Resources for your PnP gaming needs.

[Darque]

This thread is a resource; used to provide links to useful tool and software for the use with Pen and Paper gaming.

 

Any application, resource, website, link, or advice contained in this thread is presented to the members "as is." If one of the links fails to work or misdirects to a different site, please report it within this thread and it will be reviewed and possibly removed from the list. Likewise, if you have heard of or, even better, have experience with a particular resource, please feel free to post a link and a brief description within this thread.

 

All resources must be free, although we will post free demos for commercial programs, and we will refuse any link that links to a commercial transaction page. We will also delete any links once it become clear that a resource is no longer free. Obsidian neither endorses nor advocates any of these products. This thread is informational in nature and you use any of these resources at your own risk. Otherwise, we hope that you find some useful tidbits to help you with your gaming. If you have any questions, please post them here.

 

Note: This thread is meant to be used as a resource, not a discussion forum. While you are free to post links that fall under this threads sanction, such posts will be pruned after the link is checked and added or regected by the mod team.

 

Likewise feel free to discuss these links if you have problems with the link or software they link to, or wish to have any information on the list updated. But again such posts will be pruned eventually to keep the thread clean.

 

Furthermore any off topic discussions will be deleted without notice or warning.

 

Links will be provided within the second post downward

[Darque]

 

 

News sites for PnP Gaming:
EN World - D20 News and Reviews
RPG net - Reviews and News

General Gaming Sites:
Community 3E - Site of compiled fan made stuff
Mad Irishman Productions - A character sheet resource site
The Hypertext d20 SDR (v3.5 d20 System Reference Document) - A site with lots of 3.5 DnD reference info and rules

Freeware tabletop to internet gaming programs:
RPtool
MapMaker
RPGMapShare
OpenRPG
PCGen

Shareware tabletop to internet gaming programs with some free components:
Battlegrounds: RPG Edition
Gamemaster's Syndicate

Demos for commercial products:
Fantasy Grounds Demo
Dundjinni demo
Battlegrounds: RPG Edition Demo
ViewingDale

Random Generators for DnD:
3.5 NPC Generator
Town Generator
Treasure Generator
Dungeon Generator

Misc. Gaming Resources
Fallout RPG Wiki (contains a new version of the fanmade Fallout PNP game as well as J.E.Sawyer's own version of a Fallout PNP game)
Monster Advancer (a utility tool for creating monsters)

These are only a few of the resources available. Please get in touch with us if you have had good luck with a particular program and we will determine if it is appropriate for this list.

[Darque]

Thread Updated

 

New section added: PnP News and Reviews (Thanks Hades )

New Links added: ENWorld and a link to the Battlegrounds: RPG Edition demo

Name Change: Battlegrounds expanded to "Battlegrounds: RPG Edition"

 

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Thread Updated

 

New Link to the map tool "Viewing Dale"

 

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Thread Updated

 

RPG.net link added, as well as resource pages in the form of Mad Irishman productions and Community 3E

 

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Thread Updated

 

Links to various DnD 3.5 Generators added.

Thanks Pop!

 

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Thread Updated

 

Links to the 3.5 SDR added.

Thanks Istima Loke!

 

Link to RPGtonight added.

Thanks The Hound!

 

List restructured to keep similar resources together

 

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Thread Updated

 

New area added: Misc gaming resources.

 

Link to the Fallout PNP wiki added.

Thanks Ausir!

 

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Thread Updated!

 

Monster Advancer link added to "Misc Gaming Resources"

 

Thanks MonsterAdvancerOverlord!

[MonsterAdvancerOverlord]

I write to express my support for the thriving 3.5 community via the recently released Monster Advancer (http://www.monsteradvancer.com).

 

This compact suite of applications allows for swift monster generation, advancement and customization, all within the context of 3rd edition(3.5). What once took up to an hour of dungeon masters' time, now takes seconds. Large Fiendish, Half-Dragon Dire Wolves with 18 hit dice can now take their place of honor amongst the kraken and the hydra.

 

There are currently three applications worthy of note: There is a version made for massive customization (allowing templates, magical items and equipment, stat adjustments and feat selection), a version made for speed and simplicity, and another which can generate multiple creatures randomly based on the challenge rating or encounter level desired.

 

The entire project is completely free and available now. It is continuing to be enhanced daily with the ability to add class levels coming by the end of the week.

 

My goal is to help foster and reinvigorate the 3.5 community by contributing to the tools that enhance the game by allowing time for creativity rather than crunching numbers.

[Blarghagh]

Is there like a "getting started" thing anywhere? All I know about PnP is that games like NWN2 are based on it. That's pretty much the end of my knowledge. D:

[Darque]

Update made.

 

TrueNeutral, that's a good question.

 

I'm not sure if there is any place online that has something like that, but most game manuals have a section to ease new gamers into them.

[213374U]

Is there like a "getting started" thing anywhere? All I know about PnP is that games like NWN2 are based on it. That's pretty much the end of my knowledge. D:

http://www.d20srd.org/

[213374U]

...err, what I meant to post is (for D&D 3.5): http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/re...rsage/home.html

 

And more in general http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/

[Valinthor]

Thanks for this. I was looking for a list of resources that allowed me to play DnD online.

[Yuven]

What about roll20.net? awesome page for gaming over the net!

[Churchwarden]

for 1e D&D: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/

[JayDGee]

I recomend gm's use http://www.obsidianportal.com to help keep track of their npc's and setting. its a very useful tool.

 

Plus its called Obsidian Portal come on what else do you need.

[specialagent]

I'd also like to throw in a recommendation for Roll20.net - there is a subscription option, but it is free to use for everybody and is a great way to run campaigns online.

[Calrabjohns]

I'm kind of honored to post here representing rpol.net

 

It's a Play by Post site and they run near everything as far as my newbie eyes can tell. It's free to sign up for and they have lots of tools already prepared there to my knowledge such as character sheets and dice rollers. Enclosed in the spoiler tag is every system they run officially. Worth noting though that the list will change as systems become available or added upon such as Mummy: The Curse, one of White Wolf (now Onyx Path)'s newest series. As it states in the opening paragraph, I couldn't edit the list as I'm offering a presentation of it.

 

 

Below is the current list of game systems. You may use your own but it is strongly recommended you utilise one of the following as this is the list from which GMs select and users search from. You may append or prepend if you wish to add extra information, but do not alter the core text.

 

2300 AD/Traveller 2300

7th Sea

7th Sea d20/Swashbuckling Adventures

A Game of Thrones

A Song of Ice and Fire

A-State

Aberrant (original)

Aberrant d20

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Fighting Fantasy

Adventure (original)

Adventure d20

Aftermath

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

Alternity

Amber - Guardians of Order

Amber Diceless Roleplaying - Phage Press

Anima

Apocalypse World

Armageddon

Army of Darkness

Arrowflight

Ars Magica

Artesia: Adventures in the Known World

Ashen Stars

Atlantis: The Second Age

Atomic Highway

Authority

Babylon 5, d20

Basic Fantasy RPG

Basic Roleplaying

Bat-Winged Bimbos from Hell

Battlefleet Gothic

Battlestar Galactica

Battletech

Beyond the Supernatural

Big Breasts, Small Waist

Big Eyes, Small Mouth

Big Eyes, Small Mouth, d20

Black Crusade

Blood Bowl

Blue Planet

Board Game

Boot Hill

Brave New World

Brawn, Ego, Extraneous, and Reflexes

Broken Gears

Bubblegum Crisis

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Bunnies and Burrows

Burning Empires

Burning Wheel

Bushido

Call of Cthulhu d100 rules

Call of Cthulhu d20 rules

Call of Cthulhu version 5.5

Card Game

Cartoon Action Hour

Castle Falkenstein (R Talisorian Games)

Castles and Crusades

Cat: A Little Game About Little Heroes

Champions

Changeling: The Dreaming

Changeling: The Lost

Chivalry and Sorcery

CJ Carella's WitchCraft

Colonial Gothic

Conan (Mongoose)

Conan (TSR)

Conspiracy X

Continuum: Roleplaying in The Yet

Corporation

CORPS RPG

Cortex System RPG

Crimson Skies

Cybergeneration

Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk 2020

Cyberpunk 203X

d20 Modern

Dark Ages: Fae

Dark Ages: Inquisitor

Dark Ages: Mage

Dark Ages: Vampire

Dark Ages: Werewolf

Dark Conspiracy

Dark Heresy

Darwin's World

DC Heroes

DC Universe

Dead Of Night

Deadlands

Deeds Not Words

Demon: The Fallen

Diaspora

Digital Burn

Discussion

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space

Dogs in the Vineyard

Dragon Age

Dragon Warriors

Dragonball Z

DragonQuest

Dragonroar

Drakar och Demoner

Dream Park

Dresden Files RPG

Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG

Dungeon World

Dungeons & Dragons (Arcana Unearthed variant)

Dungeons & Dragons (original)

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5

Dungeons & Dragons 4

Dying Earth

Earthdawn - 1st edition

Earthdawn - 2nd edition

Earthdawn - 3rd edition

Earthdawn - Classic edition

Earthdawn - Revised edition

Eberron

Eclipse Phase

Empire of the Petal Throne

End All Be All

Engine Heart

Etherscope

EverQuest

Exalted

Fading Suns

Fallout

Fantasy Craft

FATE

Fates Worse Than Death

Fear Itself

Feng Shui

Fiasco

Fief

Final Fantasy RPG

Fireborn

Free-form

Fuzion

Gamma World

Gamma World (4e D&D conversion)

Gamma World d20 rules

Gangbusters

Geist: The Sin Eaters

GhostBusters

Ghouls and Ghosts

Golden Heroes

Grimm RPG

GURPS

GURPS Castle Falkenstein

GURPS Prime Directive

GURPS Traveller

HackMaster

HackMaster (5th Edition)

Haven - City of Violence

Heavy Gear

Hero Wars

Heroes Against Darkness

Heroes System

Heroes Unlimited

Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition

Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition (Revised)

Heroquest

Hollow Earth Expedition

Home-brewed

Human Occupied Landfill

Hunter: The Reckoning

Hunter: The Vigil

Immortal - Invisible War

In Nominé

Inquisitor

InSpectres

Iron Kingdoms

Ironclaw

Jadeclaw

Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd d20

Justifiers

Kindred of the East

Kobolds Ate My Baby

Labyrinth Lord

Lace and Steel

Lady Blackbird

Legend

Legend of the Five Rings

Legends of Anglerre

Little Fears: Nightmare Edition

Living Steel

Lone Wolf RPG

Lord of the Rings

Macho Women with Guns

Mage: Sorcerer's Crusade

Mage: The Ascension

Mage: The Awakening

Maid RPG

Man, Myth and Magic

Marvel Heroic RPG

Marvel Super Heroes

Marvel Super Heroes - SAGA

Marvel Universe

Mazes and Minotaurs

Mech Warrior

Mecha

Mechanical Dream

Megatraveller

Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes

Metamorphosis Alpha

Microlite 20

Middle Earth Roleplaying

Millenium's End

Mongoose Traveller

Monsterhearts

Mordheim

Morrow Project

Mouse Guard

Multiple

Mummy: The Curse

Mummy: The Resurrection

Munchkin

Mutant

Mutants and Masterminds

Myth & Magic

Necromunda

New World of Darkness

Night Life

Ninjas and Super Spies

Nobilis

None

Numenera

Only War

Open D6

Ork RPG

Orpheus

Other Suns

Over The Edge

Palladium RPG

Paranoia

Paranoia XP

Passages

Pathfinder

Pendragon

Pokethulhu

Powers and Perils

Prime Directive (original)

Prime Directive d20

Prime Directive d6

Primetime Adventures

Privateers and Gentlemen

Promethean: The Created

Quick Ass Game System

Red Dwarf

Renegade Nuns on Wheels

Rifts

Risus: The Anything RPG

Robotech

Rogue Trader

Rolemaster

Runequest

Runequest (Mongoose)

Savage Worlds

Scion

Scion: Demigod

Scion: God

Scion: Hero

Secrets of Zir'an

Serenity RPG

ShadowRun

Silver Age Sentinels

SLA Industries

Slasher Flick

Sorcerer

Space 1889

Space Opera

Spacemaster

Splicers

Spycraft d20 rules

Star Frontiers

Star Trek - Decypher

Star Trek - FASA/Games Workshop

Star Trek - Last Unicorn

Star Wars (West End Games)

Star Wars d20 rules

Star Wars Saga Edition

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

Starblazer

Stargate

Stars Without Number

Starship Troopers

Steve Perrin's Quest Rules

STOCS Lite

STOCS RPG

Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game

Supernatural RPG

Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies

Swords and Wizardry

Tales from the Floating Vagabond

Talislanta

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness

Teenagers from Outer Space

Terra Primate

The Adventures of Indiana Jones

The Babylon Project

The Fantasy Trip

The Riddle of Steel

The Shadow of Yesterday

The Window

There Is No Spoon

Toon

Top Secret

Torg

Trail of Cthulhu

Transformers RPG

Traveller 4 (Mark Miller's Traveller)

Traveller 5

Traveller d20

Traveller: Classic

Traveller: The New Era

Trinity

TriStat dx

True 20 (Blue Rose, etc)

Tunnels and Trolls

Twilight 2000

Twilight 2013

Ubiquity

Underground

Unhallowed Metropolis

UniSystem

Unknown Armies

Vampire: The Dark Ages

Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Requiem

Victorian Age Vampire

Villains and Vigilantes

Void Trek 3007 AD

WarHammer 40K

WarHammer Fantasy Battle

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying

Warmaster

WaRP - Wanton Role-Playing

WasteWorld

Weapons of the Gods

Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Forsaken

Wheel of Time

World of Darkness

World of Warcraft RPG

Worlds Beyond

Wraith: The Oblivion

Wushu

XCrawl

Xenoforce

Xro Dinn Chronicles

Year of the Phoenix

 

 

Now in the opening post, it's written that any commercially linked site address would be taken down. Does that mean you're opposed to linking outlets where game materials can be bought? The reason I ask is White Wolf/Onyx Path have partnered with the largest (tmk) distributor of both electronic and printed PnP media in order to consolidate and revive old and new iterations of their game lines. So if I wanted to buy the 20th Anniversary Ed. of VTM and not pay an exorbitant price from a seller at Amazon, the un-named venue is the best place to do it. A web search will bring it up in a minute or less but I'm not sure why it couldn't be put up here. I'm unaware of other game lines re: distribution and whether they have their own or use Anon. WW always appealed to me more than D&D or GURPS (which I had no awareness of until my second foray into this hobby) or others by lack of knowledge.

 

On that note, one more freebie courtesy of Mr. Gone, a big fan of WW/OP games. He makes character sheets for all of their games that are well-regarded both by the gaming community and the developers. There are also links to fan-created games that use the shell of the WOD realm to play settings of their choice. I'm a fan of the different versions of Highlander which would be great to play some day.

 

http://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/

 

Anyway, regardless of whether I can post the place I predominantly buy my books from I'm glad I could offer up these two nuggets.

[Fionavar]

We'll see how you continue to post, but this seems likely consistent with PnP tools and assets that might be helpful. We obviously do not want solicitation, but are never opposed to sharing of resroucess. Fair?

 

 

[Calrabjohns]

Absolutely fair. Thank you for the courtesy and I'm sorry if that came off confrontational.

 

The site I was referring to is:

 

drivethrurpg.com

 

They have virtually all of WW/OP and other prominent game lines as well. In addition to housing PDFs, they also do POD for books which ensures they can be made at all in many cases. It's a one stop destination for QuickStart rules for many games. They also have different sites that accommodate different niches like card games, comics, fiction and other mediums.

 

In reading about a game I missed on KickStarter, I learned of one other outlet that caters to small presses specifically. The cool thing about this place when I found it is they tend to have more substantive free downloads for larger game modules than a QS. The address follows below. Before I post it though, I want to emphasize how cool the place is. I DLed 15 products of varying size without submitting a credit card or anything. So there's no bait and switch like many services (generally speaking) where you might get a 2 week trial but have to give info to use it. It's generally appreciated by the publishers if you choose to pay but it's not required. Currently you can get the core for FATE (I chipped in $5 when DTRPG hosted the "Pay What You Want") and a few other cores/extended previews. Down the road if you like the stuff, support supplements or get a second copy at some level to help the pubs.

 

http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/

 

There's a topic below this that has a link to Eclipse Phase for the core book which they offer for free, though with slightly less bells and whistles I believe. During the KS for an expansion to EP, they informed us that an EP-FATE and vice versa conversion document is being made. It's not free yet though and it's still in the works.

 

I don't have the link handy but there's a program out there that provides support for Exalted and the KS for that game hit one goal which provided official support from WW/OP to these guys for Exalted 3E. It'll still be free for people to use. The program allows you to keep track of custom charms and effects along with other things. I'll have it for next time.

 

Thanks again for giving me the chance and if there's anything objectionable please let me know. I'd like to be a bona fide member in general even though I've only availed myself of this forum so far.

 

Should get some sleep now

[nikolokolus]

It's just a little thing for a pretty niche game, but there's a very cool smartphone app for Dungeon Crawl Classics offered here http://purplesorcerer.com/tools.htm that was funded by a kickstarter and they have a couple of electronic character generators for that game at the same link.

[LilSassy]

I was also surprised that rolld20 isn't in the first post already.

[Dadalama]

http://idle-ideas.weebly.com/
MOTE is a good Maptool fork I quite like.

[Connavar]

MapTool from the RpTool.net is the BEST open free map platform available out there. Great even for heavy dungeoniring when you gather with friends around a table and a large inch TV screen. Great. From map-making to online dungeon crawling with friends connected to your server.

One may even write to-hit attack / damage macros (or find on the net for simple systems d20 etc) and just voice over as a DM the story... being connected to a voice conference.

[rredmond]

The AD&D thread caught my roving google eye!

 

I game at a PbP forum, that's all PnP games: www.unseenservant.us

 

and I help out with & Magazine that's all old school D&D PnP stuff: www.and-mag.com

 

Both are free, and (I think) appropriate for this thread.

Be well,

--Ron--

[MedicineDan]

Sorry about the thread necromancy, but my 16 year old niece has gotten into DnD with me and now she wants a hand at creating her own campaign.  We've had to resort to internet gaming and I was wondering what would be good and easy for both a 50 year old grognard like myself as well as friendly for a young adult.  I don't mind dropping coin on it if it's good.  I don't mind getting something free as long as it does the job.  Also, any tools that will help her run a tabletop?  I do my stuff by hand (maps and whatnot), but I wouldn't mind using something that makes my life easier also.

[rredmond]

I've been DMing a game, and playing a game on Skype. Low tech and gets the job done!

I've played on Roll20, and it's fun. But futzing around with the map (fog of war, battle mat, etc) is fun as well. I've created maps and stuff on Roll20 to use in Play-by-Post games.  I think if you do maps by hand, that's half the battle right there. Likely only because I'm not so hot with the maps. What edition you playing? For AD&D, OD&D and OSRIC there's a crapton of tools here (highly recommend all the goodies in the Wizardawn application) and it's all free: https://osricrpg.com/tools/ 

But I'm sure any thread searching for ideas and tools will get the job done as well! Good luck! I've been DMing 1e my four daughter for years now, and the two oldest (16yo and 18yo) have DMed 5e as well. It's such fun playing with your kids!!

--Ron--

[MedicineDan]

We're playing 5th edition and she's pretty excited.  Strange group in that everyone plays characters that actually fit their own personalities.  None of this business where the tongue tied nerd plays the bard.  For example, my other niece (22yo) plays a sorcerer.  She's a wonderful kid, but a bit vain and constantly taking selfies, tweaking her hair, that sort of stuff.  My brother in law is Mr. Fixit and he plays a rogue.

Anyhow, I've looked into Roll20 also.  I think I played a small one on one session with a friend who was running a game.  I just want something that will be easy and intuitive for a young player starting to branch out into the role of DM.

[rredmond]

Do battlemaps and such work for 5E? Sometimes seeing stuff helps, at least when I am DMing. I've used monster pictures as well as drawn maps, or drawn marching orders. But if she's playing with friends, then I'm sure it will all go well. They can support her as she grows and learns. Have fun!!!