[HoE] computer rpg utilities -- off topic?

[Steven Strange <sstrange@mac.com>]

Heyo,
	
	I wrestled with the off-topicness of this for a while before I sent it
and then I thought; 'Heck, what's the worst thing that could happen?' 
<long pause...shudder>  Well hopefully it won't come to that.

	I in the mood to write some software that would be useful to the
role-playing community at large.  I have some ideas, but I thought that
by asking the HOE group I might produce something more universally
useful.  If you have an idea, don't worry too much about technical
limitations at this point, if you think it would be useful, please tell
me about it. 

	Depending upon the amount of work, I will probably release it as
freeway or cheap shareware.  Contributors would of course get a free
copy of any rpg utilities I crank out. Contributors would also be
mentioned in the software's credits.  And finally, this will almost
certainly be a release for both Mac and Windows.  

some things to consider:
	1. Please tell me what Operating system you use.

	2. Do you use any software during role-playing or during the creation
of Adventures? How do you use it? (MP3 player for background music
during the game, word processor for typing adventures, date books for
organizing adventures, database for tracking characters, spreadsheet for
equipment lists)

	3. What would make this software more useful? 

	4. Do you use any existing RPG utilities and why do you like them?

	5.  What would the ideal set of RPG utilities do?

	6. Are there any other active rpg mailing lists I should send this to?

	Ideas that I'm kicking around are: 1) An NPC database.  It would
contain vital stats for NPC's, history, equipment, etc. This could also
track relationships between NPCs and between NPCs and PCs.  2) Some sort
of Timeline to help define and order events that take place in an
adventure. 3) A web based repository for something like the Librarian's
almanac entries.  Users could input their stories for public consumption
and then search them online as story seeds for adventures.

	If you don't want to tie up the mailing list with this, feel free to
email me at sstrange@mac.com. 'Pologies if this is too far off topic and
thanks in advance for any feedback/suggestions you have.

ciao,
Steven Strange
		
-- 
sign'd with a flourish and a spatter of ink