The Greatest Dungeon Master Tool in the World - D&D 5e
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Ok Dungeon Masters and Game Masters, today I'm looking at the best DM tool in the world for all your D&D 5e, Pathfinder, Edge of the Empire, World of Darkness or Soulbound games or whatever you happen to be running. The best part is this D&D tool is completely free!
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![Five Combat Encounter Building Mistakes in Dungeons and Dragons 5e [DM Tips]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NvlP5kLh0P4/mqdefault.jpg)
I am an artist who earns my living through art - and I say use as much art as you want! There is a marked difference between "Personal Use" and "Commercial Use", and if you are just pulling images to use for your campaign with your friends and/or players - go for it! The only time I would get annoyed is if someone took my art for their campaign and then tried to make money off it and sell it as part of the overall product. If you're not doing that, then have fun and use as much as you like =)
Not everyone is going to feel the same way
@@StaggersonJagz possibly, but @abatage about the usage rights, except items designated as free for personal and commercial usage. CC0 and the like.
As fellow artist and P&P player, I can only agree to this. If it's for personal use, grab it from the internet and have fun.
But once it become part of a commercial project (and may it only be as something like a newsletter or web-expansion (e.g. shadowruns novapulse), I want to get contacted, so we can discuss the terms (and maybe I can even give you some more fitting renders/pictures). ;)
@@Sarados1980 remember that you don't speak for all artists
@@StaggersonJagz it’s not about opinion … it’s law and ethical. Personal use of anything freely available online is free. If you plan to use it within a commercial project, by law the original creator owns that creation and you must get their permission to use. That permission may be in the form of Creative Commons, which the artist has already arranged or it may be in the form of royalties or they can just say no. If you don’t agree and use it anyways… they can sue.
This is why you are the best D&D CZcams channel. I was already using One Note for my world-building and had always agreed that it was the best whenever you had said it in previous videos, but it turns out I wasn't even close to utilizing its full potential. I am not even done with the video yet and I am already editing my notes to implement features such as the pin emoji and the sub-page. One Note is the legendary magic item of my personal Dungeon Master journey.
Amen
this
The greatest tool is the friends we made along the way.
Did you just call all your friends tools? Lol
@@TheSpenswar17 I came here to ask the same question lol
The greatest friends is the tools we made along the way
Greatest tool
Nah, my friends are slow, difficult and very expensive :P
I have been using OneNote for years, and I knew I hadn't unlocked all it's mysteries and powers. Cody, just the Alt key for moving images around without the "snap to grid"-like movement made me smile...but the map linking idea and the Dictate tool.... my jaw is still slack in amazement and appreciation.
Just curious, i didnt know the dictate tool either but it only seemed to work in the app when you have the 99$ a year windows 365 subscription right?
The dictate option is only for Office 365 subscribers however digging around, you can do Winkey+H to enable dictation in Windows itself. It does work to translate speech to text in Onenote. Limited testing showed it seems to work pretty well
I like how natural and trustful you are in this 'unscripted' video.
Aww thanks!
I completely agree. I have been using OneNote for a few years, had a laptop shirt itself after about 2 years of world building and panicked until I realised that it wasn't lost, just hiding out there in the cloud. I was so worried everything had been fried but I just logged in on my phone and there it was!
Since learning that, I have logged in on multiple devices, whenever I have a spark of inspiration I just jot it down quick on whatever device is handy on an 'ideas' page until I have time to organise it. It has been a brilliant tool. Especially with adhd, random waves on inspiration come and go but the pages are always there. It's like a great way to keep track of thoughts and ideas without draining my brain battery. Tempted to use it for all of my adhd hobbies and keep a timeline going that i can just jump into when i'm back on a subject.
For your sesh notes section, you can make a template page that's just the empty boxes like you have, and set it as the default new page for that section. That way you don't have to copy and paste a bunch ahead of time, and you don't have to keep an empty page available to copy and paste when you're running low.
Custom page templates are great. Have one for monsters, spells, encounters, etc
I'm impressed by the accuracy of the dictate tool, it even recognizes names and doesn't try to fit some other words in their places. Never bothered to try it out, since I hadn't imagined it being THIS good.
As someone that's been using Onenote for years, this video was so helpful for the tips. The map and pin tip is incredibly cool and I'd never considered it!
My guess before watching was "the public library to find books to steal ideas from", but your answer is good too. :)
Something else that's been useful for me is I have a template page made for combat encounters that has an embedded table with the PCs' information already filled out, so when I plan an encounter I just create another page from that template (or just copy/paste a combat encounter page that already exists), throw in my monsters, and when it's time to roll initiative you fill in the initiative rolls for everything and sort by descending to get your turn order. My template includes columns for initiative roll, character name, AC, max/current HP, passive scores, conditions, concentration (to track spells that are being concentrated on), and a column for misc. notes. It's fast, efficient, and useful for me, and I can set the names to be links to pages about those characters/enemies that include stat blocks (or just copy/paste the stat blocks on the encounter page below the tracker table).
This video has changed my life, not only in DnD but other aspects like with work and personal that I didn’t know I was missing.
Dude, you got me onto onenote when you spoke about it in one of your previous videos and I cannot stress enough how helpful it has been.
I'm getting back into DMing after years away and all my old setting notes and whatnot were scattered about, onenote has really helped organise and get everything in one place.
Thanks for the tip.
Same here! I now have two full homebrew campaigns on it and a dozen oneshots. It's amazing.
I would love a few more features but it gets the work done!
Ditto. I learned it here first, and then migrated the knowledge to work!
My OneNote I’ve used for 5 campaigns in my homebrew world. I let a friend briefly look through it and he was flabbergasted by how much there was on there.
Welp, there goes my extensive use of individual google docs for every session. Thanks for turning me onto this program. I'd heard of it before but never looked at all it could do until this video!!
I've been a DM on and off for 20 years. Always been a purist playing with paper and pencil. On my most recent campaign I really wanted to start using more PC resources. Still prefer playing in person, but now I'll be brining my laptop to sessions.
This is the single greatest tutorial style video I've seen. Thank you!
I've been using OneNote for over a year organizing my campaigns, and I learned a lot in this video. What I found really useful was for shortening down the published adventures. They often have a lot of flowery text and overly complicated descriptions so I copy the text from Dndbeyond into a OneNote page and then go through editing it down, adding extra info that is missing so I'm not loading up a dozen different pages. Especially true for adventures like Out of the Abyss, which require a lot of backtracking on Fungi types, hundreds of monster stat blocks, loot tables from the DM Guide, etc.
An example from Lost Mind of Phandelver:
Two goblins are stationed here. If the goblins notice intruders in area 1, they open fire with their bows, shooting through the thickets and probably catching the characters by surprise. If the goblins don’t notice the adventurers in area 1, they spot them when they splash across the stream, and neither side is surprised.
Characters moving carefully or scouting ahead might be able to surprise the goblin lookouts. Have each character who moves ahead make a Dexterity (Stealth) check contested by the goblins’ passive Wisdom (Perception) score to avoid being surprised. See the Basic Rules for more information on ability check contests.
Thickets. The thickets around the clearing are difficult terrain, but they aren’t dangerous-just annoying. They provide half cover to creatures behind them. (See “Difficult Terrain” and “Cover” in the Basic Rules for more information.)
My Notes:
2 Goblins (linked to a Goblin stat page) - Can surprise if characters make a lot of noise
DC9 Stealth check to surprise Goblins
Thickets - difficult terrain (half movement) and half cover (+2 AC)
6:30 in and you already convinced me to at least try it out lol. between sections/pages and hyperlinking it looks like its going to be very useful. not to mention it looks really intuitive and easy to learn
I've always used one note for my character notes and campaign ideas but had no idea about all these features!
Thanks Cody!
Oh my god, where has that Window+Shift+S shortcut been my entire DMing life?
Video was worth it just for that!
As a person who is more likely to overplan than improvise: THANK YOU! This is the inspiration an organisation that I think I needed desperately. I am going to try this out in my next sessions. 😅 I was so overwhelmed with running a campaign and stressed out about how to organize all the details (even though they might be irrelevant, I still like to have them) and you gave me a lot of ideas. 🤗 Thank you so much and lots of greetings from Germany. 😉
Ive been using one note forever but the map links blew my mind. Keep up the good work dude helping us forever DMs on that improvement grind!
You know what? I think this convinced me. Saw a lot of reflections of things I'm currently doing, but all in one area rather than scattered about a folder on my computer. Thanks for the pitch!
My heart is literally pounding because I'm so excited about this. I had *no idea* that this was a thing.
Hey, Cody, I just wanted let you know that your video changed the way I prepare for running a game. I've been playing D&D for many, many years, and I've been a bit old school in how I prepare for and run a game, using a text editor with next to no features. It's basically one step up from doing it by hand in a notebook. Archaic, I know.
Then, I ran across your video on CZcams, and my eyes were opened. I tried your suggestions for using a note-taking application to prepare for my next game, and I find the organization and connectedness that it provides fantastic. I'm able to link all my content together...maps, monsters, characters, handouts, it's amazing. I'm definitely a convert to this way of preparing for a game, and I owe this all to your video. Thanks for posting it!
A ton of people told me one note was the best GM tool but I never believed them. I never quite got into it because I had no idea you could link and stuff. This is awesome, thank you so much Cody!
Your comments got me into OneNote a while back & the map pin idea is a game changer! Thanks!
Thanks for your video. Planned and played my first Session (One-Shot) ever as a DM last night with it and it was very easy to Navigate and a huge help to see how far the story progressed.
Not a DM, but recently I had been tempted to convert my notes from a pages long word file to an excel file that might make organizing much easier. I had been delaying the transition because i knew it was going to be a PITA. This vid is a solid intro to one note, and probably saved me hours of headache for a sub par result. Top content.
Thank you so much. I am just starting my journey into world building and about to begin DM'ing a home brew. This was super helpful. You have some great ideas. This will help me a ton both as a player taking notes, and keeping things organized as a new DM.
Tagging content for searching within the pages are big for me. Good default tags, but the ability to create custom D&D tags is where it really shines for me.
Absolutely needed this today!! Getting ready to jump back into Curse of Strahd after a long break and this would be a great for NPC/Quest recaps for the players!!
Thanks for sharing! The good news is that more and more students are using this and will be well prepared to use OneNote. As a high school teacher, we use this extensively. One tip to add is that the DM can share an editable page for players to add notes, backstories, etc. to personalize their own character page. This can allow the DM to add features to their page or to at least read what their notes are saying to allow the DM to increase intrigue or prepare something additional to their backstory.
I just started a new Grim Hollow campaign and this is a HUGE HELP! Thanks so much for all the info and your time to help me be more organized and more digital.
Hey man love your videos. This one helped me out a lot. I have had such a hard time with organizing my campaign info over the years to make it easily accessible during play and this is essentially a tutorial on how to make an interactive notebook. Really great video can't wait more great advice in the future.
i saw your video when i was preparing to run a campaign and since im now starting the second group in that world im gonna start using this
also hello from a guy from germany that watches your videos :'D
Thank you for the great content :)
I use One Note as player to keep notes, keeping track of NPC and where they are from, story threads or random info, etc. This video has been very helpful for me as well.
I use searchable tags to help, like trying to remember who that tavern owner was months ago? Well, he was a dwarf tavern owner, so I can search dwarf and narrow it down to just a few NPCs.
This is a great video! I started using it when I got my tablet, and I love being able to draw/write directly into it. I'm like you with the notes during the session, but getting a tablet so I can write like paper into it was the icing.
Now all 4 or my 6 players use it for our games and they share them with me so I can see sheets and other notes. I'll also write to them sometimes before the game starts or send then items/stats to the that way
Thank you for this Video! I have been looking to try One Note and this sealed the deal!
I'm a very new DM (just finished session 18 and my first boss fight ever) and I've been organizing all of my notes in Google Docs, but it felt very haphazard. I already try to organize my notes in the way you laid them out here, but with back links and tabs to section things off, I'm very excited to give this a shot!
This is exactly what I've been looking for, for d&d and for my worldbuilding! And to think it's been under my nose this entire time! Thank you Cody for broadening my toolkit drastically!
I had started using OneNote at work and then for my campaigns. This video definitely taught me some cool tricks. One trick I'll add, is after you set your map as the background, you can draw on top of it using the pen tool, you can highlight, and so much more. It's a great tool for denoting regions, territory for a group, or even a travel path. Maybe even a treasure map.
I am actually so glad about this video. I have several dozen text files chilling on my laptop that should have been in here this whole time.
I love this. Such useful information. Thank you for making this video. Amazing audio and video quality, also very good pacing. Good job.
This video really popped for me. I've been chewing on an idea but didn't want to notepad it all out. This video opened my eyes and now I've started working on a little project for when it's my turn in the chair in my group. Can't believe I didn't know about the snip tool. Thumbs up for all the content you make and how informative this video was for me. Thank you!
Very cool guide, if you are planning on showing more useful OneNote features, templates are great. You can create templates for certain sections, so that every New Page in this section looks the same. Very useful for NPCs, or Session Notes sections.
This is just what i have been looking for, and it was under my nose all along. Thankyou!
I started using OneNote a long while back precisely because of your recommendation. I've found it FAR easier to use than any of the pricey world-building software out there. Its completely changed how I design my campaign and prep for my games, and it's been a MASSIVE help in turning my homebrew world into something that my players are now building upon themselvess. Super grateful for the suggestion.
And then you go and show me that I've only been using a fraction of the program's capabilities. Thank you again! :)
Yes! When I play online, I use the grid display, the draw settings, and a touchscreen as a battlemap.
I'm a massive proponent of MS Onenote. It makes DMing a breeze. Thanks for all these great tips!
I was already using one note as a player just to jot down session notes, but thank you for teaching me all the other features! i had no clue they were a thing and now i'm excited to use one note as a dm!
I love one note for campaign prep/ organization! I recommend new tabs for homebrew mechanics and random tables like rumors/landmarks/names/world events etc. Now that I know about the snip tool, I might make a DM screen tab with all of the info inside the DM screen since I don't ever use mine!
This is changing my notes and my life. Thank you for laying this out in such a clear and easy to use way!
I was sold on this when you brought the sections and pages. That is so clean and organized. I've just been making new google docs over and over. Today I have been enlightened.
This is honestly an amazing review of this EXCEEDINGLY useful tool.
Thank you Cody!
I’ve used Microsoft one one-note for my current d&d game the past few months, as well as for writing homebrew and more. I’ve absolutely loved working with this software and it’s better than any other method I’ve used.
Thank you so very much for this! I had been looking for a replacement to World Anvil after they lost a good deal of my data. This looks so much easier to use, especially during brainstorming. Thank you, again!
Bro....I watched half this video and immediately got on my laptop. This is so awesome, thanks for bringing it to my attention. I've stopped using world anvil and all that.
Thank you so much for the recommendation, I'm currently in the process of building a Fallout system from the ground up and have been thoroughly enjoying getting lost in the sauce of making my players handbook
This is some awesome advice! I am about to start my first homebrew campaign and after watching this video my head is spinning with all the cool stuff I can put in my notes. Thanks Cody!
Disagree - the #1 tool for RPGs is Taking20 on CZcams
I used one note for ages... until I discovered NOTION!!
I'm not a DM, but for my group's previous campaign I wrote notes in a notebook because I liked the idea of having a physical adventure journal. I started an Excel spreadsheet toward the end of it (I did not know we'd suffer a TPK soon- RIP Blaze the druid). I started a new spreadsheet for the campaign we just started, and since it's so new I may keep that but start OneNote and see which I like doing better (which sounds like double the work but it'll just be a trial period.) Thanks for the tutorial!
Oh hell yes! OneNote is an absolute game changer when it comes to D&D, other TTRPGs or literally anything that requires a bit of organized working.
My handiest functions are the following:
-Having a single page dedicated to links of random generators for names, dungeons, treasures and the like. Just in case.
-Logging the PC's XP, Level, important gear, special conditions, etc. in a table
-drawing in it. Doesn't matter if you have a tablet and a pen or just use your cursor. Doodling some quick additions into a pre made map of a dungeon cause that's where the zombies pop out? Done!
-and yes, the world maps. So far I just used an X for marking spots, but I'll definitely upgrade to the little pin
Awesome video!
Thank you for this introduction!
I am 100% going for this as my dm world building tool!
I’d love to see the sidebar features for making and organizing documents in Google Drive. I don’t want to move all my stuff to another platform, but I really like some of this stuff.
just make an organized sidebar with hyperlinks to your google docs.
I had no idea 🥲 you are amazing! Thank you for taking the time to explain this process out!
This video couldn't have come at a better time! I've been struggling lately to get my ideas and such on paper for the game I am running and that dictate tool will be a life saver!
What a great and informational video! Well done, Cody!
Wow! You just opened a cornucopia of possibilities for me. I've had One Note on all my (Apple) devices for ages, but they sat there unused... until now. Thanks!
Can’t believe I never looked into this. You’re a service to this community. I hope you feel fulfilled and useful.
I use one note for years and just now i stumbled upon this video and it just blew my mind
thank you i very appreciate all this info
Thanks so much for this
Since I watched this I have been busy copying over pages of various word documents into One note and organizing it all
It’s going to take some time as I have a large number of documents and some are quite large but man the features are fantastic and a leap forward from Word
I can’t thank you enough for this video
Yet another Taking20 video to add to my list of tips and ideas I'm building up for eventually starting DMing. Love it!
The map linking I haven't used that just makes it so much better. I've tried other programs just to see but none of them compare to how great One Note is. Scrivener is the closest I've tried but still can't beat out One Note for me. The cross device ability is so good. No matter where I am if I have a creative moment I can plug in my thoughts without the risk of forgetting before I get home.
I used Scrivener for my 400 page doctoral dissertation but I cannot see how it would be well suited for DND prep.
I use OneNote when I DM. The last campaign I DM'ed was Dragon of Icespire Peak and the 3 follow up adventures available in dndbeyond. Those adventures were a bit of a mess and it was important to read ahead to ensure the plot points were all sorted out before play. I basically copied and pasted all the adventures / chapters as different sections / pages which allowed to to highlight all the important texts, add new NPC's, change stat blocks, add additional encounters, delete or modify stuff that didn't work, add in personal backstory quests. It was a bit of work copy and pasting at the beginning but I had everything I needed for a year long campaign for levels 1-12. I also use it on multiple devices (desktop when preping, laptop during play). Its a very cool tool. I like the ability to highlight important text I can find or more importantly remember to use when DMing. Definitely going to use the dictate tool in the future for taking session notes as its something I always say I would do later and forget. This makes it really easy to do straight after play when it all fresh.
Love using one note. These tips definitely help
I've heard people sing the praises of OneNote for awhile, and I tried it on my tablet back in the day and didn't get it. This video really demonstrated how cool it is. Thanks so much for making this. The dictate feature, especially, looks super cool. What a great way to use it, "jotting" down thoughts at the end of a session while it's fresh in your head... but maybe you are too tired to type out. :)
Onenote also does math!! If you type in 7-2= and hit enter, then it will autocomplete that. I would make a little text section to track initiative, then have the monsters hp written beside their names, and type the hits in so it did the math for me. (It can actually handle pretty heavy equations as long as you obey bedmas. I did an entire class on compounding interest rates with it.)
This is amazing. I didn't even know this existed. I'll be using this for RPGs and even for video game development. THANKS.
Ive been using google docs and google sites. Your elevator pitch didnt get me, but the rest of the video did. Its like the two things i use combined, yet so much more
This is incredibly helpful, awesome video Cody ^^
Wow this is awesome! I actually am taking my time listening and watching your examples. This is going to be my first time campaign
this video is awesome thanks for this, i will still use World anvil to sow off my world, but i will start using one note for my campaign especially as i do world creation in english but my campain is in german because i wanna show of my world to everyone but live in germany
your channel really helps me with lots of stuff and i really enjoy watching you thanks for all the work
I do have a very different organization that I am not going to explain. This video just opened my eyes on a much simpler solution which is way more efficient. Thank you so much for your videos, cheers from France! 😁
Great video! Ive been using onenote for my 3 year roll20 campaign and its a mess. Ill be reorganizing after this vid!
Woo beard is back! Also I was expecting you to pimp a kickstarter with all that buildup.
I just started using one note - sections and pages and subpages. This showed a lot more versatility that I wasn't expecting TBH and it's likely to move from "a" thing I use in terms of digital tools to "the" thing I use. Thanks!
I like your way of organizing post-session notes.
I've been using one note for the majority of 2021 after having discovered it and this video has been not only validating but also educating. I love it and I'll be sure to use those links more often lol
Best DM tips film ever. Thank you (and hugs from Sicily)!
😮😮🤯 👍👍👍
41 years playing. I'm gonna try this.
THANKS!
5:00 "You guys are smart"
Now that's a bold assumption, my friend
It's SUCH a good tool use it for both my campaign and content creation. But you touched on things I didn't know! Thanks!
This is a great deep dive. The feature that will sell me on this is the dictate. I sent this to our new DM (she has played for less then a year) who is running Curse of Strahd and is worried about keeping track of the all the NPC. She is a pen and paper person as well and I think she will love this.
I was not prepared to be persuaded, but my notes are all over Word, mobile notes and Roll20 and this is much better. I'll get it asap
Clipping images from PDFs is my favorite feature. Running encounters, clip all the stat blocks on to one page.
So it took me a while but I finally started working on a new campaign for Mutants & Masterminds 3e. And thus far I think you are right on so many levels (first time OneNote user here). This is indeed an awesome tool. it's not quite as nice on a cellphone as it is on the pc, but it certainly is workable. I am loving this tool, so thank you for tempting me into using it. thus far I have been using google drive, and while that is a little better on the locking specific people out of specific content part.. on all other fronts Microsoft OneNote takes the cake. So as I write this comment i am taking a swift break from world building, but I'm eager to go back at it.
I love this. In college, I used the default program on Mac which was Notes and I fell in love with subpages and organizing my info. This program looks as good if not better. Thanks for the tip
Perfect timing, I just recently started dming again, and although I already use one note lots of these tips are still really helpful!!!
This tool has been a game changer for everything for me. I’ve become 100 percent more organized.