A few years ago, a friend recommended The Legend of Vox Machina, this animated show on Amazon Prime. I binged it, loved it, and only afterward learned it was based on Critical Role's campaign one. So I went looking for the source material and really started to enjoy it, everything from the storytelling and gameplay to the roleplaying and jokes. It was just some friends having a good time. Inspired by this, I started DM-ing about a couple of years ago.
I started running games for a small group of friends. We got together once a month and met in person when we otherwise wouldn't have had. D&D had us laughing over make believe and pretend. It's fun to be grown kids.
Too many tabs
I ran and continue to run a homebrew campaign. I kept lore and notes in Google Docs, ran combat with pen and paper, and built a soundtrack from YouTube. Every session meant a browser full of tabs: a huge Google Doc, a handful of YouTube videos for music and sound effects (and remembering which tab was which), a D&D Beyond tab for spells, sometimes the Monster Manual and Player's Handbook too. A lot of context-switching for a game that's supposed to feel immersive.
The other problem was handing out magic items. I wrote up a lot of homebrew items for my players, and the only way to give one to someone was printing it out, cutting it out with scissors, and passing it across the table. I'd show up to run a session with a folder full of loose paper.
What I actually built
I looked for something that already solved this and didn't find anything that fit, so I built it for myself: a Combat Tracker, a Soundboard, a Roster for who's at the table plus NPCs and monsters, and a way to hand players items digitally instead of on paper.
This app is deliberately not a worldbuilding or note-taking tool. Google Docs and Obsidian already do that well. What it holds instead is the light stuff: the tidbits you reach for mid-session and not the deep lore you write ahead of it.
Why free, why no account
The current, simple functions of Quill & Tankard don't cost me anything significant to run. If I end up adding features that increase operational costs, then I'll add a premium subscription tier for those features only. The existing free functions will stay free, forever. Also, I didn't want to make anyone sign up for another account just to try it. That's friction nobody needs. Everything lives in your browser.
Where things stand
This is the MVP version of Quill & Tankard. This app will keep evolving with feedback from the D&D and wider tabletop RPG community. I don't know exactly what it becomes from here, but I'm trying to stay humble about criticism and build the best tool I can for running and tracking your games. I'll also continue building for me and hopefully it aligns with you as well. Try it, and tell me what's working and what isn't.
As for DM-ing, right now I'm working on getting better at improvising at the table myself. I prep about three hours for every hour of play, and I think getting better at improv, with more organized notes on hand, could bring that down.
Cheers.