Online and Software Tools

Seattle Gamers Assemble! (SGA) is a loose community of role-players centered around Seattle, Washington. After several years of operations, we thought it might be nice to share what we've learned about setting up a gaming community.

You're here and we're here on this wiki because we — you and us — are Web-savvy. Although not every gamer is a 'Net-head, the RPG community that doesn't maintain a strong Web presence is cutting itself off from a vast pool of gamers. There are two big reasons to have a well-organized Web base for your gaming community: promotion — it's your virtual front door and perhaps the only front door you'll have; and convenience — you have a toolbox available to help you communicate, organize, and rally.

(This is an article in progress.)

GM TOOLS

Mapping

• Houseplans.com - handy site where you can get free plans for all sorts of houses and buildings.
• HousePlanGalley.com - The Official site of House Plan Gallery House Plans, Home Plans, and Floor Plans.. Affordable home designs & blueprints. FAST & FREE SHIPPING.
• HomeDesignCentral.com - Unique House Plans, Home Plans, and Floor Plans by Home Design Central.com. Affordable home designs & blueprints. FAST & FREE SHIPPING.
• StockHomePlans.com - Only the Most-Popular House Floor Plans and Blueprints. Top House Plans direct from the Home Designers. Search home plans online.
• AutoREALM is a nice vector-based open-source free mapping software.
• Campaign Cartographer is powerful but the learning curve is a bit steep. Fantasy focus, but can be used for all sorts of settings; many add-ons available. Around $45 for the basic package, but stacking add-ons can cost you a few hundred dollars.
  • Making Maps with Campaign Cartographer 2
  • Open Directory: Campaign Cartographer Resources
• Fractal Mapper, another nice mapping program, with a sci-fi focus. Around $40; a few add-ons available.

Game Management

• The GM's Second Brain, at fudgerpg.info

Webs and Flowcharts

Freeware:

• Gliffy - Web- and Flash-based, shareable.
• Bubbl.us - Web-based, shareable.
• ThinkChart
• FreeMind
• Diagram Designer
• Cmap Tools - Work with all platforms.

Commercial software:

• MindManager - Multi-platform.
• Inspiration - Multi-platform; free 30-day trial.
• OmniGarffle - runs on OSX.

Drawing and Image Editing

Freeware and shareware for picture editing:

• GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program — Open source, free, available for Mac, PC, Linux, etc. Allows quite a bit of editing and drawing; highly recommended.
• XnView — Excellent for image viewing and editing, and format conversion.
• EasyThumbnails from Fookes Shareware (just like it says, great to create thumbnails in batches.)
• PhotoFiltre — Mostly useful for photos, allows retouching and post-production filters.

Not freeware or shareware, but darn affordable:

• PaintShop Pro from JASC Software/Corel (watch for the periodic Amazon.com mail-in rebates)

PDF and Printing

• A useful way to move formatted documents to a different printer (e.g., to go print at a copy center) without headaches is to save it as a PDF file. You can find several freeware or shareware utilities that act as PDF printer drivers; I have had good success with PDF995. The free demo version has nag screens but otherwise works perfectly well. Another popular one is CutePDF Writer 2.6.
• PDFill is a shareware that allows the creation of fillable forms, very useful for character sheets. The free demo places a watermark on saved PDF forms and does not allow you to save the filled form but you can print it, including to another PDF that will no longer be editable, but will have your data.
• Print(fu): Although you cannot buy RPGs from Print(fu), you can have them print and bind PDF files which you upload from your computer. Accepts credit cards and Paypal; requires login for payment.

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