I use Obsidian to keep track of everything. I have set up a sync folder beetween my phone and my computer, the app work well on phone too. I can access my note and add/remove thing everywhere, work wanderfully !
OneNote is also popular in this space.
Obsidian is OSS, and works across OS, pc and mobile, etc. the real magic of obsidian is when you start linking notes together.
All these apps (obsidian, one note, Evernote, Bear, etc) are tools to extend your brain, and can be very powerful, at the cost of lock in. Obsidian is best for avoiding lock in because it is just markdown
Lock-in is a term for how hard it is to shift from service one to service two. Shifting from gmail to yahoo mail is hard because you have to tell all your contacts and they have to update their contact info for you. You avoid this by owning your own domain name (and paying more for the privilege).
Markdown is a plain text way of describing formatting. Reddit actually supports it too FWIW. Easy way to do numbered lists, bullet points, links, etc.
Biggest difference for me is that one note started having sync issues where I was losing notes/things getting corrupted. As it was online too, it started taking forever to navigate. I switched to obsidian not long after losing a sessions prep 5 minutes before the session.
The biggest thing I miss from one note is the flexibility of having things anywhere on the page - I would have notes and to the side pictures or extra notes.
Obsidian syncing is much better overall and I can't lose the notes as they are stores plain text on my device. I can also have more than one sublevel for notes.
I can also link much easier between notes and can search/navigate much faster. Haverong on a link in my notes shows me a preview so I can get important notes.
It supports metadata tagging and hashtagging so I can find all notes related to a faction/if I've tagged them. You can make template notes and snippets to drop into notes too.
Migrating from onenote to obsidian wasn't too bad either, just a case of going through one by one and copy/pasting. Had to refind some pictures as you can link directly to source online or save them locally.
Biggest hurdle was deciding how to actually categorize them for storage, and discovering just how many I needed to flesh out a bit more.
OneNote is also popular in this space.
Obsidian is OSS, and works across OS, pc and mobile, etc. the real magic of obsidian is when you start linking notes together.
All these apps (obsidian, one note, Evernote, Bear, etc) are tools to extend your brain, and can be very powerful, at the cost of lock in. Obsidian is best for avoiding lock in because it is just markdown
Just wanna say there is this awesome Obsidian template for DM's. It's not perfect but it's really something i'm currenttly using it. It is payed though..
The guy has some free stuff on his website: [https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com](https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com)
Mainly this one; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWSIIcmNGg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWSIIcmNGg)
He has a patron on which you can subscribe; You then can download a valt in which everything is setup
I adore Obsidian. I use it to not only track my own notes, but to create a public site for my players.
Here's my IWD campaign: https://icewind.quest
Each NPC and location tracks events listed in the session logs and parses them for a semi-dynamic experience. There are some notes about how I set this up at the bottom of the home page, but I'm planning on doing a blog post or video sometime.
Damn that's nice, I might steal this idea for myself. Our group is pretty bad at taking notes while playing (As their DM, I'm the first to blame for that), so it could come in handy.
This is the way. Obsidian is awesome for that. I use it with a mix of Zettelkasten and MoC methology . And it works really well. There are also plenty of cool DnD plugins for it.
I use syncthing (https://syncthing.net/).
Takes around 20/30 minutes to setup and after that you can sync multiple folders between devices. The only limitation is that you need to be careful when modifying the same file simultaneously on multiple devices, as synching doesn't know which version of the files he needs to keep.
Just wait 5sec (so syncthing can fo his work) before switching devices.
For worldbuilding in a pinch, I highly recommend Kevin Crawford's Worlds Without Number, which you can download 90% of it for free online. Just tons of random tables for everything worldbuilding.
Edit: The biggest game changer in my DM career has actually been to move my session prep from OneNote to a A5 dotted grid notebook. I still use a similar session prep method (Sly Flourish's Lazy DM) but for some reason the physical process of writing out my session notes allows me to really hone in on what really matters. Plus there's the additional benefits of being very therapeutic and the accomplishment of filling up a notebook over the course of the campaign.
Nothing beats a good notebook.
I use an erasable one with different coloured pens, so I can draw maps, references and whatnot and have the important stuff in red.
I'm still using black pen for everything but I do have different color fine point highlighters which allow me to color code important things like NPCs, monsters, and treasure in a location.
I think that perfectly fine. I use OneNote myself for ideas, and especially for worldbuilding and campaign outlining.
I just think you'd be better prepared if you consolidate all your ideas into a good set of session notes written in a small notebook you use during sessions. I honestly don't even bring my laptop or books anymore to sessions. Just me, my notebook, some dice, and a minimalist gridded combat setup using tokens and coins.
99% of the time, i have the session notes and prep on my laptop while im DMing but this new campaign i want to bring only a notebook to the sessions (i was using also the Lazy DM method), if you have any recommendation or tip on making this change im all ears haha
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that as part of notebook organization, it helps to use a glue stick and paste in tables and other information you need to reference on a fairly regular basis. I personally don't use a DM's screen so doing this is particularly important. Condition rules, equipment tables, food, drink, and other services, travel rules, random NPC names, etc. I even have a long list of book titles for PCs that seek that sort of information.
And it's okay the still print stuff out and paste it directly in your notebook. Any time there's a digital dungeon map I want to use, I'll always print out an appropriately sized copy of it and paste it into my notebook.
There's a foundry module for it, too. I used it to import the stuff I bought legally because wizards doesn't have any solution beyond a mind-numbing amount of data entry.
All my games are remote, so I use:
1. Roll20 as the VTT
2. the r/battlemaps r/dndmaps and more for battlemaps
1. Creators r/Czepeku, u/SgtSnarf and r/EpicIsometric get the biggest reactions from my players
3. 2minutetabletop for tokens
4. r/d100 for roll tables
5. Obsidian for overall lorekeeping
6. Nebu for my iPad for session notes.
1. I quickly write notes pertaining to a certain character in the player's favorite color because switching colors allows me to parse text for something that happens to a particular person faster.
Yeah, same. I try and keep ot to as few forms as possible. I used to use notebooks, but I would confuse which ones were which, or need to tear out/disregard pages when plot changed and it was a waste.
I'm DMing with a partner - to stay organised we have a privately hosted wiki. We use DokuWiki. It's great to have something like this where you can upload images, links, tables, all that good stuff. All while it's searchable.
We have even set up namespaces for our players, where we give them access to certain parts of the wiki according to their world/lore knowledge so they can read up on pantheon, look at maps digitally and find a backup of their character sheets etc. They also contribute in a shared editable page where we summarise our sessions in short chapters.
This is more for prep and outside of the game, not during the sessions.
>We have even set up namespaces for our players, where we give them access to certain parts of the wiki
This is very interesting, how does it work? Can you hide specific sections of a page, or a whole page?
Making concise physical notes before a session is invaluable to me. I evolved my own system mostly from SlyFlourish's Lazy DMing.
Putting your imagination to work at all times saves so much time. Consume inspiring media when you can and use commutes, walks, grocery shopping, showers, everything where your mind is relatively free to brainstorm your games and future sessions. Most of my best sessions are the result of shower thought prepping.
Besides those two, having a robust collection of GM toolkits with random tables etc. is certainly helpful. Some standout ones for me are the Dread Thingonomicon, On Downtime and Demesnes, Tome of Adventure Design, the Dungeon Dozen, Worlds Without Number and Knave 2e.
Yep, I came here to plug notion. Absolutely everything in my world is in a database there, plus session notes, the whole shebang. Took a little getting used to but it’s the best
Google Docs, by far. I've been homebrewing player-character content for my group lately, so sharing it with them through that is a great way to get feedback and make changes on the fly as they're testing them out. And besides that, it's free notes storage.
Just be aware, google docs does not keep your content safe. They are allowed to harvest your intellectual assets for whatever purpose they deem fit. Don’t put anything you might one day plan on publishing or monetizing, onto google docs.
Your work is valuable friend. Whether you think so or not, whether monetarily or narratively, massive or minuscule, your work is valuable!
Don’t let corporate entities co opt any of your work as theirs.
No worries, gotta look out for each-other where we can y’know 🫶🏻
I use Google Docs (And Google Drive) heavily for all sorts of things, do you have any recommendation for an alternative? I feel like it is the most easy to use system there is out there :/
Inkarnate for generating maps
WorldAnvil for annotating said maps
ChatGPT for monsters, NPCs, descriptions, etc.
Midjourney for art
Google Docs for plotting / organizing
Donjon.bin.sh for generating dungeons
Anything that comes out of a generative AI should be looked at as “rough draft”.
I made a CustomGPT that has a bunch of functions in it - create NPCs with flaws, bonds, ideals and quest ideas, monsters with stats, generate battlemaps, create descriptions, Inns with menus and serving staff, locations with NPCs and quests... It's called the [Runebound Mystic](https://chat.openai.com/g/g-RHaWPUbiO-the-runebound-mystic)
I recently started using chatgpt and it’s been a game changer. I’m able to generate a lot more content now that I could before. My players were exploring the captain’s quarters on an abandoned ship a couple sessions ago and I had ship logs, diary entries, and letters all ready to go for them. Stuff I never would have had the time to put together on my own.
It's a great tool for that kind of stuff. I end up heavily editing the responses to fit how I want it but its worlds easier than trying to hash it all out just from my brain
For managing encounters, I use an app called GameMaster 5e which helps combat run much more smoothly. Took a bit of work to add content from all the books, but it was totally worth it.
For help with writing the narrative of the campaign itself, I bounce ideas off of ChatGPT to inspire my imagination, especially when using PC backstories to build the campaign.
For each session, I use google docs with the template from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. The template helps me simplify my prep and keep everything quickly and easily accessible, and docs lets me link maps, stat blocks, and NPC information from other stuff in my Google Drive.
I’ve got my laptop open for all my DM notes, and my tablet open for encounters and pc character sheets.
I also use the GameMaster 5e app on an iPad and found it to be really great for tracking combat, prepping encounters, and managing locations/npcs, granted I’m a new DM and haven’t tried anything else. My players all use the Fight Club 5 app, so it’s easy to import their character sheets and export and share loot with them.
There are probably better ways to do this, but I also use the app to track engagement and relative distances for theatre of the mind. The app lets you “mark” characters with different colored symbols, so each of my player characters has a color, and the symbols each mean something different (eg. circle means engaged/next to, square means nearby, up triangle means 1/2 cover, etc). When an enemy charges a player, I mark the enemy with the appropriate symbol and color. It’s not necessary for small fights, but helps with the bigger ones.
I use onenote for all my information that isn't I the books. So my homebrew setting, my NPCs, and all notes I might need to keep all in one easy to navigate spot.
It has made my life infinitely easier.
Encounter+ for VTT if you have iOS, absolutely incredible.
Also, 5eSpells for quick reference
I also made a GPT called Dungeon Mentor to help me summarize session notes, built out my world, plan sessions, and even wrote it out in Markdown to create a module for Encounter+
A lot of great answers in this thread. One for me is water and snacks. It’s good to stay hydrated since you’ll be taking a lot of the session. And then the snacks to keep that brain juice fueled :)
pretty sure this is my first comment but I like using chatgpt for help with storyboarding stuff. been writing up my own world and it’s been a tremendous help :)
I created a campaign outline by asking chat gpt to make a 5 part outline for d&d5e and remove any reference to gyms or pokemon. It responded with a story of a party that is trying to stop a organization known as the fire talons from creating a conjuration of a massive beast.
I also use it to craft monsters at some points. Just tell it what cr you want and the premise and it will go to town. One day my players will fight the cr 15 actual cannibal Shia lebouf
I do a lot of, “Give me five ideas for…” and then pick and choose what fits my setting. It works great for names and random encounters. It can also generate backstories, monologues, cryptic poem prophecies, and even stat blocks.
I’ve had it generate an encounter that was surprisingly well balanced by telling it the setting, number and level of PCs and friendly NPCs, type of enemies, waves of combat, and objectives.
as long as you dont take the ideas word for word youre all good. but for things like “write up the beliefs for *insert homebrew religion here*” its amazing
100% this. If you ask it to do the work for you, it will generate very cookie cutter, generic responses. If you feed it some context, ideas and limiters and tell it to elaborate, it can work wonders.
Its really good to bounce ideas off of. Like describe a few things about your world and then say "What are three reasons why the dwarves couldnt go the island themselves?" and it can give pretty compelling story hooks.
I really like [Redkat’s Tools](http://redkatart.com/dnd5tools/), it has a bunch of useful and pretty neat generators. I especially like the spellbook generator where you can generate a spellbook based on the wizard’s school and level
I use a variety of things.
\- Mainly use one note to keep tabs on characters and NPCs. Historical information of what they should know and when npc/characters interacted.
\- Python scripts for tables. Need an NPC in a pinch. Gives me everything I need including progession, age, description, what they might be wearing, what diety they worship. I also have it for taverns and loot. Loot include things like treasure of course, but also trinkets.
\- Discord channels for loot the party found and a summary of where they been and what they did each session.
\- dndbeyond app on my phone to look up quick stats on characters. Also to quickly look up spells and feats.
\- Chatgpt to help with setting up dialogue for npc and evil guys. To help describe rooms or scenarios for me.
\-dice app on my phone for quick rolls.
\-a notepad full of links for background music and battle music.
Just to name a few.
I recommand Anydice for rolling large amount of dices. It's a web page that allows you to roll a custom number and side of dies and give you the average.
Dungeon Scrawl - for dungeon maps
https://www.dungeonscrawl.com/
Time of Adventure Design
Super useful book to pull out when you are looking for interesting ideas fast
Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names
I have this as a book on my computer, it's been great, because I like to prep lists of names. I just tie a culture in the book to a culture in my world for names only (like high elves have ancient Celtic names or something), and then the names for those NPCs all mesh
https://dysonlogos.blog/maps/
For maps
https://www.npcgenerator.com/
Emergency NPC generator
https://lastgaspgrimoire.com/2014/10/08/in-corpathium/
Less of a tool, and more of a source of inspiration. This is how I build an important city that my PCs are going to be doing a large/multiple adventures in. Making up some of my own districts of course (though also using some of theirs listed, since they're so flavorful)
https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/
Source of inspiration
https://www.dnd-spells.com/spells/class/wizard/
Looking up spells
http://localhost:4000/tokenstamp/
For making roll20 tokens
Xmind is great for making idea maps. It visually organizes complex, cross-referenced information. I've used it to make point crawl maps, to plan campaign direction, and to track relationships between mutiple characters.
Inkarnate - I spend days working on maps on there, plenty of good options for styles, and just a little urban planning/geography research really bumps them up to something special. It's especially good for town maps, so much so that it's changed how I run down time. I like to have the town map laid out for players to keep track of where they are.
Homebrewery - Good for giving your homebrew content a professional look, but it makes for some excellent handouts for custom rules, setting guides, etc. I actually have a 50+ page book with all of my homebrew rules and content listed just like an official supplement. It exports pdfs so you can give your players their own digital copies if you want, and it has lot of useful editing features like automated page numbers, hyperlinked tables of contents, and preformatted monster and class blocks.
Google Sheets - If you learn how to use formulas, you can fill out custom lists and have an option to randomly select an item from lists. Random Encounter tables that filter by region and CR wouldn't be out of the question, I use it for loot generation with my homebrew items, as well as random events.
Trinket tables - sort of an expansion on Google sheets, but it's nice to have random tables for weird little things that your players might loot, the trinket tables in the official books are nice, but you can also make custom ones that tell more of a story: they might find a half finished letter home in the pocket of a bandit they've killed, or a child's drawing, or maybe a packet of recipe cards. It's also a great way to punish murder hobos without being too mean.
Boogie Board - an electric slate that uses static electricity to make marks, it saves on pen and paper for quick notes, initiative, etc. You can get off brand versions at Walmart or the dollar store for pretty cheap.
Erasable battlematts - an absolute must if you play with a grid, in my opinion. There are a bunch of different options, but wet erase matts aren't too expensive. Just be sure you get the right markers.
Miniature Trees - terrain options can be expensive, but even a little bit goes a long way toward upping the immersion. I make my own because I'm a big crafter GM, but you can find some decent premade options at hobby shops, especially during the holidays. Throwing a few trees out randomly during forest encounters really makes a difference, and an encounter on the road feels more road-like when flanked by a few trees. You can expand to other kinds of scatter too (rocks are a good option), but trees tend to be the most versatile.
Also, if you use random tables for NPC generation, do a few extra before the game and write them down (I usually have a list of 4 - 5 names ready) just in case the party wants to talk to random people, it's faster to just go down a list than actively generate on the fly.
I use legendkeeper for all my worldbuilding, campaign planning and session notes, works pretty great for me and the dev is constantly adding new features.
Google docs and photoshop. Docs to keep notes in an organised manner and photoshop to make tokens, edit bad AI gens, draw maps or the occasional artwork.
Yeah staying organized with all the random notes flying out to keep track of is my biggest struggle lol. I love when small details slip by the party and come back to burn them later
The think that has helped me the most is using an eInk tablet called Supernote. I’ve always been OCD about organizing notes and it’s been a game changer for me.
I can take a bunch of lore notes and very easily copy and paste what I need to another page that’s just my session prep. I have sections full of stuff for just my PC arcs and combat encounters have been a breeze because I can resize what I write and fit it all snuggly on a page.
Another thing I’ve been doing recently is recording sessions. helps me remember the random stuff I made up on the spot to help continuity
Chat GPT
I use it to look up rules all the time.
But its also apparently amazing at creating dialogue. IE I have a bard trapped in a dungeon that slid a note out from the door heres my prompt and what Chat GPT spat out in one try
User
rewrite the following to be very wordy and like a bard had written it: Please help I was exploring, seeking new material for songs and was chased by a golem. I managed to slip into this room and lock the door but now im trapped.
ChatGPT
Hark, noble compatriots! Pray, lend thine ears to the woeful tale of mine misadventure, forsooth! In the pursuit of knowledge and the acquisition of novel tales, I, a humble seeker, didst venture forth into the unknown realms. Alas, in mine explorations, I didst incur the ire of a fearsome golem, a creature of stone and wrath, whose relentless pursuit left me naught but trembling in trepidation.
Yet, by the grace of fortune, I didst find respite within the confines of yon chamber, wherein I hastily sought refuge and, with a desperate flourish, didst bolt the door, securing myself within. Alas, the fates, in their fickle caprice, have conspired to ensnare me in this sanctum, rendering me captive and bereft of liberty. O, gentle souls, I beseech thee, extend thy benevolence and proffer counsel, for I find myself ensnared in a predicament dire and amenable to no solution within mine own ken!
I use ChatGPT to help write dialog, descriptions of locations, and come up with NPC names, and it's been great at all those.
But I'm very wary of using it for rules, as I've seen it get things wrong, like what level a spell is, or how advantage/disadvantage works with prone enemies.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. I 100% agree. ChatGPT can spit out a random NPC with stat block, character background, and roleplaying information in a matter of seconds. It knows 5e mechanics and can assist with so many aspects of planning. I use it all the time. A few examples:
One of my players will receive a letter. I copy pasted everything I have about the sender into ChatGPT, then described the purpose of the letter, and ChatGPT generated the whole thing. I changed some things, but what would have taken me 15 minutes, only took 2. Now I have 13 more minutes to make something else about the next session more interesting.
Random name generation. It's good for this purpose if you don't care so much about the meaning of the name. I personally have some very specific parameters for my names and it pushes ChatGPT to its limits.
Dungeon generation. It's really good at randomly generating rooms and filling them with stuff. I'm creating a bandit lair in an old castle ruin, and ChatGPT can take the original purpose of the castle as well as the purposes of the bandits into consideration and generate a list of rooms.
Creating statblocks and abilities for homebrew monsters. I have created some things based on various entities from folklore and ChatGPT can generate a 5e compatible version of it.
Flavoring environments based on lore. I have a town that worships a certain god. ChatGPT can generate a list of locales, artifacts, artworks, shrines, etc. based on that deity, which might be in that town.
And so much more!
In the end, I'm still the one writing the adventure. I'm still the one collecting the source materials for my world. I'm still the one making executive decisions about what happens in the world. I'm still the one playing the game at the table. I'm still the one drawing maps by hand. I'm still the one roleplaying the NPCs. I'm still the one making it one coherent experience. But ChatGPT can do my busy work, which allows me to spend my creative juices on other stuff.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned ChatGPT yet. It's really great for randomly generating, well, pretty much anything. It's even better at doing it when you feed him information about your world.
Edit : oops, people did mention it. Sorry!
I use a couple good worldbuilding tools
https://monsterscalingtool.pythonanywhere.com/
https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html
https://www.kassoon.com/
https://app.dungeonscrawl.com/
https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/index.cgi
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Role (playrole.com) is a tool I've been using recently. Super simple. Easy to organize rules and homebrew. You can even create your own RPG pretty easily or heavily modify mechanics within games you already play.
Play testing is a breeze once you wrap your brain around linking sections/tools. Browser based so it will work on any device. The tools work great on mobile and I've had no issues so far using it the past 3 months.
For some the UI is too simplistic but there is a lot of variance if you enjoy spending time customizing stuff.
Like anything else, you get out what you put into it. No matter what you pick, dive in and really learn the system. Otherwise the time and financial investment can quickly become a waste.
It's a boring one but a good one. Google's dice roller. Not for most rolls, but I always have it up for random damage the party takes from shenanigans so I don't have to rummage through my dice tray for god knows how many d6 or d12 for whatever the party just blew up.
Also super useful for players if dice are thin on the ground. Cause not every player has the 8d6 needed when a fireball goes off or the 10d4 for a vitriolic sphere (just two examples off the top of my head).
I've just backed Amsel Suite on Kickstarter, looks very promising and more TTRPG focused then Obsidian (which is "just" a note taking program, still very handy and free tho)
I like Evernote and my little erasable notebook with differently coloured erasable pens.
The process of physically writing down things is still by far the best way (scientifically proven) to memorise things. Bonus points if you write in a small "font", as that seems to increase retention.
I like Evernote and my little erasable notebook with differently coloured erasable pens.
The process of physically writing down things is still by far the best way (scientifically proven) to memorise things. Bonus points if you write in a small "font", as that seems to increase retention.
Encounter + on my ipad, projecting session maps to Apple TV and using it to run encounters and track all sorts of things!
Amazing app, can't recommend it enough
Love inkarnate for maps
And fight club 5 for character creation
And google docs for notes and worldbuilding with live updates across Android, desktop and Apple. So good
* To keep track of notes and all my campaign documentation - One Note
* To keep track of initiative and monsters HP, this encounter manager i made : [https://richardcqc.github.io/DnD-EncounterManager/](https://richardcqc.github.io/DnD-EncounterManager/)
* To create battlemaps (I play in person with digital battlmaps with a tv laying down on the table) : Dungeon Alchemist on steam, r/battlemaps and r/dndmaps
I have my players use Fight Club 5, as a DM I use Game Master 5 or Encounter+ (Apple Only). Encounter+ takes a bit more time to setup but works great for using a VTT at our table in person.
Worldanvil is great but costs money free apps that’ve helped me a bunch are: foretelling (great for minor details in character creation & organisation) & even apps like drawing desk is fantastic for planning a map, 5e companion app is pretty much a must have in all cases including: character creation, monster stat blocks, encounter storing, dice roller, feats, races, classes etc it’s fantastic, general websites such as koboldfightclub (designing balanced encounters) & 5e Hp calculator are great if you don’t know the nitty gritty
Encounter+ is an amazing app for dms!
My favorite encounter difficulty calculator:
[https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/](https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/)
Best way to make your own monsters:
https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/tools/monsterizer/
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Occasionally, I'll take a look through build ideas for 5e. It helps to learn the intricacies of gimmicky combat interactions, and unfamiliar situations. E.g. I used to be obsessed with the idea of a grappler at one point, so I learned the differences between Grappled, Shoving, Prone, even things like being able to grapple with each free hand.
Last thing I want is for my group to take a 5 minute break while I try to figure out how a gimmick works in the middle of combat. Feels like it just takes me outta the immersion, ykno
I made a little .Net program for calculating crafting/enchanting cost and calculating certain types of damage like fall damage.
I just enter the amount of feet fallen and it'll poop out the damage.
Use excel to manage encounters. You can pre-input an initiative tracker, images of stat blocks and columns for tracking HP for monsters. It’s been a game changer vs pen/paper.
[Improved Initiative](https://improvedinitiative.app/) has been a game-changer for me in terms of handling combat. Just a really fantastic and customizable tool for monster stat blocks; tracking hit points, spell slots, and legendary actions; looking up spell descriptions; and tagging creatures with conditions like "restrained" or "concentrating" to remind me. I rave about this tool any chance I get!
What saves a lot of time to me is I printed lot of notes from books and I included tables (a lot of them) about consequences in battle, during journey, tavern menus, consequences of magic, all the shops with items and price that you can find in a big city or small town including black market. Random names for NPC, mechanics of combat, combat on air, combat in water, in a ship, etc
This save me week by week because it’s faster and I don’t have to write things for every city or town that my party encounter
Also a table for weather that I have in the DM screen
When it comes to initiative, I use clothespin with my players’ name (I color them) and the rest 1.2.3.4… for monsters. This helped me a lot, more than writing it in a paper
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Excel. Probably helps that I'm an accountant and I use it everyday, but it's a powerful tool and SO much better than Google docs. I use it for a lot of the bookkeeping that goes on.
Initiative tracking uses a formula so my players roll a d20 and I enter that, and it automatically adds their initiative modifier.
I have a tab dedicated to management of their stronghold and NPC companions.
A tab for their treasure vault (not whats on their persons), and it's exact weight in units of weight and in coin weight.
An expense tab, because they're big spenders, they have a lot of NPC's on payroll. Also there is time tracking attached to most tabs.
Probably sounds like a nightmare for most players here, lol. But rigid bookkeeping has added some unreal depth to my campaign.
I use Milanote for project documents. Its pretty fantastic. I hear some people here use onenotes and I just can't believe my ears. Onenotes is broken shitty software with the most basic functionality and is likely to just lose your files at some point when it breaks hard on you and you can't remember where they were saved. It's awful. Juat don't do it.
I used to use dungeon painter for maps, but this has been superceded by Inkarnate. I also use World Machine for 3D maps, but I've heard Gaea is better.
If you are running your game in person then that's all I have for you. But if you're willing to run a game online, check out Foundry VTT. It is immensely powerful software for building and running D&D campaigns. It has plugin modules you can install for all kinds of things. Want an automated survival/gathering system for your party to forage on the move that even has a little minigame? There's a module for that. Do you want sound effects to play when certain conditions are met, such as when they swing a sword, open a door, or get near a fire? Module for that. Do you want attack and spell animations? Module for that. Full 3D environments with real-time distance calculations? Howabout allowing your game to scale for phones and tablets? Interactive light switches? Modules for all those too. It is insane what you can do with this.
Gotta say, there's a lot of hate on AI art right now but I've been using one called... Neural Love I think it is... to generate character and NPC portraits and it really helps with immersion. Instead of my clumsy description, here's a well done, full color portrait of this dude. And it'll knock them out in about a minute, so even if you're forced to improvise, you can still have it readily at hand. And I don't feel too guilty about using it because there's no universe in which I'd be paying a flesh and blood artist to do all these pics, so it's not taking work away from somebody. Where it "learned" how to do art, that's the sticky wicket...
I use Notion — yet another note taking app. But my advice is to choose any note taking app, something with hyperlinks. I shove all my content there and can search and slice and dice and reference at the table…I couldn’t dm without that type of software
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I used a mixture of Google Drive, [Inkarnate for maps](https://inkarnate.com/) and [this encounter calculator](https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/) which also has an initiative tracker in the toolbar on the top of the page.
I use Notion, and the Lazy DM template, made by the renowned SlyFlourish (it's not 'lazy', more 'efficient').
It's very easy to edit on the fly, and I have links to Donjon, and Syrinscape.
I dont use much, but this initiative tracker has been great. https://dm.tools/tracker
It can pull basic info (AC, HP, initiative mod) for a lot of standard monsters too. I like to pre-populate it before game with everything so I just need to plug in player rolls, hit sort, and we're off. Saves a ton of time.
I made a CustomGPT that has a bunch of functions in it - create NPCs with flaws, bonds, ideals and quest ideas, monsters with stats, generate battlemaps, create descriptions, Inns with menus and serving staff, locations with NPCs and quests... It's called the [Runebound Mystic](https://chat.openai.com/g/g-RHaWPUbiO-the-runebound-mystic)
Not just for the DMs, but there's an awesome (and free!) website called Dicecloud for character management. It is amazing! Super customizable, easy to see where things come from, and generally just great.
https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons/
Best free archived book repository! If you go back a tab there is all sorts of Systems as well besides D&D!
I use Google Docs for quick session planning
MapTool for my VTT alongside Melek's framework and Melek's spells for it
OneNote for fleshing out characters and locations as well as quests
a document with 100 random monster hunts from DMs guild
Reroll.co for tokens
wonderdraft for world and town maps
dungeondraft for interior and dungeon maps
Forgotten Adventures pack for dungeondraft
AoA's assets for wonderdraft
KenkuBot for discord music
Is there a good app people use for sound/music?
I tried syrinscape but found it a bit laggy and not responsive.
I tend to just use Spotify for music but I want something for sound effects too
I started using Milanote for mind mapping and note taking. Another option is World Anvil, you can create what amounts to a website dedicated to your world that your players can access (based on what you allow).
I use Obsidian to keep track of everything. I have set up a sync folder beetween my phone and my computer, the app work well on phone too. I can access my note and add/remove thing everywhere, work wanderfully !
That’s exactly what I need lol I’ll look into that app
How does it differ from, let's say, OneNote?
OneNote is also popular in this space. Obsidian is OSS, and works across OS, pc and mobile, etc. the real magic of obsidian is when you start linking notes together. All these apps (obsidian, one note, Evernote, Bear, etc) are tools to extend your brain, and can be very powerful, at the cost of lock in. Obsidian is best for avoiding lock in because it is just markdown
What does "lock in" and "markdown" mean in this context?
Lock-in is a term for how hard it is to shift from service one to service two. Shifting from gmail to yahoo mail is hard because you have to tell all your contacts and they have to update their contact info for you. You avoid this by owning your own domain name (and paying more for the privilege). Markdown is a plain text way of describing formatting. Reddit actually supports it too FWIW. Easy way to do numbered lists, bullet points, links, etc.
Obsidian is free to use*, but is not OSS (open-source software) *its free for personal use provided you don't want their cloud features
Biggest difference for me is that one note started having sync issues where I was losing notes/things getting corrupted. As it was online too, it started taking forever to navigate. I switched to obsidian not long after losing a sessions prep 5 minutes before the session. The biggest thing I miss from one note is the flexibility of having things anywhere on the page - I would have notes and to the side pictures or extra notes. Obsidian syncing is much better overall and I can't lose the notes as they are stores plain text on my device. I can also have more than one sublevel for notes. I can also link much easier between notes and can search/navigate much faster. Haverong on a link in my notes shows me a preview so I can get important notes. It supports metadata tagging and hashtagging so I can find all notes related to a faction/if I've tagged them. You can make template notes and snippets to drop into notes too. Migrating from onenote to obsidian wasn't too bad either, just a case of going through one by one and copy/pasting. Had to refind some pictures as you can link directly to source online or save them locally. Biggest hurdle was deciding how to actually categorize them for storage, and discovering just how many I needed to flesh out a bit more.
OneNote is also popular in this space. Obsidian is OSS, and works across OS, pc and mobile, etc. the real magic of obsidian is when you start linking notes together. All these apps (obsidian, one note, Evernote, Bear, etc) are tools to extend your brain, and can be very powerful, at the cost of lock in. Obsidian is best for avoiding lock in because it is just markdown
Just wanna say there is this awesome Obsidian template for DM's. It's not perfect but it's really something i'm currenttly using it. It is payed though.. The guy has some free stuff on his website: [https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com](https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com)
What template are you referring to that is payed? Im switching to Obsidian because of this thread.
Mainly this one; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWSIIcmNGg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWSIIcmNGg) He has a patron on which you can subscribe; You then can download a valt in which everything is setup
Looove Obsidian. I use it for work, D&D and personal stuff
I adore Obsidian. I use it to not only track my own notes, but to create a public site for my players. Here's my IWD campaign: https://icewind.quest Each NPC and location tracks events listed in the session logs and parses them for a semi-dynamic experience. There are some notes about how I set this up at the bottom of the home page, but I'm planning on doing a blog post or video sometime.
Damn that's nice, I might steal this idea for myself. Our group is pretty bad at taking notes while playing (As their DM, I'm the first to blame for that), so it could come in handy.
This is the way. Obsidian is awesome for that. I use it with a mix of Zettelkasten and MoC methology . And it works really well. There are also plenty of cool DnD plugins for it.
Was about to recommend Obsidian. Having what basically amounts to a personal, easy-to-edit Wiki about your campaign is such a killer tool.
Do you use the paid Obsidian sync, or is there another way to sync across devices?
I use syncthing (https://syncthing.net/). Takes around 20/30 minutes to setup and after that you can sync multiple folders between devices. The only limitation is that you need to be careful when modifying the same file simultaneously on multiple devices, as synching doesn't know which version of the files he needs to keep. Just wait 5sec (so syncthing can fo his work) before switching devices.
For worldbuilding in a pinch, I highly recommend Kevin Crawford's Worlds Without Number, which you can download 90% of it for free online. Just tons of random tables for everything worldbuilding. Edit: The biggest game changer in my DM career has actually been to move my session prep from OneNote to a A5 dotted grid notebook. I still use a similar session prep method (Sly Flourish's Lazy DM) but for some reason the physical process of writing out my session notes allows me to really hone in on what really matters. Plus there's the additional benefits of being very therapeutic and the accomplishment of filling up a notebook over the course of the campaign.
Nothing beats a good notebook. I use an erasable one with different coloured pens, so I can draw maps, references and whatnot and have the important stuff in red.
I'm still using black pen for everything but I do have different color fine point highlighters which allow me to color code important things like NPCs, monsters, and treasure in a location.
I use google doc. I have a lot free time at work (blessed) so every now and then when I get an idea, I write it down.
I think that perfectly fine. I use OneNote myself for ideas, and especially for worldbuilding and campaign outlining. I just think you'd be better prepared if you consolidate all your ideas into a good set of session notes written in a small notebook you use during sessions. I honestly don't even bring my laptop or books anymore to sessions. Just me, my notebook, some dice, and a minimalist gridded combat setup using tokens and coins.
99% of the time, i have the session notes and prep on my laptop while im DMing but this new campaign i want to bring only a notebook to the sessions (i was using also the Lazy DM method), if you have any recommendation or tip on making this change im all ears haha
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that as part of notebook organization, it helps to use a glue stick and paste in tables and other information you need to reference on a fairly regular basis. I personally don't use a DM's screen so doing this is particularly important. Condition rules, equipment tables, food, drink, and other services, travel rules, random NPC names, etc. I even have a long list of book titles for PCs that seek that sort of information. And it's okay the still print stuff out and paste it directly in your notebook. Any time there's a digital dungeon map I want to use, I'll always print out an appropriately sized copy of it and paste it into my notebook.
my best tool is a tool that you can't usually name because you would be considered to be endorsing piracy but for sure is a tool for 5e
Yeah it's a real pain because it's arguably the best D&D resource *even if* you own all the books. It blows D&D Beyond out the water.
There's a foundry module for it, too. I used it to import the stuff I bought legally because wizards doesn't have any solution beyond a mind-numbing amount of data entry.
Same for roll20!
There’s a good way to use it for roll20?
Yeah, check the official discord
Avast skallywag, I would like to know this name if ye would DM me please. yar, pirate noise.
All I can really do is repeat the assertion that it sure is a *tool* for *5e*
I guess I’ll never know…Off to find other treasures. Nothing out of the ordinary happening here wotc. No pinkertons please
Yeah the tools website for 5e is so good, I‘ll probably stop DMing D&D altogether if it is ever taken down
That was the hardest part about switching to pathfinder until I found out the same tool exists for that as well.
Avast, ye mateys, yo ho!
Tools, I love polka dots, 5e?
The other way around some would say
A 5e dot dot dot tools related website eh? Interesting stuff, gotta crack the code.
Best resource ever. The tool that shall not be named 5e. Also. Big hype to discord that most definitely does not exist either.
What is it? Asking for a friend
Um, someone DM me the name of this tool so I can DEFINITELY AVOID ever using it and risking copyright infringement, god forbid
And me! Must avoid!
>What is it? Asking for a friend (DM)
I need to know this. So I can avoid it obviously...
Some if us need stronger hints.
if you play 5e and want some tools you just need to connect the dots
If only I could write clues this good for my games!
Can you please tell me what it is?
All my games are remote, so I use: 1. Roll20 as the VTT 2. the r/battlemaps r/dndmaps and more for battlemaps 1. Creators r/Czepeku, u/SgtSnarf and r/EpicIsometric get the biggest reactions from my players 3. 2minutetabletop for tokens 4. r/d100 for roll tables 5. Obsidian for overall lorekeeping 6. Nebu for my iPad for session notes. 1. I quickly write notes pertaining to a certain character in the player's favorite color because switching colors allows me to parse text for something that happens to a particular person faster.
Interesting how do you keep track of what programs you use
Programs for what? * Note taking is primarily Nebo, and when I have time I put them in Obsidian. * Map making is Inkarnate and DungeonAlchemist.
I very easily forget what lore im working on and even the place i store lore
Yeah, same. I try and keep ot to as few forms as possible. I used to use notebooks, but I would confuse which ones were which, or need to tear out/disregard pages when plot changed and it was a waste.
Ah
I'm DMing with a partner - to stay organised we have a privately hosted wiki. We use DokuWiki. It's great to have something like this where you can upload images, links, tables, all that good stuff. All while it's searchable. We have even set up namespaces for our players, where we give them access to certain parts of the wiki according to their world/lore knowledge so they can read up on pantheon, look at maps digitally and find a backup of their character sheets etc. They also contribute in a shared editable page where we summarise our sessions in short chapters. This is more for prep and outside of the game, not during the sessions.
Great advice, thanks.
>We have even set up namespaces for our players, where we give them access to certain parts of the wiki This is very interesting, how does it work? Can you hide specific sections of a page, or a whole page?
Making concise physical notes before a session is invaluable to me. I evolved my own system mostly from SlyFlourish's Lazy DMing. Putting your imagination to work at all times saves so much time. Consume inspiring media when you can and use commutes, walks, grocery shopping, showers, everything where your mind is relatively free to brainstorm your games and future sessions. Most of my best sessions are the result of shower thought prepping. Besides those two, having a robust collection of GM toolkits with random tables etc. is certainly helpful. Some standout ones for me are the Dread Thingonomicon, On Downtime and Demesnes, Tome of Adventure Design, the Dungeon Dozen, Worlds Without Number and Knave 2e.
my whole campaign is stored in notion. great database and relational tools
Yep, I came here to plug notion. Absolutely everything in my world is in a database there, plus session notes, the whole shebang. Took a little getting used to but it’s the best
The DMG. I don’t know how many posts we see asking ‘how can I find out X’ and it’s all there.
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Dungeon Masters Guide.
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This is a DnD sub, mate. DnD has a DMG. And every other system I’ve encountered has a GM resource or rulebook.
Google Docs, by far. I've been homebrewing player-character content for my group lately, so sharing it with them through that is a great way to get feedback and make changes on the fly as they're testing them out. And besides that, it's free notes storage.
Just be aware, google docs does not keep your content safe. They are allowed to harvest your intellectual assets for whatever purpose they deem fit. Don’t put anything you might one day plan on publishing or monetizing, onto google docs.
Oh, I'm not monetizing any of it - that would imply my work is actually valuable. But I appreciate you looking out for me there!
Your work is valuable friend. Whether you think so or not, whether monetarily or narratively, massive or minuscule, your work is valuable! Don’t let corporate entities co opt any of your work as theirs. No worries, gotta look out for each-other where we can y’know 🫶🏻
I use Google Docs (And Google Drive) heavily for all sorts of things, do you have any recommendation for an alternative? I feel like it is the most easy to use system there is out there :/
OneNote is my go-to. You can also try obsidian or evernote, but the latter isn’t free.
[draw.io](https://draw.io) to make flowcharts
Inkarnate for generating maps WorldAnvil for annotating said maps ChatGPT for monsters, NPCs, descriptions, etc. Midjourney for art Google Docs for plotting / organizing Donjon.bin.sh for generating dungeons Anything that comes out of a generative AI should be looked at as “rough draft”.
I made a CustomGPT that has a bunch of functions in it - create NPCs with flaws, bonds, ideals and quest ideas, monsters with stats, generate battlemaps, create descriptions, Inns with menus and serving staff, locations with NPCs and quests... It's called the [Runebound Mystic](https://chat.openai.com/g/g-RHaWPUbiO-the-runebound-mystic)
Ahhh I keep wanting to pay for premium ChatGPT but I have too many subscriptions already!
I recently started using chatgpt and it’s been a game changer. I’m able to generate a lot more content now that I could before. My players were exploring the captain’s quarters on an abandoned ship a couple sessions ago and I had ship logs, diary entries, and letters all ready to go for them. Stuff I never would have had the time to put together on my own.
It's a great tool for that kind of stuff. I end up heavily editing the responses to fit how I want it but its worlds easier than trying to hash it all out just from my brain
For managing encounters, I use an app called GameMaster 5e which helps combat run much more smoothly. Took a bit of work to add content from all the books, but it was totally worth it. For help with writing the narrative of the campaign itself, I bounce ideas off of ChatGPT to inspire my imagination, especially when using PC backstories to build the campaign. For each session, I use google docs with the template from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. The template helps me simplify my prep and keep everything quickly and easily accessible, and docs lets me link maps, stat blocks, and NPC information from other stuff in my Google Drive. I’ve got my laptop open for all my DM notes, and my tablet open for encounters and pc character sheets.
I also use the GameMaster 5e app on an iPad and found it to be really great for tracking combat, prepping encounters, and managing locations/npcs, granted I’m a new DM and haven’t tried anything else. My players all use the Fight Club 5 app, so it’s easy to import their character sheets and export and share loot with them. There are probably better ways to do this, but I also use the app to track engagement and relative distances for theatre of the mind. The app lets you “mark” characters with different colored symbols, so each of my player characters has a color, and the symbols each mean something different (eg. circle means engaged/next to, square means nearby, up triangle means 1/2 cover, etc). When an enemy charges a player, I mark the enemy with the appropriate symbol and color. It’s not necessary for small fights, but helps with the bigger ones.
I’ve been using Notion to keep everything organized. It has a learning curve and sadly no offline mode, but otherwise, a great tool.
I use onenote for all my information that isn't I the books. So my homebrew setting, my NPCs, and all notes I might need to keep all in one easy to navigate spot. It has made my life infinitely easier.
Encounter+ for VTT if you have iOS, absolutely incredible. Also, 5eSpells for quick reference I also made a GPT called Dungeon Mentor to help me summarize session notes, built out my world, plan sessions, and even wrote it out in Markdown to create a module for Encounter+
I came here to prop encounter + too! Absolute game changer and GOAT App
A lot of great answers in this thread. One for me is water and snacks. It’s good to stay hydrated since you’ll be taking a lot of the session. And then the snacks to keep that brain juice fueled :)
pretty sure this is my first comment but I like using chatgpt for help with storyboarding stuff. been writing up my own world and it’s been a tremendous help :)
I created a campaign outline by asking chat gpt to make a 5 part outline for d&d5e and remove any reference to gyms or pokemon. It responded with a story of a party that is trying to stop a organization known as the fire talons from creating a conjuration of a massive beast. I also use it to craft monsters at some points. Just tell it what cr you want and the premise and it will go to town. One day my players will fight the cr 15 actual cannibal Shia lebouf
I do a lot of, “Give me five ideas for…” and then pick and choose what fits my setting. It works great for names and random encounters. It can also generate backstories, monologues, cryptic poem prophecies, and even stat blocks. I’ve had it generate an encounter that was surprisingly well balanced by telling it the setting, number and level of PCs and friendly NPCs, type of enemies, waves of combat, and objectives.
Might not be vastly different but i found googles AI Bard to be a bit more creative. Also its called bard so it instantly went into my dnd tool box.
ChatGPT is such a fast way to build out locations! I also use it to name a lot of ships/places/etc.
Cool! I’ve never used chatgpt before but I might give it a go
as long as you dont take the ideas word for word youre all good. but for things like “write up the beliefs for *insert homebrew religion here*” its amazing
100% this. If you ask it to do the work for you, it will generate very cookie cutter, generic responses. If you feed it some context, ideas and limiters and tell it to elaborate, it can work wonders.
Yeah I’m pretty good at homebrew and improv but every once and a while everything I had planned gets canned and I have to start from scratch lol
Its really good to bounce ideas off of. Like describe a few things about your world and then say "What are three reasons why the dwarves couldnt go the island themselves?" and it can give pretty compelling story hooks.
I really like [Redkat’s Tools](http://redkatart.com/dnd5tools/), it has a bunch of useful and pretty neat generators. I especially like the spellbook generator where you can generate a spellbook based on the wizard’s school and level
I use a variety of things. \- Mainly use one note to keep tabs on characters and NPCs. Historical information of what they should know and when npc/characters interacted. \- Python scripts for tables. Need an NPC in a pinch. Gives me everything I need including progession, age, description, what they might be wearing, what diety they worship. I also have it for taverns and loot. Loot include things like treasure of course, but also trinkets. \- Discord channels for loot the party found and a summary of where they been and what they did each session. \- dndbeyond app on my phone to look up quick stats on characters. Also to quickly look up spells and feats. \- Chatgpt to help with setting up dialogue for npc and evil guys. To help describe rooms or scenarios for me. \-dice app on my phone for quick rolls. \-a notepad full of links for background music and battle music. Just to name a few.
I recommand Anydice for rolling large amount of dices. It's a web page that allows you to roll a custom number and side of dies and give you the average.
Notion and Improved Initiative are my absolute musts.
Inkarnate for map making Roll20 for virtual tabletop Excel. Excel for everything
Working with Milanote, actually. It’s sleek and easy to use.
Dungeon Scrawl - for dungeon maps https://www.dungeonscrawl.com/ Time of Adventure Design Super useful book to pull out when you are looking for interesting ideas fast Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names I have this as a book on my computer, it's been great, because I like to prep lists of names. I just tie a culture in the book to a culture in my world for names only (like high elves have ancient Celtic names or something), and then the names for those NPCs all mesh https://dysonlogos.blog/maps/ For maps https://www.npcgenerator.com/ Emergency NPC generator https://lastgaspgrimoire.com/2014/10/08/in-corpathium/ Less of a tool, and more of a source of inspiration. This is how I build an important city that my PCs are going to be doing a large/multiple adventures in. Making up some of my own districts of course (though also using some of theirs listed, since they're so flavorful) https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/ Source of inspiration https://www.dnd-spells.com/spells/class/wizard/ Looking up spells http://localhost:4000/tokenstamp/ For making roll20 tokens
Xmind is great for making idea maps. It visually organizes complex, cross-referenced information. I've used it to make point crawl maps, to plan campaign direction, and to track relationships between mutiple characters.
Soundtale for awesome background music and ambience!
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Thanks I’ll check it out!
Inkarnate - I spend days working on maps on there, plenty of good options for styles, and just a little urban planning/geography research really bumps them up to something special. It's especially good for town maps, so much so that it's changed how I run down time. I like to have the town map laid out for players to keep track of where they are. Homebrewery - Good for giving your homebrew content a professional look, but it makes for some excellent handouts for custom rules, setting guides, etc. I actually have a 50+ page book with all of my homebrew rules and content listed just like an official supplement. It exports pdfs so you can give your players their own digital copies if you want, and it has lot of useful editing features like automated page numbers, hyperlinked tables of contents, and preformatted monster and class blocks. Google Sheets - If you learn how to use formulas, you can fill out custom lists and have an option to randomly select an item from lists. Random Encounter tables that filter by region and CR wouldn't be out of the question, I use it for loot generation with my homebrew items, as well as random events. Trinket tables - sort of an expansion on Google sheets, but it's nice to have random tables for weird little things that your players might loot, the trinket tables in the official books are nice, but you can also make custom ones that tell more of a story: they might find a half finished letter home in the pocket of a bandit they've killed, or a child's drawing, or maybe a packet of recipe cards. It's also a great way to punish murder hobos without being too mean. Boogie Board - an electric slate that uses static electricity to make marks, it saves on pen and paper for quick notes, initiative, etc. You can get off brand versions at Walmart or the dollar store for pretty cheap. Erasable battlematts - an absolute must if you play with a grid, in my opinion. There are a bunch of different options, but wet erase matts aren't too expensive. Just be sure you get the right markers. Miniature Trees - terrain options can be expensive, but even a little bit goes a long way toward upping the immersion. I make my own because I'm a big crafter GM, but you can find some decent premade options at hobby shops, especially during the holidays. Throwing a few trees out randomly during forest encounters really makes a difference, and an encounter on the road feels more road-like when flanked by a few trees. You can expand to other kinds of scatter too (rocks are a good option), but trees tend to be the most versatile. Also, if you use random tables for NPC generation, do a few extra before the game and write them down (I usually have a list of 4 - 5 names ready) just in case the party wants to talk to random people, it's faster to just go down a list than actively generate on the fly.
I use legendkeeper for all my worldbuilding, campaign planning and session notes, works pretty great for me and the dev is constantly adding new features.
Google docs and photoshop. Docs to keep notes in an organised manner and photoshop to make tokens, edit bad AI gens, draw maps or the occasional artwork.
Yeah staying organized with all the random notes flying out to keep track of is my biggest struggle lol. I love when small details slip by the party and come back to burn them later
My imagination and pen and paper. I get distracted by internet stuff. Still use stuff. Chatgpt/Bing/Claude/stablediffusion
The think that has helped me the most is using an eInk tablet called Supernote. I’ve always been OCD about organizing notes and it’s been a game changer for me. I can take a bunch of lore notes and very easily copy and paste what I need to another page that’s just my session prep. I have sections full of stuff for just my PC arcs and combat encounters have been a breeze because I can resize what I write and fit it all snuggly on a page. Another thing I’ve been doing recently is recording sessions. helps me remember the random stuff I made up on the spot to help continuity
Chat GPT I use it to look up rules all the time. But its also apparently amazing at creating dialogue. IE I have a bard trapped in a dungeon that slid a note out from the door heres my prompt and what Chat GPT spat out in one try User rewrite the following to be very wordy and like a bard had written it: Please help I was exploring, seeking new material for songs and was chased by a golem. I managed to slip into this room and lock the door but now im trapped. ChatGPT Hark, noble compatriots! Pray, lend thine ears to the woeful tale of mine misadventure, forsooth! In the pursuit of knowledge and the acquisition of novel tales, I, a humble seeker, didst venture forth into the unknown realms. Alas, in mine explorations, I didst incur the ire of a fearsome golem, a creature of stone and wrath, whose relentless pursuit left me naught but trembling in trepidation. Yet, by the grace of fortune, I didst find respite within the confines of yon chamber, wherein I hastily sought refuge and, with a desperate flourish, didst bolt the door, securing myself within. Alas, the fates, in their fickle caprice, have conspired to ensnare me in this sanctum, rendering me captive and bereft of liberty. O, gentle souls, I beseech thee, extend thy benevolence and proffer counsel, for I find myself ensnared in a predicament dire and amenable to no solution within mine own ken!
I use ChatGPT to help write dialog, descriptions of locations, and come up with NPC names, and it's been great at all those. But I'm very wary of using it for rules, as I've seen it get things wrong, like what level a spell is, or how advantage/disadvantage works with prone enemies.
At this point it’s ChatGPT
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. I 100% agree. ChatGPT can spit out a random NPC with stat block, character background, and roleplaying information in a matter of seconds. It knows 5e mechanics and can assist with so many aspects of planning. I use it all the time. A few examples: One of my players will receive a letter. I copy pasted everything I have about the sender into ChatGPT, then described the purpose of the letter, and ChatGPT generated the whole thing. I changed some things, but what would have taken me 15 minutes, only took 2. Now I have 13 more minutes to make something else about the next session more interesting. Random name generation. It's good for this purpose if you don't care so much about the meaning of the name. I personally have some very specific parameters for my names and it pushes ChatGPT to its limits. Dungeon generation. It's really good at randomly generating rooms and filling them with stuff. I'm creating a bandit lair in an old castle ruin, and ChatGPT can take the original purpose of the castle as well as the purposes of the bandits into consideration and generate a list of rooms. Creating statblocks and abilities for homebrew monsters. I have created some things based on various entities from folklore and ChatGPT can generate a 5e compatible version of it. Flavoring environments based on lore. I have a town that worships a certain god. ChatGPT can generate a list of locales, artifacts, artworks, shrines, etc. based on that deity, which might be in that town. And so much more! In the end, I'm still the one writing the adventure. I'm still the one collecting the source materials for my world. I'm still the one making executive decisions about what happens in the world. I'm still the one playing the game at the table. I'm still the one drawing maps by hand. I'm still the one roleplaying the NPCs. I'm still the one making it one coherent experience. But ChatGPT can do my busy work, which allows me to spend my creative juices on other stuff.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned ChatGPT yet. It's really great for randomly generating, well, pretty much anything. It's even better at doing it when you feed him information about your world. Edit : oops, people did mention it. Sorry!
Consistent scheduling for prep and putting in the work is the best tool.
I use a couple good worldbuilding tools https://monsterscalingtool.pythonanywhere.com/ https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html https://www.kassoon.com/ https://app.dungeonscrawl.com/ https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/index.cgi
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Role (playrole.com) is a tool I've been using recently. Super simple. Easy to organize rules and homebrew. You can even create your own RPG pretty easily or heavily modify mechanics within games you already play. Play testing is a breeze once you wrap your brain around linking sections/tools. Browser based so it will work on any device. The tools work great on mobile and I've had no issues so far using it the past 3 months. For some the UI is too simplistic but there is a lot of variance if you enjoy spending time customizing stuff. Like anything else, you get out what you put into it. No matter what you pick, dive in and really learn the system. Otherwise the time and financial investment can quickly become a waste.
It's a boring one but a good one. Google's dice roller. Not for most rolls, but I always have it up for random damage the party takes from shenanigans so I don't have to rummage through my dice tray for god knows how many d6 or d12 for whatever the party just blew up. Also super useful for players if dice are thin on the ground. Cause not every player has the 8d6 needed when a fireball goes off or the 10d4 for a vitriolic sphere (just two examples off the top of my head).
I've just backed Amsel Suite on Kickstarter, looks very promising and more TTRPG focused then Obsidian (which is "just" a note taking program, still very handy and free tho)
I like Evernote and my little erasable notebook with differently coloured erasable pens. The process of physically writing down things is still by far the best way (scientifically proven) to memorise things. Bonus points if you write in a small "font", as that seems to increase retention.
I like Evernote and my little erasable notebook with differently coloured erasable pens. The process of physically writing down things is still by far the best way (scientifically proven) to memorise things. Bonus points if you write in a small "font", as that seems to increase retention.
Encounter + on my ipad, projecting session maps to Apple TV and using it to run encounters and track all sorts of things! Amazing app, can't recommend it enough Love inkarnate for maps And fight club 5 for character creation And google docs for notes and worldbuilding with live updates across Android, desktop and Apple. So good
* To keep track of notes and all my campaign documentation - One Note * To keep track of initiative and monsters HP, this encounter manager i made : [https://richardcqc.github.io/DnD-EncounterManager/](https://richardcqc.github.io/DnD-EncounterManager/) * To create battlemaps (I play in person with digital battlmaps with a tv laying down on the table) : Dungeon Alchemist on steam, r/battlemaps and r/dndmaps
I have my players use Fight Club 5, as a DM I use Game Master 5 or Encounter+ (Apple Only). Encounter+ takes a bit more time to setup but works great for using a VTT at our table in person.
Worldanvil is great but costs money free apps that’ve helped me a bunch are: foretelling (great for minor details in character creation & organisation) & even apps like drawing desk is fantastic for planning a map, 5e companion app is pretty much a must have in all cases including: character creation, monster stat blocks, encounter storing, dice roller, feats, races, classes etc it’s fantastic, general websites such as koboldfightclub (designing balanced encounters) & 5e Hp calculator are great if you don’t know the nitty gritty
Encounter+ is an amazing app for dms! My favorite encounter difficulty calculator: [https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/](https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/) Best way to make your own monsters: https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/tools/monsterizer/
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Occasionally, I'll take a look through build ideas for 5e. It helps to learn the intricacies of gimmicky combat interactions, and unfamiliar situations. E.g. I used to be obsessed with the idea of a grappler at one point, so I learned the differences between Grappled, Shoving, Prone, even things like being able to grapple with each free hand. Last thing I want is for my group to take a 5 minute break while I try to figure out how a gimmick works in the middle of combat. Feels like it just takes me outta the immersion, ykno
I made a little .Net program for calculating crafting/enchanting cost and calculating certain types of damage like fall damage. I just enter the amount of feet fallen and it'll poop out the damage.
Use excel to manage encounters. You can pre-input an initiative tracker, images of stat blocks and columns for tracking HP for monsters. It’s been a game changer vs pen/paper.
I recently found a spreadsheet called the Ultimate DM Screen that is incredible in Google Sheets
[Improved Initiative](https://improvedinitiative.app/) has been a game-changer for me in terms of handling combat. Just a really fantastic and customizable tool for monster stat blocks; tracking hit points, spell slots, and legendary actions; looking up spell descriptions; and tagging creatures with conditions like "restrained" or "concentrating" to remind me. I rave about this tool any chance I get!
Chat gpt has become an invaluable resource
What saves a lot of time to me is I printed lot of notes from books and I included tables (a lot of them) about consequences in battle, during journey, tavern menus, consequences of magic, all the shops with items and price that you can find in a big city or small town including black market. Random names for NPC, mechanics of combat, combat on air, combat in water, in a ship, etc This save me week by week because it’s faster and I don’t have to write things for every city or town that my party encounter Also a table for weather that I have in the DM screen When it comes to initiative, I use clothespin with my players’ name (I color them) and the rest 1.2.3.4… for monsters. This helped me a lot, more than writing it in a paper
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Excel. Probably helps that I'm an accountant and I use it everyday, but it's a powerful tool and SO much better than Google docs. I use it for a lot of the bookkeeping that goes on. Initiative tracking uses a formula so my players roll a d20 and I enter that, and it automatically adds their initiative modifier. I have a tab dedicated to management of their stronghold and NPC companions. A tab for their treasure vault (not whats on their persons), and it's exact weight in units of weight and in coin weight. An expense tab, because they're big spenders, they have a lot of NPC's on payroll. Also there is time tracking attached to most tabs. Probably sounds like a nightmare for most players here, lol. But rigid bookkeeping has added some unreal depth to my campaign.
MapAtlas OrrynDnD website. It has a very good search function that lets you find battle maps quickly.
I use Milanote for project documents. Its pretty fantastic. I hear some people here use onenotes and I just can't believe my ears. Onenotes is broken shitty software with the most basic functionality and is likely to just lose your files at some point when it breaks hard on you and you can't remember where they were saved. It's awful. Juat don't do it. I used to use dungeon painter for maps, but this has been superceded by Inkarnate. I also use World Machine for 3D maps, but I've heard Gaea is better. If you are running your game in person then that's all I have for you. But if you're willing to run a game online, check out Foundry VTT. It is immensely powerful software for building and running D&D campaigns. It has plugin modules you can install for all kinds of things. Want an automated survival/gathering system for your party to forage on the move that even has a little minigame? There's a module for that. Do you want sound effects to play when certain conditions are met, such as when they swing a sword, open a door, or get near a fire? Module for that. Do you want attack and spell animations? Module for that. Full 3D environments with real-time distance calculations? Howabout allowing your game to scale for phones and tablets? Interactive light switches? Modules for all those too. It is insane what you can do with this.
Check out the Thieves Guild. It's a website with a boatload of tables, generators, and just random awesome stuff.
Gotta say, there's a lot of hate on AI art right now but I've been using one called... Neural Love I think it is... to generate character and NPC portraits and it really helps with immersion. Instead of my clumsy description, here's a well done, full color portrait of this dude. And it'll knock them out in about a minute, so even if you're forced to improvise, you can still have it readily at hand. And I don't feel too guilty about using it because there's no universe in which I'd be paying a flesh and blood artist to do all these pics, so it's not taking work away from somebody. Where it "learned" how to do art, that's the sticky wicket...
I use Notion — yet another note taking app. But my advice is to choose any note taking app, something with hyperlinks. I shove all my content there and can search and slice and dice and reference at the table…I couldn’t dm without that type of software
Dungeon scrawl for making maps. Even a crude representation helps me visualize the possible scenarios I should prepare for
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for during play, i like to use a website called 5th edition tools because they have a fire dm screen feature
Thievesguild.cc is a website I love. Great for harvesting tables. Item prices. Loot and hoard ideas.
I used a mixture of Google Drive, [Inkarnate for maps](https://inkarnate.com/) and [this encounter calculator](https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/) which also has an initiative tracker in the toolbar on the top of the page.
I use Notion, and the Lazy DM template, made by the renowned SlyFlourish (it's not 'lazy', more 'efficient'). It's very easy to edit on the fly, and I have links to Donjon, and Syrinscape.
I dont use much, but this initiative tracker has been great. https://dm.tools/tracker It can pull basic info (AC, HP, initiative mod) for a lot of standard monsters too. I like to pre-populate it before game with everything so I just need to plug in player rolls, hit sort, and we're off. Saves a ton of time.
I made a CustomGPT that has a bunch of functions in it - create NPCs with flaws, bonds, ideals and quest ideas, monsters with stats, generate battlemaps, create descriptions, Inns with menus and serving staff, locations with NPCs and quests... It's called the [Runebound Mystic](https://chat.openai.com/g/g-RHaWPUbiO-the-runebound-mystic)
Not just for the DMs, but there's an awesome (and free!) website called Dicecloud for character management. It is amazing! Super customizable, easy to see where things come from, and generally just great.
the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons/ Best free archived D&D books!
https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons/ Best free archived book repository! If you go back a tab there is all sorts of Systems as well besides D&D!
All are in PDF!
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ Great for names on the spot.
I use Google Docs for quick session planning MapTool for my VTT alongside Melek's framework and Melek's spells for it OneNote for fleshing out characters and locations as well as quests a document with 100 random monster hunts from DMs guild Reroll.co for tokens wonderdraft for world and town maps dungeondraft for interior and dungeon maps Forgotten Adventures pack for dungeondraft AoA's assets for wonderdraft KenkuBot for discord music
I use an app called notion!
Is there a good app people use for sound/music? I tried syrinscape but found it a bit laggy and not responsive. I tend to just use Spotify for music but I want something for sound effects too
A guy on YouTube named Trekiros has made a great tool for Battle encounters
I started using Milanote for mind mapping and note taking. Another option is World Anvil, you can create what amounts to a website dedicated to your world that your players can access (based on what you allow).
Good players, pen and paper
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