What will Masterplan be after the C&D?

[firesnakearies]

Masterplan is awesome. I hope it continues forward in some form.

 

[Scribble]

It's kind of one of those programs I want to use but don't, because I haven't used a laptop to run a game, but the program seems awesome. I think I'd have more ability to use a tablet PC then a laptop though, so once the win7 tablet hits the market, I might be using masterplan.

 

[D'karr]

But didn't Masterplan grow out of a tile mapper that WotC themselves use and have linked from the D&D website in the past?

It is not. Event though it can do some rudimentary mapping, this app is really designed to help the DM track an adventure or campaign. It also has an initiative tracker that can be used to track combat. Since it can import directly from the Compendium and Character builder you can have creatures and characters assigned in initiative order.

The real strength of the app is that you can flowchart the adventure and create each encounter entirely on the application. Monsters, dialog, boxed text, map, etc. All of it can be tracked in the app. In addition, it lets the DM track the XP budget for his encounters, and is able to map out the entire campaign as a series of adventures if you so desire.

It's a pretty nifty tool.

 

[coyote6]

How useful would it be for non-4e, or even non-D&D, games?

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

How useful would it be for non-4e, or even non-D&D, games?

Not very. You'd only be using a small portion of the full functionality of the program (the flowchart and note taking sections), and ignoring all of the other system specific stuff (encounter builder, combat tracker, etc).

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

If true, that's too bad. The adventure tools from DDI are very lacking, and I was just beginning to learn MasterPlan.

If the DDI ever gets to the level it was originally envisioned to be (with a map tool, virtual tabletop, MasterPlan type program), I would definitely subscribe again.

 

[baberg]

Count me in as one of those who just recently found MasterPlan and loves it. I run a tabletop game but MP makes prepping a whole lot easier (once I worked out an easy way to export to HTML and convert to a Word document that is).

If it's not a legal issue that's preventing him from updating, I hope he puts the code base out as open source so people can continue to improve it. It's a real shame to lose that kind of work if he's just burnt out (and reading some of the Facebook whiners on his page I can see how he would burn out).

 

[Obryn]

I think the fact that he hasn't made the code open-source, and that he's been completely mum about his reasons, indicates that he's either doing that Obsidian Portal integration, or that there's another deal in the works.

No idea though. It's all speculation at this point.

-O

 

[baberg]

I think the fact that he hasn't made the code open-source, and that he's been completely mum about his reasons, indicates that he's either doing that Obsidian Portal integration, or that there's another deal in the works.

No idea though. It's all speculation at this point.

-O

I'm leaning towards "somebody bought it". Why?

- Still available for download, so it's not a Cease and Desist from WotC
- Not open sourced, so likely not a case of burnout or a new job
- The announcement of a major feature for version 9, then this stoppage
- No signs of him slowing down previous to this announcement, as of Monday he was still actively replying on his Facebook page

I did notice that the download link on the homepage used to link to the Dungeon Tiles Yahoo group but doesn't anymore, and there's another missing link that I can't recall (I believe last I checked there were 4 entries in the download table, now there are two). I can imagine whoever bought it would have told him to take down that obvious copyright infringement link as part of the deal.

Again, 100% speculation here.

 

[doctorhook]

I did notice that the download link on the homepage used to link to the Dungeon Tiles Yahoo group but doesn't anymore, and there's another missing link that I can't recall (I believe last I checked there were 4 entries in the download table, now there are two).

Yeah, I thought there were a couple of library links. Anyone recall what the other one was?

...And where I can download it? I'm reloading everything, since I just reformatted my computer.