Resources for DMs
General | Online Play | Campaign & Characters | Mapping | Props | Dice
General
Official D&D Downloads - adventure modules, character sheets, maps, portraits and more!
Official D&D Tools - treasure, environment and encounter generators, among others.
Official D&D Consolidated Lists - can't remember where to find something in the official D&D rulebooks? Check out these list indexes...
The Hypertext d20 SRD - full hyperlinked reference of the freely distributable portions of the d20 rules.
Dungeon Mastering - a great site/blog full of great DM resources and tips.
Online Play/Collaboration
MapTool
- not a map maker, as the name might imply, but a full featured,
client/server game moderation and collaboration tool designed for playing d20 pencil and paper roleplaying games.
The program features a nearly infinite sized map display,
dynamically resizable grid,
real time token (character/monster) movements,
automatic distance/movement measurements,
token stats (str, dex, wis, hp, ac, and so on),
area effect template overlays,
map imports, fog of war, token lighting (simulating torch light, candlelight, light spell, and so on to reveal fog-of-war),
macro buttons (with simple dice rolling language),
chat panel with log,
and much, much, more.
This totally free program has replaced ScreenMonkey (see below) as our
virtual table top tool. Make sure to download the most recent Development version for all the best features!
-- Video Tutorials for MapTool
TokenTool - an easy to use tool for creating custom tokens for MapTool, and possibly other online virtual table tops.
ScreenMonkey - strange name for a good roleplaying product, ScreenMonkey is a highly specialized Web Server designed for online pencil and paper roleplaying game moderation and collaboration between DM and players, featuring a map display area, several grids for information about characters and NPCs, an event log, and a chat panel complete with dice roller functionality. A fully functional, free "lite" version is also available.
- Custom Character Icons (7kb) - custom character icons for Screen Monkey; these are characters in our campaigns, but suitable for use by anyone.
- Soda Bob's Custom Interface for Screen Monkey v0.7 Beta (300kb) - this provides an alternate enhanced version of the Advanced player interface, with more appropriate control given back to the DM and an advanced dice roller for the DM and players; tested with the v1.5 Lite version, but will probably work with all v1.5 versions of Screen Monkey. See install.txt for more info. Screenshot
- Dungeon Forge - this free dungeon mapper creates maps with a grid size compatible with Screen Monkey!
GE Shared Whiteboard - a very smooth, easy to use, browser based drawing whiteboard that can be shared by up to three people. Even has a nice grid underlay.
Modules (Adventures)
D&D Classics - official source for TSR/Wizards D&D adventure modules, from the original Basic edition through 4th (and perhaps beyond); there are even several free adventures.
83 Free D&D Adventures - Links to many free adventures, many or most of which are directly from TSR/Wizards, for various editions of D&D (it's a growing list beyond the original 83... however, some are no longer available, though hint: clever use of archive.org will sometimes net you the missing items!)
Campaign & Character Tools
Experience Table (Excel .xls 14k) - a spread sheet for a DM to keep track of the experience points you've awarded for each gaming session, per player/character. Instructions: The spreadsheet gives two example players/characters. To add more characters, copy and paste one of the examples rows, to copy all the formatting and formulas to a new row. Enter the beginning XP if the character began higher than 1st level, otherwise leave this column as 0 (zero). For gaming sessions past the first two, insert a new session column to the left of the last column. For each gaming session you then just enter the XP that you awarded to each character into their row for that session. The spreadsheet will then automatically calculate their total XP award. In this manner, if the players fail to record some of their XP or there is any other confusions regarding the XP awards you've given, you'll have a master record of the awards to refer to.
E-Tools - official DM and player tool for generating characters, NPCs and monsters.
RedBlade Character Generator - very nice, free, third party, open source, customizable character generator for D&D 3.5 Edition games. There's a 3.0 Edition version also available, but it's no longer supported and (for me at least) runs only with errors. Sadly the new version they're working on, Redblade CG, appears to be vaporware. :(
Wizards.com PC/NPC Background Generator - built in tandem with a similar chapter for PC backgrounds in the Hero Builder's Guidebook.
Wizards.com PC/NPC Name Generator - 'nuff said.
Pathology Guy Character Generators - not a very polished site, but in the "Fun" section (near the bottom, right, of the home page) he's got quite a number of D&D, d20 Modern, Star Wars and other similar character generators.
Mapping
Dungeon Forge - free, drag-n-drop dungeon mapping. What's more, the grid size allows it to create maps perfectly compatible for use with Screen Monkey online game moderation/DMing software. Note, you must register and login to their site to download their free programs; also, you can download another mapping software called Dungeon Crafter here as well, for which many custom tiles are available - just Google it!
Dungeon Tiles Mapper - free, browser based drag-n-drop dungeon mapping - cool!!! Additional sample dungeons can be found on Wizards.com here; note, however, that the version of the mapper on the Dungeon Tile Mapper home page is a newer version, and has more tile content, than the one downloadable on the Wizards website.
Free Printable Graph Paper Generator - Generates PDF graph papers to your specifications via an online form. The blank graph papers generated and printed out are a great resource for drawing quick maps during play, or just creating old school hand drawn maps ahead of time.
Props
Historic Tale Construction Kit - create historical looking pictogram stories.
LotR Rune Generator - "translates" English text into one of three styles of LotR/Hobbit runes. No language translation happens, the runes are just substuted for each individual letter. Regardless, the results still look very nice.
Learn to Write Elvish in 10 Minutes - based loosely on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Foldup Paper Models - print and fold up these buildings and other structures for miniature play.
Ye Olde Graphic Designer - while this guy has a disdain for roleplayers and other "mediaeval recreationists", his discussion on how the language of heraldic crests works is well presented and quite interesting.
Dice Rollers
Ron's Roaring Dice - dice roller program with audio results
DiceTool - scriptable dice roller program
Or, use mine in the left menu!
Magazines/Fanzines
Knowledge Arcana - Wizards Online Community Magazine