R P G W O R K B E N C H

Last Update

2010-08-24T15:18:00.000-04:00

I've began work on a different, yet similar and RPG related project which will have a new name. I won't reveal what it is, but once a new site is up, I will post a link from here. RPGWorkbench will return in another incarnation as part of the new project, in the future. Thanks for following to date, check back here every back in a while for an update in the future.

Thanks.

Virtually Back

2010-04-26T21:38:00.005-04:00

I am virtually back. That's almost back, but not entirely. Owning a house and getting major renovations started is not fun. To be fair, I am a bit more handy now, and not just with code. heh. I've spent the last couple of months mulling over whether it is still worth continuing with the project after all this time. I did some research on "the competition" and it seems that a bunch of new tools are out there, but again, nothing that satisfies what I want to build. That's good. It validates my need to continue this project. I have, however, decided to make this a hosted service as opposed to a download app. The reason for this is that it makes it easier to provide "online" functionality without forcing people to mess with routers and firewalls. It also allows me to monetize the project later, if it ever gets that far.

The hosted model also gets rid of the whole upgrade problem for users. You can use the site from anywhere, anytime. Initially it will be an open beta as it is developed and people will be free to use the features built to date and help me develop them by doing testing and suggesting improvements. Those will remain free even after there are pay for features. This path will cost me some money by having the need to have a server hosted somewhere, however its a risk I'll take. I may have also mentioned this in the past, but I have a new name for the application which will be revealed in due time. Meanwhile, keep checking, I will be starting up again soon.

Thanks for checking in.

Paused

2010-01-05T17:23:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple of months. I've had to take a break from the project due to a lot of personal things happening recently (all good stuff). I'm moving this month and will need to put some time into the new house. If all goes well, I will start up coding again in March. The break is kind of nice to think and not to think about RPGWorkbench. Gives me time to decide whether to make this a web app or a download app which I have not yet decided myself as well as do a few things which I had been too occupied to do. Be back soon...

Character Generator Designer, it lives!

2009-10-17T14:53:00.004-04:00

I have not posted any updates in a while because I did not have anything interesting to post. I've been heads down in the character generator designer redesign and coding whenever I had time to work on it. The redesign took longer than expected, but I am extremely happy with the new look. You will also notice a lot of other design changes in the new screenshot. Those occured here and there between the last time I posted screenshots and now. I am constantly experimenting with the look and feel whenever I need a break from a complicated piece I am working on. It gives me a break and lets me refocus on the problem at hand. This strategy has worked well for me, though it does consume more time I find it rewarding.

Onto the screenshot. It is a bit large, I wanted to get all the goodies into the single shot. The editing is now done inline thoughout the character generator designer, and soon the rest of the application. The inline editing is a bit more natural for a web application and looks a lot better than having input controls all over the screen which makes it look both confusing and ugly.

The Configuration area as well as the action hooks are expandable and in fact start out collapsed. I expanded them for the screen shot. You click on the field you want to edit and the inline editor pops up. The screenshot has only one step, but you can have as many as you wish and to sort them, you drag and drop them (a new component I built). As you can see, the flow of the page looks pretty natural, is clean and easy to read.

The hooks are composed of actions, same actions you already defined in the rule editor and here you just select the one you want to add, and configure the properties. All actions from the rule engine are available, though some would not really be useful, they are still available and editable in the single place (the rule editor).

Back To The Drawing Board

2009-08-29T21:14:00.005-04:00

After approximately 2+ months of working on the character generator wizard I decided to toss all the code and design I had come up with and started from scratch again. Having written reams of code and having created a bunch of user interface (UI) mockups I came to realize the not only was the UI design complex to understand, but the code behind it was even worse.

A week ago while sitting in the car on a long drive in traffic, I realized that when the character generator wizard was complete, it would not be what I wanted it to be. The design was flawed and broke the one principle I set out to design with - simplicity for the user. The whole wizard idea in the traditional incarnation (with the next/previous buttons) was not cut out to work for character generation. The simple, single page design is much easier to follow, to create and to manage. My new design is much more concise and satisfying. I spent the past week ironing out the look and started coding this weekend. Not only will the UI be simple and easy to follow, so will the code.

Sometimes you have to admit that all the time you put in was wasted and start over. The final result is so much better off for it. Now if Micro$oft would do the same with Windows. ;)

Next update should include some new screenshots, stay tuned...

Still here

2009-07-25T11:36:00.002-04:00

I'm still here and working on RPGWorkbench. Last little while has been a bit busy with the new job and just getting back into my regular routine. I also spent quite a bit of time developing new components for the Echo framework because the available components are not suitable for the Character Generator Builder I am developing. I integrated jQuery into Echo and added some of its effects. The expandable panels now slide nicely as opposed to just appearing, etc.

Delays, delays, delays (a.k.a. stupid real life)

2009-06-04T16:04:00.006-04:00

What can I say, May was a bit crappy. I got laid off from a company which I really enjoyed working at and spent the month looking for work (good work that is). I worked a bit on RPGWorkbench still, but did not get a lot done due to my mind being distracted with real life. The good news is that I now have a new job I start in a week. Things are looking better again and I am about 30% through the UI development for the Wizard Designer. I hope to get some serious hours during next week as my house chores are almost all done. The wife puts me to work if I'm not working. :) Depending on how demanding my first couple weeks at the new job will be, I hope to finish the wizard designer; or be almost finished by the time I have to do the next update.

Wizard Designer

2009-05-07T22:12:00.005-04:00

Just a quick update on the wizard designer. You would use the wizard designer to create a character generator, for example. I have spent some time mocking up various layout candidates for the wizard designer and below is my semi-final draft. The mockup is created using Balsamiq Mockups. The layout is probably the most complex out of anything in RPGWorkbench to date. Unfortunately creating a UI builder is not a simple task, and using one is not simple either. I believe this layout will be flexible enough without being unnatural for users.

The mockup shows the general layout. It will include a viewer of how the wizard will look so that you get immediate feedback, though I have a few concerns regarding the complexity of that implementation. I will make an attempt anyhow. You will also be able to fire up the wizard and test it as you go. A few details still need to be worked out, but I am fairly sure I covered most situations here. The important thing here is that you will not need to write script (though the option will always exist), instead you will use an interface similar to the rule builder to hook up actions at various points in each wizard step. As in the rule engine, the actions will be configured via parameters and you will be able to create your own, should you need to.

February/March Update: New Interface & iPod/iPhone Support

2009-04-10T13:25:00.007-04:00

There was nothing new to post in February so I didn't write an update that month. I had been busy completing the migration to the Echo3 framework and resolving some bugs which were introduced during the migration. In March I spent some time restructuring the look of the application to be more usable on smaller screens. I had gotten a dell mini notebook a few months back and it bothered me that RPGWorkbench could not be used on a smaller resolution screen because of the multi-window user interface. I decided to drop the windows for a tabbed interface instead. Now, RPGWorkbench can be used on screen resolutions 1024x768 and up. It even works an on iPhone and iPod touch!!! I got to test it out last time my friends came over to game with their iPods.

Below is a screenshot of the new interface. I also got new icons for the application and replaced many of the old ones. The default theme will be the black/gray/white colours, but users will be able to change all that with their own graphics and icons for their systems. I am now updating the rules UI to the tabbed format, after that it is back to the character generator builder.

January Update

2009-02-09T21:09:00.002-05:00

I paused feature development during January and instead spent some time moving to the latest version of Echo, called Echo3. The migration was not without some hassles, namely things which I meant to fix at some point anyway. There were a few new bugs with existing code. Echo3 didn't like the way I did a few things and that cost some time in debugging. I also had to re-create some components which I needed but do not yet exist in Echo3.

The migration not only allows me to use the latest and greatest beta release, but it greatly simplifies the development of custom components. I will need to create custom components for some of the future features such as the game map. I was weary to tackle the complicated API to develop new components in Echo2, this new releases promises to be much simpler.

Having said that, another major reason was the Character Generator Builder. The damn thing is pretty complex and I wanted some time to think about it before I coded too much. I am back to working on it again now.

December Update

2009-01-04T21:27:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

During December I finished the management of dice rolls, tables and text data. All those components were required for the construction of the character generation wizard which I have began to design in early December. A character generation wizard is by far the most complex piece of code that has been developed to date. The complexity comes not from writing a wizard for a specific system, but one for any system. The fact that you can create your own wizard with minimal to none scripting will be awesome! The challenge is big and I have begun the design by creating mockups of the various game system character generation screens. Using the mockups, I am breaking down the requirements of each screen so that all needs are considered. I won't lie, its not easy and the complexity has put me off more than once. I am determined, and now that my liver is taking a break from the December Debuchery^tm, I am ready to dive into this full tilt. Again, this is the last major feature before the first milestone beta release and I am excited. Five years of planning and work is coming closer to realization. Its amazing how much effort it takes to follow through a project over a 5 year period. The long time period guarantees my dedication to the project and that I will complete it. My new year's resolution is to spend more time than I did last year which was still considerable as I track my time and can look back to see what I did and when. As a final note, I will most likely change the name of the application when it is released. I have a few ideas and some domains (just in case), that's all marketing fluff and not that important without a product.

November Update

2008-11-26T22:37:00.008-05:00

This month I have been both productive and extremely busy with other things. We went for vacation in Argentina and Brazil which was an awesome time. I also got a bunch of code done dealing with dice and lookup tables. As promised a while back, below are screenshots of the Character Manager and the Dice Manager.

The Character Manager allows you to view and manage characters. The example below shows the one test character I have for the Fading Suns game system. The attributes, when clicked expand to show any modifiers applied. In this example you can see that the Vitality attribute has a +5 modifier from Vitality. If I were to edit vitality, the modifier would change and the value for Vitality would be immediately updated. The grey number in brackets is the actual value, the black number is the actual modified value. Modifiers come from the rules you define but are not necessary if you want to track things yourself. You can also see the Mind attributes in edit mode. The other Detail tab contains fields you define for things like race, sex, hair, age, etc.

The Dice Manager is fairly straightforward. You can predefine rolls and name them. These can later be used in things like chat or referenced elsewhere to roll the specific dice. I am currently working on the Lookup Table Manager which will allow you to define reference tables which can be rolled or looked up, etc. These are all required before the Character Generator can be started.

October Update

2008-10-20T10:13:00.002-04:00

I have started creating the core conditions and actions for building rules. I am at the stage where I am creating rules for the Fading Suns game system, and I can see the rules affect the character sheet as I change it. I'll post a shot of the character sheet in a future update, but you can examine each attribute and see the modifiers applied. All rules are written in javascript, including the core rules, and you can copy them to make your own versions as needed. Other than a list of tweaks to the rules UI at various points, the whole rule system is working perfectly.

I will be starting on the character generator system next. It will have its own rule sets and be a wizard-like interface when generating a character. Each step of the generator can be designed and customized. This will be one of the more complex pieces and I have been thinking about it for a couple of months now. I have a good solution which I think will meet the requirements of all game systems. Remember, I plan on implementing 3 very different game systems before I release. Mainly as proof to myself that what I did meets the requirements of any future systems.

Rule Manager Screenshots

2008-09-06T15:01:00.014-04:00

The Rule Management UI is as complete as I need it to be for the initial release. Below are a screenshots from the UI. The Rule Manager allows you to define Conditions, Actions and then to combine those into Constraints and Rules. These fire each time an attribute changes to adjust the attribute value. You can edit the rule definition by adding custom parameters which can drive the rule logic (thus making them re-usable). The Script Editor allows you to enter and test your script right within the same pane. The console contains output from your script and you can set the parameters for your testing. The Script Browser allows you to browse the available types within the current script to find properties and methods as well as their descriptions.

Logo Wanted

2008-09-03T13:52:00.002-04:00

I am looking to have a logo designed for RPGWorkbench. If you are an artist and feel motivated to design one, leave a note on the RPGWorkbench Google Group (link in the right bar). I am looking for a couple of designs to choose from and the chosen logo designer will get a forever free license to RPGWorkbench.

August Update

2008-08-24T20:22:00.004-04:00

Over the last month I have been working on the scripting engine and UI and it is all coming along quite nicely. You can now write and test scripts all within the same screen. You can select what parameter values to execute with and see all output from your script. I have mostly completed work on the Script Browser which allows you to view all parameters in the script and to browse their properties. This is essential to keeping scripting as simple as possible and everything right there in front of you for reference.

I have begin to think about the first milestone release, and subsequent releases. The first RPGWorkbench milestone release will include the core features completed to date. These will include game system definition along with rules, dice and tables. The character generator will be one of the most complex features as the generator will allow you to define each step of character generation as well as rules to manage the calculations. Once all that is completed, RPGWorkbench will be ready for the initial release. With the first release people should be able to start defining their favourite game systems and use RPGWorkbench to create characters.

Future Milestones will include major things like security, chat, inventory management, campaign manager and game map. I am defining the feature list for each milestone. Once I have that finalized I will post it as an update.

July Update

2008-07-29T10:13:00.004-04:00

Wow, a month already... I did manage to get a whole bunch of things done over the last month including persistence of rules and character sheets. I also fixed up a few things with the UI. Currently I am adding the rule engine console, so you can see the messages from the rule engine and rules as it runs, namely for troubleshooting. Next will be the creation of the basic core rules usable by any game system. These will all be viewable (but not editable) by you as examples on how to write your own. Once that's done, I will start on the character generation framework. That's a pretty complex feature, and the final one before I can release the first beta. There's a bunch of items I have left outstanding as well, but they are not huge (well not all of them at least). I want the first beta release to have a character generator and ability to manage character sheets. Other features will appear in subsequent beta releases.

I have not decided whether the beta will be open or closed yet. I like the open beta concept because it provides the maximum input. However too much input can be overwhelming as well. That's something I will decide on as we get closer to completion. There's no specific date, since work sometimes goes fast, and sometimes slowly. Hang in there, it will come out eventually.

Update

2008-06-22T22:25:00.005-04:00

Over the past two weeks I've been busy putting together the Character Sheet Designer and Viewer/Editor. The Designer allows you to order the various parts of the character sheet so that it makes sense to you visually. It also allows you to create the various detail fields for the sheet (i.e. Sex, Age, Height, etc.) The Viewer/Editor allows you to view the sheet and to add/remove attributes as well as edit their values. You can even find out which modifiers are applied to each attribute if you want to (though viewing, not the actual modifiers are implemented yet).

I start my new job tomorrow which is very exciting. I don't know how much of a hit I will take in the next couple of weeks getting up to speed at work. I should still be able to continue and work on RPGWorkbench, even in reduced capacity. I had this past week to take some time off between jobs. It was nice but very busy. I didn't get much time to work on the app until Friday. I did, however, get a lot done between Friday and tonight (Sunday). According to my time sheet, I clocked a good 19 hours just on the last 3 days. I am pretty impressed with that (though I've clocked more on some other weekends).

Depending on how things go, screenshots of the Sheet Designer and Sheet Viewer/Editor should be forthcoming soon.

Migrating PCs with Ubuntu

2008-06-06T18:40:00.004-04:00

I'm impressed. Much, much more than I was last year when I replaced Windowe with Ubuntu. I recently got a new PC and had to go through migration of all my settings and data from the old PC to the new. The migration was almost completely painless, I could only imagine what I'd have to do in Windowe land...

The Ubuntu install was a dead simple, as in previous versions. I then extracted all the packages I installed on the old machine and imported that list into the new PC. Voila! Less than an hour later I had everything installed from my old PC on my new PC. There were two packages which did not get installed because the the package sources were not added on the new PC. Adding the sources and installing them was trivial.

I then had to copy all my data and settings. I used the rsync command to sync the new PCs directory with the old PCs over the network. After a few hours (I have a lot of MP3s) I had everything on the new PC. The beauty of Linux/UNIX is that all the user settings are in the user's home directory, not scattered all over the machine like in Windowe. Once I replaced my home directory, all my old settings were right there, as if I was on the old PC. Amarok player stats and ratings, firefox settings, desktop preferences, etc, all were there. The migration was a no brainer and as easy as it could get. Impressive.

What impressed me even more was that today my HDMI to DVI converter came in the mail. I needed it to connect my second monitor. Last year, I had spent a good couple of weeks of evenings messing around with the xorg.conf for X. I was worried I'd have to repeat that again because of the new card and system. Though I knew I could just copy the xorg.config to the new machine and it should work. I used the nVidia Settings app to detect and configure the second monitor as a first step. To my surprise it all worked immediately, and it even detected the exact monitors and native resolutions. I only had to go into xorg.conf once to enable Xinerama which creates two displays which you can drag windows on, as opposed to TwinView which is on stretched desktop across two monitors (maximized windows are stretched across two desktops - ugh). Moral of this story is, always get an nVidia card for your linux machine, zero pain setup.

Now, to be completely fair, I have to mention that I had a couple of issues with the onboard network card and sound. The problem with the onboard NIC is that wired networking would not work when wireless was disabled. This is a currently known bug in the kernel driver. I was able to find a workaround though with some googling and it involved adding a kernel boot parameter. Sound worked out of the box, but I wanted the full 5.1 surround sound in all the speakers, not just the first two. It took quite a bit of Googling and two evenings to get that sorted out. There was plenty of help on the web regarding surround sound and PulseAudio and a lot of trial and error as well.

Currently everything works as it did on my old PC. Barring the couple small issues, the experience was extremely pleasant. Ubuntu has certainly come far in making the desktop accessible to Average Joe User. However, there's still a few things like the Audio setup which needs to be made easier. Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.10) has certainly improved since 7.10 and 8.04 and it keeps getting better. Currently I recommend Ubuntu to computer savvy friends, and MAC OS X to Joe Average. If you have been considering trying Linux now is probably a good time.

Customizations

2008-06-06T11:47:00.003-04:00

I've spent some time over the past week reading about what would be termed "the competition". That label however does not apply since those tools are generally geared toward one specific system and are not generic enough for any game system. Some of the apps out there do allow a high level of customization, however they require the user to know XML, scripting/programming and/or the specific data file formats used by the application. One of the primary goals of RPGWorkbench is to not require the user to know any of that. The average user does not care and does not want to know about the complexities of the application implementation, they just want to use the app for whatever it is they need out of it. RPGWorkbench will provide a GUI for customizations and even though scripting will be available, it will not be required except for the most extreme customizations. The average user will be sheltered from the internals of RPGWorkbench.

April Update

2008-05-20T11:53:00.005-04:00

April brought a bunch of back end changes. I brought the application behaviour closer to a desktop application and removed the need to add "save" buttons on various forms to save the data. Now, whenever you do something, data will be saved as needed where it needs to be saved. This is something which is not easy to do with a web application, but my implementation seems to work. There will be a couple of instances where you may not have it saved, like if you close the app. I think that's a bit expected anyways in most applications so I won't worry about it too much for now.

I started working on the Sheet attributes designer. You will be able to decide in what order you want the attributes to be displayed in and other view preferences on the sheet. That brought me to the implementation of the Preferences code which I had not developed previously. I also added some new widgets for displaying data and some plumbing needed to add security later. A lot of little things, but things which will make the RPGWorkbench nicer to use.

Sheet Designer

2008-04-15T10:17:00.005-04:00

I've been working on the Sheet Designer since the last update. It will allow you to (when complete) design the general look of a character sheet. The screenshot below shows the design pane for the info tab of the sheet. That's where you would add info about characters like Age, Sex, Race, etc.
You can define groups of fields, and then choose the field type. This allows you to control input by having say a select field with options rather than typing it in. It also makes it easier to use custom scripting with later. The groups and fields can be ordered in the way you'd like them. This will govern how every character sheet is shown. Other tabs will be for Stats, Skills, etc.

Off topic: I am starting to hate this blog template. The formatting is off. I'll have to change it soon (again).

This is Complex

2008-03-15T00:22:00.006-04:00

I understand now why all the virtual table and character generator tools out there are either very good but geared towards only one system or are very generic and not overly useful. The level of complexity required to create a piece of software that can ultimately satisfy the diversity of rule systems out there is tremendous. The sheer variety of ways in which rules can be applied and interpreted in various situations is infinite.

I had spent the last few hours analysing the rule systems for Fading Suns, Warhammer FRPG, Vampire: Dark Ages and D&D d20. My conclusion is that for a system to be generic enough to handle this level of complexity, it will require certain input from users, and work with them to help, but not completely handle the rules for a specific game system. I think this is fine, considering most tools only allow you to record information. They do not manage rules or do automatic calculations unless they are specifically written for a given game system.

I have some ideas on how to handle this complexity. There is always that fear that the path chosen is not the right one and that sometime later a wrench will be thrown into the whole system which it will not be able to handle. So far, I believe I have been on the right path. I have to adjust my course a bit after my latest analysis. However the work I had done to date applies, and will fit into my new approach. Sometimes it is better to spend a lot of time thinking, and not doing, so that later when the course is set, the destination becomes clear and the work becomes easy.

That's the problem with software development. It is easy to lose track of the destination when you are the only one defining the requirements and writing the code. There are bursts of inspiration and productivity where you make great headway. Then there are the periods of what I call "coder's block", akin to writer's block where you are unsure whether what you just did will work in the grand scheme of things and whether you are on the right track. The former is happening now, the latter happened for most of last two months. It feels great to be inspired and productive. When the opposite occurs, it can be devastating to productivity and produce doubts and thoughts of giving it up.

One of my biggest concerns is the complexity which the community will need to deal with when adding game systems. Ideally, no programming would be required. However this is a lofty goal and not feasible in some situations. Unfortunately, the complexity of being generic and customizable to support any game system directly will require some programming. The goal here is to make this as simple and as much point & click as possible. I don't have all this worked out yet, but I if the complex route is chosen for some areas, they can be improved and simplified later. If there's no product, complexity doesn't really matter. I have ideas on how to handle some of the complexity in a simple manner, but other areas still elude me. They will get worked out over time.

Slow month

2008-02-08T12:23:00.000-05:00

January was a slow month. I did get the rules sorted out and finally decided on a decent looking UI layout. I took a bit of a hiatus last month to get a number other things done (and not done). I will most likely start this month. After I add saving of the rules (should be fairly quick), I will begin the character sheets. After that, the character generator. Once there is a character generator, I will release the beta tool to the public to test out and find bugs as well as to begin creating rules for other systems out there. When will that be? When its done. :) Seriously, I'd like it to be by the summer if not sooner.

Still fighting the rules.

2007-12-30T01:44:00.000-05:00

I am still fighting the rules. The whole system has become a lot more complex than I initially anticipated. I was forced to redo some of the back end work I did previously and I will be doing some more of that soon. The layout of the UI has changed somewhat as well and I'll post the latest screenshots after its all done. I expect that it will take another week or two (depending on how much time I get to work on it) to finish off the Rule Manager. It has already taken much longer than I would have liked (with all the real-life stuff interruptions). :(

Rule Registry Editor

2007-12-10T23:13:00.000-05:00

I have implemented most of the Rule Registry Editor. The Rule Editor allows you to add Rules to the game system. A Rule is composed of one or more Conditions and Actions. You will be able to write your own conditions with simple JavaScript, or import ones written by others. RPGWorkbench will ship with a bunch of Conditions out of the box for the initially supported systems. Actions are the same thing, they do something like modify an attribute or do recalculation, etc. With a library of Conditions and Actions, you will be able to point and click rules together by adding the Conditions and Actions to the Rule and configuring their parameter values. No programming necessary for those who just don't do it. The Condition and Action development will be left for the community to come up with anything that may be required.

The first screenshot shows the Rule Registry, as well as a Condition being edited. The Condition has one parameter which would be filled out when you create your rule. It will also receive any system parameters which are part of that rule type.

The second screenshot shows the Script Editor tab of the Condition Editor. The Script Editor allows for the compilation of scripts, as well as executing them to test. There is an error there because the system parameter is missing (I have not added that yet). The console shows output from the script. The third tab on the Condition Editor is not yet implemented, but it will contain the Script Browser. The Script Browser will allow you to browse the current Script, view the parameter objects as well as their methods and properties. The Browser will also give help on each piece of information.

All this will allow RPGWorkbench to support any game system you can imagine, as if the product was built for your system.

Click on the images for a larger view.

New Look

2007-12-06T22:44:00.000-05:00

I got bored with the old look of the blog and decided to change it. I'm not sure if this is the final version either. I changed the title to be a bit more relevant to what this is all about. The rule and script editors are almost done, I just need to wrap up a couple minor things and then I'll post a screenshot. There was some delay to us getting a 1080p TV and me trying out all the gadgets on it. I also rented Geometry Wars for the Wii, fun fun game. It was once downloadable for Windows, I don't see it anymore. Anyhow its fun. :)

Rules

2007-11-22T18:53:00.000-05:00

I am currently working on the UI for the Rule Manager. There's a bit of work with some of the back end rule code, but it is pretty much done. There should be some screenshots forthcoming soon. Since most of the common UI functionality has been implemented, new UIs take little time to develop. The hardest part is creating a decent layout that's simple and concise.

I'm back.

2007-11-12T16:20:00.000-05:00

I'm back, but have no update other than the rum hangover has now worn off. :) I'm getting setup to start working on RPGWorkbench again by performing some system upgrades (Ubuntu 7.10, update Eclipse, libs, etc). It makes me feel better to work with the latest stuff, especially after a bit of a hiatus. For anyone that cares, Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) is pretty slick, it feel faster than 7.04 due to the new scheduler in the kernel, and the new compiz effects blow any UI (Mac & Windows combined) out of the water any day. The upgrade was as painless as I've ever experienced as well. Kudos to the Ubuntu team for a very slick, and most importantly free OS. I will have more updates in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Game Over

2007-10-10T16:52:00.001-04:00

I won't be making any updates for a while. The Big Day is coming up in a couple of weeks and my brain's been elsewhere. Once I come back from the honeymoon, all rested and invigorated, it will be business as usual. I liked the picture so much, I bought the tee shirt. :)

Character Sheets

2007-09-26T12:52:00.001-04:00

I spent the past week or so implementing character sheets. In order to develop the needed scripting hooks, I needed to have the character sheet functional for some testing and prototyping. That's almost done now. You will be able to define a sheet for the game system and when you change its layout, all the sheets will be automatically changed as well. There's a lot to consider when it comes to characters. Things like what happens when you import a character made with version 1.0 of your system, and imported into version 1.5? What happens when certain stats are no longer there, or new stats exist? I've been thinking about that over the past week as well. Another area I've been thinking about is how to allow the user to create their own user interface components to extend the application. What if your game system needs a new type of view or information? I plan on allowing that sort of customization. however it will be left for the developer-types out there. Again, no screenshots this week, as all the work is back-end plumbing.

The Stars Are Right

2007-09-20T16:48:00.002-04:00

Check out the picture at the bottom of the blog. Cthulhu rises. Actually its a walrus digging up some food, but the resemblance is uncanny!

Flip-flop

2007-09-15T01:23:00.000-04:00

I did a bit of a flip-flop on my previous update. During the week I got a few great ideas on how to implement the rule engine and scripting. I ended up creating the foundation of the rule engine, and began rewriting the script engine. I had used BeanShell previously and it worked pretty well. I decided to use the Java Scripting APIs for interfacing with scripts. The reason is that now I can support pretty much any script engine that plugs into the scripting APIs. I am using JavaScript right now, not my favourite, but considering the crappy level of updates (lack of) and support BeanShell is getting, I feel better off with better supported engines. RPGWorkbench will be able to run scripts in any number of languages such as JavaScript, Groovy, Python, Ruby, etc. The flexibility will make it more accessible to people who happen to know one, but not the others.

This weekend I hope to start on the script editor and manager along with the rule manager and builder. The rule builder will be GUI driven, so you will be able to combine conditions and actions which were previously written by you or someone else to build rules. The community will be able to add new rules and conditions to the library and share them. Its all about flexibility. Next week may bring some new screenshots, lets hope. :)

Rules, rules, rules... and character sheets.

2007-09-10T09:58:00.000-04:00

For the past two weeks I have wrestled with the web framework, trying to add blur/focus events to components. It was very educational, and I learned a lot. This was a good warm up for the task of adding some custom components in the future - like the game map. I also managed to get it to finally work. I will be submitting the patch files to the maintainers early this week. Meanwhile I spent a lot of time on my rooftop trying to iron out how to best manage rules. Things like when one attribute changes, what else needs to be recalculated and/or updated? Sounds simple, and should be fairly straightforward, except that as I said before, I do not want users to have to write code to do all this if possible. I've been spending a lot of time researching and thinking about the rule engine and how its customization could be distilled into a few simple forms. Unfortunately I am not satisfied with the solutions I have to date. I decided that I will begin development of the character sheet and instead continue mulling over the rules system. The character sheet is simpler, and has a few basic requirements. Mind you this is the computer representation of it on the screen, not the printed kind. RPGWorkbench will support printing character sheets as well, but that's not planned until much later.

And now for something completely different...

2007-09-05T22:47:00.001-04:00

I told myself I would not use this blog to bitch about stuff. I think normally that would be something I could stick to, however for this I can't. I bought a laptop last weekend, its pretty kick ass. It came with Windows Vista, but that's not why I bought it. I bought it to install Ubuntu Linux on, which installed like butter. I had to manually get the wireless card working by following less than 10 steps from the how to wiki. Flawless. Anyhow, the bitching is about Vista. I figured I'd use it for the Media Center it has with my TV. You know, to like watch things that fell off the web onto my hard drive. The whole thing is a huge P.O.S. It keeps crashing (the Media Centre) and is dog slow. I ended up just using Media Player instead, was way quicker and worked. I hate the feel of Vista as well, its clunky, and slow. The 1GB RAM laptop runs like lightning with Ubuntu, and looks and feels way better. I use Ubuntu on my desktop and have been for months now, so I may be a bit biased. However, I rather get the performance I need and not waste my time and money on waiting for Vista to fix errors for me or pretend it knows what I like or want to do. It may be helpful for someone who is computer illiterate, but it becomes a huge hindrance and drain on someone who uses computers daily. Linux IS on the Desktop, I just wanted to say this because later I can say "I told you so." when everyone is wanting to get on the bandwagon. I'm installing MythTV as I type this, forget Vista.

How to build a roleplaying game tool.

2007-09-04T16:42:00.000-04:00

I wish I had this kind of help when I started on this project. ROFL! I just had to share it.

Weekly update.

2007-08-31T13:38:00.000-04:00

I'll be posting weekly updates, mostly to keep myself focused as well as forcing me to have something to show at the end of the week. This week there's nothing new - heh. It was a busy week (2 pub nights!) and I am currently looking into adding focus gained/lost events to the Cooee Web Framework which powers RPGWorkbench. I decided that I would give back a bit to the open source project and to fix some of the bugs and feature requests I submitted. So currently I am fiddling with the framework internals. This little project also gives me a bit of time to develop my ideas on scripting/customization, and how to make it dead simple. Making it simple and intuitive is the hardest part...

Google group created.

2007-08-25T17:44:00.000-04:00

I created a Google discussion group for discussion and questions. The link can be found in the right side bar.

What the heck is RPGWorkbench?

2007-08-24T16:03:00.000-04:00

RPGWorkbench is a browser-based virtual game table which enables pen-and-paper roleplaying on the internet. It will provide character management, a chat interface, dice rolling, character generator, etc. Yes, there's plenty of competition out there - mostly in the d20 open license arena though. RPGWorkbench is targeting the global roleplayer community, not catering to any one system in particular. I am not a fan of d20 or D&D either. This tool is system neutral and will fill in the gaps other tools don't. The system builder will allow you to add any game system you want to the tool, and have it fully supported. The goal is ease of use and complete flexibility via scripting and builder tools so that the average roleplayer can customize for use with their house rules.

For those interested, RPGWorkbench is slated to support the following systems when it is released, mainly because I play them currently:

Fading Suns - best setting ever!
Warhammer FRPG
Werewolf: The Apocalypse
AD&D 3.5 edition basic rules - I don't play, but obligatory...

The variety of systems will provide enough examples for the community to add additional systems with ease.

Below is an early screenshot with the look and feel of the application with Fading Suns data.

The application will be free for personal use (i.e. single user) for when you GM your home games. However, multi-user support will require a license. Still working all that out...