RPM, PCGen, DM Genie Which should I go with?

[Salcor]

I am shopping for a Character Generator/ GM tool/ Scenario Mapper, and I have seen all of these products. Now I am looking for something that supports D20 games, had there are available files for DnD 3.0/3.5, Dragonstar, and D20 Modern at the least. Not looking for something that I have to program it all myself. Looking for comparisions between the different programs and which one will give more bang for the buck.

Salcor

 

[Vascant]

I believe all three have a trial or free in the case of PC Gen, probably be best for you to try them out yourself and see what fits your exact needs and flavor. No one knows what you like better then you.

 

[IronWolf]

Vascant suggestion to try them all out is a good one. It sounds like you may already be playing with the trial versions/free versions.

I was very recently looking for a good computer aid, but I was only concerned with D&D, so take what I say with the grain of salt. First, this has been mentioned in some capacity several times in the past couple of weeks. Here are some threads:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=125558
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=122460
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=125196

Here's my .02 cents. I am *really* liking DM Genie. First you get a 60 day trial, plenty of time to see if it will meet your needs, even for those of us who game every other week. So far it has been an absolute dream to use. I stat'ed up an 8th level barbarian (granted a pretty easy class to gen up) in about three minutes. Once you stat him up and apply the levels you have an instant stat block and character sheet. Doing something similar for a wizard or sorceror would only take longer because you would need to figure out spells.

The combat tracker looks great and pretty easy to use. It should meet my needs nicely. DM Genie is also pretty flexible with allowing you to import custom items from Forgotten Realms books, supplemental WotC books and even third party books.

Be sure to look at all of them to see what matches *your* needs the best, but I can say I am really liking what DM Genie can do for me at this point.

 

[kingpaul]

I am shopping for a Character Generator/ GM tool/ Scenario Mapper, and I have seen all of these products. Now I am looking for something that supports D20 games, had there are available files for DnD 3.0/3.5, Dragonstar, and D20 Modern at the least.

Alright, I'm a bit biased, but I like PCGen.

PCGen does have datasets for the SRD (3.0), RSRD (3.5), MSRD (Modern) and Dragonstar (though only the Starfarer's Handbook currently). There are also a host of other data sets available for PCGen. It comes bundled with datasets created by the open source team.

You can also purchase datasets of WotC's books from Code Monkey Publishing. You can create characters with PCGen, and it has a internal tool called GMGen that allows the GM to, among other things, run combats during play.

I'm not sure what you mean by Scenario Mapper though.

 

[IronWolf]

I'm not sure what you mean by Scenario Mapper though.

I think he means a place to keep track campaign notes, encounters, etc. Sort of an outline tool within the application itself.

DM Genie has one of these (Campaign Manager). I have not used it though as I am relying on an external Outline tool (WikidPad), so I cannot comment on how well it works. (though it looks like it has several interesting pieces to it).

 

[Salcor]

Definately would like support for creating adventures and such, but the most import aspect is a Character generator that is modular enough to support that games I play without me having to understand how to program to either make a character to change what game I am supporting. I looked into PCGen, but my problem with it is that while the program is free I would have to pay as much as DM Genie and RPM combine to get any actual support files, or I would have to learn how to program, thus exceeding one of my requirements for said program.


Salcor

 

[kingpaul]

I looked into PCGen, but my problem with it is that while the program is free I would have to pay as much as DM Genie and RPM combine to get any actual support files

I don't understand what you mean by this. PCGen comes with several datasets of various 3.0, 3.5 and Modern books. If you want any WotC datasets, you can only, to my knowledge, get those from CMP, and then only for eTools or PCGen. Your statement referencing DM Genie and RPM 'support files' has thrown me off.

or I would have to learn how to program, thus exceeding one of my requirements for said program.

On 'learning how to program', are you referencing learning how to create datasets for PCGen? Or are you actually referring to learning how to program in java to add additional functionality to the program?

 

[Salcor]

With the data sets, I have already spent more than $100 dollars to purchase the complete books from WOTC, then to get them for PCGen I would have to spend another $30 or so to get them for PCGen. I understand that I am paying for convience and their liscencing rights. And at the moment DM Genie or RPM about about $20 each, so I would be paying more for just the COMPLETE datasets then I would for either program, which both of them seem more user friendly then PCGen.
As to the programing, I am saying that I don't want to have to learn how to program to enter in the data for a program. Which of course is why the datasets for PCGen cost so much.



Salcor

 

[kingpaul]

With the data sets, I have already spent more than $100 dollars to purchase the complete books from WOTC, then to get them for PCGen I would have to spend another $30 or so to get them for PCGen. I understand that I am paying for convience and their liscencing rights. And at the moment DM Genie or RPM about about $20 each, so I would be paying more for just the COMPLETE datasets then I would for either program, which both of them seem more user friendly then PCGen.

Ah, I think I see what you're saying. The PCGen Complete bundle runs $21.60, while DM Genie runs $29.95 and RPM is $24; so the complete bundle is a bit less than either of the other programs. And as I said before, I believe that only CMP has a license with WotC to produce datasets, so you could only purchase WotC datasets for eTools or PCGen. I've not used DMGenie or RPM recently, but I believe you can, as with eTools and PCGen, do your own datasets if you wanted to.

As to the programing, I am saying that I don't want to have to learn how to program to enter in the data for a program. Which of course is why the datasets for PCGen cost so much.

The datasets cost a lot? Even for folks used to doing data entry (and yes, I am fairly adept at it, but even I get a bit tripped up on how to include certain rules), I find the cost minimal considering the time involved.

 

[JoeyD473]

For game management I use DMF (Dungeon Masters Familiar) It is an awsome program witha strogn and supportive community