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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: arsieiuni on December 24, 2011, 08:17:33 PM

Title: Awesome Plotting Tool!
Post by: arsieiuni on December 24, 2011, 08:17:33 PM
So I was trying to find a way to effectively organize my thoughts for a very complicated casefile yesterday and I struggled all night to get my notes down. I was not pleased with my scattered thoughts and difficult-to-follow dumps of information.

Today I went looking for other options and stumbled upon a solution that is making me giddy with how easy it is and how much better it is than what I've used before so I just wanted to share with you guys in case it could be useful for you too:

https://www.mindmeister.com/ < It's a Mind-map generating tool. The user interface takes minutes to learn and then you can just build and build and build. I'm building an extremely complex casefile right now and I'm finding that not only does use of this tool allow me to organize my thoughts easily into a visual layout I can use to keep track of everything... It also has helped me think of things/options/notes that I hadn't thought of while just freewriting.

There are premium versions of the service that cost money, but there is a "basic" version (shown in small area beneath the three large options in sign up) that costs nothing but gives limited numbers of maps. It's okay though because you really only need to work on one or two at a time usually as a GM.

You can export the file to a .mind which means you'd be able to reload it into the site any time so you can definitely juggle files to make full use of the 3 slots received with basic.
It has iPhone, iPad and Android apps too so you could access your mind map easily on your phone if that helps during a game.

Anyway, I just hope this is useful to someone else. It's a goddess send for me! :)

-Arsh
Title: Re: Awesome Plotting Tool!
Post by: polkaneverdies on December 24, 2011, 09:06:39 PM
That is awesome thank you! I love mind maps.
Title: Re: Awesome Plotting Tool!
Post by: UmbraLux on December 24, 2011, 09:21:58 PM
Looks cool!  I tend to use a small wiki (http://tiddlywiki.com/) to do something similar.  Both allow for non-linear links, which helps keep track of plans and relationships in the game.
Title: Re: Awesome Plotting Tool!
Post by: InFerrumVeritas on December 26, 2011, 04:12:48 AM
For Mac users, Scrivener is the way to go for anything having to do with non-linear writing, especially for RPGs.
Title: Re: Awesome Plotting Tool!
Post by: Wyrdrune on December 27, 2011, 02:44:35 PM
Thanks for the awesome tool-tip!
Title: Re: Awesome Plotting Tool!
Post by: Team8Mum on December 27, 2011, 04:45:32 PM
For Mac users, Scrivener is the way to go for anything having to do with non-linear writing, especially for RPGs.

Option 2 -and better on the IPad - is Storyist.
App costs about £7 and works just like Scrivener and is much better that Scriveners cut down version index card.
I wrote my Nanowrimo on it this year and regular use it for making notes when GMing.