Tabletop RPGs, no matter how creative (and sometimes downright absurd) they tend to be, are serious business. In fact, I think the graphing paper industry owes its existence partly to tabletop gamers. The really extensive and fleshed-out RPG sessions involve more frantic scribbling, dice-rolling, and calculating than actual monster brain-bashing, and as weird as it sounds, it's actually really entertaining. I mean, when you're actually playing, that is. I can't imagine anyone getting worked up over nabbing front-row seats to watch Englebert the level 16 Bard make a saving throw.
I don't have any actual data on hand right now, but I'm pretty sure that if somebody were to conduct a study on the relationship between the likelihood of a person to own a smartphone and the involvement of said person in tabletop RPGs, they'd probably find a correlation of some sort.
After all, it's not that much of a stretch to believe that the same people who find enjoyment in balancing statistics, calculating chances for a good hit, and being obsessive about the kind of armor and weapons their characters use are the very same techies with a significant level of interest in highly advanced mobile communication devices that enhance productivity. That's what I think, at least. I'm the one writing this, anyway. Let's just go with that line of reasoning, because otherwise this entire paragraph would fall apart faster than a troll against a volley of Flaming Arrows.
Bearing that in mind, I present to you a list of four apps for your Android phone to make your RPG sessions a lot more fun (and maybe help you save some paper, too, because the environment is dying, you heartless Mage/Thief).
RPG Character Generator
If you somehow can't find the time to come up with your own character (or if you want to go straight to the part where you can start killing things), then the RPG Character Generator is the perfect app for you. It has a nifty Randomize feature that creates your own character sheet for you. This app is also useful for when you want to save your stats on your phone (or if you want to play but don't have extra paper available), because you can manually create your own character step by step, race and stats and all.
RPG Initiative Manager
Are you getting tired of losing track of the game? Do you have difficulty determining who goes first and who goes next? With the RPG Initiative Manager, that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Simply write the names of the characters currently playing by order of initiative, and click "Next Turn" during each round. You can even update or rearrange the list of players in case you need to.
Songs & Dragons
Songs & Dragons is an app that lets you integrate music and sound effects into your game. You can take any of the audio files stored on your smartphone's memory card, organize them to play in sequence, and play them during your game through your phone. By creating two types of playlists – Global Events or Scene – you can even combine audio files and have them play through multiple scenes (Global) or through one scene that you can toggle on or off (Scene). Now, you can finally listen to Flight of the Bumblebee while you're trying to roll for damage against giant mosquitoes or something. Or maybe play Taps during a crucial boss fight, for that extra sense of dread and hopelessness.
Squire – RPG Combat Assistant
Now, you can use your business phone to manage your real life AND your fantasy life. With Squire, you can monitor your character's combat attributes and modifiers. You can view your stats and check which ones have increased or decreased. It's very simple to use and understand, and it helps you focus on the game instead of trying to remember if that -2 to your Constitution is still in effect this round.
Thanks to these four apps, you can play pen and paper RPGs even without a pen or paper. Unfortunately, "stylus and touchscreen RPGs" doesn't really have much of a ring to it. Oh well.
Author Bio
Monique Jones is an Engineer who deals with telephone systems. Besides being an Engineer, she also works as a part time writer. She helps her colleagues and other people about their communication issues, giving effective solutions to address their needs.
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