ShadowNET

A dice roller/mission generator/encyclopedia for the RPG Shadowrun; android app.

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Inspiration

Having played Shadowrun for 3 years with friends at Michigan Tech, one such friend suggested I make some tools for players and/or game masters. I decided to do this project to learn how to build an android app and to make such a tool for our use. Upon arriving at the hackathon I then determined that this project lends itself well to a mobile device app and that I should learn the skills to make an app.

What it does

3 components: Dice roller: simulates the dice rolling done for Shadowrun, including the use of a character's Edge resource. Job generator: procedurally generates a short description for a Shadowrun mission. Encyclopdia: not yet implemented

How I built it

All coded in Android-Studio, using java and xml programming. Job generator follows a similar process to following a language grammar in a parser/scanner system, expanding/deliberating tokens and variables until a finished, (mostly) coherant description is built.

Challenges I ran into

Learning to use xml and android-studio properly. Figuring out how to organize and implement the job generator. Inscrutable build error that forced me to restart the project (which I recovered from in only a half hour; this was just after I'd really learned what I was doing).

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Learning to use xml and android-studio properly. Figuring out how to organize and implement the job generator. Learning how to build an android app (surprisingly easy for simple things like this). Getting a project like this off the ground at last.

What I learned

How to use xml as used in coding an app. How to use Android-Studio, and how to build a mobile app A very useful application of a parser grammar set outside of building a compiler. Use of Enumerators. Bits and bobs about programming I hadn't gotten ingrained in my skill set yet.

What's next for ShadowNET

Job Generator: make it more coherant, detailed, versitile, descriptive, and include more details about the rest of the mission, including a twist in the narrative, the payday, and aspects of the mission such as security and opposition. Implement differentiating details based on a difficulty chosen by the user. Encyclopedia: implement a limited encyclopedia for information on Shadowrun's setting, and possibly gear and assets usable by players and game masters. Pretty it up.

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