Campaign management software (recommendations?)

[sunrisekid]

Has anyone seen software made for managing non-combat stuff? There are plenty of turn-trackers out there, but I am interesting in something that might handle the following issues:

- map importing and annotation
- town stats (level, leaders, local industries)
- NPC gallery (stats, adjustable, perhaps capable of importing from Compendium)
- log record of PC accomplishments, etc

Most of this can be handled in a flat .doc file, I know ;-) But I would like to know if there's anything out there a bit cleaner and more organized.

I would be happy to hear what other DMs do to keep track of their ongoing campaigns. Historically my group has just done weekly one-off adventures but we've started developing more in-depth narrative with over-arching plot development; I would love to find something that can conveniently handle issues that, well, I'm sure you're all familiar with

cheers

 

[Ferghis]

The only dedicated software that I know of that might even approach this level of completeness is Masterplan. It'll let you plan out encounters and skill challenges in great detail. But there it ends: Masterplan

I would use a private wiki to track all that. It would be the best way I can think of. Tiddlywiki is a good place to create one. If it were possible to make some of it private and some public, that would probably be the best implementation, but I don't know how to do that: TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook

 

[666Sinner666]

Fantasy Grounds to an extent does what you are seeking but it does cost money and its main purpose is for running games online.

For future reference I do know that Lonewolf is developing software called Realmworks that will be a campaign management tool. Just that it is not out yet.

 

[Ferghis]

Wow.

It looks like they're putting a lot of work into Realmworx. That scares me, because most supportive material I've been seeing has been free, and I can't imagine that to be free.

 

[Xethreau]

I highly recommend Masterplan. The only problem is that you have to create or find monster/item/etc directories by your self. Older versions of it can take entries from the Compendium, but even the new versions can take custom creatures from Adventure Tools XML files.

Masterplan

It is really good at recording the kind of things mentioned in the OP, from what I have noticed, though I do not really use that stuff myself. I use it to manage my encounters!

 

[Dezarith]

I would recommend Dunjinni you can make amps, set rooms, set story, do alot of crap.The only problem is it costs $40. May not be what your looking for but i find it helpful.
Dundjinni Mapping Software - Bring Your Game To Life

 

[666Sinner666]

My qualm with Dunjini, which is certainly a great product, is the additional cost of map packs and token packs. Albeit it probably creates some of the most beautiful maps if you have the time and patients, aside from maybe the cartographer series but that is just down right ridiculously priced.

Wow.

It looks like they're putting a lot of work into Realmworx. That scares me, because most supportive material I've been seeing has been free, and I can't imagine that to be free.

Realmworks will not be free, unless they start packaging it with your initial HL purchase, but if LW makes it so you can pull monsters from the online compendium along with using the item data sets they already pull and have good search functions it could become one of the best campaign managers out there. I know that is a lot of if's and maybe's but certainly great possibilities.

No idea legally if they could make it so you can edit monsters and such but that would just be gravy.

 

[Ferghis]

Realmworks will not be free

I find pricing these things to be very difficult. With published content, there's a clear market, but with a tool of this kind, a careful consumer-DM would have to know how far a campaign will go before making any significant investment. On the other hand, a low price, if paired with possibly low sales (economy sucks), may make this a bad venture for the production team, which would be awful.

but if LW makes it so you can pull monsters from the online compendium along with using the item data sets they already pull and have good search functions it could become one of the best campaign managers out there. I know that is a lot of if's and maybe's but certainly great possibilities.

I'm optimistic about this. WotC has become cooperative with some programmers, allowing access to the compendium data. They've seemed to change course since they slammed down on Masterplan. They've even starting embedding most of the power card information in the dnd4e file, which makes connection to compendium data less necessary for players.

I do see one problem coming up in this. If a commercial product makes use of the compendium data, WotC will (quite reasonably) want a slice of the money. With the thin margins I outlined above, this will make the project even more risky.

 

[666Sinner666]

The way in which LW accesses the compendium is why WOTC lets them do what they do with HL. LW's D&Di downloader only downloads content at the same speed in which a human could reasonably do so and it requires the user to have a D&Di subscriber account. Masterplan from what I understand grabbed the info as quickly as possible. Since doing this does not strain WOTC's servers they, so far, have no problem with it. Not really sure though just how much info WOTC is willing to let LW grab before they throw a hissy fit.