Advice on Period Info

[meek75]

Originally Posted by Pollution

I'm putting in Eternal Lies currently in the hopes that I'll get to run it someday.

What I'm doing, is having an entry for Location (Savannah, GA, LA, etc..) that topic contains the bulk of the information you're talking about there.

I own Eternal Lies too and plan to run it someday. I'd love to see some screen shots of your realm.

[Pollution]

Total work in progress....

Some basic screenshots.

My players don't own ToC (they're poor), so I put up as many rules as I think are needed.

Here's my skills section, a storyboard, and a sample scene.

I'm hoping to finish Act One this month, then my goal would be a country every 2 weeks, but we'll see what's going on in life to make that happen.

[Lexin]

Nice! I particularly like your storyboard.

I have one where my characters could end up going round and round if they're not careful, or, indeed, if they're too careful and won't take any risks at all.

That's how they ended up allowing the King in Yellow (from the Chaosium adventure Tatters of the King) to come to earth, meaning my campaign just got a lot more complicated.

[meek75]

@ Pollution, very nice. I am also entering a lot of mechanics information. When web view gets implemented I am hoping it speeds things up at the table. It already speeds things up for me when I need to find a particular rule. I am trying to organize the mechanics section in the same way as ToC, but that has presented some challenges. I like the way you used an "other" topic under "Cthulhu Mythos" to contain a related topic. Your storyboard was thought provoking. I don't really love the way the current storyboard looks and functions so I don't use it much at all currently. I use an external mind mapping program when I want to create something complex. I lose some of what RW offers, but feel I gain more than I lose. When I really need links I can snap a picture of my mind map and load it in as a smart image. IMHO, the storyboard is in need of some major upgrades before it beats out the other software pieces out there. Thanks for the screen shots!

[Pollution]

The biggest flaw with the storyboard (IMHO) is that it needs to be editable, in that we should be able to move the blocks around ourselves.

There are times when auto sort Vertical, Horizontal, or even loop-friendly just make things TERRIBLE. Breaking down the plot into sub-plots helps a lot.

[meek75]

Originally Posted by Pollution

The biggest flaw with the storyboard (IMHO) is that it needs to be editable, in that we should be able to move the blocks around ourselves.

There are times when auto sort Vertical, Horizontal, or even loop-friendly just make things TERRIBLE. Breaking down the plot into sub-plots helps a lot.

I agree, that is the biggest problem currently. I need complete freedom to place and size story elements. I would also like to have more options on the color and graphics displayed.

[MNBlockHead]

Originally Posted by meek75

I agree, that is the biggest problem currently. I need complete freedom to place and size story elements. I would also like to have more options on the color and graphics displayed.

I wouldn't mind more control over the storyboard formatting, though that is a much lower priority for me than many other features (calendars, printing, even more control over style sheets, etc.)

One thing I *don't* want, however, is for the formatting to overshadow ease of content entry. I don't know if you can easily design a tool like this to have the best of both options. I don't know that it can just be an option you can use or not.

To give you an example, for many years I did all my process mapping in Microsoft Visio. Then I switched to IBM BlueWorks. When I first started using BlueWorks I was frustrated with the lack of control over formatting. But the ease of creating process documentation and the time saved were so striking that I stopped using Visio almost completely, only using Visio when I needed a highly formatted process map—usually for printed media.

Right now, I find it easy to use the storyboard, though I agree it can get messy looking. I quickly map out the story, link to topics, and use in navigation mode at the table. It is a core feature of the program that I rely on. If it becomes more like Visio, where I have to spend a lot of time fiddling with the formatting it would be much less useful, albeit prettier.

Being able to customize the fill colors should be an option that shouldn't post much threat to ease of use.

More control of icons...hmmm. I like that it matches the icon of the linked topic. I'd rather have control over the topic icons and let the storyboard continue to use the icons of linked content. If you could have the option to override this behavior to put your own icons on an ad hoc basis, without affecting the default behavior of using the icon of the linked topic, fine.

Being able to move nodes and flow lines around...this is what most of those complaining about the story board seem to be wishing for. I would think that this is very hard to code. Major products developed by huge companies are mostly one or the other. Visio offers great granular control but little in the way of automation. BlueWorks is awesome for quickly creating flow charts because of the automated mapping, but you have limited control over formatting. IBM has developed more formatting control over the years, but new formatting features are added slowly and incrementally because losing the ease of automation would destroy much of the product's value.

I would love to have both—and others with a greater breadth of experience in these kinds of tools might have more insight on what is possible and how hard the coding for all this is. But to me, it seems like it would be asking a lot of a small company. They likely have to make hard decisions and compromises and I hope when it comes to the storyboard, those choices are made in favor of ease of content entry.

[meek75]

@MNBlockhead, thanks for the post on this topic. I found the information helpful in trying to understand the reasons for why the storyboard exists in its current form. I am starting to appreciate some of the challenges RW might face in making the SB more like I want it. However, at the end of the day, if I get more benefit from a 3rd party app than from the SB in RW, then I'll probably chose to go with the 3rd party. It's the same challenge RW faced with programs like My Info and MS One Note. I used One Note for my game files prior to RW. It worked for me and did what I needed. When RW came along I had to decide if RW offered me enough advantage over One Note to merit the cost and learning curve. Obviously, I decided it did and switched to RW for my game management. In the case of Story Boards, I don't feel the same. I like the idea and I do use story maps, but I feel I get more from other software options. If I have a relatively short story board that is not too complex, I use RW, but go outside it for more complex maps. I'm sure personal style is a factor here too. I usually don't bother with a map in a very linear adventure or in an uncomplicated one. The maps help a lot with complex non-linear stories or intricate family trees. I just find RW can't do it. They get so messy that they no longer help me organize or get so big they are hard to read or both. If I could arrange the maps as I see fit, rather than have it automate, that alone might swing me over to RW in some cases. Now, as you mention, the next question is one of resources. Do I want LWD to spend time on this? I'm not sure. Right now I have programs that work for me, but this is such a personal opinion. Everyone has a favorite feature they want and LWD has to make choices. I get that and am not on a mission to get SB features. However, I do think we are underestimating the impact of visual form of RW. Let's face it, RW isn't pretty and offers very little customization in therms of visual appearance. I know people that that don't really give RW a chance because it just doesn't look polished. It looks like what it is, a robust program produced by a small company with limited resources. I know we all want more feature (function over form and all that), but I think we that are avid users under estimate the impact of form. Great conversation! Thanks!