What to put on DM laptop?

[Kid Charlemagne]

Question--when 4e comes out, are we expecting WotC to be giving out searchable versions of their books to D&D insider subscribers? That will be most cool.

"Giving out?" No - and you won't have to be a D&D Insider subscriber to be able to get the e-book. But you will be able to get a PDF for a very small fee, and presumably that's searchable - plus all the relevant info will be available in the CG program they're putting out.

 

[johnsemlak]

"Giving out?" No - and you won't have to be a D&D Insider subscriber to be able to get the e-book. But you will be able to get a PDF for a very small fee, and presumably that's searchable - plus all the relevant info will be available in the CG program they're putting out.

Ah, yeah, forgot about the 'small fee' bit.

What I'm hoping we'll be able to do is somehow search a full database of all the 4e products available at any point (or, all the one's I've purchased). So, say, an ability to search for any spell in one of the books I've purchased-- the 4.0 PHB or later supplements, or online material. A pipe dream?

 

[cougent]

Maybe a pipe dream, but a good one!

While I would love to see that as well, I realistically think the best we can hope for is searchable PDF's

 

[Mark]

3.5 SRD by Goodman Games

I'm not from Goodman Games but I have to agree that is a most useful product.

 

[The Levitator]

+ DM Genie for managing my game
+ Maptools as a virtual battlegrid. My laptop is connected to an HD projector and 8' screen.
+ Dundjinni for map creation
+ TokenTool for quickly creating creature and character tokens.
+ RPG Audiomixer for background music and sound effects
+ James Buck's NPC Generator
+ EBoN (Ever Changing Book Of Names) as a name generator
+ MorphVox Pro. Voice altering software used to create NPC dialogues.
+ Farland's Mass Combat Simulator for handling large-scale conflicts
+ Lewis Leech's DND Town Generator
+ Destiny Deck for quick hook generator

 

[lobsterGun]

Best thing to put on your DMs laptop?

Good DM: A crisp $20 bill. Show the DM some love. Its a rough job.

Bad DM: A cup of coffee...without the cup. He'll get the message.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I use Excel to keep up with monster hp. I just type in their name and under it write =140 (or whatever their hp is) then I just keep subtracting from that value until they're dead. I've found it very quick and effortless.

Tab 1 - TiddlyWiki with all your campaign notes. It takes a little bit of time to familiarize yourself with how to use TiddlyWiki, but when you do, it is the best campaign journal/planner/notebook you can get. I even have each players character sheet on the wiki and can open them in new tabs is I want.

I second TiddlyWiki. It's a great resource to have.