Uses of technology in GM'ing?

[aelfwyne]

I've recently rediscovered RPG's after a number of years off...

I have access to the 3.0 rulebooks, but I really wanted to be running a 3.5 dnd game, since that's what the "rest of the world" uses. I hadn't played since 2nd edition, so I figured why learn an old one?

So, lacking the 3.5 books, I imported the Hypertext d20 SRD bookmarks into a toolbar folder in FireFox on my laptop computer, as well as the search bar extension.... (both found here: http://www.d20srd.org/firefoxGoodies/.

My players were a bit reluctant at first... they like being able to flip through the books, etc.. I told them they could still use the print books for things that haven't changed..

I also made a toolbar folder for monsters that I planned on using in each session. Then I noticed that the Hypertext d20 SRD will even roll the dice for me if I click on the dice text on a monster entry. Very nice.

My players really came around when every time they started flipping through the books looking for information, I was consistently able to find the information much more quickly than they could by using the bookmark links and/or search on the hypertext d20 site.

I have almost completely gone to using my laptop as my DM Screen, reference sheets, and bookset.

What I want to know - is what ideas do others have for using technology like this in their gaming sessions? Other than the ubiquitous dice-rollers and encounter level calculators, are there any other utilities that you guys use that are useful to use on-the-fly while running a game? Any such utilities would need to be lightweight, fast-loading and quickly usable, such that it doesn't detract from the GM's time running the game.

Btw, I also use my Palm PDA for a few things, but I haven't found a lot of useful software for it. Tips there would be nice too!

Thanks!

[evilninjamonkey]

I use the jave character generator from http://www.pathguy.com. I use it to create upgraded "normal" monsters like gblins, orcs, elves, drow etc. It even has options for NPC classes. I use it for all my NPCs and villains

[TheDungeoneer]

PC Gen - The best character/monster generator for D20 I've found. I believe there is a side-project so you can view character sheets on Palm.
Dungeon Forge - Replaced Dungeon Crafter as free and easy dungeon mapper.

Finally there's this thread from the Frugal Gamer board from awhile back.

[death_jester]

Hey AW,

This was covered a while back. You may want to check out this thread it has some stuff on it that could be useful. If you need me to post the links to the ones I listed I would be happy to do that but it may take a bit.

http://bbs.dragonslanding.com/viewtopic ... ight=#6912

Peace DJ

[Wyrmul]

I use Wikispaces and Wikipad extensively. For all the information I want available to my players there is wikispaces where I keep setting, npc info, and other general game news. And I use Wiki pad to keep notes on my laptop, develop adventures, crossrefference inforation on the behind the scenes activities. Unfortunatly the two uses slightly different syntax and have different UI's. But they are both supremely usable.