Non-obvious Tools

[Krensky]

I'm sure a number of have a non-obvious tool or four we use gaming. By non-obvious I don't mean character generators or die rollers, but things we use for developing back story, building verisimilitude, etc. I know I've generally just stumbled upon these and thought the small collection I have might be worth sharing, and I'd like to see what others may have in their toy... er... tool boxes.

Interactive Web Tools
Die Roll Stats
A web page I stumbled upon to calculate min, max, and average of various die rolls. It tends to choke on high numbers of dice, but it's really useful for figuring out how 1d12, 2d6, and 3d4 are different.

Space Math
Like the title says, it's a page with calculators for things like constant acceleration, escape velocity, some orbital mechanic stuff and relativistic effects.

Random Name Generator
A random name generator using the US Census as a data set. Allows you to set the obscurity of the results.

Universal Currency Converter
If you ever need to know how many Iraqi Dinars there are in an Israeli New Shekel, this is the page for you.

Navigation Computer
Something I stumbled across a while back while running a semi-realistic sci-fi game set in space. Sort of like Jovian Chronicles without the mecha. I've seen other Hohmann Orbit calculators, but this one was simple to use and didn't require knowledge of orbital mechanics.

Google Calculator Instructions
Useful for converting units and doing calculations when the built in OS calculator doesn't quite cut it.

Refrence Tools
Kate Monk's Onomastikon
A big book of names, broken down by region, source, language, theme, and number of other things. Include some discussions on naming conventions for different languages/cultures.

The CIA World Fact Book
A very large and well organized list of all sorts of facts, figures, statistics and information about the countries of the world. Official names, currency, economic makeup, all sorts of useful tidbits you (other then you foreigners and tax evaders out there, you know who you are ) already paid for.

[OverNinja]

Some that I use...

Secret Service Codenames: http://www.2600.com/secret/more/codes.html

Airplane seatings: http://www.seatguru.com/

Names: http://www.20000-names.com/

Google Earth: http://earth.google.com/

[Ezram]

What's the issue? The less dice you have to roll, the greater chance you get the maximum result, but your average  roll is worse. Many dice means that reaching maximum damage is much harder, but you have more reliable averages.

[Daedalus4096]

What's the issue? The less dice you have to roll, the greater chance you get the maximum result, but your average  roll is worse. Many dice means that reaching maximum damage is much harder, but you have more reliable averages.

That's pretty much it.  A lot of people that don't game regularly, at least the ones that I talk to, don't get the averages bit immediately though.  The common evaluation technique is to just look at the maximum possible result without considering the statistical distribution across the entire range of possibilities.

[Ezram]

That being said, I usually favor better averages as it's reliable. But, if the character is outlandish, I go for the all-or-nothing.

[Krensky]

What's the issue? The less dice you have to roll, the greater chance you get the maximum result, but your average  roll is worse. Many dice means that reaching maximum damage is much harder, but you have more reliable averages.

The tool was written to deal with D&D attribute generation but I use it when figuring out damage ranges for equipment. Dice statistics - and I meant the actual concepts of min, max, and mean here - not the attribute eyeballing stuff you drug this off topic with - are somewhat simple probability problems but it's nice to have tool to do them for you.

[Ezram]

Can't be off topic, as it was dealing with one of your links.

[Desertpuma]

Gotta say I love this list...

[Krensky]

My first foray into thread necromancy...

Some of these are moderately well known general applications that I use to avoid spending thousands on Adobe and Microsoft products but some are more obscure, and I thought I'd share.

Software Applications

GIMP
A well known and long lived image open source manipulation application, think Photoshop. It has different development priorities and work flow then Photoshop, but it's at least as capable. Great for making maps and touching up photos.
 
Inkscape
Inkscape is an open source vector graphics program (think Illustrator or Corel Draw). I use it mostly for making counter/token sheets and 'technical' drawing of things in  my games. It can also import and export PDF.

CADEMIA
An open source CAD program. Very capable and modular. Although not up to the standards of TurboCAD or AutoCAD, it also doesn't cost $1,200 to $5,000 either.

AutoRealm
An open source program that's similar to Campaign Cartographer 2 (and maybe 3, but I haven't used it).

Scribus
An open source, professional grade desktop publishing package.

OpenOffice.org
An open source office suite. Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, database, vector drawing, equation editing, the usual. Supports export to PDF, and the presentation app can export to Flash. Opens MS Office formats.

PosteRazor
An open source application for cutting large image files into smaller ones for printing, or for printing a file as a poster using regular sized paper. It outputs a PDF file.

wikidPad
An open source single user wiki. Something like notebook on steroids. Useful for campaign notes and the like. Exports to single and multiple file HTML, amongst other options. Very easy to use, and the learning curve is a little steep, its also very short.

The Guide
A open source extrinsic outliner that supports internal and external hyper-linking. Almost no learning curve. More useful then wikidPad if you just want to have your notes organized and wiki style interlinking isn't as important.

FreeMind
An open source mind mapper for organizing ideas as mind maps/flow charts rather then outlines or wiki's.

[TheAuldGrump]

Let me add Dungeon Crafter to the list of programs. A very simple tile based mapping program. I use a combination of DC2 (for the bulk of the mapping) and DC1 (for adding doors). I really wish that the second edition of the program had been finished - it is a great little tool.

The Auld Grump

[Krensky]

Something else I stumbled across.

Once upon a time, phone numbers (in the US, anyway) were expressed as two letters or a word and five numbers. PEnnsyvannia 6-5000 (the Pennsylvania Hotel in NYC, and still their number), GRamercy 5-1234, KLondike 5-1234, etc. This is why your phone has letters on the key pad.

This is only true for the whole country from the fifties or so on, before that a small community exchange might be the name of the place and the number may not be 5 digits, especially if the exchange was manually operated. Large cities (NYC, Philadelphia, and Boston in particular) used this almost from the start, however.  Starting with the introduction of direct long distance dialing in the early fifties, Bell standardized on the two letters and 5 numbers schema and developed a list of recommended exchange names. Bell started converting from this system to All Number Calling in the late fifties and most places had changed by the late sixties, but a number of places, especially in large urban areas, had not completely changed over until the eighties, and you can still see new and old signage in some places in NYC, LA, and other cities with numbers given as an exchange name or letter code and number.

Anyway, if you're running a period game and want to give out a period correct phone number and don't know (or care) what the historically correct exchange name was, you could always use Ma Bell's list:

Telephone EXchange Names

[Krensky]

Hmmm, ran across this on the World Works forums - RPG Deck. An MP3 program designed for fading soundtracks and sound effects in and out for use at the gaming table.

Right now I just plug my MP3 player into a set of Logitech speakers, and have it playing quietly in the background, but for those who feel more enterprising this might be useful.

The Auld Grump

Copied the sound track thread.

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, ran across this on the World Works forums - RPG Deck. An MP3 program designed for fading soundtracks and sound effects in and out for use at the gaming table.

Right now I just plug my MP3 player into a set of Logitech speakers, and have it playing quietly in the background, but for those who feel more enterprising this might be useful.

The Auld Grump

Copied the sound track thread.

Doh! It most likely should have gone here first.
Ah, mea culpa.

The Auld Grump, downloading it now.

[Agent 333]

Let me add Dungeon Crafter to the list of programs. A very simple tile based mapping program. I use a combination of DC2 (for the bulk of the mapping) and DC1 (for adding doors). I really wish that the second edition of the program had been finished - it is a great little tool.

The Auld Grump

Ah, I remember Dungeon Crafter. Whatever happened to that anyway? It was looking so promising and then poof: vaporware.

[TheAuldGrump]

Incidentally - I used RPG Deck at my Delta Green game last week. The first time that I have had my laptop at the table. Background music playing, then rifle shots ringing out at an appropriate moment. No pause - the rifle shots coming in loud and clear against the background music.

It was actually a lot of fun.

The Auld Grump