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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
How I prepare for my tabletop RPG sessions has changed a lot over the last 12 years, and open source software has been a big part of those changes. It's now a vital part of every step in the process, from collecting and sketching out ideas, to dungeon map creation, to map keying, right through to the tools used during play.
When I first started gaming, around 1980, the idea of open source was just beginning to form. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 1st edition) was still very new and our tools were just paper and pencil. I didn't get to play very much back then because my closest friend lived several miles away.
I got back to it in 2005 when a coworker invited me to play in his game. Four years later he couldn't continue as the DM because Life Got Busy™ so I took over as DM.
Initially, I went back to the old pencil and paper tools, just like back in 1980, to prepare for gaming sessions. Quickly, though, my work as a sysadmin and open source user changed how I prepare and run my campaign, the series of play sessions run by a DM that create the world and the challenges the other player characters (PCs) confront in AD&D or the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
Guy had a few ideas I hadn't thought of yet. You lot care to add any of the tools you use to the list?
Source: OpenSource.com
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tibman on Thursday June 22 2017, @03:04PM
I've played a few games on roll20 and completely agree that it improves remote sessions. The DM has your sheet right there and everyone can see your dice rolls.
I haven't DM'd but by watching other DMs it seems like they could use assistant tools to help them along. Like the party derails a carefully planned adventure so the DM needs to invent a whole dungeon under the inn. They could use tools to auto-gen NPCs, dungeons, and even encounters. I was goofing around and wrote half of the official dungeon generator in the back of the Dunegon Master's Guide: http://tageverything.org/github/dungeon5e/ [tageverything.org] Might have to run it a few times. It can dead-end really quick because it wasn't finished.
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