Programs to organize campaigns

[soulcatcher]

GMGen looks okay but my primary experience with PCGen is SSSSLLLLLOOOOWWWW. Oh, and incredibly ugly. I looked at GMGen but it seemed to be more of an in-game tool which I have no use for. But those screenshots have piqued my interest.

PCGen is slow whenyou deal with the cahracter side of things. GMGen's code is actually pretty small and lightweight, and really, unless you are using a pcg on the gmgen side (which some of the plugins handle) it's generally pretty fast. GMGen is intended to provide a plugin architecture for all GM needs - both in game as well as campaign planning.

Alos, I'm trying to make gmgen prettier then pcgen ;-)

The tool I really want is not very complicated -- it lets me create rtf, txt and html files at will, keeps them neatly organized and does multi-file searches, allows me to open multiple panes so I can view two files at once. Supporting styles would be great, as well.

ok, GMGen's note system currently stores all the files as html. Every branch on the tree represents a directory on the file system - and the note for that branch will be an html file. I could in the future add rtf editing, as the panes in java can switch between html and rtf - but in this case I chose html, because it was a good enough format for the editor, and it can be converted via other programs to well..... anything.

Styles I'll look into, I do have at least some support for them. Two panes can't be viewed at the same time, but switchign is a snap - and if you are switchign back and forth between two, it caches them, so it becomes faster over time.

Devon Jones

 

[Wrathamon]

bump

 

[Host of Angels]

OK now I am very confussed! There seem to be so many options. Maybe you guys could give me the benefit of your vast experience...

I'm looking for a campaign organising program that is really easy to use and looks good. Nothing too flash - just lots of good functionality. I don't need character generating software or combat trackers as the players don't want that to be done on a computer (luddites!). I only need the software to hold my GM notes and campaign ideas. It would be nice if whatever I chose had the SRD already available on it (or some kind person had input it themselves and was willing to share).

So - what advice can you give me.

Ta

 

[kingpaul]

I only need the software to hold my GM notes and campaign ideas. It would be nice if whatever I chose had the SRD already available on it

Well, if that's all you need, then a word processor and downloading the SRD will handle your requirements.

 

[Host of Angels]

Mmm - I was looking at using something that threaded my notes too. MSWord has the outline view - but I find it a tad clunky. I have been having a rootle about and sucked the free trial of MyInfo off the web (that at least one person described as awesome). I'm not sure I would go as far as awesome, need to play more and the GUI is a bit ugly.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well, if that's all you need, then a word processor and downloading the SRD will handle your requirements.

The SRD is in GSNote format and damn sweet too!

 

[Host of Angels]

Will give GSnote a try...

HAs anyone tried Maple? I only ask 'cos I found a version of the SRD in Maple format...

 

[kingpaul]

HAs anyone tried Maple? I only ask 'cos I found a version of the SRD in Maple format...

Maple? The only Maple software I'm familiar with is the math tool that I used in my Engineering courses in college. We're not talking about the same program are we?

 

[Host of Angels]

Um - probably not - check this out...

http://www.crystaloffice.com/mproinfo.html

I've been playing with Maple Profesional over lunch and it looks like it may do the business. The SRD by the way I found on systemreferencedocuments.org:

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/index.htm?35/sage.htm

 

[soulcatcher]

*snip*

Plain text is best -- you can have HTML or XML or whatever. RTF is not bad. Anything more complicated than that and forget about it.

Don't find out the hard way. Your campaign data is precious and you need constant access to it. Consider what might happen if that neat little program suddenly went kablooie and the company that made it went bankrupt three weeks ago. Tears, tears of hot blood I tell you.

Tears of hot blood.

Okay, I'm still bitter.

Come, try GMGen - you have one very big, very different thing you can do with GMGen - you can use it, and then discuss with me and the other developers what is wrong with it, and you can pass your needs and ideas along to us for us to implement. I realize this is in some ways perhaps more irritating - but it *does* mean you can eventualy get the result you want.

Participate in the process, give us your ideas, tell us about your bugs, and I am certain you will find it worth the trouble in the long run.

GMGen's files are all open, and non-proprietary. The word procesor is reasonable, and the whole app is not only free - you can get the source and hack on it on your own if you want to.