Gaming Software (For Tabletop)

[Forgotten T.S.]

I recently picked up a new laptop (guess for what occasion), and I'm looking to use it as much as I can. This includes for activities such as Tabletop Gaming. Like D&D, WoD, ect. ect.

My question is:

What software/programs would you recommend for this?

Things I'm looking for in this software:

1) Functionality for various Rule Systems.

2) Organization. To keep track of distant lands I explore, and NPC's I encounter, and loot I steal from the party.

3) Ease. I'm lazy, sue me.


Any help is both appreciated and gracefully accepted.


- The Forgotten T.S.

[Ozreth]

MapTool is HANDS DOWN the absolute pinnacle of virtual table top gaming.

Gametable is good if you are looking for a quick learning curve and basic functionality but MapTools can do everything that gametable can do and many things that gametable could never imagine being able to do.

[Vitruviansquid]

I'd vouch for Maptool. It's so easy to play on Maptool, my group would've considered replacing our live sessions with Maptool if not for the fact that some of us have bad microphones and the others aren't responsible enough to be sitting at keyboard when it's their turn.

[Forgotten T.S.]

Yeah, I'm not looking for Virtual Tabletop.

I play Real Tabletop.

Maptools also doesn't have any functionality for organization. Besides storing of tokens and maps.

[Gralamin]

MapTool is HANDS DOWN the absolute pinnacle of virtual table top gaming.

Gametable is good if you are looking for a quick learning curve and basic functionality but MapTools can do everything that gametable can do and many things that gametable could never imagine being able to do.

MapTool's netcode also doesn't work very well at all. And it is very noticeable once you use it a lot. So no, it isn't the pinnacle.

----

For what the OP wanted though, there are some useful programs:
While somewhat useable for other systems, Masterplan (http://www.habitualindolence.net/masterplan/) is great for 4th Edition D&D Campaigns.
GoogleDocs and Open Office both give free word processing and spreadsheet programs which can cover a lot.
Treepad (http://www.treepad.com/) is very useful for organizing notes.
If you know what you are doing, you can set up a wiki (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki) on your laptop and use that for a large amount of notes. If you aren't that tech savvy, then there are also free wiki's on the internet.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I made an Excel Spreadsheet for calculating Capital Ship attacks in Star Wars Saga Edition, but I'm not sure if it's legal to share.