Feature Focus: iPlay4e
One upcoming feature we’d like to highlight is integration with iPlay4e, which will make its first appearance in Masterplan version 8.2.
This came about very simply: a short email from Andrew Reutter, the iPlay4e designer, mentioning that he’d received calls to integrate it with Masterplan, and would we be interested in some sort of collaboration?
Sadly his users hadn’t given any indication of what kind of integration they wanted to see, so we’re starting with the most obvious: since Masterplan already has the concept of PCs, this feature allows users to enter iPlay4e keys and have Masterplan link to that character, so that if you select that PC in combat you’ll see the iPlay4e character sheet, rather than the usual PC breakdown that Masterplan provides (although Masterplan will also download all the relevant character information as a backup). The iPlay4e character sheet works exactly as it does outside Masterplan, allowing you to use all its features as normal. This feature is on by default, but you can disable it – if, for example, you’re running your game when you don’t have internet access.
We’re particularly pleased with how this has turned out because there’s no impact on the user – when you’re running an encounter, the interface hasn’t changed, and you don’t need to learn any new ways to use it. It’s pure added value.
This is just a first step, but obviously we’re very excited about this feature, as simple as it may be, partly because it marks the start of a collaborative effort between two third-party D&D tools – and there aren’t many such collaborations. We’re hoping and assuming that we’ll be able to take this project further and provide more points of integration, but this is a good start.
Another reason we’re excited is that the two tools don’t really share the same user base – iPlay4e is obviously aimed at D&D players, while Masterplan limits itself to DMs – so the hope is that users of one tool now have a reason to investigate the other. This can only be a good thing; both projects should benefit from this kind of cross-pollination.
How else might we integrate Masterplan and iPlay4e? What other collaborations would you like to see?
March 1st, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Need a beta tester?
March 1st, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Will changes of PC stats in Masterplan be updated on iPlay4e on site and vice versa?
March 1st, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Awesome news. I’ve been using iPlay4e a good deal in the past year or so as well as MasterPlan. They are both great tools and it’s nice to see them working together!
March 1st, 2010 at 9:51 pm
I am looking forward to this. Masterplan is by far my favorite piece of 4e software (more than the WotC Character Builder, even!). iPlay4e is a great bit of programming, and I love the collaborative effort of this community.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Wow! Has a long time since I’ve tested Masterplan for the first time and although I like the program, I substituted it by other 4E combate manager, but looking for this integration, maybe I’ll back to masterplan’s software again.
Very cool the designe.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:28 pm
@Snarls If I’m not mistaken, currently only the player has access to change PC stats on iPlay4e. So, assuming each of our players upload their own characters, we wouldn’t be able to apply damage or conditions to them directly as the DM. I believe Andrew at iPlay has plans to allow some DM control in the future, but it hasn’t been implemented yet.
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I see several options on the iPlay4e site for linking and embedding, which one is the “key” I should enter?
.MW
March 9th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Mark: its the long hex string at the end of the URL when viewing your character
my request would be for live updates of masterplan and iplay4e. so players could have laptops with iplay4e up and if they update their HP it would be updated live on masterplan. and the DM could say add an effect to a PC and that would update on iplay4e!
btw – masterplan is amazing! your work on this is so greatly appreciated!
April 12th, 2010 at 1:40 am
I’d like some way to make the Masterplan map visible to the players in realtime, perhaps by some intergration with iplay4e.
April 12th, 2010 at 9:34 am
You can use the player view to show the map to your players.
April 15th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
You ask what other integration we would like to see. I would LOVE to see integration with Maptools. I love using Masterplan to manage my campaign and run combat but because I have people that play remotely, and because I like to use non dungeon tile maps I use maptools as well.
It would be phenomenal to have these two tools integrated.
August 19th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Integration with Maptool would be amazing. Especially if Maptool could pull the creature and map data from Masterplan.
November 25th, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Yeah! I think that the only problem of Masterplan is the ausence of an On-line way to play. It has no chat, and no server/client integration. A interesting way to solve it is the integration with MapTools.
Forgive my mistakes! I’m not a vey good english speaker.