at the end of the day all these digital tools require preparation ahead of time, time that could be better spent writing the adventure or detailing more of the NPCs.

Quote from: Lawbagat the end of the day all these digital tools require preparation ahead of time, time that could be better spent writing the adventure or detailing more of the NPCs.

Yes and no.  My biggest issue with electronic tools is that it means I'm at the computer, which also means I'm likely to be drawn here, ENWorld, or NTL.
 
Otherwise, it depends on how you work, really.  I find that I'm generally disorganized.  I leave notes scattered all about.  The more I try to get organized, physically, the worse things seem to get.  But, when I use electronic aids, it gets marginally better.  At the least, I'm a much faster than average typist and a slower than average writer (I can't stand chicken scratches and write in very precise print that looks the Dom Casual font).  So, I get a slight gain out of it -- plus, it's more portable.
 
NPC generation, on the other hand, gets a huge boost from something like PCGen.  It's the difference between having high-level, classed encounters be viable or not.  I just can't keep track of all the math for an 18th level fighter/cleric/knight of the chalice, including feats, equipment, etc.  Well, I can, but not easily.

Quote from: Lawbagat the end of the day all these digital tools require preparation ahead of time, time that could be better spent writing the adventure or detailing more of the NPCs.

I find that it shortens my writing and prep time, by having much of my reference material at hand.

Need to know when the next lunar eclipse is for the campaign, Need to know who they battled 3 sessions ago, Need 5 quick NPC's with spells, feats, skills, etc, without leafing through books to create them?  The campaign manager is excellent for writing up adventures, allowing for links to maps, creatures, next rooms, etc.  Gives me more time to be thoughtful about the campaign, and the story arcs.  

But ymmv,

GW

I use a custom excel sheet for my character (I game with a computer at the table). When I DM, I use a program called VoodooPad (I think it's Mac only) to organize campaign notes, etc. I have an EXP calculator widget that really comes in handy, as well as an initiative tracker widget. The Sovelior/Sage SRD also gets plenty of use.

I use paper and pencil.  The games I run don't require exacting specifics in terms of statistics and hit points but in terms of motivation and action and I keep that in my head instead of on paper.  If there is actually going to be a fight I will scratch out things like soak, size of attack and dodge pools, powers, etc... (I'm only running Aberrant currently).

I use PCGen for creating NPCs, but not PCs (strangely).  The PCs in my group tend to use additional material (some of it homebrew) while my NPCs are almost always stock SRD.  I use the Sovelior/Sage SRD, downloaded locally.

For my game and world notes I use TiddlyWiki.  If you care to see it my campaign website is here: Heirs of Empire

The PC character sheets are just an OpenOffice document, exported to PDF so I can open them in my Firefox browser tabs.

I do GM with my laptop, as you probably guessed.

I keep the notes for each Episode in Word, and keep the characters and monster stats in Acrobat forms.  That's about as fancy as I get, unless you count iTunes for background music.

Right, that does it.  I'm never using PCGen again.  I just can't trust it

The fact that it doesn't display Occupation anywhere is a minor inconvenience, but last night I discovered that the d20 Modern statblocks it was producing were missing the alphabetically last skill

If I hadn't spotted that, I'd have submitted material to Tim that would have included a Dedicated Hero medic without Treat Injury

I think RPGObjects are getting my $10

Wow, that's a bummer.  I have to admit that part of the reason I started this thread was to look for functional alternatives to PCGen.  There are several issues with it, but it's still the best I've found -- especially for someone like me, who mods the living shit out of D&D.

Quote from: IliumFor my game and world notes I use TiddlyWiki

Have you seen Ten Foot Wiki? It's specifically designed for RPG management...

I also use TreePad Lite

I discovered a new tool: google notebook

(See http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/overview.html )

It uses an add-on for firefox and ie. You can also publish your pages, though the public version of the pages aren't as browsable as your own version of the notebook.

Here's a couple of my public notebooks:
http://www.google.com/notebook/user/05459702402456288785