GMCampaignManager

Project Thesis

Table-Top Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) have laid the foundation for interactive media in our society. The entire experience of this medium aims to create an interactive story shared by and created by all at the table.

This hobby is typically a pen-and-paper game, however modern tools such as 'DnD Beyond' aim to substitute the typical experience for an easy to use and more effective means of creating and sharing important information.

However, this tools and other tools like it only appear to slightly augment the process of Player to Game Master communication, and does not take full advantage of what digital technology can offer.

Using the SAMR Model for classroom technology , we can see that digital tools like 'DnD Beyond' truly enhance the experience through Augmentation, where "technology acts as a direct substitute, with functional improvement".

Be that as it may, digital technology has such untapped potential to Modify and even completely Redefine what a digitally enhanced TTRPG can offer its players and Game Masters.

This project will take a small step into the water that is TTRPG digital enchancement to see what can be achieved on the Game Masters end. Considering the amount of information they have to create, store, and memorise, this tool aims to redesign how Game Masters interact with their worlds through: 1.

Project Summary

To create an application that addresses:

1. Game Master Creative Freedom 1.1 Provides Powerful Creative Tools 1.2 Efficiently Stores and Retrieves Data 1.3 Allows for Flexible Customisation
2. In Game Ease of Use 2.1 Displays Useful 'On The Fly' Information 2.2 Allows Easy Access to Information linked to 'On The Fly' 2.3 Offloads Tedious Tracking

It hopes to address these issues through

• Seperating (1) from (2), presenting 'Writing' and 'Playing' modes.
• Implementing complete malleability of user created object data
• Customising how the program interacts with certain objects to allow for a more personalised workflow
• Creating a data architecture that is simple, clean, and normalised.
• Providing features that offload some tedious environmental tasks.
• Featuring 'Session Plan' objects to limit what information is shown to the GM, highlighting only what they think they need.
• Equipping a 'Search Bar' and 'Tag Filter' to "Note Check" obscure information much faster

Contents

Devlog 13/11/2021

To Do

• Start modelling and understanding relationships between key Objects and Secondary Objects.

Notes

The idea of 'tagging' objects in the GMCM is very appealing and I want to really implement that. They add a better way of seaching for certain types of objects in writing sessions, and a way to organise seperated items.

I did little to no work on the main feature that spawned this idea: Playlists and Music. That'll have to be tomorrows job :P

Devlog 14/11/2021

To Do

• Write about playlist objects and how they interact with locations.

Devlog 25/11/21

To Do

• Understand what the project aims to achieve.
• Add 'Session' object framework.

Devlog 4/12/21