Background

Built for one table first

Dalang wasn't designed by committee for a broad market, it was built by a DM running a real campaign, to solve real problems that came up at an actual table: locations that needed a hierarchy, NPCs that needed real combat stats, a battle map that needed fog of war. Features got added because a session needed them, not because a roadmap called for them. That's still how it grows.

Your data is yours

Everything you write, your world, your NPCs, their secrets, your homebrew monsters, lives in a file on your own machine. There's no account to create, nothing gets uploaded anywhere, and nobody but you can read it unless you choose to export and hand it to someone. That's not a feature bullet point, it's the reason the app is built the way it is: local storage first, cloud sync never assumed.

Built for the table, not for a demo reel

The goal is a tool that actually gets used during a session, not one that just looks good in a screenshot. That's why the battle map has a Focus Mode instead of a dozen half-finished layout options, why the dice tray stays open while you click around instead of demanding your full attention, and why exporting a snapshot for a Telegram table matters as much as a live second window for an in-person one.

Works for how you actually play

Some tables play async, over Telegram or Play-by-Post, a turn at a time across days. Some sit around a real table or a call, running a fight in real time. Dalang doesn't assume one or the other, the same campaign file works for both, and the live-session tools (the battle map, the Player Window) exist specifically because in-person and on-call play turned out to matter just as much as async did.

Your world stays yours

Homebrew monsters, house rules, campaign lore, none of it is locked in. You can export an Adventure to hand to another DM, export a full campaign to move machines, or export just your homebrew library on its own. What you build is portable, and it stays under your control, not the app's.

See also: Legal & Sources for the formal ownership, licensing, and privacy terms behind these principles, and Philosophy for the meaning behind the name.