Google & Campaign Communication

Our current gaming group has been meeting about every other week.  To maintain communication with our group members, we're using a handful of Google products.

Scheduling with a Google Calendar -- We have a calendar for our group on which we mark the next scheduled session.  It's working fairly well for us.

Email Communication with a Google Group -- We created a Google Group and included everyone's email, so with one quick address, everyone is included in the email communications.

Campaign Notes with a Google Site -- Thanks to a post from a fellow blogger a few months back, I discovered how easy and how useful Google Sites can be when keeping track of campaign information.  We have a page with the group calendar, as well as a page set up with a list of PCs and NPCs (perfect for keeping track of that one guy whose name you can't remember).  One of the best features of our site is our Files & Journals page, where we keep in-character journals (many are linked Google Docs), our session notes file that everyone can update, and a party fund file where we keep track of the loot we've accumulated.

With a smallish group (five of us total), it isn't usually too hard to keep everyone informed, but these tools have certainly made it easy.

Behind the Screen: Three DM Tools I love and why...

Today I felt it necessary to trot out the magical tools of my fevered trade. Working with a co-DM, we rely heavily on online chat as an invisible communication medium between myself (who is running the session) and my co-DM (who is in charge of major plot arcs).

As a result, my wireless network is a constant allowing me to dredge the heady depths of the Internet to augment my campaign running abilities much like bionics augmented American Hero Steve Austin so many years ago.

#1. A good die roller.

I like rolling physical dice as much as the next guy, but unfortunately we play a rather close set with six of us gathered around a few card tables or a dinner table. This makes peeking at errant DM dice readily possible, and so I resort to Wizard's own online Dungeons & Dragons Dice Roller.

It is cheap (as in free), effective, and has a pretty slick interface that doesn't require a lot of clicks or typing to get the job done.

#2. A good NPC generator.

I can't count the number of times that a player in our group (usually Vanir) walks up to a random townsperson and asks what their name is. That's usually where I grunt unhappily and fire up Jamis Buck's NPC Generator 2.

It does a pretty fair job of generating a good stat block, however my only real complaint is that it doesn't generate level appropriate gear so you're stuck fudging some average gear for a given character level. It is great for the aforementioned "around town" character generation on the quick though!

#3. A good town generator.

We have been working in a large campaign that has required a lot of travel across great distances. As a result, I am often asked where the next small town is for the purposes of rest, recovery, or diversion.

For circumstances where I don't need a detailed map, I turn to MythWeaver's online town generator. Its cool because it gives you the options to select a good level of detail for the town, and then generates a population distribution as well. This makes for a bit more detail than your general population count, and guides the mind to some constructive quickie plot threads as the players interact with the scene. It has gotten me out of a pinch on more than one occasion.

The list goes on and on...

These are but a few of my staple online resources. I will continue to divest my hoard on you as time goes on, gentle reader, but for now I'd love to hear what some of your favored DM tools are if you are similarly inclined!