What I'd really like which fits with all the character stuff you've already added would be a quick view of the PCs, NPCs and monsters involved in an adventure so i have one quick reference page to look at for essential stats while running the adventure. Essentially what I do on paper at the moment.
What would I see?
For PCs: Name, Class, AC, hp (total and current), Initiative, passive perception, ability scores/modifiers (maybe collapsible), similarly skills, treasure
For NPCs/monsters: as above but also attacks, move, collapsible specials.
The PCs should be live connections to the PC accounts.
I should be able to build up and maintain a library of NPCs (some of which could be monsters - for example a dragon who lives in the area and they keep encountering), along with location and notes, which I can pull into the day's adventure. I should be able to advance these NPCs in parallel to the PCs.
I should be able create a setting/adventure with monsters and populate them by reference to the monster tables, give them names and hp (possibly randomly generate the hp in particular)
I should be able to keep a campaign logbook which builds up as I'm going which shows what has happened through the campaign - maybe high-level summary which I can drill down even into the details of the encounters, who was involved (if they were run through the DM view).
I was really hoping for a Wiki style campaign manager. As it stands now, I'm probably going to install MediaWiki on a small server (Raspberry Pi) and attempt to use the log notes area to hyperlink to my Wiki.
My far-flung wish is that one could purchase pre-packaged campaign D&D settings, which already have the maps, NPCs, gods, and locations of the world. Obviously some settings have significantly more detail than others, but I don't need (or want) 10,000 words for a particular city or forest -- population, ruler, and a paragraph or two for most places, maybe two or three times that for major cities like Sharn or Waterdeep. Individual DMs can expand the info to fit their campaigns.
Yes this would be nice. I'd like Forgotten Realms myself.
Also, if during an encounter I could rank the characters and monsters in initiative order that would be really helpful. Out could even send the OC an alert when they are next.
You just described Hero Lab so @Curse if you are reading this... head on over and check out Hero Lab too.
Hero Lab is a perfect example of how DDB should not design a campaign manager...
Do you mean "Character Builder", not "Campaign Manager"? Hero Lab is the Character Builder by Lone Wolf Development. Realm Works is the Campaign Manager by the same developer.
IMHO, Hero Labs is horrible. Whereas Realm Works at least has some redeeming qualities in that it is very comprehensive. Just clunky as hades and a horrible, you have to keep paying for a stupid cloud service payment model. Let alone that it crashes like every 10 minutes
...
How long since you actually used Realm Works? The subscription model was frozen years ago and crashes are pretty damn rare these days. All part of the software development cycle. You would be hard pressed to find anything else on the market that comes close to the functionality it provides currently. Going to be interesting to see how it looks once its launched on the web also. ...
Then why does it still say on the very front page "includes 6 months of standard tier cloud service" for Realm Works?
Looking back at my original receipt, WOW does time fly! It was a year and a half ago!! I loaded it up, and I guess you're right cause it still syncs.
I guess it's worthwhile to look at again. I just hate to spend all that time if DDB will eventually do the same. I had easily put in 40 hours initially, and probably only got 10% of what I wanted to fill in. But unfortunately I'm not seeing anything to clear up if Curse is using the term "campaign manager" the same way that I think a lot of us understand it to mean.
I imagine they left it because they will eventually turn the payments back on. I've heard the intent is to turn them back on once the Content Market launches which is rumoured to be soon but I've been using the program for years and have never had to pay a cent for storage. The cloud storage is completely optional btw. You can just store locally on your machine although I would recommend some kind backup if you do that.
Since you have been gone for a while. Check this thread out. They have added the ability to import/export content which might be fun to play with, the link includes content already shared by LWD and the community. The 5e SRD is going to be one of the content packs we can import in the near future apparently, aka everything this website offers.
Honestly, looking at what these guys have to offer so far I won't be even considering using this as a campaign manager. It's about 1% of where it needs to be and looking very unlike an actual campaign manager. And lets be honest, they have launched it, they were happy for us to see it, so they think this is something we were interested in seeing. They would need to program bloody quickly to add in all the functionality alot of us expected to see already.
That application, DMGenie let you put in a bunch of text for each day of the calendar, which I ended up using as my campaign history. It was easy to see what the character did and when. A calendar is necessary if D&D Beyond is going to act as a campaign manager.
I'd like something along the lines of a calendar (one that uses the Forgotten Realms as the default) but easily customized. The ability to add entries for each day would be excellent. I used a program called DMGenie which did this and it was extremely useful.
This isn't exactly what you're talking about, but for only $1, search for "Calendar of Harptos" on DMs Guild. [Link]. He gives it to you in a few file formats (.docx, .odt, and .pdf), so it's easy to change around.
I forgot to mention, I already have a couple of those and even made one myself. Thanks though :)
Here is thought for you guys for the future.. may have been mentioned but...
How about changing up the game a little? A living sandbox campaign that operates like a choose your own adventure on the dm side with blocks of content that get delivered to the campaign. You could track the game by session. Random world events that are attached to later plots can happen each session.
I'm just lost, how do you add friends to your campaign?
You have to give your friends the link on the right top. With that link, they can join. I would advice to not make any change in the notes before all your friends have joined. Modifying the campaign modifies the link as well.
hi, I have noticed that as a DM I can't modify my players character sheets, I recieve a an error message (very nice and well done I must admit); do you all expeirence my same problem? will we be able to modify them in the near future?
hi, I have noticed that as a DM I can't modify my players character sheets, I recieve a an error message.
I just started playing around and had the same problem. I can view their sheet, but trying to edit gives a 403 error. I tried editing once of my own characters which brought me to the builder just fine. So it seems like there is a problem with DM permission to edit player characters, and not with the builder itself.
Here is thought for you guys for the future.. may have been mentioned but...
How about changing up the game a little? A living sandbox campaign that operates like a choose your own adventure on the dm side with blocks of content that get delivered to the campaign. You could track the game by session. Random world events that are attached to later plots can happen each session.
Makes it a bit of fun for the dm
what do you guys think?
I'm not following what you're suggesting here. Are you saying the DM writes the content and then the party gets content delivered based on their choices or the DM gets random content delivered to them to use with the party? This sounds like content, not campaign management tools. Could you clarify what you're suggesting please?
To be honest I'm disappointed with this feature. I was hoping this would be a tool to help a DM create and organize his homebrew campaigns or official D&D premade campaigns for his weekly tabletop game. Offering tools to create NPCs, Cities, Worlds, Dungeons, Random Encounters, notes on events from each weekly campaign. However it appears to be a very bare bones online communication feature for a DM and his players that don't see each other on a regular basis. I could be totally wrong, but as is I'll never use this feature.
Encounter Generator, Twitch Integration, and Initiative Tracker are all going to be a part of the Campaign Manager. There will also be a way to favorite items/monsters/rules/adventures/etc all for quick access for the DM (Like a DM Screen). The Campaign Manager is going to evolve bigtime in the coming months. But these are all after-launch tools that will be added. Right now the focus is on the Character Generator. Believe me, there's a lot of plans planned for the Campaign Manager. ;)
To be honest I'm disappointed with this feature. I was hoping this would be a tool to help a DM create and organize his homebrew campaigns or official D&D premade campaigns for his weekly tabletop game. Offering tools to create NPCs, Cities, Worlds, Dungeons, Random Encounters, notes on events from each weekly campaign. However it appears to be a very bare bones online communication feature for a DM and his players that don't see each other on a regular basis. I could be totally wrong, but as is I'll never use this feature.
As mentioned in the release notes, the initial pass at campaign management is a foundation off which many other features will build.
The primary purpose come launch in a few weeks is to allow a DM to share content to all the players in a campaign to save purchasing costs for the content.
Many other features will branch off of this after that.
None of these things are Campaign Management though. More like session management. I think you need to rename it.
As said, this is just the beginning. Sessions are part of campaigns. We want to name it based on what it will end up being rather than what it is for this season.
Here is thought for you guys for the future.. may have been mentioned but...
How about changing up the game a little? A living sandbox campaign that operates like a choose your own adventure on the dm side with blocks of content that get delivered to the campaign. You could track the game by session. Random world events that are attached to later plots can happen each session.
Makes it a bit of fun for the dm
what do you guys think?
I'm not following what you're suggesting here. Are you saying the DM writes the content and then the party gets content delivered based on their choices or the DM gets random content delivered to them to use with the party? This sounds like content, not campaign management tools. Could you clarify what you're suggesting please?
I.am suggesting that Curse could also create modular campaign content. Like a living campaign timeline, events can be used on your own campaign You could advance as quickly or as slowly along the timeline as you want, so it could be either additional content that you use as world filler..or you could base your whole campaign around it.
For now I just would love to have the ability to modify my player PGs and send them notes and pictures (Maps, riddles etc.). After that I expecially like the idea of a modular campaign tool on wich I can summarize past sessions and maybe plan future ones, inserting maybe links to the monster pages that my players will encounter or objects they will find.
Apart for that, I would like to congratulate the devs for their work, I really love the tool you are creating.... just one thing, and I say that becouse I own most of the manuals.... don't make it to costly or my players will not buy it XD
I'm a brand spanking new DM, I've run all of 3 games at this point. I made myself a document for the campaign in One Note, and it's honestly more useful than the Campaign Manager here.
My players aren't interested in Beyond at this time, so without them joining there is no way to put their sheets up.
Note boxes are fine, but not very useful. I can use any document to do that, and it would be more searchable.
I'd love to be able to add maps and things like that. My game is in Waterdeep. Being able to stick a map in there would be super useful.
Being able to MAKE a map/dungeon/etc would be wonderful.
Right now, I've no interest in using this feature at all.
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What I'd really like which fits with all the character stuff you've already added would be a quick view of the PCs, NPCs and monsters involved in an adventure so i have one quick reference page to look at for essential stats while running the adventure. Essentially what I do on paper at the moment.
What would I see?
If you could add this that would be awesome!
I was really hoping for a Wiki style campaign manager. As it stands now, I'm probably going to install MediaWiki on a small server (Raspberry Pi) and attempt to use the log notes area to hyperlink to my Wiki.
Also, if during an encounter I could rank the characters and monsters in initiative order that would be really helpful. Out could even send the OC an alert when they are next.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
That application, DMGenie let you put in a bunch of text for each day of the calendar, which I ended up using as my campaign history. It was easy to see what the character did and when. A calendar is necessary if D&D Beyond is going to act as a campaign manager.
Here is thought for you guys for the future.. may have been mentioned but...
How about changing up the game a little? A living sandbox campaign that operates like a choose your own adventure on the dm side with blocks of content that get delivered to the campaign. You could track the game by session. Random world events that are attached to later plots can happen each session.
Makes it a bit of fun for the dm
what do you guys think?
I'm just lost, how do you add friends to your campaign?
hi, I have noticed that as a DM I can't modify my players character sheets, I recieve a an error message (very nice and well done I must admit); do you all expeirence my same problem? will we be able to modify them in the near future?
thx
To be honest I'm disappointed with this feature. I was hoping this would be a tool to help a DM create and organize his homebrew campaigns or official D&D premade campaigns for his weekly tabletop game. Offering tools to create NPCs, Cities, Worlds, Dungeons, Random Encounters, notes on events from each weekly campaign. However it appears to be a very bare bones online communication feature for a DM and his players that don't see each other on a regular basis. I could be totally wrong, but as is I'll never use this feature.
Encounter Generator, Twitch Integration, and Initiative Tracker are all going to be a part of the Campaign Manager. There will also be a way to favorite items/monsters/rules/adventures/etc all for quick access for the DM (Like a DM Screen). The Campaign Manager is going to evolve bigtime in the coming months. But these are all after-launch tools that will be added. Right now the focus is on the Character Generator. Believe me, there's a lot of plans planned for the Campaign Manager. ;)
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None of these things are Campaign Management though. More like session management. I think you need to rename it.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
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D&D Beyond FoundersFor now I just would love to have the ability to modify my player PGs and send them notes and pictures (Maps, riddles etc.). After that I expecially like the idea of a modular campaign tool on wich I can summarize past sessions and maybe plan future ones, inserting maybe links to the monster pages that my players will encounter or objects they will find.
Apart for that, I would like to congratulate the devs for their work, I really love the tool you are creating.... just one thing, and I say that becouse I own most of the manuals.... don't make it to costly or my players will not buy it XD
I'm a brand spanking new DM, I've run all of 3 games at this point. I made myself a document for the campaign in One Note, and it's honestly more useful than the Campaign Manager here.
My players aren't interested in Beyond at this time, so without them joining there is no way to put their sheets up.
Note boxes are fine, but not very useful. I can use any document to do that, and it would be more searchable.
I'd love to be able to add maps and things like that. My game is in Waterdeep. Being able to stick a map in there would be super useful.
Being able to MAKE a map/dungeon/etc would be wonderful.
Right now, I've no interest in using this feature at all.