Been a long-time DM, 35 years now. I have mainly managed my games in the old fashion analog way and have never DMed an online game. I'm not opposed to trying the online DMing. I have recently become a fan of D&D Beyond and running a few games through it. The encounter builder is very helpful. Along with the ease of finding rules with a quick search. I am writing to get ideas on how other DM's manage their games. I like the idea of being able to access everything through my phone. Just in essence, what tools do you use to manage your games? I appreciate any advice on tools and programs to use. I have thought about using OneNote or Google Doc. I figure asking you guys might save me a lot of headaches. I am well versed in computers and run my real-life contract projects through Microsoft Project Manager. Being able to bring my hobby over to a digital world has me very excited.
Some of my players enjoy the easy of DDB and was happy to convert to the system. Other players are playing homebrew classes I have approved that they have found online. How do you guys manage such homebrew players? You have them digitize them or what?
Figure setting up links in my campaign to my Google Drive might be a good idea, what would you suggest?
I normally make up maps and such on the fly. Most of my settings are homebrew, any suggestions here would be explored. Such as notes, images, and such.
Anything else you would like to suggest would be helpful.
Thank you in advance.
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THAC0 means "To-Hit Armor Class 0", and depending on who you ask, it was either pronounced "thack-oh" or "thay-ko". When a -5 was amazing and an insult was asking, "What alignment are you again?"
This looks amazing! D&D Beyond should buy/hire them. Simply marvelous. Do you have a subscription with them? If so, what is it like?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
THAC0 means "To-Hit Armor Class 0", and depending on who you ask, it was either pronounced "thack-oh" or "thay-ko". When a -5 was amazing and an insult was asking, "What alignment are you again?"
THAC0 means "To-Hit Armor Class 0", and depending on who you ask, it was either pronounced "thack-oh" or "thay-ko". When a -5 was amazing and an insult was asking, "What alignment are you again?"
Sorry, loads of work stuff today, school day trip, but yes I have a subscription because 1. Ads suck and 2. I supports the devs directly as they can show sub info and usage to investors.
I have two campaigns with info in WorldAnvil and I keep slowly grinding articles out to flesh out the bones as needed and inspiration strikes.
I use One Note for well all my Note taking and world building needs. I use an old flat screen built into a table for digital maps which i use MapTool for. Which is a free Java based software that has fog of war, dynamic lighting, peer-to-peer online capabilities, some light map creation tools, individual campaign profiles. as well and a bunch of assets you can download, though there is a file size limit for maps . For map creations Dungeon Painter studio on steam, the community there is nice you are able to get an insane amount of high quality assets to build maps.
I'll never go to online stuff. In have a laptop where I write the next session and print it out. Simple. Having that piece of paper in my hands is glorious. Online stuff just takes that feeling away.
So to each their own. Do what you prefer and what feels right.
I still use actual hardcover books on my end and leave it up to the players when it comes to their own reference material. Yeah makes it a little bit slow to look things up times but for the most part I usually have everything referenced in one form or another for quick access. I actually enjoy playing online. We use discord with the voice chat. I have a few channel set up within discord. For example there is a game channel and even a table channel which we often times handle the dice rolls on. The game channels where I usually post images or maps. Of course there's the voice chat channel for the game as well as a voice chat channel for just general chat as well. There is a separate channel for initiative in the way we handle it most the time is that the dice are rolled within the table channel and then the results are recorded to the initiative channel. Which can be cleared out every time the cycle ends.
Actually use Photoshop for my mapping and we do a lot of feeder the mind as well. But with Photoshop I will actually do my fog of war with my maps and quickly save the images and post them to discord for the players to see as a progress in the game. By the way you can also use gimp which is a free program and works just as well. Something else I use his mega storage and is free. I will actually have various things in the mega cloud storage available for the players. I actually have a download channel set up and discord with the various links so they can download any needed material related to the game world. A world map for example and even a calendar. Occasionally I'll even do stuff specific for a player depending on what they have discovered during the game.
All my adventures, notes, quests, encounters, and etc. I handle with Google docs. I just type everything out there because it's easy access for myself. I can also take those documents and save them over to my computer if need be. I guess I could go on but I would like to add last thing I do use is a dice roller bot within discord. All the players use the bot where I is the DM simply will roll dice is a good app on my phone keeping a separate from the player roles in treating it similar to a DM screen.
Lastly. I still use a lot of scratch paper to take notes and record damage. You know all the nonsense that comes with DMing a game.
1. I got a USB stick with folders that I store everything on. 2. The important bits I need for the upcoming parts, or overall setting/town info, I print out and put into a binder 3. We also have a registered forum where I post recaps of sessions played. And have a hidden section for my DM notes, which are just copy/paste, notes from my USB stick. So I can access it online if I need it. 4. I got some side projects in documents on my google drive so I can work on it when at work. during times I got nothing else going on. Which is quite often.
We don't use DNDBeyond. I don't care for it either way. Don't see the added value for myself. offered to buy a premium account for my players to use. But they prefer paper character sheets and aren't in the mood to using the small screen on their phone or pad. We also have multiple copies of all the hardcover books. One version of each box of Spellcards etc.
I have bought boxes of Tile Sets and 3d Terrain tiles from Crippled God Foundry which allows me to build encounter environments. Or I just photoshop some stuff together. I'm also looking into DungeonFog as a tool for that.
I also modified my DM screen to lost all the little rules that I got trouble remembering the details off. Such as each condition and how Counterspell with rolls work to counter a higher level spell. Other than that I remember pretty much everything. Same as with what I need for cities/npc's/story elements. So my binder is rarely actually opened up to look for the details due to my awesome memory. It is usually just to take out the sheets with monster statblocks for encounters when it occurs hehe.
I saw an informal non-scientific poll about this on Reddit.
What really surprised me was that older Players/DMs tended to favor digital material, while younger demographics tended toward physical media: hardcover books, printed Character sheets, paper DM notes, etc.
I'm not sure why this would be.
As one of older demographic here, I organize everything online in the Google office suite.
I like the idea of sites like Worldanvil or Chronica, but that's someone elses' organizational scheme. Likewise, I find some of the organizational assumptions built into OneNote kind of restrictive.
I wish that vanilla self-hosted Wiki software wasn't so damned complex to configure and maintain. That would be just about ideal for me.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I saw an informal non-scientific poll about this on Reddit.
What really surprised me was that older Players/DMs tended to favor digital material, while younger demographics tended toward physical media: hardcover books, printed Character sheets, paper DM notes, etc.
I'm not sure why this would be.
As one of older demographic here, I organize everything online in the Google office suite.
I like the idea of sites like Worldanvil or Chronica, but that's someone elses' organizational scheme. Likewise, I find some of the organizational assumptions built into OneNote kind of restrictive.
I wish that vanilla self-hosted Wiki software wasn't so damned complex to configure and maintain. That would be just about ideal for me.
Interesting. I have been running games from as far back as the 80s. I prefer to have the actual books over digital media. Sure I use google docs for my game notes and whatnot. Also currently use Discord to host games. I in a way feel like I have been sort of forced to use digital tec.
I saw an informal non-scientific poll about this on Reddit.
What really surprised me was that older Players/DMs tended to favor digital material, while younger demographics tended toward physical media: hardcover books, printed Character sheets, paper DM notes, etc.
I'm not sure why this would be.
As one of older demographic here, I organize everything online in the Google office suite.
I like the idea of sites like Worldanvil or Chronica, but that's someone elses' organizational scheme. Likewise, I find some of the organizational assumptions built into OneNote kind of restrictive.
I wish that vanilla self-hosted Wiki software wasn't so damned complex to configure and maintain. That would be just about ideal for me.
For me it is the amount of stuff I carry. Normally, I run my RPGs out of my dining room, but 98% of my physical games are in the basement (along with a nice table that only sees action when the teenagers run their Monster of the Week PBA game) so bringing up stuff and setting it out is a hassle. I currently prefer to have just my DM screen, Dice Tower, and Initiative Tracker on the table, a small box of my selected Flat Plastic Minis for the encounters planned, and a wet erase marker for quick and dirty map based combat if needed. All of my rule books and other things are either on my iPad or Laptop.
I absolutely desire that Players use physical copies of their PCs, I print them out for them and maintain them between sessions. I can't understand how they can use DDB or some other software on their phones, the screen is too tiny even on my 11 max for it to be a tablet replacement. Dice must always be physical even though die roller apps can keep a log.
As to how WA organizes infomation, I find it quite flexible because I can hyperlink almost anything so that a region looks more like a web than a nested directory.
I just found my self back in the DM chair after 20 years. I do a hybrid system. The game is actual pen and paper. I keep all my world notes, adventures and digital backups of characters on my Onedrive. I use my tablet to look up stuff on D&D Beyond or consult any needed notes. Monsters and creatures I copy from D&D beyond in a word doc and print before the game. Character sheets are edited in Adobe Fill & Sign then printed.
File system consists of Characters, Adventure, Source Material, and NPC's divided up further to my personal needs.
I found using the cloud is more advantageous as what ever you use get damage you don't lose everything. I lost all my notes when my old tablet broke, (I thought it was being backed up but alas it wasn't working).
My toolbox has evolved a great deal over the years from being a strictly book, paper and pencil guy to now mostly digital. When I DM I have a large playmat and minis, I think it's very immersive to have players navigate around the map and during battle. I also have plenty of physical dice and provide copies of printed character sheets (if they prefer to use DnD beyond on their devices this is allowed too). Everything else is on my laptop, my DM "screen" is my computer screen with multiple browser tabs open to DnD beyond (tab with each character sheet, tabs for the monsters), Kobold Fight Club for encounters (until the DnD beyond one is more robust), another tab with background sounds fit to the current area, online dice roller, word document to make any notes I made need to reference to update things after the session.
I've found more and more this setup clears up a lot of table space for the action and allows me to have all the info I need at my fingertips.
1) My husband (Bob) and I (Stephanie) share this account (for logistical reasons: it's long and drawn out and painful, I don't feel like going into it)
2) I run my campaign with about a million redundancies; because, of MURPHY!!!! Yes, first session, everything went wrong: the power strip didn't work, so laptop died mid-game; the paper printouts kept getting mixed up; i lost the initiative order AND HPS of monsters that i wrote down: MID-COMBAT.... and that's just the highlights! Other sessions, I've left the power cord at home; the keyboard at home; many sessions I've had so much lag I've had to bluff my way through sessions; the wifi has gone out once; my paper notes spilled once; my dice have spilled; I've had drop-in-and-out-players on a constant basis to the point that I had to adjust the entire campaign structure on the concept that the party was never the same from week to week; and, I'm just learning 5e, let alone 5e GM'ing.
3) that said: my husband and I use OneNote over Evernote / WorldAnvil / etc. for personal logistics reasons, that are too complicated to get into here. There is a tiny amount of stuff shared on Google Drive / Google Docs; but, it is not very popular among the group. The group is not much into online resources: in fact, I can barely get them to reply to text messages. The group texts usually consist of last minute cancellations. During game, they mostly use paper, books, and spell cards. For writing, it's an array of pencils, pens and wet erase. Maps are wet erase, printed handouts; images: printed, drawn and the occasional screen images (I have 3 different size devices for quick reference in those cases); descriptions: verbal; printed, handwritten and synopsis on google docs [instead of printed]
4) additional tools: a massive monster excel spreadsheet w/ visual basic (I've done so much optimization, it's ridiculous). The lag on that thing is insane (it's a fairly high end laptop too): I now use it as a combat initiative timer lol: if the player can't come up with their next move in the next 90 seconds of lag before the spreadsheet updates (my entire computer is frozen lol) I jokingly set a timer and say that their turn passes from indecision. I got the idea from a YouTube video to make combats not drag out all night in misery. Combats are a lot more lively now and mistakes happen; but, they are having a lot more fun. [I don't honestly hold them to the 90 seconds if there are legitimate reasons to pause the timer here and there]
4a) Kobold fight club (mostly for prep) to give a better idea of how to properly challenge a party (not too easy , not too deadly) with monster combats
4b) there are many random name generators out there of all types, as well as fictional and real language translators of all types. there are constantly new ones being developed
4c) for puzzles, riddles and traps: there are zillions of things you can google these days, from pdf's, to phone apps, etc.
4d) sane magic item prices: you'll inevitably start getting players wanting their pc's to buy and sell magic items, above and beyond xenethar's guide
4e) from pathfinder days, there's stronghold builder: you'll inevitably get people that want to build or renovate stuff to call home. easier to have guidelines... and if you've ever lived in the real world and bought or rented real estate, you know about 5% real estate taxes, 7% mortgages, 1% hazard insurance, and a whole host of other things to suck money out of player characters pockets that they will gladly fork over: staff, special effects, the list is endless....there was an internet article on the web basically put realistic profit margins of npc shopkeeper's (of the same social class level as an adventurer) at about 6.66% [50% lifestyle, 33.33% upkeep, 10% income taxes), then let them have shopkeepers earn 8-20gp/month on their 2000gp+ mortgages lol they will be adventuring like mad to keep up payments of their super luxurious mansions w/ 60 staff (including 15 guards) that has all the services they could imagine at their fingertips... they just have to adventure until they die :D because they will continually add more features and increase the cost/month:
make it interesting
give it perks
perhaps do the spreadsheets for them, instead of throwing the spreadsheets at them [definitely keep most of it out of game]
give it a caretaker [an "Alfred" to their "Bat Cave"] and other interesting NPC's that are fleshed out
make the players feel safe in their home [attacking in their home base changes EVERYTHING and can only rarely]
4f) YouTube has tons of tutorials on topics of every sort, same with google. sometimes i just stream of thought google and YouTube topics to see what will come up. it is amazing what the internet has to offer. i save tons of stuff to OneNote that I find interesting.
5) so, getting to online GM'ing: there are several things to consider 1) murphy's law (how many things can break simultaneously at once and still run a coherent game?) 2) cost (for the gm and for the players as well) 3) hardware and software (again, see 1 & 2) 5a) preferences: some people already have accounts, hardware and software that they favor certain types of online gaming preferences and some will poopoo other types
5b) lag!!!
5c) features of said gaming setup: pro's and con's (see all of the above)
5d) some examples: fantasy grounds (on steam, modular purchases that can be very expensive, didn't investigate if they have community content); roll20.net (moderately priced to expensive if you buy the higher tier stuff, most is free/good); optionally, people use google hangouts and other video/audio software for communication and might play that way (with or without specialized software for gaming environments).
I saw an informal non-scientific poll about this on Reddit.
What really surprised me was that older Players/DMs tended to favor digital material, while younger demographics tended toward physical media: hardcover books, printed Character sheets, paper DM notes, etc.
I'm not sure why this would be.
As one of older demographic here, I organize everything online in the Google office suite.
I like the idea of sites like Worldanvil or Chronica, but that's someone elses' organizational scheme. Likewise, I find some of the organizational assumptions built into OneNote kind of restrictive.
I wish that vanilla self-hosted Wiki software wasn't so damned complex to configure and maintain. That would be just about ideal for me.
Hey Vedexent: can you link that reddit poll? I couldn't find it on my google search. Thanks!
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Been a long-time DM, 35 years now. I have mainly managed my games in the old fashion analog way and have never DMed an online game. I'm not opposed to trying the online DMing. I have recently become a fan of D&D Beyond and running a few games through it. The encounter builder is very helpful. Along with the ease of finding rules with a quick search. I am writing to get ideas on how other DM's manage their games. I like the idea of being able to access everything through my phone. Just in essence, what tools do you use to manage your games? I appreciate any advice on tools and programs to use. I have thought about using OneNote or Google Doc. I figure asking you guys might save me a lot of headaches. I am well versed in computers and run my real-life contract projects through Microsoft Project Manager. Being able to bring my hobby over to a digital world has me very excited.
Some of my players enjoy the easy of DDB and was happy to convert to the system. Other players are playing homebrew classes I have approved that they have found online. How do you guys manage such homebrew players? You have them digitize them or what?
Figure setting up links in my campaign to my Google Drive might be a good idea, what would you suggest?
I normally make up maps and such on the fly. Most of my settings are homebrew, any suggestions here would be explored. Such as notes, images, and such.
Anything else you would like to suggest would be helpful.
Thank you in advance.
THAC0 means "To-Hit Armor Class 0", and depending on who you ask, it was either pronounced "thack-oh" or "thay-ko". When a -5 was amazing and an insult was asking, "What alignment are you again?"
Worldanvil.com
This looks amazing! D&D Beyond should buy/hire them. Simply marvelous. Do you have a subscription with them? If so, what is it like?
THAC0 means "To-Hit Armor Class 0", and depending on who you ask, it was either pronounced "thack-oh" or "thay-ko". When a -5 was amazing and an insult was asking, "What alignment are you again?"
Anyone have other good tool suggestions?
THAC0 means "To-Hit Armor Class 0", and depending on who you ask, it was either pronounced "thack-oh" or "thay-ko". When a -5 was amazing and an insult was asking, "What alignment are you again?"
Sorry, loads of work stuff today, school day trip, but yes I have a subscription because 1. Ads suck and 2. I supports the devs directly as they can show sub info and usage to investors.
I have two campaigns with info in WorldAnvil and I keep slowly grinding articles out to flesh out the bones as needed and inspiration strikes.
Also they are partnering with the just kickstarted Dungeonfog mapmaker. If everything works out it will be an amazing suite of combined tools.
I use One Note for well all my Note taking and world building needs. I use an old flat screen built into a table for digital maps which i use MapTool for. Which is a free Java based software that has fog of war, dynamic lighting, peer-to-peer online capabilities, some light map creation tools, individual campaign profiles. as well and a bunch of assets you can download, though there is a file size limit for maps . For map creations Dungeon Painter studio on steam, the community there is nice you are able to get an insane amount of high quality assets to build maps.
I have the 5e books.
I'll never go to online stuff. In have a laptop where I write the next session and print it out. Simple. Having that piece of paper in my hands is glorious. Online stuff just takes that feeling away.
So to each their own. Do what you prefer and what feels right.
Just started a campaign on chronica ventures. Seems good so far.
I still use actual hardcover books on my end and leave it up to the players when it comes to their own reference material. Yeah makes it a little bit slow to look things up times but for the most part I usually have everything referenced in one form or another for quick access. I actually enjoy playing online. We use discord with the voice chat. I have a few channel set up within discord. For example there is a game channel and even a table channel which we often times handle the dice rolls on. The game channels where I usually post images or maps. Of course there's the voice chat channel for the game as well as a voice chat channel for just general chat as well. There is a separate channel for initiative in the way we handle it most the time is that the dice are rolled within the table channel and then the results are recorded to the initiative channel. Which can be cleared out every time the cycle ends.
Actually use Photoshop for my mapping and we do a lot of feeder the mind as well. But with Photoshop I will actually do my fog of war with my maps and quickly save the images and post them to discord for the players to see as a progress in the game. By the way you can also use gimp which is a free program and works just as well. Something else I use his mega storage and is free. I will actually have various things in the mega cloud storage available for the players. I actually have a download channel set up and discord with the various links so they can download any needed material related to the game world. A world map for example and even a calendar. Occasionally I'll even do stuff specific for a player depending on what they have discovered during the game.
All my adventures, notes, quests, encounters, and etc. I handle with Google docs. I just type everything out there because it's easy access for myself. I can also take those documents and save them over to my computer if need be. I guess I could go on but I would like to add last thing I do use is a dice roller bot within discord. All the players use the bot where I is the DM simply will roll dice is a good app on my phone keeping a separate from the player roles in treating it similar to a DM screen.
Lastly. I still use a lot of scratch paper to take notes and record damage. You know all the nonsense that comes with DMing a game.
1. I got a USB stick with folders that I store everything on.
2. The important bits I need for the upcoming parts, or overall setting/town info, I print out and put into a binder
3. We also have a registered forum where I post recaps of sessions played. And have a hidden section for my DM notes, which are just copy/paste, notes from my USB stick. So I can access it online if I need it.
4. I got some side projects in documents on my google drive so I can work on it when at work. during times I got nothing else going on. Which is quite often.
We don't use DNDBeyond. I don't care for it either way. Don't see the added value for myself. offered to buy a premium account for my players to use. But they prefer paper character sheets and aren't in the mood to using the small screen on their phone or pad. We also have multiple copies of all the hardcover books. One version of each box of Spellcards etc.
I have bought boxes of Tile Sets and 3d Terrain tiles from Crippled God Foundry which allows me to build encounter environments. Or I just photoshop some stuff together. I'm also looking into DungeonFog as a tool for that.
I also modified my DM screen to lost all the little rules that I got trouble remembering the details off. Such as each condition and how Counterspell with rolls work to counter a higher level spell. Other than that I remember pretty much everything. Same as with what I need for cities/npc's/story elements. So my binder is rarely actually opened up to look for the details due to my awesome memory. It is usually just to take out the sheets with monster statblocks for encounters when it occurs hehe.
I saw an informal non-scientific poll about this on Reddit.
What really surprised me was that older Players/DMs tended to favor digital material, while younger demographics tended toward physical media: hardcover books, printed Character sheets, paper DM notes, etc.
I'm not sure why this would be.
As one of older demographic here, I organize everything online in the Google office suite.
I like the idea of sites like Worldanvil or Chronica, but that's someone elses' organizational scheme. Likewise, I find some of the organizational assumptions built into OneNote kind of restrictive.
I wish that vanilla self-hosted Wiki software wasn't so damned complex to configure and maintain. That would be just about ideal for me.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Interesting. I have been running games from as far back as the 80s. I prefer to have the actual books over digital media. Sure I use google docs for my game notes and whatnot. Also currently use Discord to host games. I in a way feel like I have been sort of forced to use digital tec.
For me it is the amount of stuff I carry. Normally, I run my RPGs out of my dining room, but 98% of my physical games are in the basement (along with a nice table that only sees action when the teenagers run their Monster of the Week PBA game) so bringing up stuff and setting it out is a hassle. I currently prefer to have just my DM screen, Dice Tower, and Initiative Tracker on the table, a small box of my selected Flat Plastic Minis for the encounters planned, and a wet erase marker for quick and dirty map based combat if needed. All of my rule books and other things are either on my iPad or Laptop.
I absolutely desire that Players use physical copies of their PCs, I print them out for them and maintain them between sessions. I can't understand how they can use DDB or some other software on their phones, the screen is too tiny even on my 11 max for it to be a tablet replacement. Dice must always be physical even though die roller apps can keep a log.
As to how WA organizes infomation, I find it quite flexible because I can hyperlink almost anything so that a region looks more like a web than a nested directory.
I just found my self back in the DM chair after 20 years. I do a hybrid system. The game is actual pen and paper. I keep all my world notes, adventures and digital backups of characters on my Onedrive. I use my tablet to look up stuff on D&D Beyond or consult any needed notes. Monsters and creatures I copy from D&D beyond in a word doc and print before the game. Character sheets are edited in Adobe Fill & Sign then printed.
File system consists of Characters, Adventure, Source Material, and NPC's divided up further to my personal needs.
I found using the cloud is more advantageous as what ever you use get damage you don't lose everything. I lost all my notes when my old tablet broke, (I thought it was being backed up but alas it wasn't working).
My toolbox has evolved a great deal over the years from being a strictly book, paper and pencil guy to now mostly digital. When I DM I have a large playmat and minis, I think it's very immersive to have players navigate around the map and during battle. I also have plenty of physical dice and provide copies of printed character sheets (if they prefer to use DnD beyond on their devices this is allowed too). Everything else is on my laptop, my DM "screen" is my computer screen with multiple browser tabs open to DnD beyond (tab with each character sheet, tabs for the monsters), Kobold Fight Club for encounters (until the DnD beyond one is more robust), another tab with background sounds fit to the current area, online dice roller, word document to make any notes I made need to reference to update things after the session.
I've found more and more this setup clears up a lot of table space for the action and allows me to have all the info I need at my fingertips.
1) My husband (Bob) and I (Stephanie) share this account (for logistical reasons: it's long and drawn out and painful, I don't feel like going into it)
2) I run my campaign with about a million redundancies; because, of MURPHY!!!! Yes, first session, everything went wrong: the power strip didn't work, so laptop died mid-game; the paper printouts kept getting mixed up; i lost the initiative order AND HPS of monsters that i wrote down: MID-COMBAT.... and that's just the highlights! Other sessions, I've left the power cord at home; the keyboard at home; many sessions I've had so much lag I've had to bluff my way through sessions; the wifi has gone out once; my paper notes spilled once; my dice have spilled; I've had drop-in-and-out-players on a constant basis to the point that I had to adjust the entire campaign structure on the concept that the party was never the same from week to week; and, I'm just learning 5e, let alone 5e GM'ing.
3) that said: my husband and I use OneNote over Evernote / WorldAnvil / etc. for personal logistics reasons, that are too complicated to get into here. There is a tiny amount of stuff shared on Google Drive / Google Docs; but, it is not very popular among the group. The group is not much into online resources: in fact, I can barely get them to reply to text messages. The group texts usually consist of last minute cancellations. During game, they mostly use paper, books, and spell cards. For writing, it's an array of pencils, pens and wet erase. Maps are wet erase, printed handouts; images: printed, drawn and the occasional screen images (I have 3 different size devices for quick reference in those cases); descriptions: verbal; printed, handwritten and synopsis on google docs [instead of printed]
4) additional tools: a massive monster excel spreadsheet w/ visual basic (I've done so much optimization, it's ridiculous). The lag on that thing is insane (it's a fairly high end laptop too): I now use it as a combat initiative timer lol: if the player can't come up with their next move in the next 90 seconds of lag before the spreadsheet updates (my entire computer is frozen lol) I jokingly set a timer and say that their turn passes from indecision. I got the idea from a YouTube video to make combats not drag out all night in misery. Combats are a lot more lively now and mistakes happen; but, they are having a lot more fun. [I don't honestly hold them to the 90 seconds if there are legitimate reasons to pause the timer here and there]
4a) Kobold fight club (mostly for prep) to give a better idea of how to properly challenge a party (not too easy , not too deadly) with monster combats
4b) there are many random name generators out there of all types, as well as fictional and real language translators of all types. there are constantly new ones being developed
4c) for puzzles, riddles and traps: there are zillions of things you can google these days, from pdf's, to phone apps, etc.
4d) sane magic item prices: you'll inevitably start getting players wanting their pc's to buy and sell magic items, above and beyond xenethar's guide
4e) from pathfinder days, there's stronghold builder: you'll inevitably get people that want to build or renovate stuff to call home. easier to have guidelines... and if you've ever lived in the real world and bought or rented real estate, you know about 5% real estate taxes, 7% mortgages, 1% hazard insurance, and a whole host of other things to suck money out of player characters pockets that they will gladly fork over: staff, special effects, the list is endless....there was an internet article on the web basically put realistic profit margins of npc shopkeeper's (of the same social class level as an adventurer) at about 6.66% [50% lifestyle, 33.33% upkeep, 10% income taxes), then let them have shopkeepers earn 8-20gp/month on their 2000gp+ mortgages lol they will be adventuring like mad to keep up payments of their super luxurious mansions w/ 60 staff (including 15 guards) that has all the services they could imagine at their fingertips... they just have to adventure until they die :D because they will continually add more features and increase the cost/month:
4f) YouTube has tons of tutorials on topics of every sort, same with google. sometimes i just stream of thought google and YouTube topics to see what will come up. it is amazing what the internet has to offer. i save tons of stuff to OneNote that I find interesting.
5) so, getting to online GM'ing: there are several things to consider 1) murphy's law (how many things can break simultaneously at once and still run a coherent game?) 2) cost (for the gm and for the players as well) 3) hardware and software (again, see 1 & 2)
5a) preferences: some people already have accounts, hardware and software that they favor certain types of online gaming preferences and some will poopoo other types
5b) lag!!!
5c) features of said gaming setup: pro's and con's (see all of the above)
5d) some examples: fantasy grounds (on steam, modular purchases that can be very expensive, didn't investigate if they have community content); roll20.net (moderately priced to expensive if you buy the higher tier stuff, most is free/good); optionally, people use google hangouts and other video/audio software for communication and might play that way (with or without specialized software for gaming environments).
Hey Vedexent: can you link that reddit poll? I couldn't find it on my google search. Thanks!