D&D 5E What would a DM helper app for Out of the Abyss look like?

[Guest 6801328]

I'm thinking of writing a web app to help DMs with Underdark travel in Out of the Abyss. I'd love feedback/input on what you'd like that to look like.

Some things I'm envisioning:
1) Random encounter generation, both to make it feel less 'random' to players, and to save all that dice-rolling, & page-flipping.
2) Resources tracking, both foraging and consumption
3) NPC status/tracking (HP, madness, anything else)
4) Time/date/lunar phase tracking. (Just in case anybody wants to know what phase the moon would be...)

Roughly what I'm envisioning is:
1) Set up your party, with entry fields for players and checkboxes for available NPCs. ("Is Buppido in the group? Check.")
2) Pick a starting location and a destination
3) Pick travel speed
4) Click "Next Day" and have it automatically generate random encounters, foraging success and supplies level, pursuit value, etc.
5) Alert DM to any relevant consequences, such as exhaustion if supplies are too low, full moons, etc.
6) Repeat 4 until arrival at destination.

Thoughts?

 

[discoDM]

Not sure what your scope is...

Would it help with combat tracking too? If so, initiative order, monster HP, damage, etc. are musts. Maybe that is a bit outside your scope though.....

 

[Guest 6801328]

Would it help with combat tracking too? If so, initiative order, monster HP, damage, etc. are musts. Maybe that is a bit outside your scope though.....

Yeah, I wasn't going to go into combat, just the travel.

 

[CapnZapp]

Hi,

I hope you have seen the work done here at Enworld, scattered over several threads.

There's an encounter generator, a modifiers summary spreadsheet and more. I myself have summed up the "meta" decisions each party needs to make if their DM does wilderness travel by the book, and I've suggested an alternative "atmosphere"-based random roll for encounter descriptions. There's more; I'm sure I haven't remembered all the cool advice given.

Anyway, here is where I'd start