11.02.2010

Why I use Masterplan

And so today I'd like to speak about Masterplan. This program appeared about a year ago and even though at that time it wasn't so great as it is today, I saw it's potential right away.
So what's so special about Masterplan and what it does anyway?
Since the lates 8.0 version it is called Adventure Design Studio and it's real good name for this.
The main screen of Masterplan looks like this

All the yellow rectangles are plot points which can be anything you want in you adventure - combat, skill challenges, NPC interactions, vingettes, quests and so on.
You can connect them any way you want and they automatically line up, making a neat flowchart you see above. Every plot point can be filled with detailed description and all the game stats you need. What's neat is that Masterplan helps you in mechanical stuff - which DCs you challenge needs for this party level, what's the difficulty of the encounter with those monstes will be and so on.
The program allows you to build tactical maps from tiles and then use them as maps for your plot points with different overlays and tokens.
Every plot point could be expanded to create nested plots with any level of complexity.
And another wondeful thing is that if you have a DDi subscription you can download monsters, traps and magic items from DDi Compendium and use them in Masterplan.

In short - Masterplan allow to keep all your adventure notes in one place, without needing anything else.
I highly recommend it to any 4E DM who thinks about going digital at his table.

And here are some more pictures.



3 комментария:

  1. I've never heard of this program, but it looks excellent. Thanks for the tip!

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  2. Shame that WoTC sent them a cease and desist why main point of concern. Masterplan allows people that already pay WoTC for access to the compendium to import that info in to masterplan.

    Well that ok i'll just use Wotc virtual table top... oh wait thats vaporware.

    Wel I can atleast design adventures and plot lines and make sure things are balanced... oh wait they never even nother to start that one.


    I understand protecting your IP but to kill a product that is free and promotes people paying for a DDI account. with out even trying to work with them thats just shameful. There plenty of ways to Protect your IP and still not make life difficult for people. I'm sure they whole you cant buy 4th edition PDF's for them is really helping the their piracy efforts

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