Top 10 DIGITAL D&D Dungeon Master Tools of the Trade

The absolute best D&D digital dungeon master tools of the trade! These are the online sites and applications that will make your Dungeons and Dragons games run so much smoother, fellow dungeon masters. Or simply tools that reduce DM prep time for your D&D games, which is HUGE. In this video, I go over the top ten digital dungeon master tools that I use to prepare for and run my D&D games.

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Editing ▶▶ Zack Newman
Art ▶▶ Adobe Stock & Wizards of the Coast
Music and Sound Effects ▶▶ Epidemic Sound

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Some videos on this channel are unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

#dnd #dungeonsanddragons

[willmena]

The VTT that helped me a lot recently is Owlbear Rodeo. It's really easy to use and it just works! I think it's great for people that aren't good with Roll20 and other kinda complex tools. Also, it doesn't consume all of my RAM

[arcanemedia]

This episode is really usefull at the minute because ill be running an online game soon, thank you for the impeccable timing Luke 💙

[BlackJar]

...meanwhile, my sister gave me a real DM screen so I don't have to use a cut-up cardboard box to hide my graph paper maps....

[caseyclark]

my man not sure if youll see this but your videos have helped me out a ton as a new player and a new dm. my entire group is new. so much love and appreciation for all the free content. keep doing the gods work

[jamess]

One cool thing Luke didn't even mention about his site are the adventure modules he's put together. I've run them standalone or as parts of another game and every time they have delighted my players. It's a great resource if you just hit a wall mentally trying to figure out what you should do in an upcoming session. Thanks Luke!

[ZaydenSkye]

I gotta say, you knocked it out of the park with this one. Going back to being a DM in a couple weeks after a long hiatus and I may just use all 10 tools on this list for my prep.

[supergaminggeek]

As an artist I just draw a map with minimal details, for music I have a bot in discord, as well as having private channels in which I use to hold the stats of monsters/anything else I need.
Also bots to do rolling, though we mostly roll in roll20

[SteveTheNerd]

12:43 For those who still want to have a no-electronics-rule at the table, just either use spell cards (print them out if you can't afford the official ones) or use a different spell sheet than the one on the official character sheet. We use a custom spell sheet where we add all information about a spell in condensed format (such as a short description, casting time and duration, components etc.). Sure, for classes that have access to all spells that could be way to much work, but I usually pick just the spells that I might use and copy them to the sheet.

Otherwise, I think the spell app is worth breaking the no-electronics-rule...

[zendikarisparkmage]

I use Donjon all the time, and not just for 5e D&D. Its generic fantasy generators are great, too. It's got an inn generator, a settlement generator, even a fantasy world generator with ideas for adventure locations. It's amazing!

I use that encounter calculator, too! I love how it shows the effective EXP value of the encounter, so you can compare it against the party's difficulty threshholds, so you can know if an encounter is /barely/ "deadly" or ridiculously hyper-deadly.

[ethanpercival]

Tabletop audio is fantastic. Thank you for introducing me to it

[tonycrader]

Your charisma and delivery is inspirational. Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos; I've started to take light notes while listening and I feel far more confident for my upcoming sessions. You rock my dude.

[emessar]

One tip I have for music that's in between fully random music and picking music per scene is to make playlists. In the past, You could have playlists like combat, serene, town, creepy, exploration, or sailing. Then you can use and reuse those lists and add to them over time to increase the musical diversity.

Also, it's worth pointing out that you can link a song or an entire playlist to a map in roll20 and it will start the music as soon as you drag the players over to the map. Entering the Tombs of Whosamawhatsit? Just tie it to your creepy playlist and it's a done deal. No need to fiddle with something mid session.

[roberttschaefer]

The tip of using Beyond 20 is freakin’ brilliant! Thank you!

[Ninosai]

Joplin is a similar alternative to evernote and free, similarly syncs to different devices and can do just about everything you can do on evernote. I especially love it when I have a pdf where I can crop copy something from the pdf and directly paste it in joplin where it will give me an image of what I cropped.

[Lexipumpkin]

as someone who has a writing disorder, online tools are a blessing for me as a player for keeping track of stats

[lucasogden]

Fantastic! I have used onenote for a long time, and am finally looking to create a full homebrew world so would be really interested in a full video on how yours is set up.

[josephmcwhorter]

Extremely helpful video... I have recently started using some of the digital tools mentioned in the video, I have always been straight up pen and paper so going digital has taken some getting use to, but to be honest with all the quarantining, going online is better than not playing at all!

[MultiSuperMarion]

Oh how I wish I had heard of Tabletop Audio earlier, would've saved me so much time! Instead I've spent time hunting for music on Youtube and not finding anything that fits lmao

[jameseustice]

Shoutout to Foundry VTT, best VTT I've used so far

[robschmahl]

Luke Tabletop Audio is amazing great find there! Thanks!