... and DMing With Charisma present:
The Dungeon Master's Handy Helper
About
The Dungeon Master's Handy Helper is a play aid for game masters using any one of several popular tabletop gaming systems including Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and the New World of Darkness. Features include:
- GM screen to track character stats, condition, and initiative
- Player screen with portraits and limited condition and initiative information
- System-specific damage screens for managing health during combat
This software is a joint effort of Dave Fried and Matthew Highcove. Additional design input is provided by Blake Mutschler and the rest of the crew at Fun-N-Games in Blacksburg, VA.
System Requirements
Requires Java 1.5 or later. Will run on all flavors of Windows, MacOS from 10.4, and most current Linux distributions.
We strongly suggest using a second monitor (or external monitor for tablets, handhelds, and laptops) to display the player screen.
License
This software is currently free to download. If somebody wants a copy you should point them here. The license can be found here.
Version History
| Version | Release Date | Download Link |
|---|---|---|
| 1.6.0 | 07 Apr 2012 | dmhelper-1.6.0.zip |
| 1.5.9 | 03 Apr 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.9.zip |
| 1.5.6 | 22 Mar 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.6.zip |
| 1.5.5 | 20 Mar 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.5.zip |
| 1.5.4 | 18 Mar 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.4.zip |
| 1.5.3 | 27 Feb 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.3.zip |
| 1.5.2 | 07 Feb 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.2.zip |
| 1.5.1 | 05 Feb 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.1.zip |
| 1.5.0 | 31 Jan 2012 | dmhelper-1.5.0.zip |
| 1.4.3 | 24 Jan 2012 | dmhelper-1.4.3.zip |
| 1.4.2 | 22 Jan 2012 | dmhelper-1.4.2.zip |
| 1.4.1 | 17 Jan 2012 | dmhelper-1.4.1.zip |
| 1.4.0 | 03 Jan 2012 | dmhelper-1.4.0.zip |
| 1.3.2 | 01 Jan 2012 | dmhelper-1.3.2.zip |
| 1.3.1 | 31 Dec 2011 | dmhelper-1.3.1.zip |
| 1.3.0 | 29 Dec 2011 | dmhelper-1.3.0.zip |
| 1.2.6 | 21 Dec 2011 | dmhelper-1.2.6.zip |
| 1.2.5 | 17 Dec 2011 | dmhelper-1.2.5.zip |
| 1.2.4 | 28 Nov 2011 | dmhelper-1.2.4.zip |
| 1.2.3 | 20 Nov 2011 | dmhelper-1.2.3.zip |
| 1.2.2 | 14 Nov 2011 | dmhelper-1.2.2.zip |
| 1.2.1 | 13 Nov 2011 | dmhelper-1.2.1.zip |
| 1.2.0 | 11 Nov 2011 | dmhelper-1.2.0.zip |
| 1.1.1 | 06 Nov 2011 | dmhelper-1.1.1.zip |
| 1.1.0 | 05 Nov 2011 | dmhelper-1.1.0.zip |
Release Notes
=== Version 1.6.0 ===
Feature: Drag-drop creatures to reorder on main screen.
Bug-Fix: Even more aggressive memory management.
=== Version 1.5.9 ===
Bug-Fix: FIX CRITICAL MEMORY ISSUE. This bug affected 1.5.7 and 1.5.8.
The way images were being cached internally was causing them to sometimes
fail to be garbage collected, causing a serious memory leak which could
crash the program or cause it to behave unpredictably. This patch should
solve the problem as well as improve general performance.
=== Version 1.5.8 ===
>>> DO NOT USE THIS VERSION - see release notes for 1.5.9 <<<
Feature: Load multiple images at a time.
Feature: Improved diagnostics screen.
=== Version 1.5.7 ===
>>> DO NOT USE THIS VERSION - see release notes for 1.5.9 <<<
Feature: Diagnostics dialog to monitor file cache, images, and memory.
Bug-Fix: Status icons and initiative now reset properly on the player screen
when the "Reset Creatures" menu item is selected as well as undo
and redo.
Bug-Fix: Replace missing keyboard shortcuts/accelerators.
Bug-Fix: Some image formats took immensely long to resize due to incompatible
pixel format; all images are now immediately translated to the proper
format on load to improve resizing in pathological cases.
=== Version 1.5.6 ===
Feature: Remember most window size, location, and state on restart.
Feature: Never restore a window off-screen.
Feature: Remember column widths in main screen and on damage forms (for games
that use one).
=== Version 1.5.5 ===
Feature: Status icon sizes are now configurable in the status icons dialog.
=== Version 1.5.4 ===
Feature: Status icon default size updated to 48x48 for better visibility; this
makes the existing icons look ugly but far more readable (they're
placeholders anyway; good icons are coming eventually)
Bug-Fix: Status icons now correctly update when creature visibility changes,
also when status icons are changed using the dialog.
=== Version 1.5.3 ===
Feature: Basic support for some FATE games (currently, only experimental ICONS
support)
Intrnal: New game systems can choose whether the name of a character is on the
top or bottom of the portrait
Bug-Fix: Creature type change is now treated as a portrait change so that the
portrait layout changes appropriately
=== Version 1.5.2 ===
Feature: Context menu on portrait window preview has menu for overlays
Feature: Status icons now appear multiple times if multiple effects apply
=== Version 1.5.1 ===
Bug-Fix: Moving save files from Windows to Unix/Linux should work better
Bug-Fix: Include status icon files with full campaign saves
Bug-Fix: Non-full saves will now correctly load with default status icons
=== Version 1.5.0 ===
Feature: Status icons (temporary set; D&D4E only)
Feature: HTML-based help (damage screen, status icons)
Feature: Scale portraits from context menu on preview pane
Bug-Fix: Fix some cases where images could fail to render after a load
Bug-Fix: New World of Darkness damage fix - there is no (-3) before a
character's damage track is full (-3 = incapacitated)
=== Version 1.4.3 ===
Feature: Initiative tracking system with next/prev buttons
Bug-Fix: Hiding a creature now actually hides it on the player screen in the
initiative list
Bug-Fix: Numerous fixes to NWoD logic, including creatures losing information
when edited and saved/loaded
=== Version 1.4.2 ===
Feature: Right-click menu on player screen preview to change background image
Bug-Fix: Overlay for healing surges (4E) now shows "1 surge" (rather than the
previous "1 surges")
=== Version 1.4.1 ===
Feature: Zip-based "complete" save games embed all required media files
Feature: Simplified main form to remove splitter panel
Feature: Click player screen preview to show player screen
Bug-Fix: Updates to New World of Darkness to track supernatural power
=== Version 1.4.0 ===
Feature: Basic support for New World of Darkness
=== Version 1.3.2 ===
Feature: Preview window on main form to show layout of player screen.
Bug-Fix: Fixed a bug that could cause portrait changes on the creature edit
screen to be applied to the creature even if the edit is canceled.
Bug-Fix: Fixed a rendering bug in the portraits table in the creature edit
dialog.
=== Version 1.3.1 ===
Feature: Multiple portraits and portrait configurations per creature.
Feature: Select current portrait for creature from right-click menu.
=== Version 1.3.0 ===
Feature: Support for tall and wide portraits using new player screen layout
engine. Portrait options can be set on the edit creature screen.
Bug-Fix: Monsters are placed on the player screen starting from the bottom
left of the monster area rather than the top left. Order is still
consistent within this new placement regime, but we can go back to
the old alignment if players find this confusing.
Bug-Fix: Fixed a resizing bug where old resize requests wouldn't be cleared
after being canceled, so re-resizing an image could have strange
results.
=== Version 1.2.6 ===
Bug-Fix: Cursor now returns to default arrow after the currently-selected
image on the campaign options form is displayed; previously, the
cursor remained the "busy" cursor, even after the image appeared.
Bug-Fix: If an image file changes, selecting the image again causes the
system to attempt to re-load it instead of using the cached
version.
Feature: Display a warning icon for missing images when editing campaigns,
creatures.
Feature: [Development] Add fixed aspect ratio switch to image resize logic,
allowing exact resizes (by setting to false)
=== Version 1.2.5 ===
Feature: Image cache means that only one copy of an image is ever loaded, and
only one resized copy of the image exists in memory for any given
size; this should both decrease memory footprint and increase speed
of portrait resizing, especially with many duplicate portraits.
Feature: "Reset Initiative" context menu item
Bug-Fix: Fix toggle of overlays so that they display correctly when a campaign
file is first loaded.
=== Version 1.2.4 ===
Feature: Display healing surge value (4E only) in damage screen
Feature: Display healing surges remaining (4E only) on portrait screens with
toggle control on damage screen
Bug-Fix: Fixed number of background threads for image resizing
=== Version 1.2.3 ===
Feature: Now have configurable option to allow or disallow duplicate creature
names; this affects default behavior when you try to edit or add a
creature with the same name as an existing name. Loading a file with
duplicate names will not cause an error if the option is off.
Bug-Fix: Repaired save creature dialog.
=== Version 1.2.2 ===
Bug-Fix: Reset resets dead creatures
Bug-Fix: Hide All Dead menu item now clears initiative
Bug-Fix: Table editing stops when the window loses focus. This fixes the bug
where you could be editing a creature, switch to the damage screen,
apply changes, and the new information from the edit would be lost.
Bug-Fix: Switching creature types correctly updates HP if the new dead
hitpoints are greater than the creature's current HP.
Big-Fix: Right-click in main table follows same selection rules as in Windows
Explorer:
- if click is in existing selection, just show contet menu
- if click is in unselected item, select that item and show menu
- if click is not on any item, unselect and show menu
- if CTRL, COMMAND, or SHIFT is depressed, just show menu
=== Version 1.2.1 ===
Feature: "Clear all initiative" menu item
Feature: "Load" added to right-click context menu
Bug-Fix: (4E) spending a healing surage with none remaining now only heals 1
HP if the creaure is currently at zero or below (as per the rules).
=== Version 1.2.0 ===
Feature: Hide All Dead menu item - finds visible dead creatures (other than
PCs) and marks them as hidden; moves them to the end of the list
Feature: Blanks are now default in damage screen rather than zero; you can
now enter blanks for zero as well
Feature: All D&D creatures now have a status line
Feature: Track healing surges for 4E creatures
Feature: Apply healing via healing surges for 4E creatures
Feature: Presence of temporary hit points displayed in limited visibility
Feature: Numbers now displayed in monospace font in tables
Feature: Collapse Cur/Max into single column for HP, surges
Feature: Duplicate creatures
Feature: Right-click context menu on main table
Feature: List portrait scale values in View | Scale menu
Bug-Fix: Duplicate creatures start numbered at 2 instead of 1
Bug-Fix: Default game system chosen at startup if none is set
Bug-Fix: Unify language in creature menu, reorder commands, reset applies only
to selected
Bug-Fix: Initiative list auto-setting of initiative now works correctly
Bug-Fix: Numerous table cell color fixes and enhancements
Bug-Fix: Reorder of creatures doesn't clear selection
=== Version 1.1.1 ===
Feature: Removed keyboard shortcuts for reset all status and clear dead
creatures; these were too easy to accidentally trigger.
Bug-Fix: Now you must select a cell before clicking on it will trigger
editing. Before you could accidentally edit cell contents in some
cases when trying to select a creature.
Bug-Fix: Batch-setting visibility no longer clears the current selection in
the main table.
=== Version 1.1.0 ===
Feature: recent files lists for campaigns, creature files
Feature: added support for D&D 3.x
Feature: added support for Pathfinder
Feature: "about" dialog now displays software version number
Bug-Fix: reduced number of additional windows per game system to four, and
started their keyboard accelerators at F7 instead of F6; evidently,
Java was using F6 for something else
Bug-Fix: width of initiative list in player window matches width of portraits
(in characters)
Bug-Fix: player screen background image resizes on a delay when the window is
resized, preventing multiple rapid resize operations when the window
is resized on an OS with "smooth-resizing" of windows enabled
Bug-Fix: fixed an issue with main table updates not marking the current
campaign as dirty
=== Version 1.0 ===
Feature: support for D&D 4E
Dungeon Master's Handy Helper © 2009-2012 Dave Fried and Matthew Highcove