Hello,

I recently saw the annoucement for the new ASUS Eee PC and EasyNote XS - two rather cheap UMPCs and somehow I thougt, that this little toys would make a great GM Helper (as my own laptop is simply to big for the gaming table), at least if there was a good tool for this job (that simply helps the GM bookkeeping)... Of course such a tool should also be runnable on a "normal" Laptop or Desktop PC.

So I started asking myself, what I would like to have as a GM...

- Organize Characters (PCs and NPCs), simply click them toegether for a combat
- Combat Sheet (sort the combatants by Initiative, show damage taken, etc.)
- Organize Text-Notes (Legwork-Info, Notes, Descriptions, etc.)
- Display Images (for example for the "GM Version" of Floorplans)
- Dice rolling (if the GM forgot his own dice *g*)
- Save all Data belonging to an Adventure together

...bundled toegether in one program, especially with the ability to mainly rely on the keyboard (mouse just takes space).

So the big question is: What would you like to see in such a tool? What do you need as a GM on the table?

All the stuff you listed sounds good.

Right now, I'm using wikis to store and organize information on NPCs and it has worked pretty well.

I'd also like a program that could automate time consuming things (like being able to roll Perception or Initiative for multiple characters with a single click).

-JKL

This is a good idea. I made a program similar to what you are describing in a computer science class last semester (in Java).

My program mostly focused on reducing the amount of paperwork associated with running a game, trying to do away with having an entire notebook filled with NPC stats, notes, old combats that were tracked, etc.

So, I had a "Character Database" part, which handled adding and removing NPCs and PCs from the Database. Here you can edit the stats of any character in the database, and also "activate" them. Activated characters can participate in combat, and basically represent the characters making an appearance in a gaming session.

There was also a Combat part of the program. Press "Begin Initiative" and the program automatically calculates all of the NPC initiatives, and allows the GM to input the rolls the PCs have (so that they can still roll their own dice). After the PC initiatives are input, the program displays all the initiatives in order, for each pass.

I also put in a dice rolling section with support for exploding sixes, as well as some statistical information. So, if the GM (or a player for that matter) wants to see his or her chances of success (e.g. what are the chances of getting at least 4 hits rolling 10 dice?) they can.

I'd be happy to post the work I have here for reference. I'm currently working on recoding the whole thing to make it more extensible in the future, and also to make it prettier (it is currently ugly).