Crystal Ball was a Mac-specific campaign manager and character creator for D&D 3rd Edition, with aspects of that game’s system resource document built in. In the early days of Mac OS X there were a slew of Mac-specific utilities and tools, foremost among them being Crystal Ball. What’s changed over time is the decline in Mac-specific utilities. Today, Thanks to Mac App Store and game providers such as steam, Gaming on a Mas is continually becoming better My Macs remains a critical component of my game, as I use it for everything from creating characters to writing adventures to tracking combat. However, as time passed by, gaming has been introduced for the convenience of the Mac users.The rise of tablets: The iPad and its tablet kin were what gamers had wanted for years: a way to read game PDFs on the go. Java-based, system-agnostic utilities: The Mac market was never as big as the Windows one, plus a good number of RPG geeks run Linux. Native apps didn’t make sense in the long run … if you could create a system agnostic that could run just as well. Two things drove the decline of these platform-specific utilities: Over 20 years after Squares epoch-making epic launched on the SNES.If you have one, email me at My Setup My MacBook Pro, surrounded by the rest of my RPG tools. It’s a reasonable control, given how trojan viruses and worms can spread, and it requires the security complacent Mac to make absolutely sure they know where they’re getting their apps from.I’m always looking for websites and tools to add to this page. MacOS prefers to run applications from the Mac App Store and requires you to override certain security settings to download unsigned apps from the Internet. The dominance of the Web: A lot of generic utility apps, and even character creators, have migrated to the Web.What we find on the Mac today tend to be OS-agnostic applications, which brings with them a different set of challenges.
My primary means of documenting the game, either for blogging or restoring the battle map prior to a game sessionThe Watch: Apple Watch Series 3. Used to tell time during the game (it’s unlikely there will be any RPG utilities for this) My Campaign RegimeI’ve settled on a couple of different tools for managing my D&D campaigns with my Mac:Campaign notes: I write my adventures and campaign notes using Typora, a Markdown editor for the Mac. Used to read game PDFs, run modules at the table, control playlists on my Mac, and jot down notes.The iPhone: An iPhone 7 (128 GB). It’s the workhorse machine I used to do most of my game prep.The Tablet: A iPad Air 2 (64 GB). In addition to the web app, Keep has local versions for macOS and iOS.Character Creation (D&D 5th Edition): I use Forged Anvil, an Excel-based, fan-built spreadsheet for character creation. Finally, I use Google Keep as my scratchpad for the random campaign ideas that I get throughout the day. I also use Google Drive to collaborate with other game masters on big campaign events where two or more of us will be running concurrent games. It’s popular with my gaming group because it supports some of our favorite RPGs, including Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, Mutants & Masterminds, d20 System, 4th Edition, and World of Darkness. You can use it to create battle maps, one-page dungeons, and even random dungeons … complete with room descriptions! It’s a companion tool to Hexographer.Hero Lab:Originally a Windows-only tool, Hero Lab is now available for Mac as well. RPG UtilitiesDungeonographer: A robust Java-based mapping tool for creating dungeon maps. Best Rpgs Generator That IncorporatesBecause it is Java-based, it can be run on Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems.I used PC Gen a lot during my d20 days, but it eventually fell by the wayside as Excel-based spreadsheets like ForgedAnvil rose to the fore. It’s a companion tool to Dungeonographer.PC Gen: PC Gen is a Java-based, open-source character generator that incorporates the D&D 3.5 core rules, as well as numerous d20 game systems and supplements. I’ve played around with the online version had some fun with it when I have a project that demands hex maps I’ll buy the premium edition. It’s a Java-based tool that’s available for free online, and offline as part of a premium download. Still it’s a worthwhile investment if you have complicated character concepts or need to throw together quick-and-dirty non-player characters for your campaign.Hexographer:As the name implies, Hexographer is all about making hex-based maps, like the classic World of Greyhawk map or the expansive Wilderlands of High Fantasy map set. Mozilla fire for macThere are also online forums, desktop themes, and a files section where you can download the latest Mac demos.Mad Irishman: Character sheets for 25+ gaming systems, including Dungeons & Dragons, Arcana Unearthed, Spycraft, Gamma World, Call of Cthulhu, and Traveller. Mac Gaming Web SitesInside Mac Games: News and previews about games and gaming-related hardware for the Macintosh. There are a tremendous number of modules for the game including a variety of war games, Arkham Horror, Battlestar Galactica, Axis and Allies, and many, many more. It also has tools for character management and dice rolling.VASSAL Game Engine:A Java-based tool for playing board and card games online that is available with a Mac installer. TokenTool is used to make tokens for digital battlemaps, while InitiativeTool helps keep track of combat. MapTool is used to create an online game table (though I’ve heard of folks who project its maps in their game room for local play). They are created for Apple’s Hypercard, a database program that used to ship on old Macs, and which is all but extinct now. Of particular interest to Mac fans — especially older ones — are his HyperCard stacks. He has Excel spreadsheets for generating gear, magical staffs and magical weapons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorCorey ArchivesCategories |