Content Creator Finnishing Up
Posted by: Ruel Knudson in DPnP, Developer Blog, Overall DevelopmentI know, I missed last week’s post and I am a loser for it. However, I have a good excuse: I was busily developing the final pieces of the Content Creator. If you are a member of the community, and have stayed up to date with the posts, you will be aware that the CC is actually getting promoted to release status soon. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to come clean on what the Campaign Resource Manager (CRM) is all about.
As described before, Digital Pen n Paper was envisioned long ago. It is designed as a large and organic project. In design, it will be composed of several programs related together by content. This means that whatever we build for DPnP works with, for, or along side other Digital Pen n Paper content. It is a tool, or rather a toolbox, from which players and GMs can get the most from their gaming experience by making things easier, accessible, and fun.
The CRM is the backbone of the system. What it does is create the resources for your game. In most program concepts it would be thought that these resources are only usable for the DPnP suite. However, this is not the case with any DPnP utility. The CRM is the best example of this. It does many things to help you build the content for your game. Secondly, it then lets you apply it in various formats. However, before you can deploy your creations in the various formats we should discuss what it can build.
The CRM builds Campaign Resources. This means skills, equipment, magic, powers, races, and more. It even goes into development of Environments and more. Upon initial launch the CRM will be able to build content from the Fantasy Sagas game line, and possibly Modern Sagas. Sci-Fi will be available in a future update. It isn’t excluded, its just that between now and deployment of the Sci-Fi Sagas there could be changes that will change how DPnP works with the Sci-Fi Sagas.
The CRM will be released with the Game Master Lodestar. It is free with that product and there will be no additional charges. CRM will be released separately as well. With the CRM you can build resources. However, admittedly, there is a lot of content to build. This may be daunting at first, so the best thing to do is also have a Campaign Resource Package. These are released with the Player’s Guidebooks. Therefore, if you buy the Fantasy Sagas Player’s Guidebook (or have the PDF through DriveThruRPG or RPGNow) you get the file with it. Furthermore, additional books which have content that can be used with DPnP, such as the Undead Creatures Sourcebook, will have campaign elements you can import into your campaign. When you buy those PDFs you get the associated content file as well. Furthermore, you can edit or change that content. For instance, if you imported the Undead Creatures CEP you can change those creature races into player character races and allow your characters to play as a zombie, a vampire, or whatever. Adventures will have new items, races, spells, or other content you can import as well.
The files contain DPnP content already built with the CRM. You can then load the campaign and create your own custom campaign by adding in new elements, removing stuff you don’t like, or change campaign rules (such as random/point buy character creation). Once done, you can do several things. This is how we deploy the file.
First of all, you can save the file as a CRF, which is a player created Campaign Resource File (you can’t save your file as a CRP). This saves all the content, including your changes, and any existing content from the origionalcampaign you built from. Players can then import this file into their character creator utility to build a character for your campaign, with all the rules, restrictions, and content you allow.
Secondly, you can export only your changes into a Campaign Elements Package. The CEP is simply a way of sharing your custom content with other GMs so they can import only your new items, skills, spells, etc. into their own campaign. The CEP is saved with your credits on the file for the content you created. When another GM creates a campaign the credits page will contain your name and all of your custom content listed.
Thirdly you can simply print your campaign. You can print just sections, such as your skills list, or you can print out the entire campaign for a custom campaign book. You can also print out the entire resources for that report, or print out only your creations or edits. You can also format the fonts and headings for the report with the CRM. That way, from one program, you can create your own campaign book with the style you want.
Lastly, you can export the resources or the campaign as an XML file. This will let those of you who have the tech savvy skills to present the data in your own way, such as via a website or a custom DPnP add-on (add-ons are not promised and I am still debating on them).
In this way, the CRM bridges some gaps. You don’t have to simply create DPnP content. You are building your RPG content which DPnP can use. When future DPnP products are developed, such as the virtual table top, your CRM files will be used with that.
So, as of now I am buttoning up the product. I am hoping to have the Beta version out in a few days. If you are interested in testing the CRM you can send an email to crmtesting@sagasrpg.com.
