Anybody know of a good way to track hit points on an iPad?
Thanks
You know.. there is this marvelous thing called a pencil that, when used with a piece of paper, can keep track of you HP and Initiative. Heck, I've even heard you can use them to make entire character sheets!
[/joke]
~GASPS~ Say it ain't so?!? ~faints~
I recently purchased an iPad with the intention of using it, rather than a cumbersome laptop and game books, at the gaming table. Ideally, as a player, I'd like to use it to type my games notes (tracking treasure, spells cast, NPC names, etc) while accessing the online character sheet I keep on Obsidian Portal (terribly useful seeing as how its fully hyperlinked to the SRD) along with the game's log and other relevant campaign info on other webpages and flipping through my collection of gaming PDFs as required.
Unfortunately, the one flaw of the iPad is its limited multitasking ability. Switching between a browser, notepad or PDF reader app and back means closing down one app and activating another; a process that's slower and more complicated than I'd like.
Since I'm nominally responsible for tracking initiative for our group, I downloaded and tried the aforementioned Initiative app last session. It's one flaw is that it doesn't include the ability to easily input each character's initiative total. Also, it just added one more app to the mix which I had to keep switching off and relaunching while toggling between apps.
So, although it's slick, I don't know if I'll keep using the Initiative app. To meet my need to multitask, I've downloaded an app called Desktop for ¢99. It allows you to keep two independent functions specific to the app (which can be chosen from an interesting array) working simultaneously on screen. So I can keep one half of the screen as an active browser open to my character sheet and the other open to a notebook function for jotting down game notes as required. Like this I don't have to keep switching between apps.
I created a notepad in which I keep the PCs names in a list along with their respective initiative modifiers; I simply have to type in the result of each player's initiative die roll next to each name and I'm good to go. I'll try using it instead of the Initiative app to hopefully speed up performance at the table. We'll see how it goes.
Hope I helped.
You know.. there is this marvelous thing called a pencil that, when used with a piece of paper, can keep track of you HP and Initiative. Heck, I've even heard you can use them to make entire character sheets!
[/joke]
Woah, whoah, whoah. What operating system does this pencil you speak of use? And this P-A-P-E-R, thing, I'm new to this concept, please elaborate.
As for initiative tracker I got it last night mid game and really liked it.
Woah, whoah, whoah. What operating system does this pencil you speak of use?
2B
Woah, whoah, whoah. What operating system does this pencil you speak of use?2B
I went with the HB model. The output isn't nearly as dark.
I went with the HB model. The output isn't nearly as dark.
Eh. The HB OS is prone to I/O conflicts when synced with older test/exam scanning software.
I printed this and put it inside a plastic sheet. I use a dry-erase marker to jot down the Max HP and then keep track of wounds in the other section. That way, it can be erased easily. Keeping track of HP this way has helped speed things along when I'm playing a character and not DMing.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/px4b5rq40cm3akc/HP%20and%20Wounds.pdf
Poker chips!
Gives you something to nervously fiddle with!
You know.. there is this marvelous thing called a pencil that, when used with a piece of paper, can keep track of you HP and Initiative. Heck, I've even heard you can use them to make entire character sheets!
[/joke]
I tried this, but I couldn't find this "piece of paper" app, so I decided to see if the peripheral worked with any iOS software. It does, but it's very poorly designed--my screen has all these scratches now, and the peripheral broke shortly after I started anyway! One star, would not recommend.