The application isn’t overly complex out of the gate but there’s a lot of things people might want such as dynamic interactivity between encounter regions that would create issues for both the app developer and add layers of complexity to the “adventure design process”.

With our published adventures I’ve tried to approach the problem from a user-interface point of view. Making sure the right data is present well and is easy to find when you need it.

However, I think this is an insoluble problem.

I agree with @Matt Cruikshank comments that the game system needs to be built from the ground up with communication in mind. Current stat blocks and game mechanics mean the quantity of information needed in an adventure is overwhelming. Especially because it is impossible to tell which bits are the most important bits. E.g. a monster’s CON is irrelevant right up until it becomes crucial thanks to a player’s action.

Technology can help with this via hyperlinks etc but it only mitigates the problem and introduces new problem. E.g. Do you design the technology of iPhones or netbooks or Kindles or whatever is coming around the corner.

The advantage to focusing on a pen & paper solution to this problem is that the technology does not change. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t handle complex data sets very easy.

Compare the 1st Ed AD&D Fighter character with a 4th Ed. equivalent. The 1ed only requires about 10 pieces of information – Stats, alignment, AC, weapon, name. 4e requires the same ten plus 6 powers, three saving throws and up to 15 (?) skills. This makes 4e a much richer game than 1e but it has a vastly more complex problem to solve when it comes to presenting and managing that data.

I’m not sure how square the circle of a game with rich content but has low data complexity. However I’m 99% sure technology is not the fix, it has to involve a big change in the underlying assumptions about RPGs.
.-= Chris Tregenza´s last blog ..D&D 3.5 versus 4e =-.

I’ve just been thinking of what you said, and how this really could be put together in a community way, where commercial publishers could “hook right in”.

Just imagine, as someone wrote, that you need a hook, and 4 encounters.
You just go to the “mysterious website” where you enter level, and maybe some other params, like locations (city, village, mountain, wood), and you get a list of free or commercial (cheap) encounters, with our without battle maps, that you can download for free or for a small fee and play. And the same for plots, you can either purchase or download a plot. Make it like RPGNow, where users can give feedback/rankings.

I think if we, the community made this, and started to build it, filling it with fun encounters, we could really make this rock.

Hooking this up inside DDI, all problems with copyrights and usage of WotC IP would be a non-issue.
Anyone else that think this should be something that DDI should really provide/handle for us?

Mappers could make maps that could be used by evil encounter designers for several different encounters, or encounters could be based around tiles.

Just my thoughts,

// Totte aka 4eyes roleplaying
.-= Totte Alm´s last blog ..Updated monster tracker =-.

I disagree. I think we won’t reach that potential until someone designs an entire game system from the ground up, with hotlinking and embedding in mind.

I want to have the monster’s stats right in the same view as the description of the room he’s in. Well, if someone owns the Copyright on that monster, I can’t do it.

I think the gaming world is primed for a completely free, open source gaming system that takes advantage of the power of digital distribution and hotlinks.

There are a lot of really creative tools for working with the 3rd or 4th edition rules, but the problem is that it’s left as an exercise for the player to enter in all of their Powers (because it’s a Copyright violation for them to just download them), or for the DM to enter in all of the Monsters (likewise), or you’re left with the SRD / OGL / ? version of the Power / Monster / Whatever, and that’s always just different enough to be annoying.

When I started DMing the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil in 3rd Edition, I bought two copies of the book. I ripped apart the binding of the second one, and literally scanned ever single page, front and back. Then I made a wiki out of the contents. I had HTML pages with maps in them, and used HTML CMAPS to link to other wiki pages with the room descriptions, then had wiki links to pages for each of the NPC / special monster stats. Then for each of them, I had wiki links to the appropriate Spells, Feats, etc, which I had also turned into wiki pages.

Navigate on the map, move into the room – read the description – look at the NPC – decide on the spell – look at the text of the spell.

click, click, click, click.

And now what? I can’t share this incredibly useful information with anyone, for fear of copyright violations.

And having the “adventure parts” only gets me so far. If I can’t link to the “normal monsters” or the “normal spells” in the game system itself, I’m really hamstringing myself.

I’m contemplating a whole new way to do things.

It also could have hyperlinked art, which would resize to full screen at the touch of a button (the DM could turn the laptop around for players to see a particular image, then turn it back and continue gaming. Or for more tech-savvy DMs, switch video output to a remote monitor or TV, then switch back).

Random generators could be built in. Adventures taking place in a settled area, for example, could have a random townsfolk name button, or whatever. Taking this idea a step further, maybe have a feature that randomizes the whole darn adventure to some degree, making it (relatively) playable more than once.

So, um. Not much I can add, I guess, other than to say I’m always upgrading it and adding new features. The facebook group is pretty active. Any and all comments gratefully received

TiddlyWiki lets you keep multiple pages open on the same screen, so you can open and close locations and statblocks without tabbing back and forth.

Whenever I run a game, I like to spend at least an hour a week (and that’s the bare minimum, “I’ve got lots to do this week” amount of time) familiarizing myself with what’s happening and especially what could happen. Because I know my players are spending some amount of time thinking about what could come next and how can I expect them to have fun if I’m not prepared. With published adventures, I may have to change certain parts to make it all work, but usually I can get by with a couple good read throughs and notes in the margin. If I have tons of time at any point, I like to either make quick notes on where to find the monsters or even create index cards with their important stats and abilities, especially if we’re coming close to finding those monsters.

The linear nature of the adventure often pushes me to be a linear DM. I railroad a lot in my games which is sort of a problem. I also do this because I don’t have a lot of stuff aside from the planned encounter areas prepared. I don’t draw out maps during the game – I usually set up our battles ahead of time.

I’m considering using Dungeon Tiles for things like random encounters or possible side-treks to give players a bit more variety. Other than that I give them decisions to make between games (ok, do you guys plan on going to the firey inferno or the icy labyrinth next game?)

The bigger problem for me is the first problem you mention. I’ve spent a mint getting just the right minis for our games and after buying probably a thousand of them, I still don’t have all of them. Adventure writers (I’m looking at you Bruce Cordell) have battles with MULTIPLE rare creatures in a single encounter – sometimes as minions! I’m not going to spend $8 a piece for cyclops minions.

The DDI adventures compound the problem. Now I have to spend a mint on ink to print the adventures out. PDF is a lousy format for electronic adventures. The style you mention, hyperlinked wiki-style adventures, would be far more useful. I don’t play with a laptop at my table, but I might start if I saw adventures published this way.

I wonder what the legal issues are with publishing 4e adventures this way Monty Cook style.
.-= Mike Shea´s last blog ..Monster Optimization: Ghouls and Deathlock Wights =-.

A long time ago (2006-ish, which isn’t that long ago, I’ll admit) I toyed with a rough proof-of-concept idea of creating Wiki’d Dungeons, mainly designed for solo play. I agree with Wyatt – it’s a lot of effort for not a lot of return, but it does show that it’s possible to hyperlink between rooms, encounters, statblocks, etc in a wiki-ish way. Add in a tonne of collaboration (and polish!) and it’s probably viable as a fun community effort.

Whether you’d want to or not though – that’s the real question.
.-= greywulf´s last blog ..End on a high! =-.