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Post by DM Kiado on Jan 7, 2016 19:16:23 GMT
Ok, so the idea of this thread (we may have another one going like this, but I couldn't find it easily so here is a new one) is not rules, mechanics, and story. Rather this will be about tools, and other things you may use to build story, NPC's, maps, characters, etc. I will lead off obviously. There is also a "Master List of DM Resources" in another forum, that isn't really the idea here. More of, what tools do you use, and how do you use them that others might benefit or get a good idea from. Google Docs: In my opinion there is no greater tool to a DM then Googles online "Office" system. This is nothing new about Google docs, but there is one feature of Google Docs that I have found really handy lately. Forms - Google Sheets will allow you do make a Form that can be given to people to collect information from them. You can also duplicate things from the DMG (I will use 5E for examples, but this is good for any game) into a form. For instance I have an NPC Form, that asks the 13 or so questions that the DMG provides for fleshing out an NPC. I go through this form to flesh out an NPC, it gets put into a Google Sheet, and is stored and easily accessible from the sheet, or a Form summary of answers you can get. Easiest thing to do is show you this example, which is short a couple of questions from the DMG. Feel free to go here and check it out. Make me an NPC if you want. NPC Builder FormNow the advantage this gives me personally is I have somewhere I can go and copy and paste NPC details to any website (Roll20, CityOfBrass, GamersPlane), any application (Fantasy Grounds) and even for slapping into emails or PDF's. You get the idea. I can always go to my central storage and pull the information. You can adapt this to any game, get feedback from your players, all them to tell you secrets and store them. Things of that nature, and I would say the limits are up to you (and the size of Sheets). What other tools do you guys use similar to this? Love to hear about them. EDIT: You can hear other examples of this use on the latest DM Nastics.
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Post by DM Kiado on Jan 8, 2016 17:51:19 GMT
I probably should of put this under DM Resources if someone wants to move it.
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Post by galakan on Jan 8, 2016 18:38:53 GMT
I am liking the NPC Form! It works pretty well and you ask some good questions for building a character . As far as tooling goes, I honestly trust Evernote and my journal more than anything else. I usually just write my ideas down in my journal and then edit and type them in evernote later on. The good thing Evernote does is it allows you to make organized groupings of your notes so I made myself a pretty good structure for keeping track of the things I am writing down. I have noticed though, that despite the huge amount of random DND tools out there, there's almost nothing good for keeping worldbuilding notes. I mean there are tools for combat, spells, and general notekeeping. But nothing really that brings the full package together. Unless you know of something
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Post by friartook on Jan 8, 2016 20:30:27 GMT
I have noticed though, that despite the huge amount of random DND tools out there, there's almost nothing good for keeping worldbuilding notes. I mean there are tools for combat, spells, and general notekeeping. But nothing really that brings the full package together. Unless you know of something City of Brass may be what you are looking for. Personally, I like to have my worldbuilding in maps and typed notes. I have a subscription to City of Brass, but I'm likely going to cancel it as I don't think I'll realistically use it. Worth checking out though.
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Post by DM Kiado on Jan 8, 2016 20:59:12 GMT
I use City of Brass at the moment myself. At the moment City of Brass is like Obsidian Portal, but they are alpha/beta testing their Roll20ish VTT now, so I am interested to see how that is. I like the clean and crisp layout that City of Brass provides that other sites lose by letting users over-customize when they don't understand interfaces. DM Kiado's Warsong Timeline on City of Brass (Not Complete) This is also just the "World Builder" piece, but they have all kinds of stuff. You can get a 30 day free trial on it to check it out. I know others like Obsidian Portal for a web based one as well. You could technically build it all in Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds as well. I highly recommend cloud based applications though, for the simple fact that you don't have to worry about hard drive crashes, or losing a notebook with loads of notes in it.
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Jan 8, 2016 21:58:48 GMT
I use City of Brass at the moment myself. At the moment City of Brass is like Obsidian Portal, but they are alpha/beta testing their Roll20ish VTT now, so I am interested to see how that is. I like the clean and crisp layout that City of Brass provides that other sites lose by letting users over-customize when they don't understand interfaces. DM Kiado's Warsong Timeline on City of Brass (Not Complete) This is also just the "World Builder" piece, but they have all kinds of stuff. You can get a 30 day free trial on it to check it out. Really like your set up on CoB, Kiado. When I first saw City of Brass I was really impressed by the framework and style of it.
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Post by DM Kiado on Jan 8, 2016 23:06:18 GMT
Really like your set up on CoB, Kiado. When I first saw City of Brass I was really impressed by the framework and style of it. Thanks, and I am far from done. The more I use the site, the more I like it, but I am also a quasi web designer, understand the tag system, and stuff like that, which really allows you to customize the site. I think it's a little lacking in some areas, but they are in constant development and a new site, so we will see. I mainly wanted somewhere I could publicly have my setting for players to read up on.
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Post by janewalksfar on Jan 9, 2016 22:12:52 GMT
I have a question for any of you folks converted from paper records to apps and on-line tools to keep your notes/information. How does the process compare? Do these programs save time and hassle?
I feel like I do so many other tasks/hobbies at a computer that pen and paper work for D&D is a nice change... but I also spent the entire week clearing out half a dozen crates full of notebooks, papers, and printouts, so would like to cut down on the sheer BULK of paper records.
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Post by joatmoniac on Jan 10, 2016 1:06:13 GMT
I think at the table using pan and paper is still a good method unless you streamline your digital process very well. In that, if the digital slows the table in any way then cut it out. I recently switched jobs and no longer have a laptop or tablet to bring to the table, and it's great. Forces my hand to be better about just going with the flow because the whole world full of info isn't at my fingertips. Afterwards though I decompress the info into Google docs and the like, and cultivate other digital resources to work from while prepping.
Also, if I remember I will move this thread. Haha. I keep forgetting to once I'm in front of my desktop. Also also, I think that City of Brass is an affiliate of the RPG Academy and those are some good people right there!
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Samuel Wise
Demigod
Ready to Help...
Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Post by Samuel Wise on Jan 10, 2016 1:17:57 GMT
I think at the table using pan and paper is still a good method unless you streamline your digital process very well. In that, if the digital slows the table in any way then cut it out. Of course it depends on what you like the best. I use Pen and Paper, because I find it hard to focus, when writing on a computer (that being said, it certainly looks nicer). I agree with Joat that I had to cut it out, because it made my writing process too slow. I'd find myself mostly going to these forums instead of writing out my adventures. That being said, a computer comes with its own sets of usefulness. Organizing, as you said, is extremely helpful, using programs such a Scrivener or Word, you can easily place or delete information. This also makes pulling up information for your players easier and faster. Personally I use notebooks for my campaigns, unless I am running Play By Post then I organize everything off my computer.
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Post by janewalksfar on Jan 10, 2016 20:19:05 GMT
I enrolled for the free trial of City of Brass, but I can tell from clicking around and making an NPC, that it would take me a while to get the hang of the set-up. I would love to have some good looking material for my players to reference. They do a fair job keeping records, but having a digital atlas would be fantastic.
Kaido, I saw your work when I was clicking around on City of Brass last night! "Warsong" is an evocative name for your campaign setting.
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Post by DM Kiado on Jan 11, 2016 17:16:09 GMT
I enrolled for the free trial of City of Brass, but I can tell from clicking around and making an NPC, that it would take me a while to get the hang of the set-up. I would love to have some good looking material for my players to reference. They do a fair job keeping records, but having a digital atlas would be fantastic. Kaido, I saw your work when I was clicking around on City of Brass last night! "Warsong" is an evocative name for your campaign setting. Thanks, I like the name too. I dropped out of RPG's for years, with some sporadic play with friends here and there, but mostly completely died off when I had a kid (19 or so). Now my kid is getting older, and I am getting back into it. So "Warsong" is all that I love from settings back then (Dragonlance, Dark Sun, OG Forgotten Realms, and Greyhawk) combined with books I loved back then (DL Chronicles, Death Gate Cycle, Rift War Saga, LotR, and others) and then I will take all that in with the new games and things I am learning now, and the fantasy experiences I have had in my hiatus from RPGing. So you know how a song brings notes together and makes the cohesive and entertaining, thus my name and what fantasy world doesn't have war and chaos in it? I also didn't want to name it a world, because their wont be one world in my setting. I am about to start my first game in the rough draft universe of Warsong on Gamersplane with some of the guys from here. It should be cool, they will be contributors and inspiration for me to build it out. To answer some of your other posts real quick. I agree, writing is still the way I brainstorm or jot down my random ideas. I always have one of my Moleskins with me for jotting down something that I might think of. If someone where to look at these notebooks it would look like a geek threw up random thoughts all over it, but I know what they are. I found recently that I love hand drawing maps, despite having the skill to do it in Photoshop if I wanted, and other things like that. It's the tried and true method and nothing wrong with a good ole pencil, and a napkin or a full blown notebook. I am very ADD and I need notebooks. I don't want to loose stuff though, so storing them digitally is the only way to go whether that is after the writing or at time of writing. CityofBrass is an interesting concept. The creators I think had a vision of something that would work out of the box, but all put in systems to make it highly customized if you wanted. I really only use the "World Builder" at this point, to record down major notes for my universes setting. The truth is, there are more and more resources springing up for this kind of thing. I just picked City of Brass because I like the clean minimalist approach as opposed to something like Obsidian Portal, where users can customize it like an old myspace page. Some look great, some look terrible. I don't need custom backgrounds, I need a clean interface to present to players who might be playing in my world. CityofBrass has a limitation though, where you really get the full benefit, you and YOUR players have to pay for the site. It's a minimal fee, but will make it tough for them to compete with say Roll20 when they launch their play online system. Now, if you want, I would be glad to get on a Google Hangout or Skype or something like that and help you with CoB if you like. I am no expert, but I know some tricks at least with the "World Builder" portion that may be of some benefit and shed light across the board on it. Such as using Tags to customize links and displayed information, etc. TIP: Follow City of Brass on Twitter, they put out promos every once in a while. I got 50% off a year, so it was like 10 dollars for me to use it the next year.
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Post by DM Kiado on Jan 11, 2016 17:43:34 GMT
As a side note, this is also the kind of inspiration you get from the guys here. My idea really came to life because of Samuel Wise on here. He is running a world that he developed at a young age, and I think that is really cool. It inspired me to dig out some of my old stuff from back in day. Maps and other ideas that kind of birthed my whole idea of my universe at the highest level. That's why I love it here, inspiration comes almost daily.
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Post by joatmoniac on Jan 11, 2016 21:04:47 GMT
I moved the thread! It finally happened, haha. I couldn't agree more with your last post. The people on here and the inspiration that they have given me is one of the best things ever about this community! Obviously without this community I wouldn't have been afforded the awesome opportunities that I have taken advantage of. No DM-Nastics = no segment = no helping edit = no official host = no guesting on other podcasts. Which I did for the first time, and it was terrifying but hopefully I did well. www.thetomeshow.com/e/round-table-101-kits-and-lone-wolf/ there it is if you feel so inclined to check it out! It's surprisingly applicable as they talk to the lead developer of Realm Works which is similar to City of Brass and could work really well for those who use Pathfinder material as they have really solid deals to work with them, so that all of that material can be integrated into your campaign management.
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Post by janewalksfar on Jan 11, 2016 22:13:40 GMT
I don't need custom backgrounds, I need a clean interface to present to players who might be playing in my world. CityofBrass has a limitation though, where you really get the full benefit, you and YOUR players have to pay for the site. It's a minimal fee, but will make it tough for them to compete with say Roll20 when they launch their play online system. Now, if you want, I would be glad to get on a Google Hangout or Skype or something like that and help you with CoB if you like. I am no expert, but I know some tricks at least with the "World Builder" portion that may be of some benefit and shed light across the board on it. Such as using Tags to customize links and displayed information, etc. TIP: Follow City of Brass on Twitter, they put out promos every once in a while. I got 50% off a year, so it was like 10 dollars for me to use it the next year. Yeah, I realized my players would have to pay too--which is unfortunate. It seems like if I make the district public, they'd be able to see that material. However, I really like the idea of having the adventure logs available too. I know as a player, I would appreciate having access to something like that. I scrawl a lot of notes during gameplay, but they don't always make sense, so having a source to double-check would be useful. Still tinkering around with it though. It seems that the format for the district/world builder and campaign builder sections are pretty much comparable, so I may experiment with incorporating the equivalent of campaign logs into the world builder--assuming I'm correct about non-members being able to view the world builder content.
I connected with you on City of Brass and may take you up on that offer for assistance if I keep tinkering enough to justify gobbling up someone else's time in addition to my own. ;-)
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