Post by friartook on Jun 9, 2015 16:35:27 GMT
I had my own little light bulb last night during our D&D session. We decided to head over to the local Student Union for this session. They have a big outdoor terrace and the weather was nice. So, I brought candles and lights and such, but both my lights ended up having dead batteries.
Normally, I have a laptop with my PDF of the Monster manual on it, then some scrap paper and a DM screen to hide it behind. Due to the lighting situation and limited space on the tables, I just used my laptop last night.
The light bulb came when I thought about tracking initiative and enemy HP. I pulled up Notepad at first, then started up Excel instead. Excel works great for this purpose! I was able to set up a spreadsheet on the fly that allowed me to track and sort initiative. Then I made columns for the HP of each enemy in the encounter, and put the name of the character engaged with it as the header. This was all done in about 30 seconds. If I had had a spreadsheet already created for this purpose, It would have taken even less time.
If I make a template I like I'll post it here. If anyone else has one they use, I'd love to see it. I really only have a basic to intermediate knowledge of Excel.
Normally, I have a laptop with my PDF of the Monster manual on it, then some scrap paper and a DM screen to hide it behind. Due to the lighting situation and limited space on the tables, I just used my laptop last night.
The light bulb came when I thought about tracking initiative and enemy HP. I pulled up Notepad at first, then started up Excel instead. Excel works great for this purpose! I was able to set up a spreadsheet on the fly that allowed me to track and sort initiative. Then I made columns for the HP of each enemy in the encounter, and put the name of the character engaged with it as the header. This was all done in about 30 seconds. If I had had a spreadsheet already created for this purpose, It would have taken even less time.
If I make a template I like I'll post it here. If anyone else has one they use, I'd love to see it. I really only have a basic to intermediate knowledge of Excel.
