The DM's Laptop: what should be on it?

[Kichwas]

I use notepad where I write out an outline of the potential plot, focusing largely in the initial hooks and enough things to get the players to fill in the rest for me in play.

Other than that all I need is a copy of the rules and either text file writeups of principle NPCs or printouts of those text files. Oh, and a d20.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I hate to hijack a wonderful thread like this... but does anyone know any decent programs for a PocketPC at the gaming table???

 

[jdavis]

I hate to hijack a wonderful thread like this... but does anyone know any decent programs for a PocketPC at the gaming table???

Link to a thread with links to a thread with information or PocketPC stuff....... or something like that.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54920

 

[Plane Sailing]

I use a word processor, browser and a spreadsheet (and occasionally an MP3 player).

On the spreadsheet I have a few tabs ready - one for calendar, one for PC vital statistics, one for PC treasure (to help me keep track of the value of that) and one for combat - with the initiatives of the bad guys all pre-rolled.

On the word processor I have my adventure written out (with stat blocks imported from the SRD and modified as necessary).

I'll use my web browser to look at local copies of the SRD if necessary for particular things (although I'm very tempted to use Campaign Sage, freely available from http://www.mythosa.net/Utils.html )

Cheers

 

[WizarDru]

I use DM Genie pretty heavily, both for prep and at-the-table stuff. It tracks combat well, is a handy reference for the SRD (particularly on-the-fly spell listings), integrates Jamis Buck's NPC generator, and features lots and lots of tools. Yes, it lets you enter custom skills, feats and classes.

I also use Excel for quick xp calculations, and keep IE handy if I need to do a quick rules check on the SRD or elsewhere.

 

[Voadam]

Rarely felt the need to pull anything besides the srd or character sheet or customized cut and pasted spell book up on the laptop, but all the pdfs are there anyway.

 

[Maraxle]

In addition to the other great programs mentioned here, I'd like to recommend JH NameGen Gold, and that's not just because I made it. The fact is, I always used to have an issue coming up with decent names on the spot. JH NameGen Gold will generate names for people, towns, taverns, spells, mercenary companies, etc. It also does adventure hooks, which can be handy too. Best of all, it shrinks down to a small toolbar so there's room on the screen for all of your other programs.

 

[Hardhead]

PCGen

The main program I use is PCGen, due to it's massive flexibility. I know of no other program that handles monster development (advancing in HD or character levels) as well as PCGen.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Yeah.

So you see the thing is, that the people that are up on the cutting edge of DMs tools and what they use on their laptop or PDA and what they wish they had. They'll all be in the computers and software forum. Really. They also won't likely miss this thread in the heap that General is.

So, off we go.

 

[Piratecat]

Whoops! This thread accidentally got locked while it was being moved. I can take care of that...

*waves magic wand*

And yes, yes, I'm sure that you're all waving your own magic wands right now, IYKWIM, AITYD. But I return you to the thread already in progress.