Looking for input re: use of laptop as GM during sessions

[John515]

I am going to be in the market for a new computer in the next few months, since the one I have is about 3 years old. Aside from a desktop with all the new goodies I have toyed w/the idea of having a laptop as well. The capabilities of said laptop wouldn't have to be as strong as the desktop, as it wouldn't be used for anything really super graphics intensive, like games, just word processing, internet, etc. I think it would be a useful addition to a GM, but it might be more than I need. Any ideas from the HERO bretheren about how you would use a laptop? I'm sure there are things that I'm not aware of: creative uses of software and such. I am not overly computer literate-though I can keep myself out of trouble and I'm 3 years behind the curve as far as what's currently available----so be kind and "speak slowly and clearly"! ;-)

[keithcurtis]

Speaking for myself, I would find it difficult to game wthout my laptop. Over the years I have developed a series of Filemaker databasees that hold all character sheets (and do all the math) and run all combat (and do all the math). Also, all of my notes are available in a large typeface that can be easily cribbed from during the game.

Some GMs use them for sound effects, music and holding graphics to show players, "the Dingworzle looks like THIS!". I do some of that, but mostly it keeps everything orgnaized and running for me.

Keith "Have Laptop, will GM" Curtis

[lemming]

Pretty much the same as Keith. It's the organized part of my life. ;)

I like having printouts for everything that the players see, but with most of my players having laptops of their own, maybe I should just make a web page with handouts and maps.

I've been using the same laptop for the last three years. Sony PIII-650 - 192MB Ram. Works great, except for a flaky keyboard. Been running Linux, so even Hero Designer works well on it.

I'm sure some Windows using person will add their 2 cents sooner or later...

[Fitz]

I would use my laptop during gaming a lot more if I had more room at my end of the gaming table. I have a Toshiba Tecra 9000, and though it's a very good machine, it's not one of those micro-miniaturized laptops which looks like a desk diary.

One day, when I've won the lottery, I'l build myself a dedicated gaming tables with terminals at every station, but for the moment I find it most convenient to keep all my planning computerized and stick with the old favourites -- pencil, paper and dice -- at the gaming table.

[bjbrown]

<P>I tried to use a laptop during gaming, but it didn't work out for me. One was that, I too, had space problems as far as fitting everything I wanted on the tabletop. I also find it easier to find information sorting through pages rather than scrolling or tabbing through files. It was also hard for me to keep track of the laptop information along with the rulebooks and written notes that I keep (and, despite my typing speed, keeping written notes is still faster for me).</P><P>If you'te planning to get a laptop though for uses other than gaming, you might as well give it a try.</P>

[The Mad GM]

I've often been tempted to use my laptop at games, but since I haven't GMed in years, it didn't seem worthwhile.

keithcurtis - I use Filemaker for my business, and I cobbled together a character generator as well. How do you use yours during the game?

[Blue]

I am the first GM of our group to use a laptop during play. I have...
All of the characters available on the computer in case someone forgets to bring theirs (which happens sometimes)
All of the character packs for HD, so I can call up a villain and leave the CKC book (among others) at home.
An excel spreadsheet with all of the characters' DEX, SPD, and other important factors, and a macro that I can run each phase that will sort the characters who have actions to the top and sort them by DEX and any other tie-breaker, with just the click of a button.
All character pictures, in case I forget to print one to show the players.
I can run without it, but it would mean even more shuffling of paper each game (as I have a tendancy to mix up all my paperwork).

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by The Mad GM
I've often been tempted to use my laptop at games, but since I haven't GMed in years, it didn't seem worthwhile.

keithcurtis - I use Filemaker for my business, and I cobbled together a character generator as well. How do you use yours during the game?
There is a combat engine that reads the characters. I can select armor, maneuver, weapons, range, etc. and either input rolls manually or just click the "attacker" and "defender" buttons. I can also use it to find and file groups of characters based on race, class, age, campaign, affilations, etc.

Keith "More later..." Curtis

[zornwil]

Me, I have a document up all the time into which I type notes as the game goes -it allows me to create detailed issues on the web later. Also, I have the various game/plot notes up in that same doc, in a section at the start of each game so I can go back to it during the game.

I also have a little Access thing that helps me track combat.

I keep all the characters on my laptop and look at them on there - no paper for that.

Just remember - bring your power cord - I forgot mine last night and it sucked as my laptop couldn't stay up nearly the whol session.

[pruttm]

Check out http://hcs.dhis.org

This program's intention is to help you run combat from one interface.

pete

[JohnTaber]

Hi Blue: Can you post your spreadsheet that you use for keeping track of combat and sorting out Dex ties and such? I am not an Excel guru. ;) Note that I was using ComSeq (Combat Sequencer) but there is a bug when folks have 7 speeds. :(

Hi Everyone: I have an IBM Thinkpad with a butterfly keypad the pops out. I don't know if you remember the commercial. Anyway...I found that size is critical as I often want to carry it around in my backpack. In fact my little laptop is only a 486 class machine but it does what I need it to do. I only use if for keeping notes and speed charts. I don't use if for sounds or for keeping the adventures as I often write out my notes by hand.

[Blue]

Originally posted by JohnTaber
Hi Blue: Can you post your spreadsheet that you use for keeping track of combat and sorting out Dex ties and such? I am not an Excel guru. ;) Note that I was using ComSeq (Combat Sequencer) but there is a bug when folks have 7 speeds. :(

Not sure I have a copy on my work computer. If I don't I'll post it when I get home.

[KA.]

Just have to say that I wouldn't GM without my laptop!

I don't have all the cool stuff that it sounds like some of you do, but it would be worth it if the only thing I used was my Damage Spreadsheet.

It can roll up to 25 dice of Normal Damage or 10 dice of Killing Damage, and then display the individual rolls along with a running total of Stun and Body for any number of dice.

It takes only one command to "refresh" with a new set of numbers.

It makes running villains much easier. After all, the players only have to add up their numbers, but I have to add up everyone else's.

KA

[GreyGuardian]

I've been toying with using my PDA to help with gaming since it doesn't have the space issues a lap top does... It does basic spreadsheets word processing etc. Probably will use it to do combat tracking etc next time I judge hero. also handy to have the FAQ on there. Adobe has put out a palm version of their reader which does a decent job translating to pda format from normal acrobat.

[lemming]

Originally posted by KA.
It can roll up to 25 dice of Normal Damage or 10 dice of Killing Damage, and then display the individual rolls along with a running total of Stun and Body for any number of dice
I'm into using laptops, but I have to roll physical dice. I like the feel, the sound, the wonderous noise as the dice thunder over the table top like stampeding wildebeasts...

Though I'm way out of practice. Need more power gaming. :D

[JohnTaber]

Hey Grey Guardian: I would LOVE a speed chart for my Palm. If you hear of one let me know... ;)

[The Mad GM]

I can probably make a speed chart with a spreadsheet on my Palm, does anyone know of a good dice roller for Palm OS?

[Vondy]

I vaguely remember a time in the primordial past when there were no laptops at my gaming table... I think. Its all fuzzy now.

I use it extensively, and most of my players do to. I use the metacreator die roller, which speeds things up. The players make all their to hit and skill rolls with old fashioned dice on the table. I make all of mine on the laptop - and do all the damage rolls (since it tallies body and stun for you).

[zornwil]

Originally posted by D-Man
I vaguely remember a time in the primordial past when there were no laptops at my gaming table... I think. Its all fuzzy now.

I use it extensively, and most of my players do to. I use the metacreator die roller, which speeds things up. The players make all their to hit and skill rolls with old fashioned dice on the table. I make all of mine on the laptop - and do all the damage rolls (since it tallies body and stun for you).

Hey D-Man, welcome back!

[Vondy]

Originally posted by zornwil
Hey D-Man, welcome back!

Thanks!

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by The Mad GM
I can probably make a speed chart with a spreadsheet on my Palm, does anyone know of a good dice roller for Palm OS?

This is the one my wife uses, DicePro 2.1:


DicePro is a freeware dice rolling utility for the USR/3Com PalmPilo PDA. It supports many different die types and can perform many useful die rolling functions automatically such as rerolling dice and totaling subsets. In addition to its flexible general-purpose dice rolling functions, DicePro also understands how to roll dice specifically for the Storyteller system, ShadowRun, Ars Magica, Earthdawn, the HERO System, and others. It supports a wide variety of die types including the standard polyhedrals (4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 20-, and 100-sided), generalized N-sided "virtual" polyhedrals, FUDGE dice, and more.

You can find it here (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/palm/246)

Keith "Mr. Helpy-Guy" Curtis

[The Mad GM]

Cool! Many thanks!

BTW, I made a combat organizer out of Filemaker Pro. It has a screen for either hand-inputing data (Name, dex, spd) or gathering it based on a pop-up list of characters from my FMP dtabase o' characters. Then you can progress through phases and it lists everyone that has a move by order of dex, with CV and ECV. I haven't figured out how to make it understand 'holding a phase', and it doesn't resolve combat, just tracks who moves when. My group still likes dice rolling themselves, so I probably won't get into that too much, and I've never been very daunted by calculating CV vs CV with mods on the fly, so I probably won't work that out either.

Is there anything else people find very convenient in a combat tracker?

[keithcurtis]

Here's a screen shot of the FM Pro DB I use. This is the combat engine. I have a second, related file that handles character creation.

Keith "Too-too-too-too much time on my hands" Curtis

[JohnTaber]

Hi Mad GM: Keiths is way too much for me. I would like just a simple speed charting program like ComSeq. It was an old Win 3.1 program that worked great. I would still be using it except there is a bug with Speed 7 folks. :( The main feature I would like...
+ Simple chart with Phase at the top and a list of players in Dex order.
+ Ability to save sets of characters so they can be loaded for use.
+ Random determination of order when phase encountered if there is a tie on Dex.
+ Just Dex and Spd required to use the program.

FYI. I would be willing to pay for a tool like this...

[zornwil]

I miss the old Pascal program I did to do this stuff. It was fairly slick but doesn't run reliably under 32-bit OSes and I haven't had the energy to rewrite anything as elaborate.

[The Mad GM]

Keith - The scary thing is that the layout mostly makes sense to me. It is WAY more than I need, tho.


Originally posted by JohnTaber
The main feature I would like...
+ Simple chart with Phase at the top and a list of players in Dex order.
+ Ability to save sets of characters so they can be loaded for use.
+ Random determination of order when phase encountered if there is a tie on Dex.
+ Just Dex and Spd required to use the program.

The one I made with Filemaker Pro does this, but it requires having Filemaker software to run it. I don't have the developer version that can create royalty free stand-alones.


FYI. I would be willing to pay for a tool like this...

You might be willing to pay, but it ain't cheap...$299 for a single user liscence. If I didn't already own it for my business, I wouldn't even think about it. And I'm not willing to shell out the $499 for the developer version.

[Wolf]

I have used laptops in some of my games, however I noticed several things.
1) make shure you prepair and maby even hyperlink your text stuff together so you can find stuff fast.
2) lots of people have cool stuff as freeware so you can start using other peoples programs.
3) most useful if used with the internet, with the wealth of info out there, especally if you run a "real world" game. You can plot distances and get maps of countries, even campaign maps on the quick if your players throw you a curve.
I had a group that wanted a game of 4th about two years ago and I decided to run a special forces game in Afganistan, so I just jumped on line and had myself a map, towns, and even satalite pictures of some places. It helped alot, heck you can even find topo's to some locations on certon sites. (that's a topographical map with the lines indicating mountains and other geographical features for those that don't know)
If you practice and use your head it's an invaluble tool.
-Wolf

[John515]

Mtinaro just got his new Mac notebook and tells me that it is great. Saw it, dug it, gonna get one. Thanks for all of your input here guys and gals! See you soon about the computer, Mtinaro!!

BTW, will HeroDesigner 2.0 work well on a Mac?

John

[Tasha]

Originally posted by John515
Mtinaro just got his new Mac notebook and tells me that it is great. Saw it, dug it, gonna get one. Thanks for all of your input here guys and gals! See you soon about the computer, Mtinaro!!

BTW, will HeroDesigner 2.0 work well on a Mac?

John

Yep, most of us Mac users worked with Dan and we now have a working version that runs in OS X 10.2 (w/java 1.4.1) or later.

I have used filemaker for my combat chart, Character sheets. I have also used MS word for the same things.

I do find that I like rolling real dice. I find that I trust dice more than a dice roller program.

Tasha :)

[zornwil]

Originally posted by Tasha
Yep, most of us Mac users worked with Dan and we now have a working version that runs in OS X 10.2 (w/java 1.4.1) or later.

I have used filemaker for my combat chart, Character sheets. I have also used MS word for the same things.

I do find that I like rolling real dice. I find that I trust dice more than a dice roller program.

Tasha :)

I pretty much make people throw dice now, even if they have a Palm or laptop program. It's just easier than worrying over whether they forgot to configure their dice roller correctly, plus I think it's more socially correct, somehow.

[lemming]

Originally posted by zornwil
I pretty much make people throw dice now, even if they have a Palm or laptop program. It's just easier than worrying over whether they forgot to configure their dice roller correctly, plus I think it's more socially correct, somehow.
It makes a better noise anyway.

[The Mad GM]

This might be somewhat kludgish, but using MobileDB (www.handmark.com) on a Palm m130 (OS4.0), I created a database with fields for Name, Dex and CV, then added a field for whether or not they're in this combat, and a checkbox field for each phase. then I just do a Filter for "In this Combat" and whatever phase I'm in. Clicking on the header for Dex sorts it by Dex, and the display of all those Phase fields just runs off the side of the screen.

It is a little awkward to enter the characters because you have to check the phases that they move in; MobileDB doesn't have calculation fields to do it off a simple Speed value. And you have to go through at the begining of each combat and select everyone who's going to be involved, but I figured I'd have to do that with more specialized software anyway.

I can see this would be a problem if there was a character with a variable Speed or Speed adjustment powers, but frankly that's fairly rare.

[Catseye]

I wouldnt do a Con game without my laptop. Things I do with it include:

(1) Music. yes its a VERY expensive CD player, but I do a lot with music in my games and i have more control with MP3s on my laptop.

(2) Sometimes the adventure text. I prefer to have it printed out but sometimes I am actually finishing a given scenario at the hotel before the run.

(3) HCS. Great program. Takes some learning but is a real boon to running Hero once you get the hang of it.

(4) HD. Another excellent program. Not really used during run but VERY handy when designing scenarios.

(5) Artwork. Another preperation thing. I actually do my cardboard miniatures on my dekstop PC because somewhat ironically the ONE thing i havent found for my Apple laptop is a paint program as good and cheap as paint shop pro.

Even if i have the scenario on paper I always bring it to the con on the machine with a little portable color printer just in case...

By the way, I use an Apple G4 tiBook.

[lemming]

Originally posted by Catseye
(5) Artwork. Another preperation thing. I actually do my cardboard miniatures on my dekstop PC because somewhat ironically the ONE thing i havent found for my Apple laptop is a paint program as good and cheap as paint shop pro.
Have you checked out the GIMP? I'm pretty sure it's available for the Apple. While lacking in some features, you can't beat the price.

[Starwolf]

A long time ago I had a copy of a sharware program called GMAid. Some people did not like it but I loved it. It tracked combat turns, ordered the characters by SPD/DEX, tracked damage (both stun/body), tracked END usage, tracked who was stunned/unconscious. You could also tag characters with different powers/effects and it tracked the effect duration. It also had a cool timer function so for instance if there was a bomb set to go off on turn 6, segment 8, then at that time a pop-up would "pop-up" and say the bomb goes off...

You could also enter characters manually, then save them as groups. You could then load groups as needed. So at the start of each game I would load the heroes. The as needed load my prepared encounter groups. The program added the new group to the speed/movement matrix and the game moved on.

If anyone knows where I can get another copy of this app (it was DOS based) or how I can get in touch with the original author I would be greatly indebted.:cool:

[Captain Obvious]

Man, you guys are nuts!

I've thought about picking up a used laptop, but that would just be so I could bring along a PDF adventure and run it without having to print the beast out.

The dice must be rolled on the table, as they have been rolled for millenia. I can't see how the gaming gods would smile on it any other way.

The rest of that crap just needs to be worked on the fly, and notes taken for later. Well, I suppose the laptop could do that too, and save me a little paper....

[lemming]

Originally posted by Captain Obvious
The dice must be rolled on the table, as they have been rolled for millenia. I can't see how the gaming gods would smile on it any other way.

I'm in full agreement there. :D

Though I think in the next couple months we'll be seeing everyone in our gaming group using laptops with wireless.

I think I need to setup Apache on my laptop so I can serve maps, etc...

[Catseye]

Originally posted by lemming
Have you checked out the GIMP? I'm pretty sure it's available for the Apple. While lacking in some features, you can't beat the price.

Yeah i have a Mac GIMP.

If I learned to use it i suppsoe it might work as well. So far I havent been able to work up the urge to learn it.

I generally *dislike* X11 apps on my Mac, though, as they tend to integrate imperfectly with the rest of the Mac environment.

[Catseye]

HCS lets you roll your own dice if you want.

You really aughta try it before knocking it. Its amazing how much faster Hero combat can go if you aren't doing bookeeping at the same time.

[pruttm]

I don't always say that HCS will make combat faster (in some cases it can) but it definitely makes it more accurate. I am always amazed about how it tracks things like charges and running out of END. It doesn't forget about knockdowns or stuns or entangles either. It also tracks tons of little penalties etc that tend to get forgotten. The most recent code keeps track of breakout rolls for mental powers which is a great thing for lots of NPCs that are controlled.

Like catseye said, you do need to spend some time with it to get used to all of the options.

Pete Ruttman

[KA.]

Originally posted by Starwolf
A long time ago I had a copy of a sharware program called GMAid. Some people did not like it but I loved it. It tracked combat turns, ordered the characters by SPD/DEX, tracked damage (both stun/body), tracked END usage, tracked who was stunned/unconscious. You could also tag characters with different powers/effects and it tracked the effect duration. It also had a cool timer function so for instance if there was a bomb set to go off on turn 6, segment 8, then at that time a pop-up would "pop-up" and say the bomb goes off...

You could also enter characters manually, then save them as groups. You could then load groups as needed. So at the start of each game I would load the heroes. The as needed load my prepared encounter groups. The program added the new group to the speed/movement matrix and the game moved on.

If anyone knows where I can get another copy of this app (it was DOS based) or how I can get in touch with the original author I would be greatly indebted.:cool:

Try here: http://www.mactyre.net/october/ROLEUTIL/Files.html
but I don't think it is under the heading GMAID1.ZIP, or even GMAID2.ZIP, it is under GSPC20.ZIP!

Please let me know if this is it.
:)
KA.