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Story board/Timeline

S

storeyl

Active member
I was trying to work out how to make use of the story board yesterday, it is one of the areas I'm still struggling to work out what it gives me.

Anyway I thought I could map out at a high level all the stuff going on, and there are several parallel plots going on. The players may come across some, others they may not, but many of them interrelate to each other.

So what I wanted was 3 plot point coming off the start point representing 3 things that will be going on in parallel for at least part of the time. I found as I started adding more plot points under these first 3 that the layout kept changing in such a way that I lost any easily recognizable indication of what time line they were each following.

What I would like is some way of dating, or otherwise ordering within time, plot points so that the UI will layout the different plot streams in a way that you can get a good idea of what is happening at the same time as something else.


Failing that another way would be to somehow integrate the timeline with story board. So that I create each parallel plot separately, but time stamping key parts and then being able to see in an enhanced timeline the 3 threads in parallel. At the moment I could time stamp event topics, but they would just munge together in the timeline making it a bit hard to see the different threads whilst at the same time seeing how they relate in time.

As an example: start date-time is the same for all 3 plots.

Plot 1. 2 small people break off from the group and head off to destroy the big magic artifact.

Plot 2. 2 other small people are taken prisoner by bad guys and taken back to the BigBad.

Plot 3. The group wizard, assumed dead, is not and is on his way back via a different route.

Plot 4. The BigBad is assembling his armies for an assault on the good guys.

Plot 5. The BigBad's ally is assembling his armies for an assault on the good guys allies.


The rest of the group (the PCs) bury a comrade and then have to decide what to do. Do they go after the 2 small people with the magic item, the captured friends, or do something else to help the good guys.

If I can see at a glance all the major events that each plot will throw up AND side by side to each other time wise then I can better handle what is happening no matter which way the rest of the group decide to do. Make sure they hear the appropriate rumors of other strands of the story etc.
 
Sounds to me as though you want to be able to force the structure of the storyboard so that concurrent events occur in the same row/column (depending on whether you structure vertically or horizontally), which would be great for the specific visualisation you're going for. Everything else would be calendar dependent (specifically using the broad "circa" timing proposed in the survey).

This gets a +1 from me, because more user-defined display options is a good thing.
 
I'd prefer it if we could place things ourselves. The automatic arrangements need very simple structures to work well.
 
+10 please. This would really help with larger plotlines so we could create add white space and group things more effectively. RW tries hard but it creates some unreadable clusters....
 
Parody said:
I'd prefer it if we could place things ourselves. The automatic arrangements need very simple structures to work well.
Click to expand...

Spot on Parody!
That is almost word for word what I added in the survey comments for things overlooked that are needed. The ability to customize box location, style, line style, etc

+10, & #3 on my list of things needed

1> CALENDARS
2> Individual CHARACTER Reveal
3> Storyboard Customizing
4> Player Journal
5> Print/ PDF capability

and just to send Chemlak into shock....:eek:
I'd even consider Character reveal before CALENDARs only because I have a workaround for the calendars..... I just feel the integration of calendars is fundamental to game management. Where as the Player Reveal is fundamental to information sharing.
 
I'd go for being able to layout our own stuff, but would prefer auto date layout. Both would be better. I want the auto to do it for me then maybe fiddle a bit myself at the end.
 
Many, many posts ago, I'd recommended a stripped down Visio interface. A few different shapes and colors with the option for placing on a grid that link together as they do now.
 
AEIOU said:
Many, many posts ago, I'd recommended a stripped down Visio interface. A few different shapes and colors with the option for placing on a grid that link together as they do now.
Click to expand...

Spot on, that is how I vision it as well, but few that trek off of the primary road of MS Word to other software better suited. Hence the struggles some have with RW, since it more loosely resembles a Database than a word-processor or spreadsheet.

Most don't recall Harvard Graphics, which was the "Visio" of its day that set the trend for Microsoft to develop a competing program and incorporate charting within MS Excel.

+1 to this approach
 
I actually like the automated approach we have now - it is great for brainstorming and such.

The other suggestions are great, as long as I can still have the automated approach as well. :-)

The idea of having it automated and then at some point you can decide to re-arrange it yourself is probably the way to go.
 
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