laotze
2016-08-08, 10:56 AM
Hi folks. Long-time OotS lover, first time poster. I'm running my first campaign in almost a decade for a group of a mostly newbies and/or folks as rusty as I am. Since my RPG experience is predominantly 3.5e, but I've lost or sold most of my old materials, I picked Pathfinder, and I've been pretty happy with how accessible it makes the OGL.
I am, however, looking to simplify most of the tedious parts of d20 and automate the math moments as much as possible. To that end I'm trying to find the best possible set of apps for myself as GM and for my players. HeroLab seems ludicrously overpriced given how poorly optimized it is (runs like java molasses even on my high-end gaming rig) and how user-unfriendly the UI can be. I'll be mostly using my Macbook to GM and my players will be using a mix of iOS and Android devices, and in one case a Microsoft Surfacebook, so I'm open to a wide array of apps. I couldn't find a repository reference thread for Pathfinder apps generally, so perhaps this could serve that purpose if we can get enough good recs here.
-On the GM side-
For combat and initiative management, the best tool I've found so far seems to be Improved Initiative (http://www.improved-initiative.com/) (free). The interface is elegant, it allows quick adjustment of encounters on the fly, and I love love love the casting feature that allows me to throw a combat screen URL up on the TV for the party to keep track of their HP, turn order, enemy conditions, etc.
The downside is that it's pre-optimized for 5e, meaning if I want to use its reference features I would have to enter ****loads of monster data for the 3.5e/Pathfinder campaign I'll be running, to the extent that I'll probably just have to keep using printed materials anyway. It also doesn't do monster combat rolls or calculations, which would be a huge boon.
Game Master by Lion's Den (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/game-master-pathfinder-rpg/id869493578?mt=8) ($2.99) does handle combat rolls, on the other hand, which is awesome, and it contains monster data for Pathfinder, but (a) it's on iOS so iPad entry is a lot slower than on my Macbook, especially with how long it takes to put in hero data; (b) it doesn't have a way of casting/sharing summaries with the players; (c) it doesn't allow you input player initiative rolls easily, requiring you to virtually roll everyone with the monsters and then rearrange manually; and (d) it's locked into landscape mode, which is annoying. These are big enough issues that I'm probably going to stick with Improved Initiative Management and just handle rolls and calculations the old-fashioned way, unless I can find something with the best of both worlds.
InitiativeBoard (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/initiativeboard/id498834300?mt=8) (99¢) is a nice little iOS app extremely similar to Improved Combat Initiative, but more simplified and without the casting feature. It does have automatic status effect (condition) tracking, which is nifty.
-On the Player side-
RPG Scribe (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rpg-scribe/id410385432?mt=8) ($2.99) for IOS is damn near perfect as a character app. It features an elegant dynamic character sheet, a fairly robust character builder with Pathfinder legality checking, quick references for virtually everything, beautiful iconography for spells and the like, and (best of all) easy tracking for daily spells, spell and ability uses, XP gain / leveling, healing, damage, and a Rest button. The only thing it's lacking is the ability to track status effects (conditions), which is a shame but the (very active and responsive) devs say they're working on it for a future update, and in the mean time we'll just stick with physical condition cards. Honestly this app is beautiful enough after trying 5-6 others that I'm done hunting for other iOS options and just need to find a good equivalent for my Android/Surfacebook users.
The internet recommends PCGen (http://pcgen.org/) (free) for Windows/Mac almost as frequently as HeroLab, and it seems fine for character building but kind of garbage as a character sheet for use in-game as a result of its daunting interface and lack of tablet optimization.
-In conclusion-
I'm still hunting for that "silver bullet" GM combat management app that combines all the best features of Improved Initiative Tracker and Game Master by Lion's Den. Something that tracks combat fully for the GM and with hidden NPC stats for the player view, and that also handles monster combat calculations. And preferably that runs on Mac (like II) rather than mobile (like GMbLD).
I'm extremely satisfied with RPG Scribe for player sheets on iOS, but still looking for a similarly near-perfect Android and Windows equivalent.
I am, however, looking to simplify most of the tedious parts of d20 and automate the math moments as much as possible. To that end I'm trying to find the best possible set of apps for myself as GM and for my players. HeroLab seems ludicrously overpriced given how poorly optimized it is (runs like java molasses even on my high-end gaming rig) and how user-unfriendly the UI can be. I'll be mostly using my Macbook to GM and my players will be using a mix of iOS and Android devices, and in one case a Microsoft Surfacebook, so I'm open to a wide array of apps. I couldn't find a repository reference thread for Pathfinder apps generally, so perhaps this could serve that purpose if we can get enough good recs here.
-On the GM side-
For combat and initiative management, the best tool I've found so far seems to be Improved Initiative (http://www.improved-initiative.com/) (free). The interface is elegant, it allows quick adjustment of encounters on the fly, and I love love love the casting feature that allows me to throw a combat screen URL up on the TV for the party to keep track of their HP, turn order, enemy conditions, etc.
The downside is that it's pre-optimized for 5e, meaning if I want to use its reference features I would have to enter ****loads of monster data for the 3.5e/Pathfinder campaign I'll be running, to the extent that I'll probably just have to keep using printed materials anyway. It also doesn't do monster combat rolls or calculations, which would be a huge boon.
Game Master by Lion's Den (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/game-master-pathfinder-rpg/id869493578?mt=8) ($2.99) does handle combat rolls, on the other hand, which is awesome, and it contains monster data for Pathfinder, but (a) it's on iOS so iPad entry is a lot slower than on my Macbook, especially with how long it takes to put in hero data; (b) it doesn't have a way of casting/sharing summaries with the players; (c) it doesn't allow you input player initiative rolls easily, requiring you to virtually roll everyone with the monsters and then rearrange manually; and (d) it's locked into landscape mode, which is annoying. These are big enough issues that I'm probably going to stick with Improved Initiative Management and just handle rolls and calculations the old-fashioned way, unless I can find something with the best of both worlds.
InitiativeBoard (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/initiativeboard/id498834300?mt=8) (99¢) is a nice little iOS app extremely similar to Improved Combat Initiative, but more simplified and without the casting feature. It does have automatic status effect (condition) tracking, which is nifty.
-On the Player side-
RPG Scribe (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rpg-scribe/id410385432?mt=8) ($2.99) for IOS is damn near perfect as a character app. It features an elegant dynamic character sheet, a fairly robust character builder with Pathfinder legality checking, quick references for virtually everything, beautiful iconography for spells and the like, and (best of all) easy tracking for daily spells, spell and ability uses, XP gain / leveling, healing, damage, and a Rest button. The only thing it's lacking is the ability to track status effects (conditions), which is a shame but the (very active and responsive) devs say they're working on it for a future update, and in the mean time we'll just stick with physical condition cards. Honestly this app is beautiful enough after trying 5-6 others that I'm done hunting for other iOS options and just need to find a good equivalent for my Android/Surfacebook users.
The internet recommends PCGen (http://pcgen.org/) (free) for Windows/Mac almost as frequently as HeroLab, and it seems fine for character building but kind of garbage as a character sheet for use in-game as a result of its daunting interface and lack of tablet optimization.
-In conclusion-
I'm still hunting for that "silver bullet" GM combat management app that combines all the best features of Improved Initiative Tracker and Game Master by Lion's Den. Something that tracks combat fully for the GM and with hidden NPC stats for the player view, and that also handles monster combat calculations. And preferably that runs on Mac (like II) rather than mobile (like GMbLD).
I'm extremely satisfied with RPG Scribe for player sheets on iOS, but still looking for a similarly near-perfect Android and Windows equivalent.