What online tools should I build for you?

[Truename]

I'm part of a team that's building a 4e-focused website. The goal of the site is to provide useful DM & player tools that complement, not replace, DDI. Parts of the site will be free and parts will require a modest subscription.

The question is, what should we build? What useful tools do you really wish you had now, as a DM or player, that you aren't getting from DDI, or ENWorld, or some other site? Alternatively, what tools do you use now that you wish were better?

We have a couple of limitations:
- The DDI license prevents us from accessing the Compendium directly, so you would have to cut & paste compendium entries to use them. But we can read & format an entry once you've pasted it in.
- We're planning on launching fairly quickly, so we can't do anything huge like a virtual game table.

We're starting development next Thursday. What can we build for you?

 

[Filcher]

Text file output, to each app., please.

So something like Asmor's monster math cruncher, that can produce a text doc fomatted to the stat block.

If you can puzzle out the madness, a trap math cruncher.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Might be a bit much, but there is one digital tool I crave more than anything...

Imagine a digital white board. The DM logs in and draws whatever he wants, or puts up a picture of a battle mat. The players upload pics of their characters, probably formated as some sort of "token".

The DM and characters can move their minis wherever they choose, and when done, just log off. All the data is stored on the site.

A side bar contains a dice roller app. Rolls are recorded and stored along with the map.

This would be amazingly useful for DMs running play-by-email or play-by-post games. The ability to turn the map into a jpeg for forum linking would also be nice.

Think something like Maptools, but all stored on the net so people don't have to get together at appointed times. You log in, roll your dice, move your minis, and log out.

 

[Truename]

Text file output, to each app., please.

So something like Asmor's monster math cruncher, that can produce a text doc fomatted to the stat block.

I'm not sure what you mean by text file output--are you asking for nicely-formatted results you can print? Or something else?

Might be a bit much, but there is one digital tool I crave more than anything...

Imagine a digital white board. The DM logs in and draws whatever he wants, or puts up a picture of a battle mat. The players upload pics of their characters, probably formated as some sort of "token".

The DM and characters can move their minis wherever they choose, and when done, just log off. All the data is stored on the site.

A side bar contains a dice roller app. Rolls are recorded and stored along with the map.

This would be amazingly useful for DMs running play-by-email or play-by-post games. The ability to turn the map into a jpeg for forum linking would also be nice.

Think something like Maptools, but all stored on the net so people don't have to get together at appointed times. You log in, roll your dice, move your minis, and log out.

So it's a facilitator--it provides:

1- virtual battlemat
2- "uncheatable" dice roller
3- some sort of logging system recording what people did
4- all through some persistent online system

Correct?

It's a neat idea. Is there anybody doing anything like this already?

I've not played PbE/PbP games--what kinds of issues come up in those games that don't come up in a F2F game?

 

[op1983]

I would like to see something similar to microsofts visuo or whatever it is where there is a list of preset rooms I can drag and drop onto a blank mat. Maybe have tokens or something where I can drop in badguys as well. The easier it is to use the better.

 

[Filcher]

I'm not sure what you mean by text file output--are you asking for nicely-formatted results you can print? Or something else?

Something I can cut and paste into a word doc. No fancy colors or highlights, just bolds, regular text and the "attack type" icons.

 

[ProfessorPain]

I'm part of a team that's building a 4e-focused website. The goal of the site is to provide useful DM & player tools that complement, not replace, DDI. Parts of the site will be free and parts will require a modest subscription.

The question is, what should we build? What useful tools do you really wish you had now, as a DM or player, that you aren't getting from DDI, or ENWorld, or some other site? Alternatively, what tools do you use now that you wish were better?

We have a couple of limitations:
- The DDI license prevents us from accessing the Compendium directly, so you would have to cut & paste compendium entries to use them. But we can read & format an entry once you've pasted it in.
- We're planning on launching fairly quickly, so we can't do anything huge like a virtual game table.

We're starting development next Thursday. What can we build for you?

Honestly, I really would like an adventure and campaign designer program that actually look good and are easy to use. For example, something that not only does what I want, but can organize my material in a way that makes sense; also it should be able to print and look really sharp. There are tons of "Campaign Management" software out there, but they usually look bad, and don't replace the traditional 3 ring DM binder. When I organize my campaign, I need clear sections for my Maps, NPCs, Adventure Material, Handouts, GM log, etc. A program that looks like a note book with tabs would be cool.

 

[Truename]

I would like to see something similar to microsofts visuo or whatever it is where there is a list of preset rooms I can drag and drop onto a blank mat. Maybe have tokens or something where I can drop in badguys as well. The easier it is to use the better.

Are you interested in this as a standalone mapmaking tool, or as part of Ashrem's Play-by-Post suggestion?

If you're interested in a standalone tool, how is this different than the other mapmaking tools out there?

Thanks

 

[Bodhiwolff]

DDI has an Encounter Builder.

However, if you read a lot of the Dragon Adventures and other published adventures, a key component of all of them is the inclusion of a Skill Challenge. In fact, adding skill challenges seems to quiet a lot of the "4E is nothing but combat" arguments, too!

So why not a "skill challenge builder", to augment the Encounter builder (which only does combat encounters).

Enter the PC's level, it automatically calculates a series of level-appropriate DC's (with suggestions for more difficult tasks vs. easier tasks). You can assign the skills to a list, and then type in a description of both the test and the outcomes. (some outcomes add a +2 to future checks, others count towards a success ... perhaps you could even automate the flowchart/decision-tree somewhat?) Some have maximum successes you can generate with that skill, others can be used multiple times, etc.

Anything which helps people quickly, easily, and most-importantly innovatively create skill-challenges would really increase their effectiveness, and would prompt more people to use them.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Might be a bit much, but there is one digital tool I crave more than anything...

Imagine a digital white board. The DM logs in and draws whatever he wants, or puts up a picture of a battle mat. The players upload pics of their characters, probably formated as some sort of "token".

The DM and characters can move their minis wherever they choose, and when done, just log off. All the data is stored on the site.

A side bar contains a dice roller app. Rolls are recorded and stored along with the map.

This would be amazingly useful for DMs running play-by-email or play-by-post games. The ability to turn the map into a jpeg for forum linking would also be nice.

Think something like Maptools, but all stored on the net so people don't have to get together at appointed times. You log in, roll your dice, move your minis, and log out.

I'm working on that very thing at the moment, you stole my idea....