What tools do you use as a GM?

To be honest, the more time I spend playing with tools the less time I have for actual gaming. The only software I've found that actually helps me GM is stuff I wrote, with my own GMing style in mind. In particular I have vim and latex syntax highlighters for 4e stat blocks so I can view and print them with colors. Not terribly exciting, but I find it useful.

Fairly low tech. Lots of index cards: One for each PC, with the most commonly-used stats on them. One for each NPC that will be in combat with them. Put the two piles together into a stack for handling initiative. I also write down treasure on index cards so that I can hand them over to the player who identifies them rather than announcing to the group.

For maps I use a big piece of paper with a 1" grid on it that's been laminated so that it can be written on with dry-erase markers.

I have a bunch of bingo counters (semi-opaque plastic discs) that I've written numbers on. I use these for NPCs. The number on the disc corresponds to the number on the index card for that mob, that way I can track it without having to try to remember which is which.

The only web sites I use is the Pathfinder SRD web site or occasionally Perram's Spellbook for printing out spells.

I've never really found a dedicated application that was all that useful, although I've considered getting Campaign Cartographer and maybe some other products in that line. Unfortunately they don't run on Linux (you'd think there might be enough crossover, but never mind).

All my notes and sketches are in a regular old paper notebook. I tried using a tiddlywiki or even just having a text file open, but neither were convenient enough at the table. Paper stuff seems to work best for me.

My BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN.

Tools I use: Dice, Plastic Minis, Wet and Dry Erase Markers, Battlemat, Paper, Notebooks, Pens, Pencils, Dell Mini 9 netbook computer.

For software I use Dropbox to store my gaming PDFs and I use whatever the default Ubuntu pdf reader is to view them. I use abiword and google docs for all my word processing needs, posterazor lets me blow up maps to a usable size, mindmeister helps me brainstorm.

There is no clear cut list. What is helpful to one GM could be a detriment to another. Find tools, experiment, and find what works for you.

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I run a very casual game, so the most I use is the D20PFSRD.

Here's a nice little tip jar of information

Pretty much this whole site, really.

I use a table that I write down all the details of all combatants on. AC, resistances, immunities, things like that, allowing me to easily update it. If I play online, anyone can edit any part of it.

Well I've been playing with some iPod apps lately and the few I like are RPG Roller (Free, it has a bunch of presets for each die like 1-10d4, 1-30d6, etc,) Feudz Dice Roller (1.99 but with it you can add groups of rolls which is really good for making a set of rolls for a character especially if they have a bunch of modifiers like Power Attack,) and RPG Tools (.99 I think. Also not 100% on the name since my iPod be dead but its an initiative tracker. You insert what monsters you have, their init rolls, and it rolls them all for you.)

A good GM screen is always handy for quick referencing. I've also been using Wave for pushing media to the players and passing notes.

But most importantly, MediaWiki (from Wikipedia.) I already had an install set up for players and DMs to use to share session information and character backgrounds, and I had recently set up a password protected install for my own non-game uses before I started planning a game.

Even if I'm running pregens, the ability to rapidly slap together pages of info with easy formatting and quick links makes it nearly irreplaceable. In the planning of my current campaign, it means I can work a lot faster with a lot more organization -- which is good, given my attention span.

I think Obsidian Portal can be useful at least to organize your thoughts. Not sure if you can print it all out - if you can then definitely cool. It's better if the players get involved and update it too. then it becomes very detailed. I set up (but haven't used yet) my own wiki to do the same thing as OP.

I play 4e, so I've built a little excel sheet that calculates the basic values for me for a set of statistics. The character builder is good, but sometimes it's too powerful. The builder is indispensable for creating characters - it's damned hard to get some of those calculations exactly right the first few times you do it.

I've tried the monster builder and I'm not a big fan. I build monsters myself and created my own CSS/html template for them.

maptool and ventrilo is what I use to game online.

Beyond all the standard stuff, dice, battle mat, etc, I use Tex Notes to do all of my game writing so it's all in one place. Lately, at the suggestion of a player I've been taking a look at Obsidian Portal.

WotC tools (Compendium, Char Builder, Monster Builder) in combination with importing all of that data into Masterplan. 4e is so easy to gm, however, that I could do most of this by hand (although the Character Builder is really awesome and preferred).

I have a nice little notebook that I use. I'm also a big fan of dropbox. I can pop ideas into it while I'm at work and flesh them out later and even access them from my iphone. Meetup.com takes all the organization nightmares away from managing a group as well.

Other than that there really isn't anything.

I use the Treeline outliner for preparing games, as it provides a good way of structuring my thoughts, and it's free.

Most of my relationship maps are done in GraphViz, as it does most of the hard work for me, and it's free.

When I prepare character sheets and handouts for convention games, I use OpenOffice and Inkscape, because they're easy to use, and they're free.

Apparently I'm a stingy bastard.

I use Freemind for all the bookkeeping and brainstorming.

What I do have is a big "savegame" with stores for player info, locations, current events and an "archive" for old referenced stuff.

After learning the program I use it for lecture notes, also. Strongly recommend.

I have been using the Pen and Paper route to manage my campaign. I used Google docs to house my narrative and plot outline, and the WotC tools to generate monsters for encounters. I made a spreadsheet that I use for combat (printed out) that contains all the stats on a monster and I just subtract health, while using the printed cards from the monster builder to take their turns. It's OK, but I find I spent a lot of time flipping through pages and stacks of cards and it interrupts flow. My combat already takes too long, and I'm working to streamline that from the encounter design standpoint, but wanted some sort of automated way to really move things along.

Over the last few days, I've been looking heavily at Masterplan. It seems like it is going to be the tool for me. I really like the flow chart campaign design, the import of characters from the CB and monsters from the monster tool. There are libraries available, but I prefer to customize everything at least a little bit, so all mine are just custom exports. It has a wiki style history and encyclopedia sections, where I put all the relevant information about my campaign (NPCs, locations, history, organizations, etc). The one piece I haven't really investigated as heavily is the encounter manager portion, but as long as it tracks basic stuff, and allows for delayed actions, conditions, and dice rolling for the DM, I'll be happy. It also has a "player info screen" option, if you have a 2nd monitor, to show info to the players, separate from the DM only info you have at your disposal. Also integrated is a map builder, and there are many tile libraries available around the net to simplify that too.

My end goal with this is to be able to run the whole game straight from my MacBook Pro (all the windows tools running in Parallels). I'll still use a battlemap and minis, but from a campaign organization standpoint, this software looks like it will handle everything I need. Until I stumbled across it the other day, I had decided nothing like this exists and was about to write my own, and I am very glad I don't have to. I did note that Masterplan has its own plugin API, so should I need any features, that is an option.

My fear is that I'll come to rely on it too much, and be paralyzed when I go to run another system, as Masterplan is designed (at least the encounters, skill challenges, etc) for D&D4e only. When I go to run a Buffy game for my wife and her friends, or my primary group switches systems, I may have to find another tool or go back to my docs/spreadsheets/white board approach.

I've only just begun my DM career so I still have lots to try out. Right now I use the basic index cards, bottle cap rings (different colors for different effects), dry erase mat, and a combination of minis/tokens on the battlemat. The only electronic tools I have found useful so far are the three DDI tools especially the compendium.

I'm participating in a Dresden Files campaign wherein all the players are also GM's. We use dokuwiki to manage all the NPCs, locations, and PCs as well for our chosen city for the campaign.

I use an iPad for a couple games I play in when taking notes, because my handwriting is pretty much illegible. I also typically buy games either in PDF form, or in PDF+print bundles when offered these days, so it makes it really easy to carry around a library of books.

Typically I require no-dice-rolling-on-phones to curb people from playing Angry Birds while we're all staring at them to start their turn.