Tips and Other Stuff
TIPS
Get Firefox
Ok, I'm a Firefox fan. What I mean is get a browser with tabs and learn the hotkeys for switching between them (usually ctrl + tab or ctrl + [tab number] for switching, and ctrl + click for opening a link in a new tab. Supposedly the new IE7 (beta) is a good tabbed browser too.Download the SRD
The site is much faster running locally on your computer, especially the searches. Once you download the zip file, unpack all the files into the same folder. Then open the home.html file and create a bookmark for it. If you're using Firefox (or equivalent browser) you can right click on the bookmark and add a keyword (fx. "srd"), that way, when you type the keyword in your address bar and press enter, it will take you to the locally stored home.html file.Using Tabs
I recommend having 3 tabs open at all times: One with the site map, one with the DM screen and a third one for spells. That way you can quickly find most information you'll need.It's important to know that when you click on a link in the spell search it loads in the tab (or window for IE users) from which the spell search was opened. Therefore you should open the spell search from the third tab and have the search window as a floating window. That way you can quickly find spells, as they'll always load in the same tab.
The Site Map and DM Screen are both made for a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 or higher, but work at 1024 x 768.
Using the Searches
See "Using Tabs" (above).Using the Dice Roller
The dice roller was inspired by the one in OpenRPG, but since it isn't rolled on a server, the results are for your eyes only, thus the Dice Roller is of most use to DMs. That said, it could save you time to write down rolls you know you'll make and then simply copy-paste them into the dice roller. For instance, if you know your group will be fighting wererats this evening, write down their attacks and grapples, so you can quickly roll many attacks. Of course you'll have to forego the magic of actually rolling the dice yourself ;)Get Notified
If you (as recommended) use the SRD offline, and don't want to check for updates every once-in-a-while, subscribe to the sovelior/sage SRD mailing list, which has the sole purpose of sending a note to subscribers whenever an update has been made, by following this link. Kudos goes to enworld member Dimwhit for creating the list.Add House Rules
If you know just a little HTML you can add your house rules to your local copy of the SRD on the relevant pages. I recommend putting them in tables and making the table background either #8b2323 (dark red) or #f2e4bc (yellowish).Alternately, you can use the firefox extension from www.mystickies.com to add stickies to the pages, both local and online. Of course, the software stores and retrieves the data remotely so you'll have to be confident with that.
FAQ
Can you add book X?
This is most often asked with reference to the "Complete Books" by WotC, and the answer is no. As far as I know, Unearthed Arcana is the only WotC book with any significant amount of Open Game Content. Everything else is strictly copyrighted by WotC and not subject to the terms of the Open Game License, and can thus not be put in the SRD.Where is monster X?
The following monsters are Product Identity of Wizards of the Coast and therefor not in the SRD, no challenge to the ownership of such Product Identity is meant by repeating them here: beholder, gauth, carrion crawler, tanar’ri, baatezu, displacer beast, githyanki, githzerai, mind flayer, illithid, umber hulk, yuan-ti.Where is the XP/advancement table?
Many tables are in the Core Rulebooks but not in the SRD. Most notably tables "3-2: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits" and "7-1: Random Starting Gold" from the PHB and table "2-6: Experience Point Awards (Single Monster)" from the DMG.This is in accordance with the d20 System License and the d20 System Guide v5 as guidelines to "Character Creation" and "Applying the effects of Experience to a Character" are not allowed.