I’ve been reading this book, The Universal Traveler, which explains a design process. I’m skeptical about some of it, but now broadly convinced that some form of this is really helpful. It’s mostly about thinking about what you want to get out of what you’re making and ensuring that you think about more than wherever your instinct is pulling you toward.
At D&D last night, players were asking a lot of questions about unidentifiable items that they had gotten during sessions from months or even years ago. Based on their descriptions, I had a lot of trouble remembering what the true nature of all these things were.
So this morning, I thought of making some sort of web app — the WPDB (the Worst Party Database (they call themselves The Worst Party)). It would list all the things they’ve found and keep the true nature of the unidentified items secret, except to me. I thought some nice bonuses would be that it’d remind them of the things they have and could try to use, and it would be fun to look at away from the game.
I made myself go through the design process from the book, though, and by the third phase, “definition,” in which you say what the product will and won’t do, I realized that it was a bad idea.
If I put a “special” part of their inventories online, the players will be inclined to spend more time on their phones during the game. Some of the players basically live their lives on their phones, so it’s something I already have to be careful about.
So, instead of making an app, I think I’m going to use James’s (one of the players) idea to assign a unique identifier to each item which the players can write down, and I can use to look up what the hell it is when the time comes.