5 best tools for my D&D online sessions

I decided to share an overview of the tools that I use for my D&D online sessions, as it is a commonly asked question. The tools are not ordered from best to worst, they are all very useful to me and help me create immersive campaigns. I decided to not mention the VTT (Virtual Tabletops) here, as they just provide the stage for my adventures.

1. KenkuFM

KenkuFM enables you to share your audio via Discord to the party. In every online campaign I am/was a part of we use Discord. Sharing background music or sound effects with your players can be a challenge here, but KenkuFM makes it possible in a very easy and intuitive way. You can use tracks and sounds from your local hard drive or you can even play a YouTube Video. Especially helpful when your party does something you are not prepared for, and you need a fitting sound for it. Warlock set the whole Town on fire? Open a YouTube tab in KenkuFM and let it burn! Your Bard suddenly went for a performance in front of the whole town? Quick play applause or booing! KenkuFM works on Mac and Windows, which is really handy for me, as I gm on the road using my Macbook, and my Windows PC when I GM from Home.

The best thing about KenkuFM is that you can use it for free! The developers, Nicola and Mitch only ask you for a price to buy it – if you want to try it out you can do so for free, and keep it forever until you decide to share some of your money with them. And if you like the tool as much as I do, you’ll do so soon enough.

2. Wonderdraft

With Wonderdraft you get a powerful map creation tool for all platforms. You can create landscapes, water, mountains and choose from a large list of assets to tailor the perfect maps for your adventures.
The maps can have various styles, and you get nice tools for creating rivers, oceans or paths. The tool comes with prepacked fonts you can use for your labels. And you can even draw regions you can hide later on. You’ll need some time to get used to all the parts of the tool, but it’ll be a fun journey and help you to create good looking maps without any drawing skills.

I use it for all my campaigns and create world maps like the following:

You can also add new assets you bought or downloaded from 3rd party sites (I highly recommend the ones over on 2minutetabletop.com). Wonderdraft is not free, it will cost you around $29. I think it is worth it for the price.

3. Fantasy Name Generators

Nothing is more tedious than having to come up with names for your countless NPCs. A big help is fantasynamegenerators.com, where I draw nearly all my characters names from. Whether I need a new name for an elf, dwarf or the main antagonist of my next campaign – the generators will provide me with a good one. It doesn’t need to be just NPC’s though: You can generate world names, town names, jungles, farms, galaxies… and much more.

4. Notion

Notion is a all-in-one solution for notes, writing, and scheduling. It is a workplace for everything I need to write down. I write my campaigns in Notion, as I can create them like little wikis inside of it. Every adventure has it own page, where I create subpages for characters, NPCs, Plots, Creatures, Lore, Items, Information, Dungeons and so on. I can create notes in every page, and format my text to highlight information that gets read to the players, hidden tasks or triggers. Sometimes I screenshot the stat blocks for monsters from the monster manual and add them to my notion page, so that all reference is in one place.

5. D&D Battletracker

Not all VTTs I use come with their own battle tracking tools. Often enough I have to rely on this Battletracker. You can insert your players and creatures stats there (I suggest doing so while you design the encounter, as it takes some time) and track turns and HP. It is connected to D&D Beyond, so that you can use the D&D Beyond database to add enemies quickly. The battle can be shared with your players via link. You can export and import the battle to carry it over in-between sessions. One thing I find very useful is the possibility to track the in game time that has elapsed in the battle. This way you can keep track of effects, auras and conditions expiring.

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