DnD Helper

I planned out a lot of the features and parts of the implementation in advance, which helped a lot. Looking back, it's something that I did really well, even though I was lacking the know-how on how to do it good.

The project helped me learn how to code since C# is really accessable and WPF provided me with a solid visual platform to create an application fast.

While the idea for the tool was great, it was lacking in execution. If I would do it again, I would focus on modularity to keep development time down.

Goals & Learnings

I created this tool a few years ago in C# with WPF to help me run D&D adventures, as well as automate Solo D&D, based on a community-made system.

I wanted something that could help me come up with ideas on the spot and quicken tedious tasks like looking up monster stats or finding the right page in the adventure book.

Since my group stopped playing and I lost interest in Solo DnD gaming, I also stopped the development of the tool. Because of that, it is in an unfinished state, with multiple features missing, and others not working correctly.

Looking back, I would also do many things differently. One of the worst parts of the tools is that many windows are hard-coded, which allowed me to progress fast at the beginning but slowed me down tremendously later on.

#scripting/programming #ui/ux

Quick access to information

Since a lot of the events and background of a source-driven adventure were already established, I just needed a way to access this information quickly. For this, I created various pages that served as a summary of many parts of the adventure and provided a link to the digital version of the source book by clicking on the magnifying glass.

As can be seen, I struggled with text readability and overload, since my original layout was not designed for this much text.

#scripting/programming #ui/ux

Short Character Sheets

I also needed a way to quickly retrieve and manage NPCs players would frequently encounter. For this, I added two slots that could hold character sheets, which I could toggle on and off in any order I wanted. These character sheets again provide a range of information and generators to speed up various game mechanics. The inventory of the characters was also editable so that I could quickly add and remove items they possessed.

#scripting/programming #ui/ux

Components of different importance

Some functionality or information is useful or even essential, no matter what you are doing, like rolling dice, or generating all-purpose keywords to spark imagination, as well as an "Oracle" that would help playing the game solo.

This was done in an effort to make the application as user-friendly as possible by ranking which parts would be needed the most.

#scripting/programming #ui/ux

Different presets

Over time, the project grew in scope, which led me to add the possibility of switching "presets" from an open adventure to one from a campaign book.

On one hand, this was very easy as I could reuse most of the generator logic I implemented; on the other hand, I crippled myself by having hardcoded everything, which ultimately led me to abandon the development.

#scripting/programming #ui/ux

A collection of generators

The tool started out as a way to generate ideas for either Solo Dungeons and Dragons sessions or running games as a Dungeon Master. For this, I implemented various smaller generators that can quickly put out simple information to spark imagination.

Each panel in the picture is a generator that can generate information by clicking the "GENERATE" button or the name of the generator.