Computers around the gaming table

Just wondering what other tools folks are using to manage their games along with Epic Words.

Here is my list:

d20 Pro
Hero Lab
Pathfinder SRD
Pathfinder Wiki

...and of course Adobe for all the PDFs.

One of my favorite tools that is sadly no longer available is WeatherMaster - a serious weather generation program.

I don't know if it is just that I've got less time as a judge than I had in the past or something else, but I know my sessions would be much slower without a computer.

Excellent question!

We would love to hear about what people use and how they use it in conjunction with EW.

My newest Campaign will be using Masterplan which is a genius tool when it comes to be a GM/DM and keep track of everything. It is created for 4.E
I use it a lot and will make it easy for me to transfer my campaign to Epicwords which I am intending to in a few days.
It is a nice program that also makes it easy to store data and then being able to transcript it up to epic words.

So if you are running a 4E campaign or similar I will warmly recommend Masterplan as a game supporter for then after transfering it to epic words since they use the same basics. :)

Most members of my D&D 3.5 group are spread across the country so Epic Words is more important to our game than it otherwise might be. The rest of our toolkit includes:

1. Skype
2. MapTool
3. d20 SRD
4. DM Genie

The last item, DM Genie is once again being supported by its creator- it is the most complete D&D software I have ever used (for 8 years now) and with 2 Yahoo! groups dedicated to it there is no shortage of community support/additions.

We like MapTool because it works well for us most of the time, it has a large community, has features like initiative tracking and vision and it is free. We are only able to use the basic functions since the rest, including macros, are just too complicated and time intensive for us to make worth our while.

We used to use Google Groups to house our game but we are now porting over to Epic Words, which has several features I always wished GG had, like calendar and wiki. I like the character integration but I am relieved that DM Genie will spit out stat blocks for me or otherwise character creation would be a little time consuming. I am interested in trying out the forums for some roleplay between sessions and generally testing EW's capabilities.

DM Genie is an amazing program and also highly recommended for 3.5 and 3.0 D&D Players since it has a massive amount of tools to design encounters, monsters, track initiative etc.

And it is really nice to hear that the creator have started to support his product again. That's a rarity these days.

Fantasy Grounds and Skype. The group has two players in the UK and 3 in the US. In my opinion FG is the best all round Virual Tabletop and Epic Words looks like it's going to be a helpful addition.

I find Fantasy Grounds 1 and 2 not really user friendly and have been using Screenmonkey and Maptool for my online sessions. Fantasy Ground is also very expensive on the long run and for its learning curve it isn't something I want my group to invest in. I got both the first and second of fantasy grounds but I find Screenmonkey and Maptool more user friendly and better for quick drop ins of material aswell. :)

Never tried Screenmonkey, not sure I'd call MapTool user friendly, I suppose it all depends on what you're used to. As to the cost, I don't mind paying for good products and it's minimal compared to the cost I'd use in fuel, or pay out on books. :)

Fuel for a roleplay? Mountaindew?
Well of course it is awesome to pay for a good product but when I had players that had to learn how to use it it became problematic opposed to screenmonkey and maptool.
It's not really because the money is the problem. more the learning curve and useability for a group where things should help your group to make it more quick. Else I wouldn't usually use software without making the process speeded up.

Question:

Alexander

Fuel for a roleplay? Mountaindew?

Answer:

Phil

The group has two players in the UK and 3 in the US.