::EDIT:: Current Version (Functional as of July 2025) The spreadsheet has been redesigned from the original version, and spots where I talk about features not working in Excel for web are no longer applicable. Some formatting issues may persist, as I've noticed that accessing the file in different screen resolutions make some of the text too large for its cell or not wrap properly - I've tried to switch to fonts that work in multiple resolutions where I've noticed issues, but it's practically impossible to account for each spot in every resolution. ::/EDIT::
I only started DM'ing my own campaign earlier this year, but I immediately found myself wanting a tool where I could quickly look up all the relevant information for my players, enemies, locations and more, without having to juggle referencing the DM's Guide, Player's Guide, 5 printed character sheets, the campaign booklet, and/or half a dozen or more open tabs in the 5e wiki. I created a spreadsheet for myself where I put in all the raw information about the campaign and then used dropdowns to bring up everything I would need to know about a PC, enemy, or location all at once. I've found it incredibly useful, so far, and I'm planning on redesigning and developing it further, but I've hit a point where I want to design with usability for everyone in mind, and if I don't share it, I could put in hours or days of work building a feature that doesn't work when I share it online (something I did when I built the version I've linked, which is why I want to avoid it in the future.)
I know that currently, this spreadsheet will only function entirely as designed if you open it with the desktop version of Microsoft Excel, possibly only specific versions. The navigation buttons on the "Home" tab don't work in Excel for web due to a lack of support for Visual Basic code online. However, *most* of the functionality relies on in-cell lookup functions that work on desktop or online, so people should be able to get a good feel for how it's supposed to work. This file is specifically for "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" campaign that I'm currently running, but the idea for a finished form is that DM's will be able to add in their player information, edit the appropriate lists (which are hidden from view, when the spreadsheet is in "use mode"), and the spreadsheet adjusts to the new campaign. I'd love to get feedback on what I've built, hear what's user-friendly and what's confusing, and get some advice on maybe making some of the features that currently only function in very limited circumstances available for everyone.
If anyone would like to give it a basic test, using the link above, you might have to log in to a Microsoft account, but you can create a Live email account for free, then once you have it open, use the colored "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs along the bottom to navigate through the main pages, and then use the dropdowns on each page to change the information displayed. In the "Players" tab, the character name at the top left is a dropdown, as well as the cells below "Features" and "Spells". In the "Monsters" tab, there's only the cell beneath "Monster". In the "Phandalin tab, there are dropdowns for Locations, People, and Quests.
People who want to take a deeper look under the hood at everything that's going on can right-click any of the tabs and choose "unhide" to open up one or more of the *many* hidden tabs that hold all the background info, or encounter pages for hideouts/battles PC's may happen across in their explorations. I'm not exactly an expert at creating in Excel, so I might not be able to incorporate all the suggestions I'm sure people could come up with, but I'm definitely trying to build as versatile and user-friendly a tool as possible, so all feedback is welcome.
As a final note - I wasn't sure if features would be usable without making the file open to editing, so if everyone could please be polite and not delete things, hide any tabs they unhide, and make sure the main "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs remain visible before exiting, it would be greatly appreciated.
I completely rebuilt the spreadsheet. Since all the visual basic features I built into the first version were broken in Excel for web, I streamlined navigation and made everything available in just three tabs.
I've also added nested dropdowns that keep everything compact. Choosing something from one of the dropdowns in the menu along the top will update the corresponding dropdown on the left, and to make everything as clear as possible, when you change the category in the top menu, all the corresponding boxes change color to help users identify what has changed.
This is still really just a beta test, but I'm pretty excited for how useful this could be for DM's trying to keep track of an entire campaign worth of details without having to reference a dozen different sources. Feedback is very welcome - I'm open to all kinds of suggestions on what could be added, changed, or streamlined to make this as useful as possible for everyone.
i want other dm tools. this is a SUPER cool and good tool.
Let me know what your looking for - Learning the functionality of the dropdown list/lookup function was the hardest part of building the spreadsheet. If it's just a matter of building something that looks up a different set of information, I can probably build the framework in a couple of hours, then it just depends what information you want at hand how much copying and pasting it will take.
Hadn't checked back in a while, since I didn't get much response at first, but if the old link broke, this should function - Rebuild.xlsx
Since it's been several months, I'm not sure if this is the exact same layout as the previous file. I've continued tinkering, reformatted a few things, added some new lookups, filled in some of the spell/ability information I was missing before, and a few other minor tweaks.
dam thats impressive and it works on web version so you didnt even use a macro u just used =lookup, how lond did it take to make
Funnily enough, I did actually start with a version that had macros for navigation, but everything broke when I tried to port it to the web version, so I had to start again. I'd say the macro version had about 3-4 hours of wasted work, and the entire thing probably took between 20-30 hours, but a fair portion of that was getting all the campaign information entered, which I would have spent familiarizing myself with the campaign, anyway. It's a framework I plan on using for future campaigns, and I think the time it saves during a play session, not having to flip through a giant binder between spell information, character sheets, location and NPC info, monster stat blocks, etc. has already made it a net benefit for myself in play experience, if not time, yet.
Luckily, I had recently been learning a lot of excel functionality for work, so everything I used in the spreadsheet was something I had already had at least a little experience with before I tried to build it into my DM tool. The lookup function is extremely useful when you get the hang of it, and is used far more than anything else, but what I'm really proud of is the trick with data validation that allowed me to make a choice in one dropdown list change another dropdown list, so you can just choose between PC or Monster stat blocks and have all the information show up in the same boxes, or have one tab where you can run players through every dungeon in a campaign. It has some quirky limitations, like dungeon names having to be a single word with no spaces, but I'm incredibly happy with how clean it makes things.
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::EDIT:: Current Version (Functional as of July 2025) The spreadsheet has been redesigned from the original version, and spots where I talk about features not working in Excel for web are no longer applicable. Some formatting issues may persist, as I've noticed that accessing the file in different screen resolutions make some of the text too large for its cell or not wrap properly - I've tried to switch to fonts that work in multiple resolutions where I've noticed issues, but it's practically impossible to account for each spot in every resolution. ::/EDIT::
I only started DM'ing my own campaign earlier this year, but I immediately found myself wanting a tool where I could quickly look up all the relevant information for my players, enemies, locations and more, without having to juggle referencing the DM's Guide, Player's Guide, 5 printed character sheets, the campaign booklet, and/or half a dozen or more open tabs in the 5e wiki. I created a spreadsheet for myself where I put in all the raw information about the campaign and then used dropdowns to bring up everything I would need to know about a PC, enemy, or location all at once. I've found it incredibly useful, so far, and I'm planning on redesigning and developing it further, but I've hit a point where I want to design with usability for everyone in mind, and if I don't share it, I could put in hours or days of work building a feature that doesn't work when I share it online (something I did when I built the version I've linked, which is why I want to avoid it in the future.)
I know that currently, this spreadsheet will only function entirely as designed if you open it with the desktop version of Microsoft Excel, possibly only specific versions. The navigation buttons on the "Home" tab don't work in Excel for web due to a lack of support for Visual Basic code online. However, *most* of the functionality relies on in-cell lookup functions that work on desktop or online, so people should be able to get a good feel for how it's supposed to work. This file is specifically for "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" campaign that I'm currently running, but the idea for a finished form is that DM's will be able to add in their player information, edit the appropriate lists (which are hidden from view, when the spreadsheet is in "use mode"), and the spreadsheet adjusts to the new campaign. I'd love to get feedback on what I've built, hear what's user-friendly and what's confusing, and get some advice on maybe making some of the features that currently only function in very limited circumstances available for everyone.If anyone would like to give it a basic test, using the link above, you might have to log in to a Microsoft account, but you can create a Live email account for free, then once you have it open, use the colored "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs along the bottom to navigate through the main pages, and then use the dropdowns on each page to change the information displayed. In the "Players" tab, the character name at the top left is a dropdown, as well as the cells below "Features" and "Spells". In the "Monsters" tab, there's only the cell beneath "Monster". In the "Phandalin tab, there are dropdowns for Locations, People, and Quests.
People who want to take a deeper look under the hood at everything that's going on can right-click any of the tabs and choose "unhide" to open up one or more of the *many* hidden tabs that hold all the background info, or encounter pages for hideouts/battles PC's may happen across in their explorations. I'm not exactly an expert at creating in Excel, so I might not be able to incorporate all the suggestions I'm sure people could come up with, but I'm definitely trying to build as versatile and user-friendly a tool as possible, so all feedback is welcome.
As a final note - I wasn't sure if features would be usable without making the file open to editing, so if everyone could please be polite and not delete things, hide any tabs they unhide, and make sure the main "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs remain visible before exiting, it would be greatly appreciated.
I completely rebuilt the spreadsheet. Since all the visual basic features I built into the first version were broken in Excel for web, I streamlined navigation and made everything available in just three tabs.
I've also added nested dropdowns that keep everything compact. Choosing something from one of the dropdowns in the menu along the top will update the corresponding dropdown on the left, and to make everything as clear as possible, when you change the category in the top menu, all the corresponding boxes change color to help users identify what has changed.
This is still really just a beta test, but I'm pretty excited for how useful this could be for DM's trying to keep track of an entire campaign worth of details without having to reference a dozen different sources. Feedback is very welcome - I'm open to all kinds of suggestions on what could be added, changed, or streamlined to make this as useful as possible for everyone.
nope no good
i want other dm tools. this is a SUPER cool and good tool.
The file seems to be gone or broken.
Morcantis KagetaneLet me know what your looking for - Learning the functionality of the dropdown list/lookup function was the hardest part of building the spreadsheet. If it's just a matter of building something that looks up a different set of information, I can probably build the framework in a couple of hours, then it just depends what information you want at hand how much copying and pasting it will take.
Hadn't checked back in a while, since I didn't get much response at first, but if the old link broke, this should function - Rebuild.xlsx
Since it's been several months, I'm not sure if this is the exact same layout as the previous file. I've continued tinkering, reformatted a few things, added some new lookups, filled in some of the spell/ability information I was missing before, and a few other minor tweaks.
dam thats impressive and it works on web version so you didnt even use a macro u just used =lookup, how lond did it take to make
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Funnily enough, I did actually start with a version that had macros for navigation, but everything broke when I tried to port it to the web version, so I had to start again. I'd say the macro version had about 3-4 hours of wasted work, and the entire thing probably took between 20-30 hours, but a fair portion of that was getting all the campaign information entered, which I would have spent familiarizing myself with the campaign, anyway. It's a framework I plan on using for future campaigns, and I think the time it saves during a play session, not having to flip through a giant binder between spell information, character sheets, location and NPC info, monster stat blocks, etc. has already made it a net benefit for myself in play experience, if not time, yet.
Luckily, I had recently been learning a lot of excel functionality for work, so everything I used in the spreadsheet was something I had already had at least a little experience with before I tried to build it into my DM tool. The lookup function is extremely useful when you get the hang of it, and is used far more than anything else, but what I'm really proud of is the trick with data validation that allowed me to make a choice in one dropdown list change another dropdown list, so you can just choose between PC or Monster stat blocks and have all the information show up in the same boxes, or have one tab where you can run players through every dungeon in a campaign. It has some quirky limitations, like dungeon names having to be a single word with no spaces, but I'm incredibly happy with how clean it makes things.