What is the best (most effecient) way to use a laptop while DMing

[Mercule]

Personal opinion: The only way to use a computer at the game table is if it's a tablet or PDA. I've used laptops in the past, and they always detracted from the game. I've never had a player use a computer, but I suspect it would drive me nuts.

A while back I splurged and, since I was going to buy a laptop, anyway, I got a convertable tablet. The only computer I can say has really had a positive impact at the table. I'll use it as a player (whenever I get a chance, again), too. No more intrusive than a spiral notebook, which is to say not at all.

PDAs are a bit of a break-even proposition. The small screen makes navigating hard, but you can put quite a few tools on one.

 

[WingOver]

Personal opinion: The only way to use a computer at the game table is if it's a tablet or PDA. I've used laptops in the past, and they always detracted from the game. I've never had a player use a computer, but I suspect it would drive me nuts.

A while back I splurged and, since I was going to buy a laptop, anyway, I got a convertable tablet. The only computer I can say has really had a positive impact at the table. I'll use it as a player (whenever I get a chance, again), too. No more intrusive than a spiral notebook, which is to say not at all.

PDAs are a bit of a break-even proposition. The small screen makes navigating hard, but you can put quite a few tools on one.

I agree. I bought a tablet a few months ago and I use it while I DM. It lays flat so it's not obtrusive. Since I can write on it, I keep all my combat sheets and notes in One Note. I've used the snipping tool to cut out monsters from PDFs and stored them in there, too. I'm still experimenting with the optimum method of using the tablet for game preparation. But as far as an in-game tool, being able to have my session notes available electonically has been a real benefit. (No more searching for loose paper notes later.)

I also use it to remote desktop into my media PC so I can switch background music. Various PDFs and an online SRD are also available at my fingertips.

 

[takyris]

It's handy to have the SRD on there.

One of my players made a squib tracker. I can put in the hit points, saves, AC, and so forth for all the minion-folks that I sent against the players in big waves and don't want to track myself. We've got colored glass counters with stickers on the bottom that have a letter on them for differentiation, so while I handle dice rolls against big named people myself, when the wizard casts a 10d6 fireball on a bunch of ogres, I can just holler to the player, "Okay, 10d6 fire, save DC 16, against Red D, Red L, Greens R,S, and T.

And then the player will click and say, "Okay, Red D and Greens R and S are dead, L and T are just injured." And if there were particularly good rolls, he'll call that out for color. "Dude, Red L appears to have hidden behind the body of Red D to avoid the explosion. He was only hit for 17 damage, and he saved for half against that."

Makes it a lot more likely that I as the DM will feel up for sending a horde of squibs against the heroes. And the heroes, who have lots of Area of Effect stuff, like that.

 

[azhrei_fje]

I don't use any of the packaged DM software out there. I've looked at a few and they are just so cluttered I can't find anything fast anyway.

I don't agree. While I do agree that there is a lot of information to track, I can find such things about 3 times faster using DMGenie than my players can by looking through their character sheets. And when I _do_ find it, it already has all of the bonuses added in. For example, when a player is trying to figure out their attack bonus when using a whip in each hand, I already have that on the screen. All of the TWF penalties are applied, all of the bonuses for Weapon Focus are applied, all modifications due to spells, potions, magic items, and even conditions are already calculated for me. (Have you ever had a PC cast wall of force only to forget how long the wall lasted before expiring? Or maybe a PC was affected by cause fear and they are now shaken; wouldn't it be cool to have the computer automatically track the -2 penalty to all attacks, damage, skill checks, and ability checks?)

From my point of view, I'd be overwhelmed if I ever had to go back to DM'ing on paper again.

DMGenie isn't perfect: it needs spontaneous casting added as a core feature (it's available through scripting, but that's not as "clean" as having the program implement it directly). It needs scripting for spells (it would be way cool for a spell to automatically calculate level-dependent effects -- duration, distance, number of damage dice, and so on).

I can't stress enough how ridiculously amazing the CMG SRD is. I consistently find things faster with that than the players looking stuff up in the books.

Without a doubt! I don't know what "CMG" refers to; I use the Sovelior_Sage version (a new update -- including all released errata -- was just made in April; get it at http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/ and use the 3.5 SRD link to the left). The Sovelior version has links to WotC's site for the images, but I've downloaded the images and put them into a subdirectory, then modified the HTML to reference those images instead of the ones on WotC's site. (Perl is a lovely scripting language, isn't it? )

I use Excel for tracking stuff in combat: init, hp's, stat mods, etc. Nothing fancy really. I just need something to keep things organized.

I use Word for general notes and statblocks.

DMGenie keeps all that for me. The Campaign Manager window allows me to pre-enter all important room descriptions, creatures located in the room, items in the room, and so on. When the PC's enter the area, I click on the Map tab and there's a map in front of me, with hotlinks to other rooms or other tabs (to handle the PC's stepping on a trap and falling into the next level, or being transported to another area). I can pre-design random encounter tables with statblocks to control what creature the encounter is with. (Which means I don't have to detail out a full creature if I don't want to.)

The combat log has a complete history of who attacked what and how much damage they did, which spells were cast and who saved and who didn't, and so on. I use the combat log after a session to remind me of events so that I can write a "session summary". It acts as a reminder for the player who attended and as a catch-up page for those who couldn't make it.

What's really nice for me is that I have a widescreen laptop (15.4" screen). I can have two programs opened side-by-side which is really convenient during combat.

I've also got a 15.4" WUXGA (or whatever the marketing droids call it ) and I love it! It's 1920x1200, which is plenty of real estate for a big window. But I also have a DLP projector that I hook the laptop up to. I then run a different X server (Linux, no Windoze) on the projector. I connect to it from the laptop display and control it remotely. I've found that the remote control aspect is much easier than moving the mouse onto the external display and having to mangle my body to see what the players see while I make modifications. YMMV.

The projector comes with a mouse-style remote control. Eventually, I'll write some software to control the map and when it's a player's turn to move their character, I'll just hand them the remote control. Any mouse movements they make with the remote will be translated into mouse movements on the laptop via the USB cable from the projector to the laptop! 8)

In summary, I will never go back to index cards. I used them for a long time -- 15 years, in fact -- but I've been using DMGenie for about 2.5 years now. I've gone from v1.08 to v2.16 and only paid a single registration fee. I feel obligated to write the author another check, since I've been taking advantage of him for so long.

 

[Ferret]

Use it to squish the players minitures.