Designing an RPG tool... Opinions wanted!

[RPGSmith]

I'm working to build a suite of tools that I think would greatly help tabletop RPG games like Pathfinder. In an effort to ensure a desire (and market) for such a tool suite I was hoping to get feedback from any gamers (GMs or players) out there that would care to comment.

The tool is centered around inventory management for a given campaign. The GM would have the ability to create and control inventory for their campaign though a web interface. The players of that campaign would create characters and connect those to the campaign (through a browser or mobile device app) to which the GM could give items to these characters. Initially it sounds kinda boring but think about some additional possibilities bulleted below;
• The ability for Players to manager their character through a mobile device. Stats, spells, abilities, attributes, etc.
• The ability for a player to view their current inventory, total weight, etc.
• The GM can setup and manage shops to which players can purchase and sell in game items without further GM interaction.
• The ability for players to inspect other players and see “visible” items, characteristics
• Players can trade items with other players in their campaign
• Players can track spells & abilities (skills, feats, etc)
o Things like if a character wants to cast a spell the tool would indicate if their character currently meets the requirements to cast that spell (they have a spell slot available, and the needed reagents in their inventory, etc.).
• Built-in initiative tracker, to which players can see and follow in their device as well. Option for GMs to hide enemies in the player’s view of the initiative tracker.
• The GM can setup loot, such as treasure chests, downed monsters, etc.
• Dice Roller with player configured Macros option.
• Notes, the GM can create notes or images and share with the campaign members through the tool. Player can create and track their own notes as well.
• Messaging, GM or players can send messages to 1 or more other members of the campaign
• The ability to add buffs or effects to characters and track those
• 1dX Table selections where the GM can get random results from a GM table of <whatever> (loot, tavern names, character traits, etc.)
• Import/Export capabilities – All configurations, items, templates made by GM in their campaign can be exported and shared with others GMs for use in their campaign.

There are a lot of other aspects and believe it or not this is a high level view of just some of things this tool could do. Would anyone be interested in such a tool set? Are there any other pain points out there you think could be addressed as a GM or player?

[Rusty Ironpants]

Just a couple of Questions:

Would this be free to use? If not, what does the subscription model look like?

Herolab already has my character management needs covered. Plus they aready have my money. Would I be able to import my HL character file into this tool? If not there is pretty much no way I would be interested in using it. I suspect the same might be true for many others who have already made a significant investment in that software.

I am not sure if being web based is a positive or negative. Is there an offline mode? Sometimes I play pathfinder where there is no wifi access, especially at conventions.

Edit: One more question. Would everything have to be user created? Would it come pre-loaded with all the items from the Core Rulebook?

[RPGSmith]

Rusty Ironpants wrote:

Just a couple of Questions:

Would this be free to use? If not, what does the subscription model look like?

Herolab already has my character management needs covered. Plus they aready have my money. Would I be able to import my HL character file into this tool? If not there is pretty much no way I would be interested in using it. I suspect the same might be true for many others who have already made a significant investment in that software.

I am not sure if being web based is a positive or negative. Is there an offline mode? Sometimes I play pathfinder where there is no wifi access, especially at conventions.

Edit: One more question. Would everything have to be user created? Would it come pre-loaded with all the items from the Core Rulebook?

Thanks for the reply. Herolab would be a bit different from the tool I have in mind. If you are just interested in a character sheet then as you said HeroLab probably has you covered.

The tool I envision would be built to improve collaboration and automate interaction between player characters and the world the GM controls, especially surrounding item management and inventory. Aside from some of the other features like sharing notes & images, sending messages, collaborative initiative tracker, or character to character interactions (trading with or inspecting other PCs) I think the most unique feature would be the ability for the GM to setup loot, or stores, or mobs in the campaign from which the players can potentially acquire items from with the swipe of a screen, rather than jotting down or typing in a bunch of information and potentially inputting something wrong or missing an item. Purchasing from a store or looting a downed create would be as easy as doing so in a fantasy video game.

For the interaction of making purchases in a store or trading items with another player and updating that information in real-time it would almost certainly have to be internet based and require an active connection. The GM could use the tool solely to prepare the campaign items and print off stores, or mobs, and use it offline in a more traditional sense.

And yes, to build something of this scale and keep it up and running it would require some type of subscription model. Its still a bit early to crunch those numbers on how much but especially for a player the yearly fee wouldn't be a lot.

With regards to everything being pre-created, the whole tool is designed to have the content exportable/importable. So if a GM creates a campaign settings and pre-creates mobs, stores, locations, treasure, special items, mundane items, etc. They could export that and provide it to another GM to import and be off and running. It could greatly decrease the prep-time a GM would need to get a campaign up and running. The tool would also allow him to quickly create unique content (shops, monsters, etc.) on the fly.