Do you have a GM Screen Topic?

[Merion]

Me, I have one topic that's always open in the leftmost tab during games and contains the most important stats of the player characters, like saving throws, armor class, etc. and a few links to other often used topics and articles, like fumble tables or combat maneuvers.

Now I think of expanding it further with things I can never remember (hardness tables, grappling rules), thus making it close the GM Screens I used back before RW.

But before I start expanding on this, I wondered how others use RW during game sessions. Do you have something like this? If yes, what's on it?

 

[Parody]

Even when I've used a device at the table (whether or not I'm using RW) I've had a physical GM screen as well. It's one of the ones that holds sheets of paper, so I can customize the inserts with information for myself and the players.

 

[daplunk]

Nope. But I have the rules entered for my system so generally everything is just linked anyway.

 

[Silveras]

Nope. But I have the rules entered for my system so generally everything is just linked anyway.

I think Merion is referring to something else.. not a rules reference, but a summary list of the stats of the PCs. There is a "Party" display in Fantasy Grounds for some systems (Pathfinder, for one) that shows the Attacks and Saves of the various PCs (including the ability to make a skill check for each PC with a couple of clicks - one to select the skill, and another to trigger the rolling).

I don't have such a Topic in my RealmWorks because I use an Excel spreadsheet for the same purpose. Because the spreadsheet has not been editable in RealmWorks (in my experience), I just keep it as a separate file.

 

[Merion]

I didn't want to share it at first, because it's a badly formatted topic solely for my own usage, but you'll find a screenshot of my GM Screen Topic attached, so it will become clearer what I mean.

There are a few more tables below and I think about including a syrinscape soundboard like I've seen in one of Josh's vids for times when we are not in a pre-defined scene - which is more often than I'd wish for. Stupid players always ruining my carefully crafted plots with their spontaneity and creativity!

I stopped using my paper screen as most of it is hidden anyway by the laptop standing in front of it and table space is limited at our gaming place (my friend's living room). So I came up with this, but am not entirely happy with it, so I thought I'd ask how you guys are going about this.

There is a "Party" display in Fantasy Grounds for some systems (Pathfinder, for one) that shows the Attacks and Saves of the various PCs (including the ability to make a skill check for each PC with a couple of clicks - one to select the skill, and another to trigger the rolling).

I'd love to have something like this in RW. An integration of the HL tactical console directly into RW would be what I wish for, like a live connection to HLO and to pull and push data directly from and to HLO. But that's in conflict with the current "exit-to-sync" policy, so I fear this is talking about a far away future when Realm Works Online will be tackled.

 

[MNBlockHead]

No but it is a neat idea. I'm going to build one now.

 

[Acenoid]

I also have a topic in my realm that contains a lot of links to rules or situations that the players land in. It's very important to organize this topic well otherwise you look for your information at various places.

 

[Merion]

Would You mind sharing a Screenshot of yours?

Getting Inspiration on how Others organize it and what they include was the reason to create this thread.

 

[Silveras]

My party summary is an external Excel workbook (see attached jpg) and for reference, I use an external PDF. I've shared the PDF before on the HeroLab Pathfinder forum.

In RealmWorks, since I have a separate Realm for mechanics (which I intend to export and import into a "working campaign" realm), pretty much every rule situation will automatically link to the appropriate content in the mechanics (theoretically ), although that will mean a lot of "false matches" since some terms (Trip, for example) are pretty common terms.

@Merion.. I note you have an encounter table link. For my use, I put the area-specific ones in the area topic in a GM Notes field, and add an Alternate Name to the Topic (shown in the Navigation Pane) for easy reference.

 

[ruhar]

I didn't want to share it at first, because it's a badly formatted topic solely for my own usage

I am glad you shared, it's not only perfect but it's brilliant. Everyone has their own styles so it should look the way that works for you.

I use Mechanics Reference a lot (especially rules I can't remember) and it can be linked. I'm going to make one similar to yours.

My party summary is an external Excel workbook (see attached jpg) and for reference, I use an external PDF.

Wow! That spreadsheet is massive. I can tell you love spreadsheets. ;-)
The PDF is great and I'm going to start using it. One thing I'll add will be bookmakers. You can set a bookmark so it will open to a specific location on a page if you aren't viewing the whole page. If it's at the bottom of a page then the bottom portion of the page is shown which may include several items that are bookmarked.

 

[Silveras]

Wow! That spreadsheet is massive. I can tell you love spreadsheets. ;-)
The PDF is great and I'm going to start using it. One thing I'll add will be bookmakers. You can set a bookmark so it will open to a specific location on a page if you aren't viewing the whole page. If it's at the bottom of a page then the bottom portion of the page is shown which may include several items that are bookmarked.

Actually, I am more proficient with MS Access and Word than Excel; it is just that the spreadsheet provided useful auto-calculations for updates. I had a massive, multi-page D&D 3.5 (and then Pathfinder) workbook design for a character tracker (before I started using HeroLab).

One thing about the PDF.. .towards the front, the material is pretty much all canon. As you move more into it, more and more of the material is my own or otherwise questionable - the table of task DCs is from the D&D 3.5 DMG; the capacities of mundane containers is from recovered AD&D 2.0 and D&D 3.0 materials, for examples. Also, the 3D illustrations of flanking and cover are my own and need something that shows multi-leveled activities.

I did not Bookmark the PDF primarily because I will replace it when I add new material to the source document (in MS Publisher); I still have to add things from Occult Adventures, Ultimate Wilderness, and Horror Adventures.. maybe more. As a reference, though, it is all the tables I wished they had put in the GM screens, especially the material for outdoor adventuring.