Free Software

[TheDungeoneer]

Rather than a plethora of posts here and there, I was thinking about an ongoing thread about free software. Just software, not images, adventures, etc. Just free software we can all use for gaming.

With that, here's my list:

PCGen http://pcgen.sourceforge.net
The best freeware character generator.

OpenOffice http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
Free office suite includes Word Processor/HTML Editor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Graphics. Why pay hundreds for M$ Office?

Blender http://www.blender3d.org/
3D Renderer. It's not the easiest to get into, but it is powerful and has a lot of community support.

Konfabulator http://www.konfabulator.com
Desktop widgets of all kinds. Includes soundboards and dice rollers.

Skype http://skype.com/
Free VoIP/Internet phone. Used by our illustrious podcasters.

FileZilla http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
SmartFTP http://www.smartftp.com
These two FTP clients are both really good and free.

GAIM http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
Allows you chat on all major networks using any protocol without advertisements. AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, Zephyr and now Google Talk.

TheGimp http://www.gimp.org/
Free alternative to PhotoShop. Now includes a module to make it look like PhotoShop (if you like that sort of thing).

Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/screenshots/index.php
An alternative to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. If you get the OpenOffice Suite, Draw is similiar to Inkscape.

iTunes http://www.itunes.com
WinAmp http://www.winamp.com/player/
Windows Media Player http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx
All three are pretty much the same, it's just personal preference. Only iTunes works on both Windows and Mac. iTunes and WMP rip CDs to a proprietary format by default, so you may want to change that if you use them. And for the love of all that's holy, don't install RealPlayer. It's spyware of the first order.

Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audio recoder/editor. Functions include: Cut, copy, splice, record, mix, adjust speed and pitch.

CDBurnerXP Pro http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
Don't let the "Pro" in the name fool you. This is freeware. Some of the features include audio CD burning (duh), audio CD ripping, burn-proof (no coasters), burn or create ISO files. It writes to any of the following: CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW.

_____________________________
Don't just game, Dungeoneer!
http://www.dungeoneering.net

[saundby]

Here are some free items to assist roleplaying for folks on the Mac platform (many of the items TheDungeoneer listed are Mac items, too, but since Mac stuff tends to be less plentiful than the equivalent PC stuff it seemed worthwhile to list some of it here.)

Good places to start looking for such things are right at Apple's website as well as MacUpdate:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/g ... _strategy/
http://www.macupdate.com/

Look for the green Freeware tags on the Apple site and sort by license type when you do a search at MacUpdate to winnow out the free stuff.

One of the nicest items I've found is Town Generator. It generates towns full of NPCs. You can tweak the parameters to control what sort of town it is, the skills of the NPCs who live there, and so on:
http://www.verbster.com/users/mark/cetu ... index.html

Miniaturizer is a Mac and Windows tool for keeping track of D&D minis (or others if you give them the same name as D&D minis) and for tracking info during games:
http://miniaturizer.spymac.com/

Dicex--a nice dice roller for OS X with functions like dropping high/low die, etc.:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/morei ... &vid=60551

SpellBookMaster for OS X will allow you to manage spellbooks like you manage iTunes playlists. You have to load the SRD data for it, step by step instructions on how to do this are on the site:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/morei ... &vid=60551

Play GURPS? Here's a free GURPS-specific OS X character generator:
http://www.roleplayer.com/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=14

And one for Call of Cthulhu. Thanks to this program I have been able to stop running the one I wrote for myself way back when that requires me to run it inside a C-64 emulator on my Mac now. The CoC character generator is at:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15327

-Saundby
(the name sounds like "sawnd-bee", by the way.

[Working Man]

I just posted this in another spot in the forum regarding character images. Check out http://www.heromachine.com/ for a FREE online character image tool. It is template based but even the free version has lots of choices. I use it in all my games for humanoid characters of average height and build. Its main drawback is that all images have the characters in the exact same pose.

If you're not so frugal you could purchase it for $19.95 which gives you many more choices.

[GMonkey]

I'm a big fan of Dungeon Crafter

[Working Man]

I also thing Dungeon Crafter is a great tool, but their site hasn't been updated in almost a year so get the software while you can.

[TheDungeoneer]

It looks like Dungeon Forge (http://www.dungeonforge.com) is taking Dungeon Crafter's place. I too loved DC, but DC2 seems to be taking an eternity to come out.