::EDIT:: New version in the second post. I'll keep the old one available for anyone who wants to take a look, but the new one is a significantly smaller file, more flexible, and isn't missing a large chunk of the campaign info.
I only started DM'ing my own campaign earlier this year, but I immediately found myself wanting a tool where I could quickly look up all the relevant information for my players, enemies, locations and more, without having to juggle referencing the DM's Guide, Player's Guide, 5 printed character sheets, the campaign booklet, and/or half a dozen or more open tabs in the 5e wiki. I created a spreadsheet for myself where I put in all the raw information about the campaign and then used dropdowns to bring up everything I would need to know about a PC, enemy, or location all at once. I've found it incredibly useful, so far, and I'm planning on redesigning and developing it further, but I've hit a point where I want to design with usability for everyone in mind, and if I don't share it, I could put in hours or days of work building a feature that doesn't work when I share it online (something I did when I built the version I've linked, which is why I want to avoid it in the future.)
I know that currently, this spreadsheet will only function entirely as designed if you open it with the desktop version of Microsoft Excel, possibly only specific versions. The navigation buttons on the "Home" tab don't work in Excel for web due to a lack of support for Visual Basic code online. However, *most* of the functionality relies on in-cell lookup functions that work on desktop or online, so people should be able to get a good feel for how it's supposed to work. This file is specifically for "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" campaign that I'm currently running, but the idea for a finished form is that DM's will be able to add in their player information, edit the appropriate lists (which are hidden from view, when the spreadsheet is in "use mode"), and the spreadsheet adjusts to the new campaign. I'd love to get feedback on what I've built, hear what's user-friendly and what's confusing, and get some advice on maybe making some of the features that currently only function in very limited circumstances available for everyone.
If anyone would like to give it a basic test, using the link above, you might have to log in to a Microsoft account, but you can create a Live email account for free, then once you have it open, use the colored "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs along the bottom to navigate through the main pages, and then use the dropdowns on each page to change the information displayed. In the "Players" tab, the character name at the top left is a dropdown, as well as the cells below "Features" and "Spells". In the "Monsters" tab, there's only the cell beneath "Monster". In the "Phandalin tab, there are dropdowns for Locations, People, and Quests.
People who want to take a deeper look under the hood at everything that's going on can right-click any of the tabs and choose "unhide" to open up one or more of the *many* hidden tabs that hold all the background info, or encounter pages for hideouts/battles PC's may happen across in their explorations. I'm not exactly an expert at creating in Excel, so I might not be able to incorporate all the suggestions I'm sure people could come up with, but I'm definitely trying to build as versatile and user-friendly a tool as possible, so all feedback is welcome.
As a final note - I wasn't sure if features would be usable without making the file open to editing, so if everyone could please be polite and not delete things, hide any tabs they unhide, and make sure the main "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs remain visible before exiting, it would be greatly appreciated.
I completely rebuilt the spreadsheet. Since all the visual basic features I built into the first version were broken in Excel for web, I streamlined navigation and made everything available in just three tabs.
I've also added nested dropdowns that keep everything compact. Choosing something from one of the dropdowns in the menu along the top will update the corresponding dropdown on the left, and to make everything as clear as possible, when you change the category in the top menu, all the corresponding boxes change color to help users identify what has changed.
This is still really just a beta test, but I'm pretty excited for how useful this could be for DM's trying to keep track of an entire campaign worth of details without having to reference a dozen different sources. Feedback is very welcome - I'm open to all kinds of suggestions on what could be added, changed, or streamlined to make this as useful as possible for everyone.
::EDIT:: New version in the second post. I'll keep the old one available for anyone who wants to take a look, but the new one is a significantly smaller file, more flexible, and isn't missing a large chunk of the campaign info.
I only started DM'ing my own campaign earlier this year, but I immediately found myself wanting a tool where I could quickly look up all the relevant information for my players, enemies, locations and more, without having to juggle referencing the DM's Guide, Player's Guide, 5 printed character sheets, the campaign booklet, and/or half a dozen or more open tabs in the 5e wiki. I created a spreadsheet for myself where I put in all the raw information about the campaign and then used dropdowns to bring up everything I would need to know about a PC, enemy, or location all at once. I've found it incredibly useful, so far, and I'm planning on redesigning and developing it further, but I've hit a point where I want to design with usability for everyone in mind, and if I don't share it, I could put in hours or days of work building a feature that doesn't work when I share it online (something I did when I built the version I've linked, which is why I want to avoid it in the future.)
I know that currently, this spreadsheet will only function entirely as designed if you open it with the desktop version of Microsoft Excel, possibly only specific versions. The navigation buttons on the "Home" tab don't work in Excel for web due to a lack of support for Visual Basic code online. However, *most* of the functionality relies on in-cell lookup functions that work on desktop or online, so people should be able to get a good feel for how it's supposed to work. This file is specifically for "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" campaign that I'm currently running, but the idea for a finished form is that DM's will be able to add in their player information, edit the appropriate lists (which are hidden from view, when the spreadsheet is in "use mode"), and the spreadsheet adjusts to the new campaign. I'd love to get feedback on what I've built, hear what's user-friendly and what's confusing, and get some advice on maybe making some of the features that currently only function in very limited circumstances available for everyone.If anyone would like to give it a basic test, using the link above, you might have to log in to a Microsoft account, but you can create a Live email account for free, then once you have it open, use the colored "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs along the bottom to navigate through the main pages, and then use the dropdowns on each page to change the information displayed. In the "Players" tab, the character name at the top left is a dropdown, as well as the cells below "Features" and "Spells". In the "Monsters" tab, there's only the cell beneath "Monster". In the "Phandalin tab, there are dropdowns for Locations, People, and Quests.People who want to take a deeper look under the hood at everything that's going on can right-click any of the tabs and choose "unhide" to open up one or more of the *many* hidden tabs that hold all the background info, or encounter pages for hideouts/battles PC's may happen across in their explorations. I'm not exactly an expert at creating in Excel, so I might not be able to incorporate all the suggestions I'm sure people could come up with, but I'm definitely trying to build as versatile and user-friendly a tool as possible, so all feedback is welcome.As a final note - I wasn't sure if features would be usable without making the file open to editing, so if everyone could please be polite and not delete things, hide any tabs they unhide, and make sure the main "Players", "Monsters", and "Phandalin" tabs remain visible before exiting, it would be greatly appreciated.I completely rebuilt the spreadsheet. Since all the visual basic features I built into the first version were broken in Excel for web, I streamlined navigation and made everything available in just three tabs.
I've also added nested dropdowns that keep everything compact. Choosing something from one of the dropdowns in the menu along the top will update the corresponding dropdown on the left, and to make everything as clear as possible, when you change the category in the top menu, all the corresponding boxes change color to help users identify what has changed.
This is still really just a beta test, but I'm pretty excited for how useful this could be for DM's trying to keep track of an entire campaign worth of details without having to reference a dozen different sources. Feedback is very welcome - I'm open to all kinds of suggestions on what could be added, changed, or streamlined to make this as useful as possible for everyone.
nope no good
i want other dm tools. this is a SUPER cool and good tool.