Meanwhile (Prototype)

Track every story unfolding beyond the players' view.

Manage parallel story arcs  in one place. This early prototype is designed to help Game Masters run living worlds where events continue whether or not the players are present.

What is Meanwhile?

Every campaign has moments where the party asks:

• "What has the villain been doing this whole time?"
• "Where did that NPC disappear to?"
• "What was happening while the party was in the Underdark?"

Meanwhile helps you answer those questions.

Instead of keeping world events scattered across notebooks and documents, you can organize independent storylines, character arcs, and timeline events into a single visual workspace. Whether you're tracking a kingdom's political struggles, an adventuring rival party, or a dragon's long-term plans, Meanwhile helps keep your world moving.

Current Prototype Features

• Campaign Management
  Create and switch between multiple campaigns, each with its own timeline, locations, and story arcs.
• Story Arc Tracking
  Organize independent quests, NPC storylines, faction plots, and world events into individual arcs with customizable milestones and completion progress.
• World Map Integration
  Import your own campaign map and place story arcs directly on locations to visualize where events are unfolding across your world.
• Day-by-Day Timeline
  Advance your campaign one day at a time and allow each active story arc to progress independently based on your planned milestones.
• Living World News Reel
  Automatically generate a chronological feed of completed arcs and milestones, making it easy to review everything that happened while the players were focused elsewhere.
• Campaign Dashboard
  Quickly view the status, progress, current location, and remaining milestones for every active story arc.
• Local Save Files
  Save and load campaigns locally using CSV files—no accounts, subscriptions, or internet connection required. 
• Connect Obsidian
  Connect your local obsidian vault for deep-linking straight to your existing notes!

Prototype Notice

This is an early prototype release.

The core functionality is complete and fully usable, but the application is still under active development. Some features are unfinished, the interface may change, and bugs should be expected.

Your purchase primarily supports continued development and helps gauge community interest in the project.

Planned Features

Meanwhile is actively being developed, and this prototype is only the beginning. Planned improvements include:

• Interactive Arc Timeline
  Visualize every storyline on a shared timeline to see how events overlap, intersect, and influence one another.
• Enhanced Map Tools
  Additional map controls, region management, travel paths, and richer location interactions.
• Advanced Search & Filtering
  Quickly find arcs by location, status, NPC, tags, or campaign date.
• Better Import & Export Options
  More robust backup, sharing, and campaign portability.
• Customization & Quality-of-Life Improvements
  Additional themes, interface improvements, keyboard shortcuts, and workflow enhancements based on community feedback.
• Additional Views
  New ways to explore your campaign data, including calendars, dashboards, and other visualization tools. 

Feedback Welcome

This project exists because I wanted a better way to track everything happening outside the players' immediate adventure.  I created Meanwhile to help run a living world. Instead of waiting for the players to activate every quest or discover every NPC, the world continues to change. Some stories intersect with the party. Others resolve entirely off-screen. Either way, the world feels alive.

If you have ideas, encounter bugs, or have suggestions for improving the workflow, I'd love to hear them. Early feedback will directly influence the direction of future development.

Thanks for checking out Meanwhile, and I hope it helps bring your campaign world to life.

Development of this prototype was assisted by AI coding tools. No generative AI features are included in the application.