might be as good, I just found his first. I like it a lot, it has a good interface and creates all the names I could ever want. (I actually create a list of common names, now, although I used to give everyone the PCs met a unique name. Now, my players are sick of hearing the common name. It has almost become a running joke.) A good program!
I also picked up BLAZONS! A very big caveat! I tried emailing the guy because mantling wasn't working and he NEVER emailed me back! I don't feel I wasted my money, though, because I use this fairly often to create heraldry shields, because it creates the wording, which I couldn't do! So, I am not happy with no support, and I was on the fence about mentioning it, but I thought I would because if someone needs a way to make heraldry fast, this is good for doing that.
I think those sum up the main programs that I use. These are the ones that I decided to use, and sometimes buy, after a trial period and I looked at a LOT of programs! I found all of my above choices to be very helpful at the table while I am GMing. And I still use them all!
I hope this helps! Good hunting!
edg
[EDIT] clarification and typos
