I use [LogSeq](https://logseq.com/) to organise all my notes. My group meets in-person, but I use [Foundry](https://foundryvtt.com/) to put background art, NPC portraits, etc. up on a screen, as well as to manage any NPC character sheets. It may stretch the definition of 'tool' a bit, but the other thing I do is set up my laptop with four desktops/workspaces (notes, Foundry, music, rules) so I can switch between them with Ctrl+Windows+Left/Right. It's a minor thing, but I am constantly surprised by how many people I run into who don't know that you can do it. Switching desktops feels like much less friction to me than Alt+Tabbing between windows for some reason.

out of curiosity, why do folks gravitate to Obsidian over something like Notion? Obsidian always struck me as a bit intimidating.

As a markdown hater, I primarily use [Trilium Notes](https://github.com/TriliumNext/Trilium) for organizing my prep and taking session notes. I've built a digital GM screen with my players' key stats that I keep in my main tab, and then each encounter for the session is loaded into tabs before the session starts. I use Wonderdraft for my world maps, and pull most of my encounter maps from free 'sample' maps from map makers on Patreon (which I sketch out on my battle map in dry erase marker). For city/town/village maps, I use [watabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator](https://watabou.itch.io/). I pull most of my statblocks off of [pf2easy](https://pf2easy.com/?year=2023). I also used pf2easy's spellbook to help me make physical spell cards for my players.

It's polished looking, and it has a lot of plugin support for TTRPG GMs.

I wrote my own VTT and my own note management (basically private-wiki) system. I also wrote a thing that would record video from the VTT. Aside from that, Discord with a bot that plays music on demand and a bot that records audio from the voice chat.

[The Goblin's Notebook](https://the-goblin.net/). It's a great prep tool that allows you to break up all your notes based on what things are, allows custom relationships between objects, and allows what is displayed at any given time to change based on whether specific objects in your notes are relevant to the current chapter of your campaign. And that's just scratching the surface of all the cool features. ~$3/mo thru patreon to fully unlock all features. I swear by it and I'll probably never use another tool to keep all my notes organized as long as I'm GMing. The custom connections are my favorite feature, and I use them a lot to inform the decisions any given entity in my world makes. Example of custom connections attached, lol. 

Oooh I had no idea about the Lancer map creator, that will be very useful. I'm decent at making maps manually but a shortcut for adding all the information like cover to a grid would speed things up substantially

Windows finally has persistent workspace order? Last time I was forced to try Windows out, there was no way to consistently switch to a workspace without looking at it to figure out which one it is

Logseq for notes and "Lazy GM" checklist, GIMP for carving out maps from the ones I have, Tiled to populate them. Tarot (I mean the cards, not some software) for populating initial background connections when I'm completely stuck

[The conspyramid ](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/49659/roleplaying-games/review-nights-black-agents) from [Night Black Agent ](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106783/night-s-black-agents)

Yeah, it works well enough. I haven't had any issues, at least. On Linux, I prefer something along the lines of [Workspace Matrix](https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1485/workspace-matrix/) to get a proper two dimensional layout, but on Windows, the built-in workspaces have been at least sufficient for game night and don't require any additional setup

I personally like the lightweight option at https://r.3v.fi/discord-timestamps/

Everything's a text file on your computer.

This is a fine lettuce.

I’d be interested to hear more about how you use tarot cards as prompts!

Not that much special tools. I try to keep my game prep short, at a point I found out there is no need to write long text when I am the only one reading them, so I keep some bullet lists I recently switched to a *cloud note taking app (anytype) as it syncs well between PC and tablet, rather than good old Libre office. Stable diffusion when needing illustration and in the mood to play with image generators. Illwinter map making app, that I got at some steam sales, when I want to do a map. So maybe 10% of the case For pregen characterà my goto is now Libre office impress to fill a character sheet + backstory + goals, this assume that I don't find a sheet at another format A small paper notebook, for my ongoing notes, and usually I ask the PC to do the session recap while writing down the stuff they want to develop and finishing the game prep at this moment

I'll put writing a post about that on my to-do list