Kingmaker e-tools (software)

[filipham]

Hey everyone. I figured we could compile a list of all e-tools that will help in making running this campaign better.

Who knows, this might even get stickied?

Anything from generic tools you use in all your campaigns to specific tools for kingmaker are welcome additions.

By e-tools i mean everything from spreadsheets and online tools/generators like dingles npc generator, to more complex software like maptool.

I use:

- Dingle's NPC generator (Site
Good NPC generator for not too complex NPCs. For The complex ones, i take the time to create them properly either through just text in OneNote, or through CharacterFolio (see further down).

- Maptool Rptools.net. - For PC (any OS i think)
An awesome free java-based tool for maps. It can act as a server and have the players connect as clients, or just be used standalone by the GM. You can import maps or just images for showing the players how that NPC looks, and also has alot of built in feauteres like dicerollers and such (not that i use them, I only use the map part. I like rolling the dice).

There is also an Ipad client for maptool that allows you to connect to a PC based maptool server or just have a local map (to pass around the table to the players): Mapnakotic.

- CharacterFolio - For Ipad
Awesome character builder for PCs, and any NPCs you want to create in detail. Is currently missing export functionality, but that is requested on their forums and confirmed that will be part of future release sometime.

- PFR - For Ipad
Good offline version of the pathfinder reference document (I use http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ when surfing it online instead). Sometimes i find it easier to look up things here than open my PDF books when im on my ipad.

- Bookman - For Ipad
Good book reader that has a few features that seperate it from the other readers:
1. No Sync bullshit (hate itunes sync, i use multiple computers at the same time so its a hassle). Just drop pdfs into the app document area on itunes and they are copied over to the ipad.
2. Optimized/Cached viewing, makes turning pages faster.

- Dicenomicon - For Ipad
Easy to use and pretty flavourful diceroller for those who can't/won't use physical dice. Shows physical dice rolling around on the screen, so its the closest you get to rolling dice without actually rolling dice.. :)

- Paint.Net - For PC
Free and easy to use image editor for making all those nifty maps and handouts to show players.

- Office 2010 (Excel and Onenote) - For PC
Not free, but very useful for not just GMing. I use Onenote for my journal and everything else, awesome note tool that i sync to the web so i can read/take notes on any of my computer, phone or tablet one the same notebok. If i get an inspirational idea, it doesnt get lost.. ;)

I know there are lots of other tools like this, i just like this one better than evernote and such. Its a personal preference. I think no GM should be without some kind of online synced notemaking tool at least.

Excel for spreadsheets. Enough said :)

- Excel spreadsheet for calendar. - For PC (windows and office 2010)
Custom spreadsheet that allows me as a GM to plan weather ahead of time and easily keep track of dates going by. Allows notes entered per day, and week/month/quarter/year view. Taken by getting a real world calendar spreadsheet template and modifying it. Supports up to 3 notes per day in week view, so it can show weather, encounter and misc for instance.

- Kingmaker pathfinder tools.
My own custom software for making weather generation and random encounters easier to handle.
(in .Net (C#): class library in one tools assembly with seperate assembly for GUI in WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation. This can easily be modifed to any other GUI that uses the tools assembly)

Still in early development. Short term goal is to have the app generate text i can put in the calendar sheet above (already done for weather generation, in the works for encounters), long term goal that might never happen is adding map of the areas being explored, and allowing interaction with the map when exploring and building (generating random encounters and weather based on time passing and players moving on the map), so it kinda becomes a mini civilization game. Again, the long term goal will most likely NOT happen and I will stop when i reached my short term goals, but its nice to have ambitious goals right? :)

I will share both the application and the source code with you guys here as soon as i got something presentable for the short term goal. For now, I'll add a screenshot. (the background stuff in the screenshot is my development environment and some of the codebase, so ignore it. its the 3 windows in front thats the application)

[filipham]

Figured I would upload the Excel sheet i am using to keep track of time passing. Link

I use the same sheet for adding notes on weather and random encounters from my custom kingmaker e-tools as well. I will share that tool as fast as its presentable.

If any of you are .Net coders and want it now even though its only partially finished, let me know and ill send the source files.

[CalebTGordan]

A few that I use on my iPad:
Evernote - An easy way to make sure you have all the notes and files that you worked on. I also use it to take notes during games. All of my custom notes are found in this app. Best thing about it: It is free.

MagicPad: A fun, simple, note taking app that allows you to organize information, notes, and thoughts. I use this to set up treasure ahead of time and then when it is found I share the treasure with someone else who has the app. I also use this to keep track of character and location information.

Good Reader: I really like this PDF reader, and it has so many great features. I have had some slow loads with it, but only with large, overly fancy PDFs. The Kingmaker PDFs work great with it.

[Lee Hanna]

Just last week, I was turned on to Combat Manager for Pathfinder. It looks fantastic, has everything a DM might want to run combats (Except a PC generator)!

[filipham]

my kingmaker software tool is now ready with early beta. The features it has are mostly for the first kingmaker adventure, but i plan to add more terrain types and regions for the other adventures and regions as soon as time permits.
Currently it has two features and no frills:

1: Weather generator.
Generate weather for x amount of days for a season. Only temperate climate so far as that is what we have in kingmaker. With some custom house ruling added, storms and rain lasts longer as it does in the real world in my opinion.

2: Random encounter generator, including data entry.
Generates random encounters for you on entering hex or daily. (one or many at a time). The random encounters are based on the random encounter tables loaded by the application.

The encounter tables can be edited and updated as wanted and will be saved as "EncounterList.xml" on "save" button click. It is in other words possible to create your own encounter lists for the different terrain types and then run the random encounter generator to quickly generate encounters one by one or in chunks.

The chance for encounters is hardcoded for now to coincide with what stolen lands says: 5% chance on hex entry, and 15% daily. This will also be editable in the near future.

I am aware that the app has a very limited use as of now (and looks quite plain). It is early beta after all.

If will keep adding to it for my own needs in my campaign. If you have any suggestions or wishes, let me know. I might take them into consideration, i might not. I'd like to give back to the community with this app if people want to use it, but the primary goal is to use it for my own campaign after all :)

my skydrive folder

Contains app in the PFTools.zip file, and the source code in seperate zip file.

[Eminence Grise]

I use Nethys' magic object generator, available here :

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/general/creationsOfNethysPathfinderRandomItemGenerator

[filipham]

Eminence Grise wrote:

I use Nethys' magic object generator, available here :

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/general/creationsOfNethysPathfinderRandomItemGenerator

Hmm maybe that should be feature nr 3:)

[Bobson]

Eminence Grise wrote:

I use Nethys' magic object generator, available here :

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/general/creationsOfNethysPathfinderRandomItemGenerator

I prefer Dunknet's item generator, since it's web-based.

[DJEternalDarkness]

filipham, thanks for the program! Very nice for what it does!

[Dagada]

DJEternalDarkness wrote:

filipham, thanks for the program! Very nice for what it does!

+1 to that! It's very cool. Looking forward to following it. Thanks filipham

[filipham]

Thanks for that! Always nice to get some positive feedback.

If any of you start using enough that you actually create your own encounter tables in it, feel free to share them here. I'm sure other people would love to have tables from others.

I am also considering making the loading of encounter tables a more seperated process so that people more easily can trade and import encounter tables. If the usage gets widespread enough, I'll do that.

[filipham]

New version uploaded to my skydrive.

Added file handling (save and load) for encounter table creation window so now it is much easier to have multiple files or rename and such.

Added file handling (load) for encounter generator so that you can specify exactly what encounter table file to use when generating your random encounters (and even change file in the middle of generation and continue generating encounters from the new file).

Also added a configuratin setting storing the most recently used file encounter table file (either from encounter table window or encounter generator) and trying to open that same file automatically next time for both windows. This is to make it easier for those who just use one big file always, so they dont have to pick file every time.

I also removed the source code. I won't upload the sourcedoe every single release anymore. Rather: if you want the source code, let me know and ill upload/send it to you :)

[filipham]

ANOTHER new version uploaded :)

This time i added "copy row" button to each row in the encounter table. This makes it easier when creating encounter tables with duplicate entries (like 1d6 bandits on 1-6 on plains and 1-8 on hills..). You just copy the row by clicking the button, and the new row is added to the bottom and you are taken to it. Then you can modify the MinChance, MaxChance and Terrain only for it and its ready, instead of having to rewrite the whole entry for each different terrain.

With using this tool, adding all the encounters went much faster, so i also upploaded a full encounter table for Stolen Land (Adventure 1), all terrains. It is on my skydrive as well, and also bundled in the newest version of PFTools.zip.

I'm finding this tool very useful for my campaign. Hope someone else has use for it as well. :)

Next on my list is adding support for the other adventures and the terrain types in those.

[Rickmeister]

Sorry, bit of a newb here, but how does the xml file work? I just get to see the source code. I open it with which program?

[Bobson]

Rickmeister wrote:

Sorry, bit of a newb here, but how does the xml file work? I just get to see the source code. I open it with which program?

I haven't looked at that program specifically, but I assume the XML just has all the possible options, and the program (which comes with it but is separate) actually does all the work. You can just edit the XML in notepad, so long as you keep the formatting correct, but there are specialized editors out there you can get if you prefer.

[tro1984]

Am I missing something....? There is nothing on that skydrive.

[filipham]

tro1984 wrote:

Am I missing something....? There is nothing on that skydrive.

Maybe the links have changed with Microsoft's changes to their skydrive system. Should be here

[filipham]

Rickmeister wrote:

Sorry, bit of a newb here, but how does the xml file work? I just get to see the source code. I open it with which program?

You run the executable file, and then you can modify the xml file in that program.

The xml file is just a list of the encounters, and is used by the encounter generator in the same application.

If you want to open the xml file to look at it directly, you can use stuff like notepad++ for instance (freeware), or just windows notepad. I have built in reading from and writing to that xml file in the app so you dont have to do that though :)

[Viserion85]

Are you not sharing that skydrive file anymore? If not, does anyone have it still that would be willing to let me get it?

[csdershem]

Same question :)

[Philip Knowsley]

I've downloaded a couple of PF apps for my android tablet. Mostly free
ones, which is really good.

Can't say I'm getting much use out of many of them though.
There's one which is basically an SRD type thing, which is helpful...
& a couple which are spellbooks. There ok, but you can only keep a certain
level of info in them. e.g. you can't create a spellcaster's full spell
list AND their memorised spells in the same file.

Of the others I've looked at - they're honestly not all that good, or at
least nowehere near good enough for me to consider changing from paper to
electronic. e.g. the initiative trackers or character sheets

[filipham]

I've been away for a long time, but I'm back trying to run Kingmaker AGAIN.. :) (Last time the group imploded and it all went to h$%#..)

Sorry for not updating anything for a couple of years on my primitive app, but I see there are a lot of others who have made very interesting online/offline applications.

My app is mostly for exploration, while another big aspect of the kingmaker AP is kingdom and city building. Which someone have created apps for as well!

One of my favorites is this one:
https://daddydm.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/kingmaker-the-app/

I hope I can get a hold of that app from the developer, and also that I can convince him to put the sourcecode somewhere public so that it can become a community project.

I will do the same with my code in the future. Both are created on the same technology (.Net), but different versions. If the apps get popular (again), it might even be made into a suite of tools for kingmaker. A man can dream.. :)

[redcelt32]

I would definitely include Chemlak's kingdom building spreadsheet in the list of recommended e-tools. Our group would have skipped the mechanics of kingdom building entirely if we did not have this useful tool to use. Someone else will have to link since I am at work, but it has been updated quite a few times, including adding Ultimate Rulership options.

[Chemlak]

Ultimate Campaign Excel
Ultimate Campaign Open Office
Ultimate Rulership Excel (in progress)
Ultimate Rulership Open Office (also in progress)

Discussion thread can be found here.

[Philip Knowsley]

redcelt32 wrote:

I would definitely include Chemlak's kingdom building spreadsheet in the list of recommended e-tools. Our group would have skipped the mechanics of kingdom building entirely if we did not have this useful tool to use. Someone else will have to link since I am at work, but it has been updated quite a few times, including adding Ultimate Rulership options.

+1