D&D E-Tools

D&D E-Tools
by Salmoneus

I cast magic missile at the darkness!

While traveling around GenCon, there were many new shiny things that caught my eye. None were quite as exciting to me as a little program called Dungeons and Dragons E-Tools by a little known outfit called Code Monkey Publishing. This little handy dandy program was something I had beta tested some time ago, and had thought was relegated to the great vaporware pile in the sky. A victim of the many pitfalls, (watch out for that scorpion Harry!), that befall lofty goaled programs in the industry.

For a more exact history of what is now being called the Dungeons and Dragons E-tools set, let me bring you up to speed with this little blurb from CMP's own web site: "Originally e-Tools was going to be titled Master Tools and included things like a mapper and 3d character modeling. A preview of this program was included in the back of the original Player's Handbook when 3rd edition D&D was released. Due to several changes in leadership and coding priority all the 'extra' functions were slowly stripped away until only the basic character and monster generation was left with a few additional features (Table generations, Random rolling, and others). The initial coding team at Fluid was given new directions several times that caused these changes, until the program was eventually renamed e-Tools: Character and Monster Generator.

The program was released to the public at GenCon in 2002, and many users felt it was not ready for 'prime time' (i.e. should have been released). It contained many calculation errors, had a totally different interface than the Character Generator Demo than the Player's Handbook contained and considerable amounts of other issues. 2 months after its release, there was a beta patch released that caused more issues than it fixed, causing more consternation among the user community. Many tried their best to keep e-Tools alive, creating add on programs that increased it's functionality and usability, but things looked pretty grim, bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, 2 strikes, no balls (Stealing an example someone used on another message board!)."

This is where the Monkeys took over.

I waste it with my crossbow!

For the price a bit below a typical PC or console game, E-Tools won't win you over with its packaging and graphics. It's not supposed to. It comes in a standard slim CD case, with a simple CD cover and no auto-play on the CD. That's right sports fans, you have to actually go and click on the self extracting .EXE file. Quite a change from a program that was originally planned to be the do all, end all of dungeon master software.

You get exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less. This is the complete deal. Virtually any basic third edition chart you could need or use for monster, character, encounter, NPC or treasure creation is here and ready to be accessed at the click of a button. Want to spend the time to create a unique monster for your campaign, you can do it. Want a random treasure or wilderness encounter table? You can create that too with a few simple clicks of the mouse. No more looking for tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide. No more wondering exactly how to create a lizard man paladin from some poorly worded text in the monster manual. You can just start up the program and have all the hassle out of the way. It took me about 15 minutes to create my lizard man paladin using E-Tools; it took me about 5 hours and 3 weeks of checking with online friends to make sure I got it right when I did it by hand. You'll save time and sanity, not to mention a few brain cells. It even comes with a graphic image of the third edition DM's screen.

Where are the Cheetos?

The set is not without its limitations. It only contains the three bibles of DMing: the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual. Despite its many features, there are things that did not make it from the original core third edition rules, but they are working on getting those added in as soon as they can. CMP offers free patches on the product, even if that means replacing the whole executable with a new upgraded product with more features. This will help keep the set current and useful for many years to come.
The real future of this tool lies with the datasets that will be released for it. These datasets will be data representations of expansion books that publishers have released which include new feats, skills, spells, magic items, etc. These datasets will be made available for a nominal fee to cover the work involved in porting them into a form usable by the E-Tool. Should you choose to take on the task of just adding these items and tables yourself you can choose to do it through the tool itself, by adding to the access database or using a free tool available on their website. With 3approximately 45 books out already, and the sheer number of others coming out for the d20 system, you can see why it might just be cheaper to let the professionals do it and pay the price.

West of House.
You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door.

Despite its seemingly meager presentation, E-Tools from Code Monkey Publishing is everything it is supposed to be. It is simple to use, full of all the information you might need and promises to be even more useful once the datasets become available. The only thing negative I can say is that it doesn't come with a standard automated install program. I'm sure this is something that will eventually get added and worked on. For now it's a very small price to pay for being able to save hours of time preparing encounters for the hapless adventurers you torture ever week. If you run a D&D campaign you really should treat yourself to this software. I for one won't be inflicting insidious traps on my players without it.