The "best" FREE tools and ideas to help DMs and d20 referees manage their games...

[Winterthorn]

Hi folks!

I've come to realize that as much as I really like the d20 rules set, especially for D&D 3E, I am overwhelmed with the mechanical details--perhaps to the detriment of running my games smoothly.

It's alot of work now, work I like, but I need time saving ideas!... I bet you do too, right?

So let's get a good thread going here...

List your links, post your ideas, maybe you've got an attachment to share, whatever the case let's take the opportunity to share some cool timesaving/lifesaving ( ) tools you've found or made up yourself. Remember to give credit to where it's due!

I'll start with what I found in today's news. My jaw plummeted with respect to Rob Bowell's work on compiling the stats for summoned critters...

Rob's exhaustive listing of summoned monsters...

This is incredibly useful to me! A hearty thanks to Rob Bowell!

Okay folks, it's your turn...

-W.

PS: don't limit the good stuff to D&D 3E... There's bound to be good ideas to help refs of other d20 games. Right?

 

[Winterthorn]

This link is old... but it still works, the author is Alex Wilson:

D&D 3E Reference sheets

I bet many of you folks have seen those reference pages, but it nice to see they are still available...

Anybody else with useful stuff for DMs/referees?

-W.

 

[John Crichton]

Ooo! Those Reference Sheets are great.

The most helpful thing I have seen was the AoO chart here @ ENWorld along with the Wizards one.

 

[Mark]

For ideas and research, keep this thread bookmarked-

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21656

 

[Leopold]

pcgen helps keep my players honest and organized when it comes to pc sheets and stats. For me I can then look at their pc's strengths and weakness and see if an encounter is more than enough match for them and if they are on par for magic items and treasure befit their level.

For creating monsters on the fly and NPC's on the fly i turn to jamis buck and pcgen to help keep me full of new goodies..

 

[MThibault]

Sorry for the shameless plug. Really, I am. But Everyone Else is about the same price as a set of dice ($6) and has over 350 statblocks for mundane NPCs (the boring one's the DM shouldn't have to worry about).

I wrote it and I use it in my own games.

Just so this isn't quite so shameless, keep an eye out for the errata, there are a few errors.

Also I use the Heroforge spreadsheet for PC generation. It has a few bugs, but I'm used to them, and I really like the interface. I don't know if it is still available though. I downloaded mine a long time ago.

Cheers.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Here are some useful links that are in my favorites.

Big List of RPG Plots - self explanatory and indispensable

Daniel Collins 3rd ed D&D Resources - summon monster / nature's ally stat blocks, class spell lists, FAQs on stacking of bonuses, etc.

Dragongirl's Lists - monsters and templates, new uses for skills, prestige classes (note: these are lists, not rules text)

Irony Games online tools - web based generators for towns, dungeons, planets; online dice roller; etc.

Sean K Reynolds RPG Misc info - SKR's comments on various sections of the PH are particularly enlightening

SRD (Open Gaming Foundation) - the System Reference Document at the Open Gaming Foundation is a good quick reference when you don't have your books; contains open content from PH, DMG, MM, PsiHB

Jamis Buck's NPC Generator - self explanatory; web based Treasure, Town, Dungeon generators available too; can download offline versions

 

[EricNoah]

It my jaw plummeted with respect to Rob Bowell's work on compiling the stats for summoned critters...

Rob's exhaustive listing of summoned monsters...

This is incredibly useful to me! A hearty thanks to Rob Bowell!

Indeed, a terrific resource -- thanks, Rob!

 

[Winterthorn]

Lookin' good...

Thanks everyone so far...

Let's keep this going for a while! (I'll try to find something more to add shortly...)

-W.