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Some Software of Interest

I've been digging through software and have pulled a few useful pieces out for use so far:
  • AUTORealm -- map making
  • FreeMind -- mind mapping software, good for organizing people, places, etc in a campaign
  • RedBlade -- character generation
  • Box of Flumph -- kingdom generator, also available on Redblade site
  • Jamis Buck's D&D NPC Generator -- Download link not available (please let me know if you have it), an online NPC generator is here
  • Encounter Level and XP Calculator OpenOffice Spreadsheet -- found on this page
  • GoogleDocs / OpenOffice -- spreadsheets
So how do I use these to build a campaign?  Here's my notes:


  • Freemind is great for keeping a hierarchy of notes.  I organize into subnodes for Plot, Adventurers, Groups, Places.  Because you can open/close nodes, it is easy to flip to relevant info during a gaming session and it helps the DM to avoid railroading.  It is especially well suited if you are using a netbook with limited screen space.
    • Under Plot, I make major plot outlines and notes, identifying main and subplots.  Milestones are organized.
    • Under Adventurers I make notes about PCs and their backgrounds.
    • Under Groups, I outline all NPC organizations
    • Under Places, I put in specific locations.  Under each location I typically have a description, encounters (with data), NPC names, Etc.
      • For small places (small village) I might even list all the buildings, NPCs, etc
    • Might add a subnode for creatures to identify stats and which miniaiture to use.
  • RedBlade I use for PC and NPC generation.  It speeds up both creation and leveling.  It doesn't do everything, so I have to keep reminding the players to read the books to get other stuff in there.
  • Box of Flumph / NPC Generator are used as needed to fill in characters / make them up on the fly during the game.
  • AutoREALM I use for making maps.  It can do regional maps for getting from place to place.  It also is good for town maps where you are placing buildings on squares.  It definitely takes some getting used to because the user interface has some quirks, but it is well worth it.  I usually have trouble getting printing just right, so I often print to PDF and save the PDF for future use when players need more copies or we add players.
  • Spreadsheets I use for capturing map data (what are all 47 buildings) and for various tables (mod tables, list of store items and costs, etc)
Another bit of software I am checking out is GoogleWave.  It looks like there are some good public waves discussing running entire campaigns over GoogleWave.


by Dm Dad
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