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User interface ideas

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
When examining this Kickstarter project for treasure item cards, it occurred to me that something resembling a card could be a useful user interface concept also for Campaign Logger, especially when the GM is showing or delivering information for the players.

In practice this would not need to be much more than just a log entry and a related image (the 'card front') presented so that the GM can choose which of them to show to the players. Initially the players could see for example just the image of a new creature, item or location. When they find out more about it, the GM could also unlock 'the reverse side of the card', i.e. also a textual description for future reference. (The log entry could still contain GM-only notes that would never be visible to players.)

Sorry about such a randomly presented idea, I thought it might be better to mention it even in this undeveloped form than to forget about it entirely.
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Good stuff @ELF.

The new cards UI has a ton of possibilities.

I really like the idea of a plain view for when players find an item. Maybe a treasure generator generates a pile of cards that players can sort through.

Would also love to see a card symbol UI like in the board games I play. Extra info, clickable symbols for functions, etc.
 
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ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Would also love to see a card symbol UI like in the board games I play. Extra info, clickable symbols for functions, etc.
Sounds good to me! I like the card metaphor because it is familiar, easy to understand and allows compact presentation.

I may be getting ahead of things here, but wouldn't it be neat if log entries could be presented also as cards, and the GM could arrange the upcoming session as card stacks, each stack containing the relevant entries for one encounter or scene? Maybe there could even be some random shuffling, for example when the GM wants to generate a random encounter.

The session map could resemble a tarot reading, with stacks of cards spread on a table, connected by paths. The scenario would proceed between card stacks based on how the game events. (And no doubt would often branch also outside the table...)

And when a card is clicked, it would zoom in to display the full log entry. The 'cards on a table' view would just make it easier to see the big picture.
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
Speaking of a presentational view, this reminds me of my gaming setup. I am using a wall mounted TV to present images for mood or tactical detail as well as music and ambient sound to the players. Your idea of cards would go well with this.
One of my side projects is an app that allows me to target this screen independently as a PowerPoint presentation does. That way, I would select GM content on my notebook screen, and the corresponding player content displays automatically on the TV.
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
One of my side projects is an app that allows me to target this screen independently as a PowerPoint presentation does. That way, I would select GM content on my notebook screen, and the corresponding player content displays automatically on the TV.
That does sound sweet! :love:

Indeed the card metaphor would work well with a second screen support. Maybe the 'card front' could even be automatically displayed on the player screen by default? Although this does not sound like CL core functionality and it can be challenging to create a similar experience on all of the supported platforms, maybe compatibility with an OS feature or an external app would be possible. One can dream...
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
On a somewhat less ambitious note, a simple widget like these life counters could be a good addition to the digital GM screen:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/g10/g10-0-999-spin-down-life-counter

The functionality is simple, but the challenge lies in making the widget as easy to use as possible, especially if the counter can both increase and decrease by varying amounts (like a hit point tally).
 
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ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
My Kickstarter links are becoming even more random... Nevertheless, this campaign resulted in an idea about a widget that allows easy listing of all the characters in play, and their statuses/conditions:

Both as a player and as a Game Master it is easy to forget a small detail that may be important such as a particular status or condition you or another creature or player is currently in.

I did a lot of searching for a good solution to this but I could never find one. I've seen people use coins, aquarium pebbles and different colored markers but these aren't great solutions because it's easy to forget what color means what and not every player at the table ever really knows what all of the different markers mean.
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...st-creature-dice-and-status-condition-markers

This could be combined with the initiative tracker, as well as with the hit point counters.
 
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