PC gaming utilities

[jonnjonnzz]

I have been a longtime player of AD&D second edition, mainly becauser of the ease of using utilities such as the Core Rules 2 and expansion. Are there any utilities that give the same power and flexibility as the Core Rules software did, but for 3rd edition/D20?

 

[Wonko the Sane]

No.

There's a few spreadsheets, etc. around that are cool though:

HeroForge: Excel spreadsheet character generator - very nice.

EN World Electronic Aids: Lotsa stuff here

Dundjinni: A mapping program that makes pretty maps - some copyright problems if you're publishing anything.

3.5 Edition Dragon Generator (Excel): Made by me, probably deserves no mention in the same post as the rest of these, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to plug it

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Let's see... for commercial programs, other than the ones mentioned above:

Roleplaying Master

Campaign Suite

DM's Familiar

DM Genie

The Auld Grump, NEW aulder and grumpier flavor!

 

[DMFTodd]

Thanks to the SRD, there is lots and lots of software out there for 3.x D&D. I'm not familiar with the Core Rules though so I'm not sure what you're looking for.

There's Character Generators: Programs that help you make a character/monster and get the math right.

Combat Managers: Programs that help you run combat faster and smoother

Reference Tools: Programs that let you look up rules, spells, monsters, etc. quickly and easily during play

Mappers: Programs for making maps

Misc: All sorts of misc stuff. Sound effects, random table generation, etc.

 

[Chaz]

Are there any utilities that give the same power and flexibility as the Core Rules software did, but for 3rd edition/D20?

I must also say... NO.
The core rules programs were some of the best software products ive ever purchased(and I dont just mean for D&D).

There are some usefull programs never the less for the new editions of D&D. Its just not as good as having the whole Core rules package was.

All of the suggestions listed by others above are worth looking into. Id like to suggest a couple...

ETools isnt completely worthless, although I really havent used it in a long long time. There are several good packages also worth looking at. Some of which are listed above.

TableSmith is an exceptional shareware program to help you with many interesting DM and Player functions.. Look here http://www.mythosa.net/

Dundjinni listed above does have some nice map abilities...
But I really like the program Fractal Mapper 7.0 There is cool scripting function built in to the program that can help you generate a complete gazette of a world you create on the fly as easy as pie. Have a look here http://www.nbos.com/

Best of luck.
Peace

 

[TheAuldGrump]

And for character generation there are a lot of choices. PCGe/GmGen is the one I use, but there are spreadsheets, self filling forms, and a good number of the programs mentioned above generate character. (Though only E-Tools and the data sets for PCGen contain the D&D rather than D20 information, something that for me at least doesn't matter a whit. But then I am stingy...) Code Monkey Publishing -who now handle E-Tools - has repaired many of the problems that beset the earlier releases of the program.

The Auld Grump

 

[mattcolville]

It's astonishing that TSR, notoriously badly managed, could get such a useful electronic aide out, while WotC hasn't the first clue.

 

[Ranger REG]

It's astonishing that TSR, notoriously badly managed, could get such a useful electronic aide out, while WotC hasn't the first clue.

Granted, the contracted software developer Fluid screwed both company and customers, while defunct TSR was able to successfully launch Core Rules on the very first try.

Hopefully, Code Monkey will be a lot better than them. I'm still hoping they will finally ditch e-Tools and build a good one from scratch.

 

[mattcolville]

Granted, the contracted software developer Fluid screwed both company and customers, while defunct TSR was able to successfully launch Core Rules on the very first try.

Hopefully, Code Monkey will be a lot better than them. I'm still hoping they will finally ditch e-Tools and build a good one from scratch.

I have no faith in Code Monkey. I'm sure they're good guys, but they're programmers and what the product needs is a company that contains within it programmers, but which also has the other things a company needs.

Every time I go to their site, I see programmer solutions to everything. The average D&D user wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of anything going on over there.