Free App Friday: Dungeons, Dragons, and Apps
Posted 09/03/2010 at 1:42pm
| by Florence Ion

Photo from The Torch Online
Summertime is almost over, and you know what that means. The weather is going to get grim pretty soon, and with all of those rainy days you'll definitely want to stay inside and enjoy a rousing game of--wait for it--Dungeons and Dragons! Or perhaps there's another tabletop game out there that you find engaging, like the Pokemon card game. We were once on a quest to catch 'em all, too. And boy, do we wish we had our Mac, iPhone and iPad along to help us sort things out. Fewer nerd fights would have been had.
Mac
RPTools

Let's say that rain turns into snow and you find yourself stuck inside your house, but not really interested in trolling through Azeroth on World of Warcraft. Well, good, because these applications are free and they allow you and your friends to play table top games together using your own custom map and tokens. These bits of software, like MapTools, enable you to create a fully customizable digital table top game, and use Photoshop or GIMP to create your own textures and landscapes. Then, use the TokenTool to make your own characters and place them around the map. If your friends decide to finally muster up the courage to drive through the grueling snow storm, you guys can sit around with your MacBooks and have a table top game via LAN. It's like the LAN party the PC guys wish they could have.
iPad
Tabletop Initiative Tracker

Ever get into an argument about keeping score? If you have your iPad with you, and this app installed, you can avoid these silly spats and make sure that your party is all on par.
iPhone
RPG Dice Bag

Are pen and paper RPGs more your style? Or perhaps one of your friends left the dice at home? Well, one of you have got to have your iPhone on hand, so just download the RPG Dice Bag for a simplistic dice-rolling application that can infinitely roll eight different kind of dice for your table top RPG game.
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