So you’re getting ready to begin a new campaign on StartPlaying.Games and you’re overwhelmed by the amount of softwares, gizmos, and gadgets to use. Don't worry, we've got you!Here is your complete guide to the Best Digital Tools for D&D and TTRPGS (Not VTTS) to help you level up your gaming experience.For the purpose of this article we are going to be steering clear of some of the main softwares (D&D Beyond, Roll20, etc) and focus on softwares you might not have heard of.
MAP MAKING
Everyone loves a map, from combat to exploration a little visual help goes a long way in improving player experience. Whether you’re designing a sprawling city to explore or need gritty combat brought to life, maps are the cornerstones of a polished D&D session.
Canvas Kings -Canvas Kings on Steam
An incredible software perfect for building city and world maps. Its intuitive design and incredible detail, along with its simple but effectively applied animation bring maps to life in real time. Combining the comfort of hand drawn maps into the digital realm. With a polished UI to boot Canva Kings is a force to be reckoned with.
Dungeon Alchemist - Dungeonalchemist.com
Dungeons Alchemist's auto-generative map capabilities make building rooms, maps, and interiors easier than ever. Its high-tech lighting and perspective features, along with a vast library of enviromental items, breathe life into any build. You can update and change themes with a single click, and use the intuitive adjustment tools to get your map looking just right.
Dungeon Scrawl - dungeonscrawl.com
Didn't prepare a map and need a dungeon map, stat? Look no further than dungeon scrawl, a browser based dungeon maker with easy to use tools, simple clean export and the best part - it's free. A personal life saver on several occasions.
Inkarnate - Inkarnate.com
To say Inkarnate is synonymous with map making in the TTRPG community is an understatement, but it's understandable why. It can help you make anything from full world maps, to cityscapes to building interiors.With a simple drag and drop UI for ultimate simplicity. Great for GMs that want a wide variety of map output from a single software.
Worldbuilding & Homebrew Helpers
So you’ve written down all your ideas, all in different notebooks, and now you're frantically flipping through loose google docs and sheets of paper to find that piece of information you lost. Don't worry, we’ve all been there. But there are better ways -
World Anvil - Worldanvil.com
This software is a Wikipedia builder for your campaign. It's perfect for writers and GMs who want a website style design and structure to organize all their world information. What it lacks in high-tech aesthetics it makes up for in ease.
Obsidian Portal - Obsidianportal.com
Where blogging meets a mystery pin board. While it may not have a long strand of red yarn attached to a wall mounted with photos of all the NPCs your party has done wrong, it does create a similar format. Obsidian allows for seamless embedding of information allowing incredible levels of cross referencing within any document, allowing you to find connections you might have previously forgotten with ease. While for the casual note taker, this might be overkill, for those of us who love getting into the nitty gritty of lore, this is the software for you!
Legend Keeper - legendkeeper.com
Combining the ease of wiki-style campaign management with the functionality of Google Maps, this fabulous tool allows you to apply notes directly to locations on your maps—bridging the gap between visual storytelling and lore drops! Zoom into locations to discover regional information and unleash your creative potential.
Natural Crit - Naturalcrit.com
My go-to for creating homebrew content! The Homebrewery editor helps formating the things you write into the same style as official D&D content! It looks great and adds a nice polished touch if you're publishing content on your own or just want to add a little extra flare when sending things to your players
Music & Ambience
Fantasy + – Fantasyplus.app
Designed with TTRPG players in mind, Fantasy + provides hundreds of high-quality soundtracks, ambiance, and SFX tailored to every moment of your campaign. With free updates, a new, improved drag-and-drop UI, discord, a mobile version, and a desktop client on the way it's an all-in-one for covering your bases for any gameplay. From personal experience, it makes Monopoly Nights INTENSE.
Pocket Bard - Pocket Bard on the App Store
Perfect for the Dungeon master on the go, this travel-friendly mobile app has curated loops with soundtracks that you can scale up and down for intensity, making dynamic music for your campaigns just a button click away.
Tabletop Audio - Tabletopaudio.com
Hundreds of free 10-minute tracks for any fantasy or sci-fi setting, with zero cost and simple loops this is great for the GM on a budget and forever my favorite.
Discord Bots - Take your online games up a notch
Top bots to add to your Discord channel! Because let's be real you're using Discord…
Sesh Bot - Sesh.fyi
Easily schedule sessions, track people's availability and send out quick reminders. Ditch the 200-message-long text channel for scheduling that Tuesday session and get it done faster than ever.
Avrae - Avrae.io
This dice-rolling, character sheet syncing, lore-tracking bot was created by the folks over on D&D beyond. Perfect for combat sessions and a helpful tool for players that like an easy reference guide to spells, stats, feats and more
Soncraft Bot - soncraftbot.com
This handy little bot integrates campaigns, homebrew tools and inspiration pools into your discord server. Small bot, effective impact
Go check them out!
Trying new tools can be scary but the key is finding what works for you and your style of gamesWhether you're tracking migrations of monsters across your maps or finding the perfect zombie croak for your next combat, these tools, and so many more, are there to help!
Hannah Harper is a TTRPG Content Creator and Professional Dungeon Master
