It should come as no surprise that I’m a geeky Dungeon Mistress. A laptop is an essential tool at the gaming table, holding pdf copies of all my D&D books (so I can hand my Player’s Handbook off to the player who doesn’t have one), important tables, summaries and statblocks (so I don’t have to dig through three different books just to get through an encounter), my campaign and session notes (because printing all those notes means having an unwieldy amount of paper at the table), maps and illustrations (because ink is too expensive to print every image I want to show my players once or twice). My laptop is my DM screen, my notebook, and my sanity saver.

While a laptop is handy to have at the table, it’s not the most comfortable tool when preparing a session. I’d much rather use my monster desktop computer with full-size keyboard, proper mouse and 22” screen. However, using my desktop computer means I have to transfer all my files to my laptop before each session, and transfer them all back after each session, and make sure I don’t accidentally edit files on both computers before transferring. All this is very cumbersome, and can easily fail—especially at the weakest point in the chain: The human.

Enter the ultimate tools for geeky DMs like myself: Dropbox and Evernote.

In short, Evernote is a free-form note-taking application, while Dropbox is a service for online storage and sharing of files. Both will sync data between multiple computers. Both are free. Both are excellent DM tools, and even using just one of them will provide major boosts to your Sanity checks.

Evernote

At it’s most basic level, Evernote is the electronic equivalent of an endless roll of sticky notes. You grab a note, jot down whatever you need to remember, stick it, and grab another. You can use plain text, images, clip something from the web, or shove a whole pdf in there. This sounds horribly messy at first, but Evernote lets you tag every note to give it a context or category, and if that isn’t enough, there is a search function. You can search through everything you’ve put into Evernote—including the contents of that pdf, and the text in that hand-written note you scanned!

Text and screenshot clippers in the desktop client makes it easy to save ideas and inspiration when you come across it. The web clipper makes it easy to grab content on the web, even if you don’t have the desktop client installed—a link to the page you’re grabbing from will be saved with the note, so you can easily find it again later if you need to.

Personally, I would call Evernote the perfect idea folder. It’s easy to put all sorts of things in, and easy to find them again. It’s like having a spare brain, and it has perfect memory. Evernote has a thousand uses outside of DM-ing as well, and some of them are mentioned in the Evernote blog.

On the practical side: Desktop clients of Evernote are available for Windows and OS X. Linux users have to make do with the rather more cumbersome web interface. Gadget geeks will approve of the clients for iPhone and Windows Mobile.

Get Evernote!

Dropbox

While Evernote is basically a souped-up notebook, Dropbox is the swiss army chainsaw of file syncing.

Dropbox exists as a folder on your computer(s). Anything and everything you put in this folder will be automagically uploaded to an online drive and synced between all your computers by the extremely lightweight and unobtrusive Dropbox client. Share a folder with your friends (aka players!) and everything you put in that folder will be synced between your and their computers! Put a file in the Public folder, and you can share it with anyone. Put photos in the Photos folder, and it creates a web gallery for you. It’s so simple and so quick it seems like nothing less than magic.

Even better; the magic doesn’t stop there. Once a file is put in Dropbox, it’s safe. Did you delete a file by accident? No problem, Dropbox can restore it for you! Did you suddenly find you desperately need a copy of that file the way it was two weeks ago? No problem, Dropbox can restore that version for you!

Where Evernote is perfect for your loose ideas and brainstorming, Dropbox is perfect for your finished product. Keep session logs, maps, illustrations and character sheets in a folder shared with your players. Keep your pdf rulebooks, notes and maps for upcoming sessions in a private folder. Everything you need will be there, when you need it, without thinking about it at all.

On the practical side: The Dropbox client is available for Windows, OS X and Linux. Your files are also available through the web interface. Free accounts can have up to 2 GB of files, but using the link below will give you (and me!) an extra 250 MB when you sign up.

Get Dropbox!

I woke up with the image of a bottle in my head. Now, before you get worried about my mental health, let me explain that it was on the topic of making bottle graphics for Dundjinni. A fully modelled and textured 3d bottle, rendered from any angle I could possibly need. A full set of bottle graphics, to fill up the shelves in the house of that wizard, medicine man or old wise woman. Yes, this is good. This is great. But can I do it?

I understand the theory of 3D graphics, and I am quite frankly in love with the idea. I can visualise modelling an item, I have a decent idea about texturing it, and I already have a bit of experience with lighting and rendering. It’s the software that’s giving me trouble. Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to make friends with any proper 3D software. I’ve worked with Poser in the past, and I’ve had brief run-ins with Bryce, Vue and even 3D Studio MAX without really getting anywhere.

That, however, is not going to stop me at this point. I have a bottle in my head, and I must model.

Ahem. Obscure references aside, the first step in my quest is to aquire the tools for the job.

Finding the software

If I’m going to make this bottle, I’m obviously going to need some 3D modelling software. Ideally this should be an all-in-one job, so I can texture and render my finished model without further software hunting. It should also be free—I’m not going to use this much, even if I do manage to tame it, and I’m not going to spend the hundreds or even thousands of dollars professional packages tend to cost on what is essentially a toy.

Luckily, Wikipedia happens to have a list of 3D computer graphics software, and from this list, Blender, trueSpace and Art of Illusion look like good candidates. The main criteria—zicon-friendliness—cannot be determined without trying the software, so I’m off to download.

Note that I will not make an account on a site unless I have to, and I’m reasonably certain I’m going to use the site’s services with some regularity. It turns out Caligari demands you make an account before letting you download trueSpace, so off the list it goes. I’m not handing off any personal details when I haven’t even tried the damn thing yet.

Trying the software: Blender

While the example render is absolutely gorgeous, Art of Illusion is programmed in Java and as such is likely to be painfully slow, so I decide to give Blender a try first. Blender has long had a reputation for having a good feature set, but having a … less-than-intuitive interface. This has not changed.

From my limited experience with 3D Studio MAX, I know the basics of what I need to do to make my bottle: Draw an outline of the bottle, and lathe it to get the final shape. I stare at Blender, trying to find the required functions. I poke at it. I stare more. I give up.

I need a tutorial.

The Blender site has a Getting Started page, and here I find the Noob to Pro wikibook. Perfect! Just what I need!

The tutorial covers a lot of things I don’t need, but this is expected. However, it is not making me any more comfortable or familiar with the interface. Every section seems to introduce yet another obscure hotkeys, and more than once I simply cannot find the function being referred to, even though I’m getting seeming detailed instructions where to find it.

After a couple of hours spent building a pathetic effigy of a man, the tutorial reveals that Blender’s lathe function is called spin, and I still haven’t seen any outline drawing tools anywhere. Screw this. I’m giving Art of Illusion a go.

Trying the software: Art of Illusion

After giving me a strange error upon completing installation, Art of Illusion starts up with no problems. I spend a couple of minutes getting my bearings and figuring out how to navigate in 3D space. Then I draw my outline using the Curve tool, find the Lathe function in the Tools menu, and voilà, I have a basic bottle.

No, really. In less time it took me to get to the “I need a tutorial” point in Blender, I have modelled the bottle in Art of Illusion.

From there it was all about the fun bits. I played with the texture editor, refined the bottle shape, added a handle, placed various lights, and toyed with the rendering options.

After a couple of hours of playfully exploring and experimenting, I conclude that Art of Illusion’s interface leaves a lot to be desired—placing and aiming the lights and cameras is a chore—but unlike Blender’s it works.

There is still a bit to do. I need to add a cork to the bottle, and place a suitable label on it, and of course make some renders from appropriate angles. But the hardest part is done. Expect some nice bottle graphics in the foreseeable future.

Viewingdale is a brand new program for making maps for role-playing games. Personally, I don’t think it looks interesting enough to merit downloading the demo (and the web site is so horrible it ought to qualify for some worst of the worst award, but that’s beside the point). The reason I’m mentioning this program (and the only reason I’m willing to link to its web site), is the usage of a certain gargantuan ooze in one of the available screen shots.

Sorry, Viewing Ltd. It may be your software is good, but that web site is seriously off-putting.

The coolesest browser on the planet, Opera, has decided to go free. I’m happier than words can say, and I can only hope this means a lot more users for ya.

I’m proud of having paid for upgrades since version 4.x, but I can’t say I’ll miss paying when 9 comes around. Free stuff is good, and this is some of the best stuff available.

When I saw the ads for RPGXplorer in Dungeon and Dragon, I was immediately intrigued. As a DM and a software geek, I’ve toyed with a number of different programs for making a DM’s life easier. I’ve poked at software like DM’s Familiar, RolePlayingMaster, DM Genie and Campaign Suite, but in the end I’ve stuck with PCGen for character generation, Dundjinni for mapping, and TableSmith for everything else.

Ooh, shiny

If you’ve ever used PCGen, you’ll know it’s not the simplest software to get on friendly terms with. There’s a lot of power lurking beneath the hood, but it’s not easily available—even to a hardcore geek like myself. Compared to that, RPGXplorer seemed like a breath of fresh air, very visual and inviting air. In short; it seemed like software worth paying for.

All in the eyes of the …

The software wasn’t yet finished, but the preview screenshots offered a lot of apparent neatness. The screenshots also showed the program using Office XP-style toolbars, a look I hate with a passion. I mulled it over for a couple of weeks, and came to the conclusion that if the software really was as good as indicated, then I could live with the toolbars—and I placed my pre-order.

Later, a discussion on the forums revealed that offering normal-looking toolbars isn’t a priority for Pierce Morgan Ltd., the developers of RPGXplorer. It is a priority for me, although not at the top of my list, so I let it slide. At least it became clear that the all-too-similar icons used within the program could be changed.

Delays, delays

The software was due in the beginning of july. At 2005-Jun-20, Pierce Morgan Ltd. announced that the release date had to be pushed back at least four weeks, but they were still planning on releasing in July.

Okay. These things happen. I can live with that. I let it slide.

At 2005-Jul-15, the release date is pushed back again, but at least they’d be releasing a stripped down beta version by the end of the month, and when the full version comes at last, it will have lots and lots of extra goodies. It was announced that pre-ordering customers would be offered a refund via email.

I never did receive that email, and at 2005-Sep-11, the full version still isn’t released.

That important first impression

I admit, I had been pretty worked up about the software. When the beta, the future freeware RPGXplorer Database, finally arrived, I found myself underwhelmed by the program. Nasty looking toolbars and menus aside, the four-paned interface isn’t anywhere near as intuitive as expected. Sure, adding or modifying rules is easy, but you can’t create a separate ruleset for different campaigns. Trying to copy rules from one place to another often results in odd error messages that don’t really explain why you can’t do that. Navigation is easy enough most of the time, but there is no search facility, so you’ll have to look through all those long lists by yourself.

All in all, this was something very different from the impression the previews had given me.

Dead Software Walking

Each license you purchase lets you use one copy of RPGXplorer on one computer. If you have multiple computers you will need to purchase additional licenses, one for each computer.

This is a common software license for home users. I don’t agree with it—software intended for home use should be licensed per simultaneous user, not per computer—but I usually don’t bother to get all worked up about it, even when the software company in question gives a bullshit explanation on how user-based licensing loses them heaps of money. However, that’s really a rant for another day…

The important part is that, at some point, Pierce Morgan Ltd. decided to screw their customers over by “protecting” their upcoming software using product activation. My opinion on product activation, in the shortest terms possible: Product activation is an idea spawned in the deepest pits of Hell, and should be treated as such. It is evil and stupid, and should be outlawed by all major religions and governments around the world. Sorry, but I’m not letting that one slide.

I stumbled upon EverNote the other day, and looking at the feature list, I came to the conclusion that this may very well be the note-taking application I have been looking for. No saving notes to a normal text file, no trying to figure where in a tree of categories I want to put a note—just plop the note down on an endless roll of paper, and worry about how to sort it later. But, of course, nothing is ever that perfect.

The interface completely ruined it for me. The concept is the nearest perfect I’ve seen, but the interface assured there would be no deal. Those fancy blue graphics seen in the screenshots? That’s the look for the application. No way to change it at all. And while that may be half-way appropriate on an XP desktop with the default theme, it sticks out like a sore thumb on my “classic”-themed, soft pink desktop.

See, I have a simple policy on the looks of the software I use: The application should not compete with the task at hand for my attention. Eye candy is distracting, so I lose the eye candy. If I can’t, I lose the entire application. No second thoughts.

And so, I uninstalled EverNote—a little sad to see it go, but my policy is there for a reason—and it turns out the uninstaller opens a form where the software people ask me why I’m uninstalling. I hate those forms. I’ve only gotten a response to filling out such a form once, and that response was a slightly nicer worded “that’s the way our costumers wants it, so go fuck yourself.” I haven’t bothered to fill out many such forms after that.

I was, however, in a good mood that day, so I did fill out EverNote’s form. Then I went on to completely forget about it, until a response plopped into my inbox a couple of days later. A polite response, telling me they were sorry the program didn’t suit me. A couple of more emails back and forth, and I’m left with this:

We really appreciate your taking the time to clarify what it is that you didn’t like about the EverNote look-&-feel. We take this very seriously, and I have asked our engineering team to develop a version that is more plain and less distracting. I’ll be sure to let you know just as soon as that version is available.

I can’t stop pinching myself, and I’m sure as heck looking forward to the next email I receive from them. Stay tuned.

Before Dundjinni, I followed the development of Dungeoncrafter with some interest. These days, Dungeoncrafter is as good as dead, but a dedicated user has taken it upon himself to create Dungeonforge. Dungeonforge seems to improve upon just about every aspect of Dungeoncrafter, which—let’s face it—was very limited in its abilites.

Dungeonforge can rotate objects, print battle maps, use tiles that’re larger than the hopeless size of 20×20 pixels, and use PNG images. Not only is this a big improvement, but it also brings me to my point. Dundjinni, too, uses PNGs, and has a very active fanbase. Most of the user art made for Dundjinni is freely available for anyone to use, for Dundjinni or otherwise, and the Dungeonforge crowd has been quick to take advantage of this.

Have a look at this! Unless I’m mistaken, this image has been constructed using 100% (or close to) Dundjinni user art, included my very own pavement tiles! I must admit, I’m feeling flattered.

I doubt I’m going to give up Dundjinni any time soon, but it warms my heart to see anyone working so hard to create free software. Go Dungeonforge!

I have been giving Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware a try lately. It’s a beta version, so naturally I do not expect to much of it. I do have to comment on its somewhat interesting behaviour though.

First of all, it is paranoid in the extreme. It throws a fit over stuff that Spybot and Ad-Aware can’t be bothered to lift an eyebrow over. I really don’t think this is a good thing; such paranoia has a nasty tendency to infect not-so-knowledgeable users. Ignorant users crying wolf grows old oh so quickly.

Second, it “protects” against some really odd things. The real-time protection (which does its best to run despite me insisting on using it on-demand only) has decided that batch files are bad for me.

This is fascinating to me. I use batch files a lot for various odd stuff, especially for regular downloads using wget. If Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware gets to have a say, though, I get bugged with a dialogue box asking me if I’m absolutely certain I want to run this file.

No, really.

I’m afraid of the users this tool is intended for, and I hope to $DEITY I never have have to do support for them.

Internet Explorer doesn’t support alpha transparent PNGs. This is sad, but there is a “fix” for it. However, it only works for 24-bit PNGs, not 8-bit PNGs. Newsflash, people! 8-bit PNGs can have alpha transparency too!

Gah.

I intend to break into Microsoft, find the person responsible for integrating PNG support into Internet Explorer, and kick the shit out of him. Or her; I’m not sexist.