Obsidian

A portable, offline-first DM and worldbuilding tool. Build worlds, run sessions, share with others and play together, all in one app. License: CC BY-NC 4.0 · Free to use Everything core works **without an account**. You only need one to play online, publish to the marketplace, or download other users' content. /images/general-media/1791564204_7DEx9r3t.webp Worldbuilding - Era Timeline: Split your world's history into eras on a timeline bar and move between them. Each era keeps its own map, pins, nested location maps and day-by-day timeline pins linked to cards and sessions. You can show the same city before the war and after it. - Templates & Packages: Every world is built on a template (D&D 5e is built in) and pulls content from packages. A package is a bundle of cards you can install into any world, link to other packages, or share on the marketplace. Custom templates are coming. - Codex: Schema-driven cards for NPCs, monsters, spells, items, locations and more. Every reference is a tappable link. Pin cards to the top, preview any card with a long press, and search by name, tag, category or text. - World Map: Pins, grid and scale, drawing, fog of war, and nested maps you can walk into (districts, dungeons, taverns). - Mind Map: An infinite canvas with linked nodes, workspaces, freehand drawing and undo/redo. /images/general-media/1791564252_TB7zwrCp.webp Running the Session - Second Screen: Give the table its own view. Pop out a window onto a second monitor, cast to a TV or projector, or project into every connected player's app. You choose how battle maps, images, cards and PDFs go out. Fog of war and hidden tokens stay hidden. - Battle Map: The session screen *is* the map, with the encounter panel and event log on top. It has layers, fog of war, AoE templates, 5e diagonal rules, creature-sized tokens, shapes and text, a DM-only layer, hidden tokens, movement trails for the round, and two maps joined into one. - Combat Tracker: Initiative, HP (with hit-dice rolls), conditions, turn order and an event log. - 3D Dice: Dice roll across the screen with named styles. Skills and saving throws roll from the character sheet with one tap. - Soundpad: Layered ambience with gapless loops, fades and ready-made soundpacks. - PDF Library: PDFs kept inside the world, opened in tabs and shareable with players. /images/general-media/1791564292_BnuuXJTS.webp Characters - Full 5e rules: Species, class, subclass, background and feats fold into one sheet. Each sense, resistance, proficiency, trait and always-prepared spell shows where it came from. Also covers multiclassing, spell slots, class resources (Rage, Bardic Inspiration, sorcery points…), weapon mastery, and short and long rests. - Character Builder: Pick species, class, subclass, background, ability scores, skills, starting equipment and feats from the SRD and any installed pack. - Level-Up: HP, proficiency bonus and hit dice update automatically. ASIs, feats, subclass and spell picks wait as pending choices. /images/general-media/1791564330_JBRRDNZ4.webp Playing Online - Online worlds: Put a world, package or character online and it stays the same on every device you sign in on. Players see the pictures even when the DM is offline. - Players: Join with an invite code, claim a character, move your own token on your turn, and send dice rolls to the DM's log. Shared cards update when the DM edits them. - .dmtz files: Export a world, package or character to one file and import it anywhere. No account or network needed. Content - SRD 5.2.1: Built in and works offline. - 19 one-tap packs: Tome of Beasts (1–3, 2023), Creature Codex, Monstrous Menagerie, Black Flag SRD, Deep Magic, Tome of Heroes, Vault of Magic, Tal'Dorei and more. - Ready-made worlds: 99 Devils of Uzrah's Palace (Shadowdark), Army of the Damned, The Cold Bounty, and soon our own campaign Aegis Act . - Marketplace: Publish worlds, templates, packages and characters as versioned snapshots with content previews. - Social: Profiles, follows, an activity feed, direct and group chats, and game listings with applications.

Codex Cryptica is an AI-assisted worldbuilding and campaign management tool built around a living knowledge graph instead of a folder of loose documents. Every character, faction, location, and event you create becomes a linked entity, so your world stays connected and explorable as it grows. Genre-agnostic across fantasy, sci-fi, cyberpunk, horror, post-apocalyptic, western, steampunk, and more.

LoreMonkey is a Windows app that records and transcribes D&D and other tabletop RPG sessions on your own PC. Connect the Discord desktop app and every line is labelled with the character who said it. No bot joins the call and no audio leaves your computer. For in-person games you can record the room with a microphone instead. After each game it writes a recap in your group's own style.  During play it offers short, well-timed prompts drawn from your campaign notes. It also keeps a compendium of your party, NPCs, places, factions and open threads. Ask LoreMonkey answers campaign questions between sessions and cites the sessions each answer came from. Recording and transcription are free and unlimited, it works for both players and GMs, and it supports any game system. Pricing The free tier is free forever. It includes unlimited recording, transcription and speaker labels for one campaign, plus a trial of the AI features (live prompts and recaps). Paid plans are monthly: Lite is $9.99 for one campaign, Standard is $19.99 for unlimited campaigns and adds Ask LoreMonkey, and Pro is $39.99 for several weekly tables. Notes Only one person at the table needs to install it. Speaker labels come from the Discord desktop app, so no bot joins the call. Audio and transcripts stay on the user's PC, and only the AI features send text out. It works with any game system and has separate Player and GM modes.

Bonus Reaction is a dedicated TTRPG resource channel focused on the art of Game Mastering and the mechanics of storytelling. Rather than traditional long-form actual play, the channel specializes in deep-dive analysis, DM tips, and commentary on the tabletop industry. It is designed for those who want to level up their own home games and understand the "why" behind the rules. The channel provides high-energy, insightful breakdowns of both popular systems like Dungeons & Dragons and rising alternatives like Vampire: The Masquerade and Daggerheart. Through a lens of critical world-building and player engagement, the content explores how professional GMs—from Brennan Lee Mulligan to Matt Mercer—shape their narratives, offering viewers actionable advice to apply to their own tables. Links youtube.com - Youtube channel patreon.com - Patreon page discord.gg - Discord server twitch.tv - Twitch channel

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition is a tactical, combat-focused tabletop roleplaying system released by Wizards of the Coast in 2008. Designed to fix the high-level math imbalances and "martial vs. caster" disparities of the 3.5E era, 4E redesigned the game's engine with a more video game adjacent approach. It is famous for its structured, grid-based combat and for standardizing class abilities into a unified system. While its dramatic departure from legacy mechanics polarized the fanbase directly paving the way for the creation of Pathfinder. 4E is widely praised today for its brilliant monster design, DM tools, and unparalleled encounter balance. The system it directly replaced is Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition (2003) Description In D&D 4E, players take on the roles of heroes who are combat-capable right from the start. The system relies of combat being carried out with the use of a battle grid. Positioning plays a big part of the combat experience. The exact location of the characters matters greatly. Unlike other editions where spellcasters are played in a separate mechanical way than martial classes, 4E unifies the progression system. Every class is boiled down to a specific combat "Role" and draws from their specialized toolkit of "Powers," making the game balanced and ensuring that every character has unique and impactful actions that they can perform on their turns. System Overview & Key Features The Power System Instead of traditional spell slots or basic attacks, every class has a list of At-Will, Encounter, Daily, and Utility powers, each with different power levels and frequency at which they can be performed. Fighters can execute epic daily maneuvers just as wizards cast daily spells, creating a better balance between martial classes and spellcasters. Combat Roles All classes are sorted by their class specialization role: Defenders (tanks who draw aggro and protect their allies), Strikers (high single-target damage), Leaders (healers and support), and Controllers (area-of-effect damage and debuffers). Static Defenses Saving throws were removed and replaced with four different defense values: Armor Class, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. When a wizard casts a fireball, they roll an attack against the targets' Reflex. Instead of both sides rolling for success and for defense - the attacker is the only one to roll dice. Healing Surges A standardized resource pool representing a character's stamina. Almost all healing in the game, whether from a cleric's spell or catching your breath, requires the target to spend a Healing Surge, which reliably heals them for exactly one-quarter of their maximum hit points. Monster Roles & Minions The Dungeon Master's toolkit was revolutionized. Monsters have explicit roles (like Brute, Artillery, or Skirmisher) that cleanly dictate their behavior. 4E also introduced "Minions". Monsters that have normal stats and deal average damage, but only have exactly 1 Hit Point, allowing heroes to cleave through cinematic hordes. Skill Challenges An unique system with 4E is Skill Challenges - a "cinematic" series of actions that turn social, environmental or escape situations into more movie-like scenes. The players must achieve a certain amount (determined by the situation) of successful skill checks, before they collect enough failed skill checks. Additional links dungeonsanddragons.com - Official Dungeons & Dragons website

Owlbear Rodeo is a "no-frills," browser-based virtual tabletop that prioritizes speed and ease of use above all else. Originally launched in 2020 as a simple image-sharing tool, it evolved into version 2.0, transitioning to a cloud-based subscription model while maintaining its "pick-up-and-play" spirit. It is the premier choice for GMs who prefer theater-of-the-mind play or quick tactical skirmishes without the heavy automation of larger platforms. Description Owlbear Rodeo is the digital equivalent of a dry-erase battle mat. It does not try to be a video game; instead, it provides a shared canvas where you can drop a map, throw down some tokens, and start rolling dice in under a minute. It is famous for requiring no player accounts. The GM simply creates a room and sends a link. While it has added advanced features like dynamic fog and extension support, it remains the most lightweight and mobile-friendly VTT on the market.