About Doomed HeroDraft of DH's PBP Resources:
System/Setting resources Pathfinder Wiki All the OGL setting information for Golarion is here. Paizo's Pathfinder System Reference document Here's the rules, all nicely cross referenced and searchable. This document includes all the Golarion-specific fluff. A lot of content is missing, so I find that both PFSRD and Archives of Nethys are better resources. OGL Pathfinder System Reference Document Everything is here, with the golarion-specific fluff removed. There's annoying pop-ups and dead links though. Also, information that should be collected is often distributed over multiple pages (particularly, feat chains. The prerequisites are linked, but not the next feats in a chain.) Archives of Nethys My personal favorite rules SRD. Great layout, nicely linked, and content is well-grouped and referenced. particularly, the pages for the gods and the breakdown of the equipment tables is worth a shout-out. The site does not have a functional search engine yet, so you need to use google (a google search for whatever rule you're looking for plus "archives" is usually enough to bring up the right page) Rules Resources Simple Combat Round Flowchart Great for new players. Grapple Rules Flowchart A must for any grapple-focused character, or any GM using Grappling monsters. Scroll Activation Flowchart Bet you didn't know it was this complicated. Scroll Mishap Table I've never seen this come up in a game, but I really want to. Campaign creation resources Obsidian Portal A great site for creating a wiki for your campaign. GM Binder In case you want to create really nice looking game reference material or publish professional looking content online. Click the link to the sample at the bottom of the header paragraph to see an example. NPC creation resources Who the F%^& is my character? Mostly just for fun, but can be useful for creating interesting NPC quirks on the fly. Fantasy name Generator For when you're drawing a blank. Point Buy calculator I prefer this one because it can be customized for non-standard races and point-buy values. Hero Lab Character creation program. Requires purchase of reference material. I don't use this program, but I know a lot of people who like it. It can streamline the process of character creation and make sure all your math is correct and referenced. (particularly handy for making high-level characters) Hero machine A fun program for creating custom character artwork. Impressive list of pre-generated NPC stat blocks For when you suddenly need an NPC you didn't plan for. Monsters with Class Level statblocks So you don't have to spend an hour coming up with the stats for your half-fiend ogre barbarian bossfight. Fillable character sheet Excel based, great layout, my personal favorite character sheet. Non-fillable, printable version of the same sheet Pre-made/Random dungeon map resources Dungeon Generator My prefered random dungeon generator. It can include full room descriptions, monsters, treasure. Great for a throw-together game. I've used this program to prep a one-shot in 5 minutes. Another dungeon generator More great customization options, with a nicer visual than the Donjon generator. Dave's Mapper Rather than a procedurally generated dungeon, this generator takes a bunch of user-generated tile-sets and randomizes them. The map results are a little ugly, but can be refined by only including map sets from artists who you like best (or who have similar styles). Takes a little fiddling to get what you want out of it, but the end result can be very nice. Cave map generator A very simple, elegant random cave map generator. Dyson's Maps (the blog of one of the best old-school mapmakers in the industry. Tons of great content, and good tutorials on how to draw your own maps in Dyson's style) One Page Dungeons These are the winners of an annual contest. They're fantastic for short games. If you're looking to try your hand at PbP Gming, any of these would be a great short playtest to get your feet wet. Extensive list of dungeon graffiti Dungeon Feature resources https://rimzy.net/tools/javascript_pathfinder_scroll_cost_calculator.htm (Scroll cost calculator) https://rimzy.net/tools/javascript_pathfinder_potion_cost_calculator.htm (Potion cost calculator) Real World Occult and Hermetic Symbology (starts on page 39) Pre-made/Random region map resources Collection of old historical maps (worth clicking through for the history alone. Many of the older maps could be dropped into any fantasy setting as-is) Cityographer (an impressive program that creates a randomized city, complete with inhabitants and labeled buildings and features. Java based, so it should run on all operating systems) Heximal overland hexmap creation tool How to make a hexmap exploration based campaign (design a do-it-yourself kingmaker style game) Coastal Map and Terrain generator (impressive software for generating realistic coastal terrain) Battle map resources Wilderness map generator (surprisingly pretty, great for exporting to Roll20 and populating with additional tokens) Reddit's r/battlemaps forum (a massive collection of user created ready to use maps. Quality varies and filtering through them all can be a chore to find exactly what you're looking for, but the community is helpful and welcoming) Reddit's r/DnDmaps forum (similar to the battlemaps forum but with less focus. Maps of all kinds can be found here. Again, quality varies but the amount of content is vast) A google drive collection of battle maps (organized by type) Gabriel Prichard's Deviant Art Page (a large collection of ready to use battlemaps made by my personal favorite map artist) DIY map creation resources Illwinter's floorplan generator (a nice map painting program) Ye Olde Mapmaker A map making program specifically for mobile devices and tablets. A google drive full of map-making assets (just save to your computer and then drag-and-drop them into Roll20 or Maptools) Token Stamp 2 (great for creating tokens for online battle mapping programs) Battle Map Hosting resources 1) Chromecast. Get you one. Turn your TV into a map board. Music/Ambient sound resources Ambient Mixer (This is the one I use. Tons of different sounds to choose from. Lots of great soundboards already made by other users in a searchable database, and making your own to suit the specific needs of your game is pretty easy and fun.) Tabletop Audio (Similar to Ambiant Mixer. Last time I checked them out they had fewer sound options but a slightly easier interface.) Syrinscape (The official soundboard of Pathfinder. There's pre-made collections of background sounds specifically made for Paizo's adventure paths. Requires purchase/paid subscription, so I haven't tried their interface or the amount of content available) Curated spotify playlists for specific locations (seriously good stuff. Click any of them.) Cryo Chamber Youtube playlists The undisputed king of "dark ambient" music. Midnight Syndicate youtube playlist More varied music than Cryo Chamber, but very useful at creating a specific feel rather than Cryo Chamber's "one size fits all" approach. Midnight Syndicate makes themed albums, so curating a playlist for a particular feel is easy. Dark Country playlists If you're running a western-themed game, this is what you're looking for. Basil Poledouris playlist You might not recognize the name, but you've heard him. Click the youtube mix link on the right. This is your epic fantasy bombast background. Tyler Bates youtube playlists Excellent instrumentalist fight music. Click the youtube mix link on the right. Resident Evil OST playlist Great background music for any horror-themed game. Sea Shanties playlist For all your pirate game needs. (You can also pull from any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but I find those songs are too recognizable. That's just a personal quibble) Theme Songs. These will be unique to your game, so you'll have to find them yourself. If you're running a home game, spotify is probably the platform you want to find your theme music on. For PbP games, go with youtube. More on that later. Sound resource tips for tabletop games: 1) Use more than one at a time. I will frequently set up a spotify or youtube playlist as ambient background music. I plug/pair a phone with a portable speaker set and leave it somewhere nearby on a low, unobtrusive volume to create an atmosphere. Then I set up a soundboard in my laptop's browser. When the party enters an area where the ambient sound is important (they enter a wet cave full of dripping water and weird echoes) I press play on the soundboard and let it overlay with the background music. (Laptop speakers are often too close and distracting while I'm trying to GM, so I'll either use a Chromecast to put the soundboard on another TV/monitor, or I'll set up a tablet to play it through another set of portable speakers) 2) Chromecast. Super useful, as mentioned earlier. If you aren't using a tv/computer monitor for something else, plug a chromecast into it and cast your background music. Then you can have multiple tabs of background music open and switch between them as needed. I find that useful for when I want to stop playing the general background music and switch to fight music, or a villain's theme song. 3) Chromecasts. If you have more than one chromecast you can download the Chromecast Beta as an extension. That will let you cast two different tabs from your computer to different screens (casting one with the usual chrome feature, and the other with the beta extension). When I run games at home that double chromecast setup lets me put spotify to one monitor and ambient-mixer on another. It makes controlling my background sounds very easy. 4) Theme music. Set up a Spotify playlist named after your villain. Put only the song you've picked for them in it. Set it to repeat. Switch to that playlist when your villain shows up. Switch back to your ambiance/fight music before the villain's theme gets obnoxious. Sound resource tips for PbP games 1) Ambient Mixer allows you to create a profile, and create and save shareable soundboards. You can then link that soundboard in a gameplay post as you describe an area's ambiance. Then your players will hear the soundboard while they continue reading, and while they write up their own response. 2) Theme Music. Find your villain's theme on youtube. Drop a link to it when the villain shows up and does/says something ominous. Once the theme is established, you can use it like foreshadowing or punctuation. If the party comes across the site of something the villain has done (a massacred town, for example), linking the villain's theme in your description will let your players know exactly who did it without another description necessary. Language resources Mixed up English generator (great for when a character is confused, spouting gibberish, completely bombs a linguistics check, or has the Tongues curse) |
