Morrus noted a Kickstarter this week -- for Realmworks -- that put me on the scent of thinking about software and tools for campaign management. I've mentioned a few tools in the past, and there have certainly been plenty of other reviews and articles written about this sort of topic in the past, so lets start off from a different angle.
What do we really want?
The mistake we often make looking for a service or tool to solve a problem is that we don't always start with a clear idea of what actually need. We get a lot of functionality and tools that the developers can do, but not necessarily what we need. So lets talk for a few minutes about what an ideal campaign manager would do for us.
- Content Development - We need a tool that's good for writing. For the foreseeable future, our game development notes will need to be text. With illustrations of some sort, but mostly text. The tool should be easy and intuitive.
- Connections - We need to be able to have connections between content. A piece of content about a location should have connections to the NPCs that are found there, to the missions or quests that involve that location, to the information that the PCs might gather in that location, and so on. Creating those connections -- and using them -- should be fast and easy and intuitive
- Multi-platform/Cloud-based - In the Dropbox era, we need to be able to access our game information in multiple locations and multiple devices.
- Mobile Friendly - We should be able to use the content -- if not created it -- through mobile devices like tablets and phones. This is very important when combined with the ability to publish content to the players -- if they can access it on their phones and tablets, then they have that sort of reference information easily available to them at the game table.
- Publish to Players - We need to be able to share some of the content with the players. It might even be good if players could comment or contribute to the campaign, but we all know how rare it is that players would actually take advantage of that sort of tool.
There are other features that we might want in a campaign manager -- some options that some GMs will use, and others will not. For example
- Mind Maps/Brainstorming Tools - I don't find these especially helpful, but others like them.
- Calendar Tool - Some GMs like to keep track of their game in relation to a calendar -- and having one that was flexible enough to reflect the various game world calendars would be an added bonus.
- Random Generators - NPC names, Tavern or Ship names, etc. Sometimes "Bob the Orc" just doesn't cut it.
Does it need to be Built for Gamers?
There are a handful of campaign management tools out there that have been created for DMs especially. Those tools have some distinct advantages -- they can be customized for our needs, have interfaces that invoke the feel of the game worlds, and so on.
At the same time, because they serve a much smaller market, there are levels of programming slickness and functionality that are much more difficult for gamer-developers to produce. Tools designed for more general uses can be a lot more polished and full-featured, even if they are not specifically designed for our needs.
And The Perfect Tool Is?
Well.....now....that's a tricky question. We are not going to find one tool that has everything we want. We'll have different priorities, some different needs and tastes, and will never agree on exactly what we want.
And, of course, don't forget the potential for the Apple effect -- a product that's so good and innovative that it has features we didn't know we needed. I don't think that's happened yet in this area, but anything's possible.
No, Really, Shut Up And Tell Me What I Should Be Using
Well, Realmworks isn't out right yet, but based on it's Kickstarter page it's going to have a lot of key features that will be really important. I'm especially impressed by the one-click publish option they describe in the project video -- click a button on any piece of content and you expose it to your players for their reference.
They're planning to package the software with a cloud-based service that would make that published content available to players -- and that's critical. I'm especially pleased with the one-click interface to make a piece of content public -- when you start talking about a lot of small pieces of content from a game session -- items, NPCs, locations, etc -- every extra click adds a lot of effort to making content public.
EN World has a Campaign Manager tool that is available free to users -- combine that with the powerful forum resources here and there's a pretty good argument to be made for giving that a try -- especially if your players are all EN World regulars. There's a lot of advantage in not asking your players to go to a new tool or website to connect with your campaign information. However, the EN World Campaign Manager depended upon a lot of custom code that was lost in the Great Breach of 2012 -- so the current functionality is not a strong as it once was. Soon. Get thee to Kickstarter, heathens!
Obsidian Portal , though is probably the current leader of the pack for web-based custom-built campaign management. At it's heart, it's a wiki, but they've added some good functionality -- layers of content (DM only, and player-specific secrets -- which seems like it could have a LOT of utility).
The interesting difference for Realmworks will be that the DM interacts with it through a desktop client, for the most part. It uses cloud services to expose "public" content to players through a web site, but the content itself is built in a dedicated tool. That may be what they're most comfortable developing (Realmsworks is the latest project by Lone Wolf Development , developers of the multi-system character generator program Hero Forge), and it might be behind some of their usability advantages.
There are a wide variety of non-gaming-focused tools that work for this sort of development. I'm a fan of Evernote, Google Drive/Documents can work (perhaps in combination with Google Groups). I've read recently about a tool called MyInfo [http://www.roleplayingtips.com/url/myinfosite] (in Johnn Four's excellent Role Playing Tips email newsletter).
I haven't seen the silver bullet product yet -- and I'm supporting the Realmworks project and I'm looking forward to giving it a spin.
So, let's hear it -- what are the key features you need in a campaign manager? What's your favorite solution? Or is your old high school trapper keeper still good enough?
(image: Grosso_Spiral_Notebook by DamonGrosso on Flickr)
