What I really need is a good campaign manager. Something I can load up encounters and have them at the ready. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes from this here.
The D&D insider had a pretty good system for loading up your monster stats and provide a printable PDF. That way I could just add it into my campaign binder ready to use.
I like that I can look up monsters quickly and easy but what I really want is a way to collect what I want/need and print if off for use. Actually put together a encounter ready for use. I can already use my MM and Volos to look stuff up.
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JT "You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I'm definitely looking forward to all of that stuff. I've noticed you can search monsters by environment, which would be great for encounter building. Start a dungeon encounter and get a list of all the appropriate monsters. Assuming your players use DDB too, it'd know their levels and be able to generate you a medium/deadly encounter based on CRs and stuff, with appropriate loot. And then, what I'm really hoping is that it should let you run that encounter too with HP tracking and all the rest of it.
It would also be great if there was a map creator go with the campaign editor. I've looked all over the place for a decently priced maker but any of the half decent ones are too pricey. Perhaps WotC has the money to develop one affordably to roll in with the subscription, then you can create your map and drag and drop encounters into it.
How do most people manage this for their campaigns? I've been using spreadsheets information about encounters and adding up experience for players since 3rd edition.
2nd seemed to have simplar monster stats and therefore didn't need more then the simple stat block, but with 3rd and continuing to 5th I need more info for listing encounters.
So what do y'all use?
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Long time player. Started with basic, and played AD&D, 2nd edition, 3rd edition, and the D&D killer 4th.
After that I took some time off, like many others. I'm hoping 5th can make D&D great again.
Realm Works is easily the most powerful Campaign Manager I have yet to use. I've tried everything I can find and so far only one meets all of my requirements.
I used to be all pen and paper, but it was such a pain to drag it every. I adopted the GameMaster5 app by Lion's Den for IOS. It took some configuration, but now that it's all set up it's all I need. You can create multiple campaigns, containing seperate adventures, which contain encounters. The app holds a dice roller, campaign notes, NPC's, PC's, encounters, a compendium you can fill with monsters, items and spells. You can also add a virtual DM screen with useful quick info.
What I really love about it is that whenever I get an idea on the road I just open the app on my phone, add it, and it will sync to my dropbox so I can use it on my iPad (which is what I DM from).
The flexibility of it all is great and right now I've yet to find anything better that suits my needs.
Realm Works is easily the most powerful Campaign Manager I have yet to use. I've tried everything I can find and so far only one meets all of my requirements.
I use Trello for most of my campaign/adventure/encounter notes, along with Obsidian Portal for referencing lore and NPCs, and improved-initiative for throwing together quick encounters.
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DM: The Cult of the Crystal Spider (Currently playing Storm King's Thunder) Player: The Knuckles of Arth - Lemire (Tiefling Rogue 5/Fighter 1)
I use random encounter generators (by list) and pick a few that I think fit the setting. These sometimes provide encounters I would not have thought of myself. So I have the encounters I want to incorporate, maybe a few different ones for each place, and If I determine things are going too easy I present a hard encounter, or if they are having it rough ease it up. Its a good way to keep the danger always lurking around the next corner. I also annotate on my graph paper (basically personal notes) where the encounters will be, along with everything I need beforehand including loading the monsters initiative roles and stuff to streamline play and bring it into the story. I use a hybrid system of PCs for characters/rules with a game board and tokens.
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“The harder the world, the fiercer the honour.” ― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice
I as well have been using trello for a while like jexthomas above. This has worked well for managing multiple campaigns, items, stories, pictures, etc. I use a chromebook for just about everything i do and makes using trello versatile and manageable wherever I am.
If decent mapmaking software was linked in to the subscription it would definitely increase the amount I would be willing to spend :D
I really hope that this is affordable for me when all is said and done, but, I'm not sure...
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Richness, in the final measure, is not weighed in gold coins, but in the number of people you have touched, the tears of those who mourn your passing, and the fond rememberances of those who continue to celebrate your life. -Drizzt Do'Urden
If decent mapmaking software was linked in to the subscription it would definitely increase the amount I would be willing to spend :D
I really hope that this is affordable for me when all is said and done, but, I'm not sure...
Totally Agree. I have -8 to artist rolls. I've working on them from drawing to working with photoshop but, I have 3-4 groups going and would rather be spending more time preping stories rather than struggling on how to produce a map that doesn't look like a 5 year old did it.
I would pay for it!!!
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JT "You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I'm going to try some the apps suggested here, because I've never really had one quite work for me. As it stands right now, I make maps in Paint, and keep my room info and monster lookup sheets in my email. It's... adequate... but that's about it.
For maps I use campaign cartographer 3+. Makes pro looking maps with relative ease. It's got 10 years of development behind it.
I think I used to won one the originals for Campaign Cartographer. It ran very clunky and I stopped using it. I should really revisit this year.
Yeah I tried CC3 and found it clunky and painful to use. Then they released CC3+ and I have not had any issues since then. Not sure if I just climbed the learning curve or it got easier to use. Regardless, the results continue to surprise me :)
Now I'll have to check if I was using CC3 or CC3+, because when I tried that software I could see it had so much potential but oh boy could I not adapt to it.
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What I really need is a good campaign manager. Something I can load up encounters and have them at the ready. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes from this here.
The D&D insider had a pretty good system for loading up your monster stats and provide a printable PDF. That way I could just add it into my campaign binder ready to use.
I like that I can look up monsters quickly and easy but what I really want is a way to collect what I want/need and print if off for use. Actually put together a encounter ready for use. I can already use my MM and Volos to look stuff up.
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I'm definitely looking forward to all of that stuff. I've noticed you can search monsters by environment, which would be great for encounter building. Start a dungeon encounter and get a list of all the appropriate monsters. Assuming your players use DDB too, it'd know their levels and be able to generate you a medium/deadly encounter based on CRs and stuff, with appropriate loot. And then, what I'm really hoping is that it should let you run that encounter too with HP tracking and all the rest of it.
Jack of All Trades
It would also be great if there was a map creator go with the campaign editor. I've looked all over the place for a decently priced maker but any of the half decent ones are too pricey. Perhaps WotC has the money to develop one affordably to roll in with the subscription, then you can create your map and drag and drop encounters into it.
How do most people manage this for their campaigns? I've been using spreadsheets information about encounters and adding up experience for players since 3rd edition.
2nd seemed to have simplar monster stats and therefore didn't need more then the simple stat block, but with 3rd and continuing to 5th I need more info for listing encounters.
So what do y'all use?
Long time player. Started with basic, and played AD&D, 2nd edition, 3rd edition, and the D&D killer 4th.
After that I took some time off, like many others. I'm hoping 5th can make D&D great again.
Realm Works is easily the most powerful Campaign Manager I have yet to use. I've tried everything I can find and so far only one meets all of my requirements.
Realm Works and Hero Lab - A DM Tour
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
I've been using OneNote for the last 2 years. Works amazing, waiting to see how this stacks up to it.
I've been using OneNote and a pretty decent Google Sheet I come up with for tracking XP.
I used to be all pen and paper, but it was such a pain to drag it every. I adopted the GameMaster5 app by Lion's Den for IOS.
It took some configuration, but now that it's all set up it's all I need. You can create multiple campaigns, containing seperate adventures, which contain encounters.
The app holds a dice roller, campaign notes, NPC's, PC's, encounters, a compendium you can fill with monsters, items and spells. You can also add a virtual DM screen with useful quick info.
What I really love about it is that whenever I get an idea on the road I just open the app on my phone, add it, and it will sync to my dropbox so I can use it on my iPad (which is what I DM from).
The flexibility of it all is great and right now I've yet to find anything better that suits my needs.
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I use Trello for most of my campaign/adventure/encounter notes, along with Obsidian Portal for referencing lore and NPCs, and improved-initiative for throwing together quick encounters.
DM: The Cult of the Crystal Spider (Currently playing Storm King's Thunder)
Player: The Knuckles of Arth - Lemire (Tiefling Rogue 5/Fighter 1)
I use random encounter generators (by list) and pick a few that I think fit the setting. These sometimes provide encounters I would not have thought of myself. So I have the encounters I want to incorporate, maybe a few different ones for each place, and If I determine things are going too easy I present a hard encounter, or if they are having it rough ease it up. Its a good way to keep the danger always lurking around the next corner. I also annotate on my graph paper (basically personal notes) where the encounters will be, along with everything I need beforehand including loading the monsters initiative roles and stuff to streamline play and bring it into the story. I use a hybrid system of PCs for characters/rules with a game board and tokens.
― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice
I as well have been using trello for a while like jexthomas above. This has worked well for managing multiple campaigns, items, stories, pictures, etc. I use a chromebook for just about everything i do and makes using trello versatile and manageable wherever I am.
I've been using OneNote for the last year. Works great
Might try this out.
If decent mapmaking software was linked in to the subscription it would definitely increase the amount I would be willing to spend :D
I really hope that this is affordable for me when all is said and done, but, I'm not sure...
Richness, in the final measure, is not weighed in gold coins, but in the number of people you have touched, the tears of those who mourn your passing, and the fond rememberances of those who continue to celebrate your life.
-Drizzt Do'Urden
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I'm going to try some the apps suggested here, because I've never really had one quite work for me. As it stands right now, I make maps in Paint, and keep my room info and monster lookup sheets in my email. It's... adequate... but that's about it.
For maps I use campaign cartographer 3+. Makes pro looking maps with relative ease. It's got 10 years of development behind it.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
Now I'll have to check if I was using CC3 or CC3+, because when I tried that software I could see it had so much potential but oh boy could I not adapt to it.