These days, there are tons of different tools, websites, and apps that all claim they can enhance your game in one way or another. Treasure generators, video chat tools, VTTs, and immersive sound software. Oh my!

While tools like these can certainly provide value to you and your group, oftentimes they end up getting in the way. If you have to stop the game and fiddle with an app on your phone to select the proper “mood music” for a scene, even just for a minute, you end up breaking the natural flow of your game. If you’re unfamiliar with how a particular tool works and end up messing with it while your players are waiting, you’ve taken them all out of the moment too. If all your players have their own phones or tablets at the table to manage their own tools, it’s very easy for them to get distracted.

What can you do to keep technology from getting in the way?

Be familiar with your tools. It seems obvious, but it’s a mistake I’ve seen made several times: Don’t ever go into a session with a tool you haven’t played around with a good deal. Ensure that you know all the options you’re likely to use in your session, and how to navigate the tool quickly. Practice with dry runs until you’re fully comfortable with the tool, and confident in your ability to seamlessly incorporate it into your game.

Let your players lighten the load. Your players probably all have their own phones, tablets, or other devices, and are all capable of using helpful apps. Creating a playlist and then putting a player in charge of handling the music allows you as the GM to keep the scene going while they find the right track to play. If a monster’s statblock just says “double” under treasure, assign a player to load up the treasure generator while you focus on something more important. If using a VTT, allow your players to control their own tokens and manage their own macros, and enable auto-reveal vision on player movement.

Establish a timeout. If it’s not working after a few minutes of playing around on your phone, it’s probably more disruptive than helpful. It’s good to have a general rule for technology you’re adding to your games that everyone knows and agrees to ahead of time, so no one is frustrated if the rest of the group asks them to stop trying to make it work and move on. You can work out the kinks before the next session.

These simple rules will help ensure that the next time you bring a new technology into a game session, it’ll be worth much more than the trouble of using it. When technology stays out of the way and blends seamlessly with your game, it can greatly speed things up and make your games more immersive.

For a list of cool programs to enhance your RPG experience, check out r/RPGprograms!

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