Helpful Free Tools for QMs/DMs

[ultima333]

I figured I'd post some helpful tools that I've found for DMing/QMing, including mapmakers, relationship chart makers, character sheet generators, and the like.

General Free Tools
These include general tools like mapmakers, chart makers, and the like.

Labyrinth - edit: tool has basically disappeared.
This tool is for making relationship charts. Useful for intrigue-based games, or for making shipping charts.

Spoiler: screenshots

Hexographer (Free version)
This tool is for creating maps, typically hex-based overland maps. The free version is what is linked. It lacks some of the features, but still works pretty well.

Spoiler: screenshots

Dungeon Painter Online
This tool allows you to create dungeons and acts like a virtual table top, allowing you to create and move creature/character tokens on it as well as make maps for them.

Spoiler: screenshots

a2znut uses it in his Evil Pathfinder campaign.

Token Tool
This allows you to create custom tokens for your maps easily.

Spoiler: Screenshot

Game/RPG Tools
These are tools for specific game systems, like character sheet generators.

Pathfinder and 3.5 D&D Character Sheet Maker
This handy tool will make a customizatable character sheet for you to download and fill out.

Spoiler: screenshots

So. Any other programs that you use, that we can add to the list?

 

[a2znut]

Token Tool can easily make tokens to use for your games, just drag and drop a picture and then you can click buttons to zoom.

http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=downloads

Dungeon Painter Online and Scene Viewer, dungeon painter is for making tactical maps while scene viewer can apply those maps for your pbp games.

http://pyromancers.com/

 

[Anondylar]

I'm fairly sure that most know about anydice. It's a powerful dice probability calculator that's fairly easy to use, provided you know a bit about coding. I'm just going to list down some things that probably aren't that apparent from reading the documentation-

Custom Dice

These are probably what you should try to use first when modelling strange dice. For instance, Exalted dice can be written like this:

output [count {7, 8, 9, 10, 10} in 1d10]

replacing how many d10s for different number of dice you want to check the probabilities of. You could, however, also write this:

E: d{0:6, 1:3, 2}
output 1dE

for the same result and probably easier rechecking. They're not that different for this case, but stranger dice systems should look into using Custom Dice.

On a side note, and this doesn't seem to be listed anywhere in the documentation, you can use ".." and ":" to help create sequences. ".." is basically range, so if you input {1..10} it'll be {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}. ":" repeats the number on the left a number of times equal to the number on the right. {2:2} is {2, 2}.

Looping is also fairly easy, but if you're going to use it remember to variably name the output so that things don't get confusing.

This is pretty much everything that isn't explicitly stated in the documentation, so ignore the subtitle for the sole part of this post.

 

[RedStarMini]

I don't mean to necro but the Labyrinth link leads to spam

 

[RedStarMini]

ultima333 I found this https://people.gnome.org/~dscorgie/labyrinth.html and it might be the same program but I'd need someone to verify

 

[cosoco]

I found a copy of Labyrinth 3.6 by asking someone on Reddit, in case anyone wants it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykwsal2ci9rjmzg/Labyrinth.zip?dl=0

I ran it through VirusTotal, and none of them detected it as a virus, but the standard advice about downloading software from untrusted sources applies.

 

[Sir Plusse]

Why am I being quoted over here?

 

[OneArmedYeti]

Why am I being quoted over here?

Click to shrink...

I was driving while posting.

 

[Hidden One]

Huh, didn't even know this thread was a thing.
Surprised the most usefull ressource I know isn't on this already to be honest.
Let me give you random generators. For everything from names, loot, spells, towns, dungeons, campaigns to world maps and star systems.

https://donjon.bin.sh/ <- Yes, this is that usefull.

 

[Martenzo]

I've recently rediscovered an excellent character-generation tool, PCGen. It supports a lot of systems, mostly DnD and DnD offshoots, including DnD 3.5e and 5e, Pathfinder 1e, Starfinder and Star Wars d20, as well as a bunch of variations on these systems such as "3.5e using PF skill rules". Pathfinder 2 has been "in the final stages of testing" and "Coming Soon" since 2020 by this point; make of that what you will. The program allows individually selecting which sourcebooks to use, though the library that comes with the basic program tends to be thin for obscure systems and systems that are not licensed under OGL or a similarly permissive license. It is also possible to download and install "homebrew" datasets created by other users, including entirely new systems not included by default such as Star Wars Saga Edition.

PCGen – A d20 RPG Character Creator

pcgen.org

 

[Psyckosama]

I figured I'd post some helpful tools that I've found for DMing/QMing, including mapmakers, relationship chart makers, character sheet generators, and the like.

General Free Tools
These include general tools like mapmakers, chart makers, and the like.

Labyrinth - edit: tool has basically disappeared.
This tool is for making relationship charts. Useful for intrigue-based games, or for making shipping charts.

Spoiler: screenshots

Click to shrink...

Do you have a copy of the base EXE for this?

Also, timeline... for... well... timelines

Welcome to Timeline — Timeline documentation

thetimelineproj.sourceforge.net

and

Fantasia Archive - The Free, Offline World Building and Documenting Tool

Fantasia Archive - The Free, Offline World Building and Documenting Tool

fantasiaarchive.com

For worldbuilding

 

[Aleh]

Do you have a copy of the base EXE for this?

Click to shrink...

*Cough*

 

[Psyckosama]

*Cough*

Click to shrink...

Thank you.

 

[Aleh]

Thank you.

Click to shrink...

You're welcome.