Maelstrom
01-08-2009, 05:04 AM
4th Edition has brought to the forefront many new digital features such as the D&D Insider and online magazine content through D&D Insider.
At the same time, new programming languages and extensive open source and freely available libraries make it a breeze to make your own customized computer applications to crunch the D&D #s.
I just recently tried an experiment at my D&D Table: I ran the entire adventure from my laptop, with no pen or pencil in my hand, and didn't have to open a book once. I hope that someone may be enlightened if you aren't aware of those available tools, and if others have already done some of this I hope you'll share your experiences.
The Tools
1) D&D Insider:
For a DM, I think purchasing this service is a no-brainer at locked in rate of $4.95 per month if you grab a year long contract. DDI includes the Compendium, which allows you to easily find the monster, equipment, or other rules elements you're looking for and puts things in a nice html format you can copy and use yourself. Combined with the fact that the compendium is updated with new content every month (new books, the magazines, and even new RPGA adventures) and already you have over a 1000 monsters to pick through to find what you want to add flavor to a given encounter.
In addition to the compendium, there are several other features of DDI that adds value: The character generator, which is publicly available for 1-3 levels, and will soon be upgraded to 1-30 (a brilliant and easy to use tool), an encounter builder, and a monster maker. The online magazines add new encounter ideas, rules elements, and good articles about how to improve your DMing. At its low rate right now its a steal... there are a number of books announced right now that will make it into the compendium, and you save yourself purchasing those, plus all the extra content. Don't expect for the rate to remain this low when they release the full character builder though.
2) The D&D 4e Campaign Manager: http://www.codeplex.com/DnD4eCampaignManager
I was just about to start creating a program myself when I stumbled across this one. This application right now is pretty simple... it is an encounter tracker, but it has tremendous promise. I've done some work on myself, and plan on improving its ability to communicate with D&D Insider. Its main feature is a encounter list, in which you can add players and monsters. All stats of the monsters are tracked, so you don't have to crack open a book. It also allows you to keep track of conditions, and color codes everyone to make those conditions stand out. It works very well at a table, flexible enough to change things on the fly.
3) Good ol' word processor:
I wrote all adventure information into documents. Long term story arc, possible NPCs the players will encounter, and the information for the session itself.
Preparation
Preparing the adventure was a breeze. I started with my idea, that of a Pirate-style campaign (with a high fantasy twist). To introduce the idea, the PCs were going to be on a ship with mysterious cargo, escorted by a air-elemental bound warship with a full complement of mages and artillery for protection. These ships were going to be attacked by a red dragon (who would rip up the larger ship) and an orc longship (who would go after ship the player's were aboard).
Knowing that I wanted various orcs and goblinoids on this longship, I searched out several monsters I thought might help out, picking ones that fleshed out a challenging encounter for 1st level PCs, using the D&D Compendium mentioned above. It didn't take me very long to have a good list to choose from. I then plugged these monsters into the Encounter Builder, another DDI tool. I chose the right mix (including several minions) that would create the kind of encounter I was looking for. It generates a formatted (html) document, which I then saved for later reference. I also saved the html for each monster stat block.
After that encounter was done, I fleshed out the other encounters with ease. One interesting one was where the PCs were the sole survivors of the above attack, rescued by the navigator of their ship that had a rod of invisibility that concealed their retreat by rowboat. Stuck on a jungle island they had to make their way across. I at first didn't know what to do for this encounter, had a mental block. So I used the Compendium and searched for all monsters within the level range of the players to see what ideas came up. Bingo, found a good monster and created an ambush by plant-keyword creatures. Flavored it by having quicksand hazards all about.
Just before the session, I prepared the Campaign Manager (also listed above). I added all the monsters the players would encounter to the list of available monsters, and set up the first encounter.
I opened all my adventure documents, and opened each monster's html statblock into a multitabbed browser, one for each encounter.
Execution
The session ran very well. The PCs were thrown neckdeep into this new campaign world by having to fight orc pirates and watching their escort warship being fried by the dragon (setting the tone for the campaign, and providing for future plot hooks). The players however, were well prepared for this kind of encounter, with several push/pull abilities that forced orcs overboard (they'd be back in a bit, drenched and mad, but they were out of the combat for a while at least).
Through brilliant tactics, the PCs beat back the orcs and their buddies, and started to counterboard the orc ship, something I didn't plan for. I had to improvise, and the digital tools made it easy. More and more orcs and goblinoids poored up from the hold (this was a longship afterall - lots of rowers), and yet the players held out for a long time. They finally abandoned ship, but not before having an astounding total of orcs to their credit, and were rescued by an invisible-rod wielding gnome navigator aboard a rowboat.
The PCs continued on, and ended up stealing a small ship from a pirate encampment on the island, preparing them for the remainder of the campaign.
Conclusion
This test was a resounding success. I didn't have to spend much time in preparation with all the tools available, and I think the players had a good time. With all the digital tools, it was easy to change things up on the fly, and in the future I think I'll be able to create sessions with very little structure so the players can take it whatever direction they like. I plan on improving the tools of the parts that were a tad more tedious (such as calculating experience afterwards), but I think my laptop is here to stay when it comes to running D&D sessions.
At the same time, new programming languages and extensive open source and freely available libraries make it a breeze to make your own customized computer applications to crunch the D&D #s.
I just recently tried an experiment at my D&D Table: I ran the entire adventure from my laptop, with no pen or pencil in my hand, and didn't have to open a book once. I hope that someone may be enlightened if you aren't aware of those available tools, and if others have already done some of this I hope you'll share your experiences.
The Tools
1) D&D Insider:
For a DM, I think purchasing this service is a no-brainer at locked in rate of $4.95 per month if you grab a year long contract. DDI includes the Compendium, which allows you to easily find the monster, equipment, or other rules elements you're looking for and puts things in a nice html format you can copy and use yourself. Combined with the fact that the compendium is updated with new content every month (new books, the magazines, and even new RPGA adventures) and already you have over a 1000 monsters to pick through to find what you want to add flavor to a given encounter.
In addition to the compendium, there are several other features of DDI that adds value: The character generator, which is publicly available for 1-3 levels, and will soon be upgraded to 1-30 (a brilliant and easy to use tool), an encounter builder, and a monster maker. The online magazines add new encounter ideas, rules elements, and good articles about how to improve your DMing. At its low rate right now its a steal... there are a number of books announced right now that will make it into the compendium, and you save yourself purchasing those, plus all the extra content. Don't expect for the rate to remain this low when they release the full character builder though.
2) The D&D 4e Campaign Manager: http://www.codeplex.com/DnD4eCampaignManager
I was just about to start creating a program myself when I stumbled across this one. This application right now is pretty simple... it is an encounter tracker, but it has tremendous promise. I've done some work on myself, and plan on improving its ability to communicate with D&D Insider. Its main feature is a encounter list, in which you can add players and monsters. All stats of the monsters are tracked, so you don't have to crack open a book. It also allows you to keep track of conditions, and color codes everyone to make those conditions stand out. It works very well at a table, flexible enough to change things on the fly.
3) Good ol' word processor:
I wrote all adventure information into documents. Long term story arc, possible NPCs the players will encounter, and the information for the session itself.
Preparation
Preparing the adventure was a breeze. I started with my idea, that of a Pirate-style campaign (with a high fantasy twist). To introduce the idea, the PCs were going to be on a ship with mysterious cargo, escorted by a air-elemental bound warship with a full complement of mages and artillery for protection. These ships were going to be attacked by a red dragon (who would rip up the larger ship) and an orc longship (who would go after ship the player's were aboard).
Knowing that I wanted various orcs and goblinoids on this longship, I searched out several monsters I thought might help out, picking ones that fleshed out a challenging encounter for 1st level PCs, using the D&D Compendium mentioned above. It didn't take me very long to have a good list to choose from. I then plugged these monsters into the Encounter Builder, another DDI tool. I chose the right mix (including several minions) that would create the kind of encounter I was looking for. It generates a formatted (html) document, which I then saved for later reference. I also saved the html for each monster stat block.
After that encounter was done, I fleshed out the other encounters with ease. One interesting one was where the PCs were the sole survivors of the above attack, rescued by the navigator of their ship that had a rod of invisibility that concealed their retreat by rowboat. Stuck on a jungle island they had to make their way across. I at first didn't know what to do for this encounter, had a mental block. So I used the Compendium and searched for all monsters within the level range of the players to see what ideas came up. Bingo, found a good monster and created an ambush by plant-keyword creatures. Flavored it by having quicksand hazards all about.
Just before the session, I prepared the Campaign Manager (also listed above). I added all the monsters the players would encounter to the list of available monsters, and set up the first encounter.
I opened all my adventure documents, and opened each monster's html statblock into a multitabbed browser, one for each encounter.
Execution
The session ran very well. The PCs were thrown neckdeep into this new campaign world by having to fight orc pirates and watching their escort warship being fried by the dragon (setting the tone for the campaign, and providing for future plot hooks). The players however, were well prepared for this kind of encounter, with several push/pull abilities that forced orcs overboard (they'd be back in a bit, drenched and mad, but they were out of the combat for a while at least).
Through brilliant tactics, the PCs beat back the orcs and their buddies, and started to counterboard the orc ship, something I didn't plan for. I had to improvise, and the digital tools made it easy. More and more orcs and goblinoids poored up from the hold (this was a longship afterall - lots of rowers), and yet the players held out for a long time. They finally abandoned ship, but not before having an astounding total of orcs to their credit, and were rescued by an invisible-rod wielding gnome navigator aboard a rowboat.
The PCs continued on, and ended up stealing a small ship from a pirate encampment on the island, preparing them for the remainder of the campaign.
Conclusion
This test was a resounding success. I didn't have to spend much time in preparation with all the tools available, and I think the players had a good time. With all the digital tools, it was easy to change things up on the fly, and in the future I think I'll be able to create sessions with very little structure so the players can take it whatever direction they like. I plan on improving the tools of the parts that were a tad more tedious (such as calculating experience afterwards), but I think my laptop is here to stay when it comes to running D&D sessions.