El Dado Inquieto: Personas y dados: Software for role-playing designers

jueves, 9 de septiembre de 2021

Personas y dados: Software for role-playing designers

How have you spent this August? I hope it went well (despite the circumstances).

With this post I carry on with the non-official companion of Personas y dados and today I will talk about computer software which can be helpful for the role-playing designer to develop his task.

To read the review of Personas y dados follow this link, for literary and game design resources this one and for the study of licenses and a list of usable rulesets this other one.

Retrieving previous topics

But before starting with the main theme of this post I will retrieve some previous themes to talk about a pair of resources I have discovered recently, which I think could be interesting and so I want you to know them:

First of all here you have the link to the game Dawn of Worlds, created by N. Bob Pesall and available at Clanwebsite/Legends. This game allows to create fantasy worlds collaboratively, with players performing as gods and the obtained results can inspire you in the creation of worlds for your own games.

Regarding legal issues concerning Intellectual Property in the United States you may find interesting to read the document Intellectual Property in Roleplaying Games, based in this Reddit thread and written by the northamerican lawyer Boyd A. Stephenson, available at DriveThruRPG as PWYW ($4.99).

Computer programs

Next I will suggest you some software which can help in your projects (besides these you may also search for more which can fit your needs or your ways to work consulting Fosshub, AlternativeTo, Portable Freeware and Portable Apps).

►►► Office suites ◄◄◄

First of all I present you three free office suites akternatives to Microsoft's which you probably already know:

Apache OpenOffice

Website: Apache OpenOffice Office suite developed by Apache Software Foundation. It has: Word processor (Writer) Spreadsheets (Calc) Presentations (Impress) Vector graphics, flowcharts and dynamic 3D illustrations (Draw) Databases (Base) Mathematics formules edition (Math) For some functions (basically Base) needs Java to be installed: Requisites
LibreOffice

Website: LibreOffice Office suite developed by Document Foundation from OpenOffice. It has: Word processor (Writer) Spreadsheets (Calc) Presentations (Impress) Vector graphics and flowcharts (Draw) Databases (Base) Mathematics formules edition (Math) For some functions (basically Base) needs Java to be installed: Requisites
FreeOffice

Website: FreeOffice Office suite developed by Softmaker It has: Word processor (TextMaker) Spreadsheets (PlanMaker) Presentations (Presentations)

►►► Software for writers ◄◄◄

Besides generalist writing programs it's also possible to find more specialized word precessors which can help authors and role-playing designers needing to give structure to their works:

yWriter

Website: yWriter - novel writing software designed by an author, not a salesman Word processor developed by Simon Haynes (programmer and author). The program allows authors to work in their novels as projects with the following tools: Divide the novel in chapters and scenes Add characters and objects Re-order all dragging and dropping as needed Use a storyboard Word recount for each part of the project Register of words written every day to control how the work progress
Manuskript

Website: Manuskript – Open-source tool for writers Word processor developed by Olivier Keshavjee. The program allows authors to work in their novles with the following tools: Schematics creation to organize the work Work in a distraction-free mode with the creation of templates to modify program's aspect (full screen, etc.) or use the themes of FocusWriter An assistant to work with the snowflake method Possibility of creating characters, plots and worlds
Quoll Writer

Website: Quoll Writer - focus on your words Word processor developed by Gary Bentley. The program is characterized by: Offering a minimal interface to avoid distractions Manage characters, locations and other elements quickly and precisely (creating your own elements, recount of number appearing in the work, etc.) Easy creation of scenes and plots in a fast and easy way Possibility of writing with full screen to avoid distractions Use the Problem Finder (with configurable rules) to review text Possibility of sharing text with others in Editor Mode to carry out revisions of it Written text statistics (number of words and objective's control) Possibility of quickly taking notes to recover them afterwards Possibility of carry out warm-up exercises (writing with a limitation in words or time, for instance)
KIT Scenarist

Website: KIT Scenarist - free screenwriting software Word processor developed by Dimka Novikov. The program allows to write scripts with the international film production standards and has the following characteristics and modules: Investigation (to collect information for the project: characters, locations, various materials, links to web pages, etc.) Cards (used to organise scenes: these can be organised by rows and columns, color changed, grouped, etc.) Script (script editor, configurable) Statistics (characters, words, pages and scene duration recount) Friendly interface (dark or bright themes, full screen, ability to import and export text in various file formats)
WriteMonkey

Website: WriteMonkey - Home Minimalist word processor (zenware). It's characterized, among other things, by being: Small, stable and quick Without distractions (full screen) Completely customizable and extensible through JavaScript plugins Able to use Markdown, Extra, and WikiCreole) markup languages Able to use bookmarks to quickly access different text segments Compatible with the classical It's All Text! Firefox add-on (you will need to install the complement GitHub - JustOff/ca-archive: Catalog of classic Firefox add-ons created before WebExtensions apocalypse to access the classical add-ons list and install them)

►►► Mind maps ◄◄◄

Mind maps allow information to be visually to obtain an overall image of ideas and concepts.

FreeMind

Website: Main Page - FreeMind Characterized by: Project management (including subtasks, subtasks state and time register) A site to centralise all the project's files Using notes (knowledge base) The possibility of carry out brainstormings Using HTML links inside nodes Quick navigation clicks and folding of nodes Copy and paste from many kind of files (word, rtf, etc.) Export maps in HTML format Save maps in XML format To work it needs to hava Java installed: How do I download the Java Runtime Environment needed to run FreeMind.
TreeSheets

Website: TreeSheets Characterized by: Being "a hierarchical spreadsheet" to substitute spreadsheets, mind maps, word processors and small databases Able to be uses to organize all kind of information (lists of todo things, calendars, project management, brainstormings, planning, etc.) Being exceptionally small and fast (in Windows 7, for instance, uses only 5 Mb of memory for 100 text pages)
ThinkComposer

Website: - ThinkComposer. Flowcharts, Concept Maps, Mind Maps, Diagrams and Models. Characterized by: Creation of multilevel diagrams Relations and concepts with titles, summaries, pictograms, description and version reports Relations wich can be linked to other concepts and relations Report generation Possibility of exporting (XML, TXT) Possibility of easily including external and detailed information (links, images, files, etc.) Possibility of defining your own structures To work it needs to have .NET 4.0 installed: Requisitos
VYM

Website: VYM - View Your Mind Characterized by: Having 3 types of editors (Map, Notes and Tasks) The possibility of quickly re-ordering the elements of the mind map Using notes to save all kind of information Using predefined icons to mark sections The possibility of easily inserting images Using a flexible file format (XML) Able to export all data in a compressed file (.vym) as well as in image format (BMP, JPEG, PBM, PGM, PNG, PPN, XPM, y XBM), in PDF, SVG and Open Office Impress among many others

►►► Analising dice rolls ◄◄◄

As written in page 58 of Personas y dados it could be very useful for game designers to analise dice rolls, something allowed by the following websites:

AnyDice

Website: AnyDice Allows to simulate any kind of roll. To see how to use it you may consult these articles and the help in the left-side menu. You also may find interesting to consult these articles by Bastión Rolero and Reddit: Anydice o cómo calcular la probabilidad de cualquier tirada Anydice: contar éxitos, dados Fudge/FATE y dados personalizados Anydice: Comandos a conocer (estudiando el sistema Rápido y Fácil) Anydice Tutorial - Part 1. Basics and Damage Calculations Anydice Tutorial - Part 2. Functions, Rerolls, Crits, and Strategies
dice - Wolfram\|Alpha

Website: dice - Wolfram\|Alpha The website Wolfram\|Alpha allows to carry out all kind of online calculations taking as a base a great number of data stored in their servers, to see the possibilities and various tools and resources you may consult this link.

►►► TiddlyWiki ◄◄◄

Tiddlywiki are a world themselves, because they are basically web pages that can be updated with a web browser and can be used as a notepad and organize ideas.
From a technological point of view these are Quines.

TiddlyWiki

Website: TiddlyWiki — a non-linear personal web notebook Characterized by: Being an interactive tool to manipulate complex information with structures not fitting easily in conventional tools like spreadsheets or word processors Information can be divided in small pieces ('tiddlers') which may be used and organized as appropiate This information may be saved in many ways (wether a web server or locally), to see different possible ways to do it it's advisable to visit the section Getting Started, where you can choose the browser and the operative system to see the different options (web browser extensions, scripts, servers, etc.) Being an open source program (license) it also has a very large developer community
TiddlyWiki for Scholars

Website: TiddlyWiki for Scholars — a notetaking tool powered by TiddlyWiki 5.0.15-beta It's a TiddlyWiki variant characterized by: Being focused in scholar investigation (something which also may be useful for designers taking notes while to create a game or a campaign) Organize contents by tabs showing the relevant information for each 'tiddler' To see a content sample you may read this sample post devoted to William Shakespeare
TiddlyMap

Website: TiddlyMap.org \| Wiki-Based Concept-Mapping Software It's a TiddlyWiki variant characterized by: The possibility to create mind maps Create templates for recurrent themes Using personalised icons The possibility of rasterizing mind maps
Tiddlyhost

Website: Tiddlyhost Web hosting service for TiddlyWikis characterized by: The possibility to create an online TiddlyWiki (or upload an existing one to the server) This TiddlyWiki can be public or private (something which may be useful for the designer)
NoteSelf

Website: NoteSelf — Your selfish notebook Development very similar to Evernote characterized by: Using TiddlyWiki and PouchDb Being able to write notes and keep different versions of them (versions management) Accept plugins (you can write your own or use those from TiddlyWiki) Its contents can be sincronised among different devices and remote servers

►►► Time and tasks managers ◄◄◄

ToDoList

Website: ToDoList Program to manage tasks and projects, productivity, planning and collaboration characterized by having: Calendar Gantt charts Graphics Kanban using Lists Mind maps Task trees Weekly planner Workload Word clouds
Task Coach

Website: Task Coach Program to manage taks characterized by: Tasks and subtasks management (creation, edition and erasing) Tasks are characterized by having a subject, priority, beginning and ending dates and reminders, also these can be repeated daily, weekly and monthly Lists and task trees Possibility of filtering Possibility of file attaching Asignation of categories to tasks Register of time used in tasks The filetype used in the program, .tsk, is a universal file format (XML) which may be exported to HTML and CSV (it can also export calendars to iCalendar/ICS) Printing of calendars, notes, tasks, etc.
Trello

Website: Trello Tasks organizer in the kanban style characterized by: Using boards, lists and cards Teamwork capability Project and task management Timeline visualization Using calendars Using deadlines Task asignment Work connection through diverse apps Tasks automation Integration with other online tools (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)

Next posts?

With this post ends the non-official companion of Personas y dados, although due to some comments you have made about its contents I don't discard to extend it in the future with new posts complementing the exposed themes.

This entry it's also available in the following languages:
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jueves, 9 de septiembre de 2021

Personas y dados: Software for role-playing designers

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