Campaign Manager: Shadows, Dice, and Search

Several notable improvements for the latest version of Campaign Manager:

1. I polished up the appearances of encounters and regions with rounded corners and drop shadows:

2. I added a Dice tool:

Just clicking on one of the dice images "rolls" it. You can combine multiple dice by selecting one after the other and then optionally log them.

3. And best of all, a search feature! This was a must have as I had a couple moments with my players where they referenced something in the past and I had to rummage through multiple encounters trying to find the correct one. Now with the search feature finding the relevant encounter is incredibly fast. You can double click on one of the results to open the noted encounter.

You can download Campaign Manager from:

https://kamoly.itch.io/campaign-manager

 

Campaign Manager: Sample Campaign

A sample one-shot table top campaign has been added to Campaign Manager to demonstrate many of its features and how it can be used.

The campaign involves a mystery of several villagers that have gone missing in nearby towns. A band of adventurers has been hired to find out what's happening, recover the lost people, and prevent future disappearances. The campaign goes across a few days in game time in which the players discover the missing people had gone to a Bed and Breakfast in the country. When the players get there, they find the hosts aren't quite right.

The sample campaign demonstrates regions with overworld and interior maps, a timeline of events linked together, encounters with descriptions and music for the players, and finally a combat. The entire sample is within the limits of the Free version of the software to further demonstrate what is capable even in that version.

Available now at: https://kamoly.itch.io/campaign-manager

Campaign Manager: Released!

Took a lot for the final push, but Campaign Manager is officially released and available on itch.io!

https://kamoly.itch.io/campaign-manager

I have 2 versions posted: A free trial version that is limited to 30 encounters (which is actually quite a few) and a full version for a very small price.

The marathon changes this past month include:

• Fixed formatting in SRD v5.1 assets.

• Associated .campaign files in File Explorer to open Campaign Manager.

• Made nicer icons for add/edit/remove buttons.

• Added keyboard shortcuts for closing forms.
• Added appropriate icons to all forms.

• Added ability to assign an asset character type and description to a player or npc.

• When creating a combat, use the initiative and health from the character type.
• Add encounter over region by right clicking on it.

• Improvements to sample campaigns.
• Fixes to read-only assets / permissions in installed ProgramData path.
• Created trial version.
• Automated script that compiles and builds trial and release installers with a single click.
• Offer to open existing combats instead of always creating new.

• Added copy option for assets.
• Added Barbarian and Cleric NPC assets.

• Cleaned up variable names in campaign XML file.
• A bunch of other little glitches and bugs fixed.

Please download the trial and give it a shot! More features will be added, but I'd love to get feedback on what should have priority.

Campaign Manager: Engagements / Zoom / Music

Engagements

The Campaign Manager encounters had an ability to add "NPCs" and start a combat with them, but it didn't take advantage of the new assets. You had to manually type in the monster type, initiative, and hit points. This past month that "NPCs" item has been replaced by a new "Engagement" item:

An "Engagement" is the combat of an encounter. You assign which NPCs and monsters that are part of the combat. When you click "Start Combat", it automatically pulls the hit points and initiative based on the monster types that were selected.

You can't assign maps and monster locations... yet... but that is on the short to-do list. This will be the method of getting a combat encounter ready for players.

Zoom

The canvas of the Campaign Manager had the ability to pan around, but it was begging for the ability to quickly zoom in and out on it. That feature is now complete. Zoomed in:

And zoomed out:

Scroll bars automatically appear when appropriate.

Licensed Music

And not the most exciting feature, but I now have licensed royalty free music included with the Campaign Manager. I can now distribute the software freely without worrying about music legalities.

The music I have included is not as good as Table Top Audio (what I've been using in my own DnD campaign), but it's adequate. Thankfully users can copy in their own wav/mp3 files for the Campaign Manager to pull from (including from https://www.tabletopaudio.com/ ). 

Campaign Manager: Assets

Big feature update this month was adding the concept of "Assets" that can be imported and managed in the Campaign Manager. Rather than being campaign specific, these are characters/monsters, abilities/spells, and items/equipment that can be utilized by any campaign.

Wizards of the Coast publishes a "System Reference Document 5.1 (SRD5)" via the Open Game License that includes a huge library of monsters/spells/equipment for use in custom user created campaigns and applications. It doesn't have a few monsters such as Beholders nor does it include any proper names, locations, or religions, but it's still very comprehensive. There are some requirements that I must do such as making it very clear what is SRD5, including the license, and making the data accessible outside the program, but all of that is not a problem at all with my Campaign Manager.

So a new menu item has been added:

In that menu you can search through assets, import, create, and edit existing. Included in the software now is an "Example" custom asset to show what the the user can create and the ready-to-use "SRDv5.1".

My favorite feature though is the search. Select Asset->Search or just CTRL+ALT+F and then start typing the name or category of a character, ability, or item.

That's going to be sooo nice when a player casts a spell I don't remember the details of. A few key strokes and I have all its details ready to go.

Next up is integration of all these assets with the rest of the campaign. I've got big plans on how to manage combat at encounters with these assets.

Campaign Manager: Regions / Groups / Installer

Major improvements this month to the Campaign Manager:

• Simplified the Encounter control - options for the encounter can be set via right clicking or from the Encounter menu at the top.

• Added a "grouping" function that gift wraps selected encounters to visually show they're grouped together.

• Added "Regions" that can have background colors or background images assigned to them. Regions are always drawn behind Encounters, so Encounters can be overlaid on top of them. Additionally, Encounters can be linked to specific spots of a Region (like map markers).

• Fixes to click ordering of encounters, selection, and made the campaign size adjustable.

• Added sample campaigns to help users see the potential use cases of the software.

• Created an installer that automatically places the executable in Program Files, supporting music and sample files in Program Data, and shortcuts.

And finally, I've shared the Campaign Manager with some friends to get feedback. I still have lots of features I want to add, but I'm at a point that I'm ready for input from others.

Campaign Manager: Clipboard

I've not published the Campaign Manager for public use yet, but quite a few more features have been added to it.

The clipboard for encounters is complete - you can Cut/Copy/Paste them now.

Context Menus have been greatly expanded as well.

Right clicking in the open campaign area...

Right clicking on an encounter...

Right clicking on a link between encounters...

Combats are now saved / loaded with the campaign. If closed, they can be brought back from the Players menu.

A big must have improvement is the ability to select paths to be relative or absolute. If relative, then the Campaign Manager stores the saved paths relative to where the loaded campaign is saved. If absolute, then it stores the full path. The manager asks if the target should be saved as relative or absolute path. Relative paths are useful when your resource files for the campaign are located alongside the campaign manager file. Alternatively, it's possible you have a shared folder for many campaigns / projects in which case you may want an absolute path. Those paths will continue to open even if only the campaign manager file has been moved.

If relative selected...

Lastly I've cleaned up lots of little glitchy things like dialog boxes appearing behind encounter / combat forms, flashing background images, not marking the campaign as unsaved when it should have been, and some other minor items.