When I started with Pathfinder, it was me, my core rulebook, a bestiary, a notebook, and a set of dice. Times have changed with 9 full hardback books released by paizo in addition to player's guides, modules, and those awesome 3rd party products (Tome of Horrors, Psionics Unleashed, etc). Today I am using a laptop and a USB monitor and things aren't bad.
My first laptop GMing investment was Herolab. As a player it gave me the option to quickly and easily build a character over multiple levels and explore the options. As a GM, I can use it to quickly build NPCs, verify PC builds and calculate item costs. It even does a reasonable job of letting me skip the character sheet for NPCs by acting as a during-game character sheet. Unfortunately, for most people, the price tag for the core version is not cheap, and adding on all the additional books isn't cheap. It also doesn't fulfill any role in checking rules during the game. It also isn't very useful for large groups of characters.
With the additional of all of the books to the online PRD, however, one can get access to all the rules, all the bestiary monsters, and all of the prebuilt NPCs for free. Having this open during the game is a must for me anymore -- not even my smart phone app works as well.
Displaying maps, especially non-battle maps, can be a big problem, especially during my pirate game where detailed maps are important for navigation. I added ScreenMonkey and a USB monitor and now I can display not only maps, but also the second screen of my home-built java initiative tracker.
You can't hardly game anymore without running into PDFs. I buy them at RPG DriveThru, I generate them as custom content use GoogleDocs, and I even scan them from character sheets. Where to keep them? Both GoogleDrive and DropBox are great for storing large volumes of PDFs for quick access. I keep a portable wand scanner with me just so I can scan character sheets.
GoogleDocs is good for other things. I need to be able to quickly build encounters. NPCs I can grab from the NPC Codex online, but ship stats with weapons are another story. I made a ship stat spreadsheet with all the standard ships on one page and the siege weapon stats on another. Now I can build a ship in a few seconds, add a couple of NPC Codexers as officers, add a CoreRulebook NPC as my exemplar sailor aboard and off we go .
I can't imagine gaming in Pathfinder without a laptop anymore. My digital content is so deep anymore that I even require my players to have email so I cen send them stuff. If you GM, I would strongly encourage you for flexibility's sake, as well as for sanity's sake with all the Pathfinder rules, to get a laptop and use it at your gaming table.
My first laptop GMing investment was Herolab. As a player it gave me the option to quickly and easily build a character over multiple levels and explore the options. As a GM, I can use it to quickly build NPCs, verify PC builds and calculate item costs. It even does a reasonable job of letting me skip the character sheet for NPCs by acting as a during-game character sheet. Unfortunately, for most people, the price tag for the core version is not cheap, and adding on all the additional books isn't cheap. It also doesn't fulfill any role in checking rules during the game. It also isn't very useful for large groups of characters.
With the additional of all of the books to the online PRD, however, one can get access to all the rules, all the bestiary monsters, and all of the prebuilt NPCs for free. Having this open during the game is a must for me anymore -- not even my smart phone app works as well.
Displaying maps, especially non-battle maps, can be a big problem, especially during my pirate game where detailed maps are important for navigation. I added ScreenMonkey and a USB monitor and now I can display not only maps, but also the second screen of my home-built java initiative tracker.
You can't hardly game anymore without running into PDFs. I buy them at RPG DriveThru, I generate them as custom content use GoogleDocs, and I even scan them from character sheets. Where to keep them? Both GoogleDrive and DropBox are great for storing large volumes of PDFs for quick access. I keep a portable wand scanner with me just so I can scan character sheets.
GoogleDocs is good for other things. I need to be able to quickly build encounters. NPCs I can grab from the NPC Codex online, but ship stats with weapons are another story. I made a ship stat spreadsheet with all the standard ships on one page and the siege weapon stats on another. Now I can build a ship in a few seconds, add a couple of NPC Codexers as officers, add a CoreRulebook NPC as my exemplar sailor aboard and off we go .
I can't imagine gaming in Pathfinder without a laptop anymore. My digital content is so deep anymore that I even require my players to have email so I cen send them stuff. If you GM, I would strongly encourage you for flexibility's sake, as well as for sanity's sake with all the Pathfinder rules, to get a laptop and use it at your gaming table.
I find computers in general to be an excellent resource for gaming. We handle all of our "town time" via email and I write pretty much everything (adventures, NPC's, etc) at a monitor of some kind. I keep a tablet at the table for critical hit and fumble apps / spellbooks but I print everything else out on paper.
ReplyDeleteThat's more of a personal choice than a logical one. I just prefer to have it all in paper format.
My favorite computer resource by far is dinglesgames.com. He has an excellent NPC/monster generator there if you ever get tired of the codex or need something a little more specific. (although NPC generation is limited to level 5 and below unless you pay for a membership)