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Has anyone run SCAP using any of the electronic GM aides that are available (DM Genie etc)? And if you did use one, did it help?
I'm trying to determine their usefulness, and make a call on whether to pick one up or not.
I was in a fantastic game (it wasn't SCAP) in which 3 DM's (later it was only two) ran a game for 6-8 players. The DMs were top notch, ultra professional, well-prepared, etc. etc. and used the DMGenie for most sessions. The sessions when they didn't use the genie ran much faster and smoother to be honest. Although they knew what they were doing with the software, it still slowed things down considerably.
It's not a bad program, but to be honest, a DM should be able to make calls on the fly, improvise, and make rules calls quickly and move on, without having to consult a program, even paging through books in the middle of combat can be a downer for the players.
I prefer using a combat assistant. One player (who shows a good grasp of mechanics, etc.) is assigned the role. He (or she) is called on to either confirm a DM ruling or look something up while the game proceeds.
Robert Brambley
(Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Adventure Path, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules Subscriber)
Has anyone run SCAP using any of the electronic GM aides that are available (DM Genie etc)? And if you did use one, did it help?
I'm trying to determine their usefulness, and make a call on whether to pick one up or not.
I havent run SCAP (yet); but I swear by DMs Familiar. My first encounter with SCAP was as a player by a DM who not only used DMs Familiar but created it!
I use that program for all my games; It vastly speeds it up. Unlike the concerns for the other post on this thread, I dont spend a lot of time looking up rules during a game/combat but when I need to, its faster than using a book. Furthermore the program keeps track of all creatures in the combat, orders them in initiative, and all your NPCs/monsters attack, saves, skills and damage are all rolled for you automatically - all math included. So it does speed things up and keeps track of your initiative.
The only downside to it is that in order to take full advantage of the functionality in combat, it requires a lot of prep time in advance to input all special/advanced/Named NPCs into the database so that the combat board can use them.
Todd, if you're out there - love ya man! Thanks for the great program!
Robert