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Author Topic: Your favourite utilities  (Read 911 times)

StormBringer

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Your favourite utilities
« on: September 12, 2008, 04:23:25 PM »
You got a MySQL3 database holding together with a wing and a prayer?  Still using the map maker that came with the AD&D Core Rules software?  Maybe a Kindle with converted pdfs, or a super sleek Alienware laptop with a portable projector.

What are your favourite utilities for a session?  They don't even have to be ones you own, necessarily.  Know of a handy police forms clipboard without all the bulk?  Post it!  Finding some old Tupperware that makes a great dice holder/rolling area?  Post it!  Got a link to some Palm RPG software?  Post it!

My opener is fairly pedestrian and well known, I am sure.  I used to tote my AD&D 2nd edition books around in the wide milk crates.  Somewhat heavy, but everything fit!
If you read the above post, you owe me $20 for tutoring fees

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Roger

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2008, 09:36:32 PM »
I keep my (plastic) minis in a couple of cookie tins -- the sort that Xmas cookies come in.


Cheers,
Roger
 

StormBringer

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2008, 11:11:24 PM »
Excellent!  Stick it to the Man and those overpriced duffelbags for minis!
If you read the above post, you owe me $20 for tutoring fees

'Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I have no concern for it, but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.'
 - Thomas Paine
'Everything doesn't need

tellius

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2008, 12:00:06 AM »
My old lunch box (tupperware) holds emergency dice and mini's, pens, pencils, whiteboard markers, calculator, sharpener, eraser. All for emergency gaming.

I have recycled (i.e. rebuilt and tuned) an old shopping trolley thingy (the kind you see the old grannies use at the shopping centres) to hold my many books, mini's and campaign materials for easy transport and stowing in the boot of the car.

On the tech side, my new, tiny, cheap EEE laptop has all my pdf's on it, campaign notes and can fit behind my GM screen if I am in the mood to use it.

StormBringer

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2008, 04:20:30 AM »
Quote from: tellius;247370
On the tech side, my new, tiny, cheap EEE laptop has all my pdf's on it, campaign notes and can fit behind my GM screen if I am in the mood to use it.
Hmmm...  10" display, 40gb SSD, $600.  Not bad, and it has several USB ports for the portable HD and the mouse.  Still, that 10" display seems positively tiny compared to the 15" I am used to.
If you read the above post, you owe me $20 for tutoring fees

'Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I have no concern for it, but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.'
 - Thomas Paine
'Everything doesn't need

tellius

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #5 on: September 13, 2008, 05:41:14 AM »
It certainly isn't my main computer, but it is perfect for running games, reading pdf's on the train and it is well portable.

pathar

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #6 on: September 13, 2008, 08:54:46 AM »
I use spreadsheets in NeoOffice on my iBook G4 to handle most of my character sheets.

I carry my 'active' dice to game in a little red sack that says "You've been naughty!" in gold letters that someone gave me for Christmas.  (It was stuffed with coal.  Very amusing.  Oh yeah.)

... that's about it.  I'm a fairly low-maintenance player when it comes to silly ritual.
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Vaecrius

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2008, 09:28:25 PM »
executables

Notepad: what it says on the filename.

AIM Chat: Primarily because we all have AIM, but also because it's the easiest to use for any special font stuff. It's even got a built-in die roller!

Trillian: combining IRC and AIM means we've got more options in case a player has trouble connecting to one or the other. Also, on my end I have a homogenized format for IC/OOC/personal IM logs when going over the events of a given session.

MS Paint: I don't bother with drawing anything now. I just assign a colour to each entity and move them with the flood tool (right-click = terrain colour). This lets me save a grid (with coordinates already added) to use as a template, or I lose that reuse a previous battle's grid with minimum fuss. Any further details go into a nearby Notepad window.

Skype: Used once, ever. I liked it, though, and it works well in place of a separate OOC chatroom. Awfully awkward when you come across some fantasy names, though... but frankly, that's a problem with the setting not the program.

physical objects

Computer: obvious enough.

Ashtray: for dice. Also a watch I'm not wearing that just happens to neatly corral the most frequently used dice together on the table next to me.

web

My own custom roller: In play, I prefer to use either the AIM thing so everyone can see the roll or use a physical die, so this is only to handle either many dice at once or hidden rolls for some weird non-Platonic, non-d10 die I don't have. Outside of play, I use it to get a "feel" for how often certain results should come up when testing a houserule or something.

Google/YouTube: Every so often I need a reference for something, whether because I want a specific effect or someone doesn't know what named object XYZ is. I can never prepare for exactly what, though.

Bible Gateway: Because crazy religious references are always fun to throw in. :D

Behind The Name: I've found random generator results to be utter crap the vast majority of the time, so almost all my NPCs end up having "real-people" names which if I try to wing it all in my head often accidentally turn out to be "famous-real-people" names.

UglyNY.com: Recommended by a friend for reference pictures. Haven't really done much along those lines myself, but it could be useful when/if I run out of RL people I know to plug into my games as NPCs and I need inspiration.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2008, 09:50:57 PM by Vaecrius »

Idinsinuation

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2008, 10:44:30 AM »
I use an old military ammo pouch (I think) for my dice and pencils, and I have a nifty customizeable GM screen.  This weekend though I'm picking up my brother's old laptop so I might try some software out.
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StormBringer

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #9 on: September 19, 2008, 10:53:20 AM »
Good suggestions from everyone!  I am swiping several of these ideas for my own use.
If you read the above post, you owe me $20 for tutoring fees

'Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I have no concern for it, but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.'
 - Thomas Paine
'Everything doesn't need

Idinsinuation

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2008, 11:36:30 AM »
Quote from: Vaecrius;247781

MS Paint: I don't bother with drawing anything now. I just assign a colour to each entity and move them with the flood tool (right-click = terrain colour). This lets me save a grid (with coordinates already added) to use as a template, or I lose that reuse a previous battle's grid with minimum fuss. Any further details go into a nearby Notepad window.


That's a pretty sweet idea.
"A thousand fathers killed, a thousand virgin daughters spread, with swords still wet, with swords still wet, with the blood of their dead." - Protest the Hero

Buttercup

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #11 on: October 02, 2008, 03:55:34 PM »
I just got a new laptop, (it's pink!) and I'm determined to run a game using nothing but it.  I still need to find a dice rolling program that I like.  I've been using one that I got from ENW back in about 2002--Infinite Monkey's Dice Roller--but I think the algorithms are flawed.

One of the programs I'm most excited about, and that I think will make completely paperless DMing possible, is OneNote 2007.  I love this program.  Love.  It.

OneTinSoldier

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Your favourite utilities
« Reply #12 on: October 02, 2008, 05:13:10 PM »
I don't host the game I GM.

I use a laptop, with a cloned monitor facing the players (I carry the flatscreen monitor upside-down in a canvas shopping bag with the cables tucked into outside pockets). I use MapTool to display tactical maps on the monitor, which my players love, and which has dramatically increased the depth of tactical endeavors while cutting the time required for them. I also use the monitor to display pictures of NPCs, etc.

On the laptop, I use MS Office OneNote 2007 for all my charts, documents, and the like, with the exception of my campaign notes, whicxh are MS Word (I have to use hard copies of the notes when the monitior is on, and One Note doesn't print well on my printer).

For modern games, I have MS Street & Trips 2007 on the laptop-absolutely amazing utility.

I have a clipboard for the form I use to track various session-specific data on; when combat starts, I flip it over; there are two strips of velcro on the back. As initiative is determined, I put white poker chips with PC names on them on the strips (velcro on the back of the chips), plus red chips with numbers for the NPCs, in the order of actions. I then run the combat round, removing the chips as I go.
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