The Working Set
| # | Tool | Job | Cost |
|---|
| 1 | Loreify | Session notes, written for you | Free trial |
| 2 | D&D Beyond | Character sheets & official rules | Freemium |
| 3 | Foundry VTT | Full-power virtual tabletop | One-time |
| 4 | Owlbear Rodeo | Lightweight maps & tokens | Freemium |
| 5 | Roll20 | Browser VTT & game finding | Freemium |
| 6 | Kobold+ Fight Club | Encounter balancing | Free |
| 7 | Inkarnate | World & region maps | Freemium |
| 8 | Dungeon Scrawl | Fast battle maps | Free |
| 9 | donjon | Generators for everything | Free |
| 10 | Dungeon Alchemist | 3D map generation | Paid |
1. Loreify
Press record when the session starts; a few minutes after the table breaks, clean structured notes are waiting — quests, NPCs, promises, loose threads, all searchable. It's the tool on this list that gives you back the most hours, because it does the job everyone at the table keeps volunteering someone else for.
2. D&D Beyond
The official home of digital character sheets, rules lookup, and content sharing across your party. The free tier covers basic sheets; the real value is one player owning the books and sharing them with the whole campaign.
3. Foundry VTT
The power-user virtual tabletop: dynamic lighting, automation, and a module ecosystem that can run almost any system. One-time purchase for the DM, free for players — but budget real setup hours before your first game.
4. Owlbear Rodeo
The opposite philosophy: open a browser tab, drop a map, drag tokens, play in ninety seconds. If Foundry is a cockpit, this is a steering wheel — and most in-person-but-remote-friendly tables need only the steering wheel.
5. Roll20
The most-used VTT on the internet, which makes its game-finder the single best place to join or recruit a table. The interface shows its age, but the network effect doesn't.
6. Kobold+ Fight Club
Pick your party, pick your monsters, and get an honest difficulty read before your "medium" encounter accidentally becomes a TPK. Free, fast, and the sanity check every new DM should run before session night.
7. Inkarnate
Drag-and-drop world maps that look hand-painted — continents, regions, cities. The free tier is enough to fall in love; the paid tier is where the asset library lives.
8. Dungeon Scrawl
Sketch a clean, classic-style dungeon battle map in minutes, free, in the browser. When the party goes somewhere you didn't prep, this is the tab you open while the rogue is still arguing about the door.
9. donjon
The ugliest site on this list and possibly the most useful: random generators for dungeons, treasure, calendars, star systems, inns, and names, all free. Bookmark it and thank the ancient internet.
10. Dungeon Alchemist
Describe a room and watch it furnish itself in 3D, then export straight to your VTT. It's the prep tool that feels most like cheating — priced accordingly as a one-time purchase.
The Honest Stack
You don't need all ten. A complete table runs on three: something to run the game (Owlbear or Foundry), something to balance it (Kobold+), and something to remember it (Loreify). Everything else is delight, not necessity.