Campaign Cyclopedia

[Snarfbur]

Motivation
I'm a game master for fantasy pen & paper role play now for more then 40 years. My group plays around once in a month a session around 7-8 hours and my Campaigns are going around 10 years in average. I'm using my own campaign background (including campaign specific house rules) and embed modified scenarios from other (commercial and non-commercial modules).

My main problem is always to record all the needed facts, so that I can give my players a consistent world without contradictions. To know, what are correct facts and what are fakes - and even better: misinterpretations of the characters is very important. Second the charecters of the players are influence the world and the action of other (important) non player characters. So the collected information is always changing, as the deep of some information. Since the chars of the players should have as much freedom as possible, I have to create the information just in time during play. I'm very sure, that this problems have also other game masters.

Current Solution

Excel Sheet
One of my game master friends is using a very big excel sheet to get more then 250 non-player-characters up to date with the current story of his group.

Wiki
I'm using currently a Wiki, which is much better then a collection of files. I can give my players rights to specific pages with background information and the rules, they have found out so far. My players are writing there journal and knowledge about the world also in that wiki. But still I miss many cross links and to find the right information in a second is not always successful.

Novel Author Software
There is a god Authors software comparison (https://tredition.com/en/authors-software/). The first 3-4 are just about writing and not very helpful, but then there are coming some interesting. I have tried two of them intensively:

- Patchwork (sorry, only a German page): https://autorenprogramm.com/
- Scrivener: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview

From my point of view, Patchwork was very close for what I'm, looking for. But at the end, the gap was/is to big.

What is your solution?
If you have one, please share it.

Goal
A Software, to collect all information around a campaign and link it in a very easy way together. Links are just a special category of Information.

- Information have to be able to be different for each user.
- All users can add information and edit for them self
- Users can share there information
- The game master can use them all.
- There can be different versions of a information at the same time, e.g. King has other information about something then the Queen
- During time, the information can change, e.g. a character get more power, a prince is crowned to be king
- For the master there are ready to use views to identify inconsistent in the master data and compare information on a topic
- Information categories (Item, Character, Region, Religion, …) should be flexible
- Beside some ready to use categories, the master should be able to create his own
- Information needs meta data like
- - Creator
- - History
- - Reason of change

I would like to see this software independent of other RpTools Software, because it is useful for all masters with a more complex campaign.
But it should have a clear API, so that other software, like MapTool can use it. It would be nice, if MapTool would provide also an API for the cyclopedia, e.g. that you can open a map in MapTool, if you are in a information category about a region. After all, I would like to avoid double coding.

If my time is not already consumed by my other hobbies, I would like to be a member of the team to create this software.

[aliasmask]

There are people who have created online databases for monsters/character and import that info on demand using our REST functions. It's fairly complicated but if you visit our Discord you can ask for help and more details.

One simple method is this

Code: Select all

[R: body = REST.get("https://drive.google.com/uc?id=FILEID&export=download")]

Where FILEID is the id for the google drive resource. No need to use their API as long it's a shared resource.

[Full Bleed]

Just in case you don't know about some of these:

Realm Works (by Wolf Lair, the same group that made Hero Labs)

https://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/

I think that thing shot itself in the foot with recurring costs and online requirements. But, on the surface, it has just about everything a GM needs to build and maintain a complex game world. I'm just not going to risk building my world on a platform that keeps me hostage with monthly/yearly fees and that could vanish tomorrow leaving me with with nothing to show for it.

Obsidian Portal

https://www.obsidianportal.com/

There is a "free" option for this, but last I looked at it, I decided it would not do. That left this to be another recurring fee option.

Master's Toolkit

Arkenforge's Master's Toolkit has an Encyclopedia Module that looked like it might end up being good for campaign management:
https://arkenforge.com/campaign-management/

Unfortunately, that is a tool that has been heavily geared to face-to-face gaming and development of the Encyclopedia module has received little improvement (since I purchased the software a couple years ago, anyway.) If it had online compatibility I'd probably be really into it.

Google Sites

https://sites.google.com/

Free wiki type site. Used to have an old iteration with sharable themes that were promising for quickly spinning up an online campaign management site. But the old site's theme don't work with the new sites. I don't think this is used much any more.

[Snarfbur]

Just in case you don't know about some of these:

Thx for the input, I will check them.

I'm just not going to risk building my world on a platform that keeps me hostage with monthly/yearly fees and that could vanish tomorrow leaving me with with nothing to show for it.

I agree. Thats the reason why I did not start writing macros in R20. When I spend some hundert hours into an application to make it fit for my special needs, I want to be sure, that I can use it even if the publisher does not exist anymore. Google tends to through things away (e.g. Picassa), as others do (e.g. Microsoft with OneNote - an up & down). Thats why a would prefer an open source project. If it is written in Java - perfect for me.

[aliasmask]

You could technically write a campaign manager in MapTool, but if you're depending on features not yet in MapTool I wouldn't count on support. Development here comes in spurts with long lulls. Right now, development has a very slow trickle. Small things are being fixed here and there but the big things are either being worked on slowly or not at all behind the scenes. Unless you're a java dev yourself, compatible features with Craig's vision won't get done unless you're the one developing it. It's a good thing to talk over on Discord to test the waters and see what is possible.

I know I have a couple of personal projects I've done in MTscript that I haven't share publicly mostly because it's not user friendly, that could contribute to a campaign manager.

[Snarfbur]

It's a good thing to talk over on Discord to test the waters and see what is possible.

Good idea - have no experience with Discord yet - At which Chanell we should go on?

[aliasmask]

It's a good thing to talk over on Discord to test the waters and see what is possible.

Good idea - have no experience with Discord yet - At which Chanell we should go on?

I guess it depends on the question, but general framework coding would be #framework-coding. For questions about macros #mt-macro-questions where you start your own thread and java related stuff #javascript-frame5-dialog5-html5-overlay which are where you can run your js. Once you have a drop-in we can give you a channel to give updates, offer support and answer questions.

[wolph42]

for completeness, this is what my gm uses: legendkeeper.com and I have to say: its simple, functional and works great (so far)!.

[dwian]

My help maybe a bit weak because I searched for a software, found one and was so content with it that I never tested another one. So my personal favorite is:
Fantasia Archive (https://fantasiaarchive.com/)

Be warned: It is made for GMs and authors.Its manyfold options will not just fit your needs ... it will feed your needs with lots of new ideas.
To illustrate this: I wanted to write down some NPCs, creatures and their stats and some legendary places to remember for later on. What happened to me (I have'nt done this!) was:
I'm right now building my complete world there (with https://azgaar.github.io/ translated to OSM), manage my adventures with all the sites and NPCs with all their relationships and ancestry. I learned about the history of my world for the last view thousand years (when this world began to exist - no further spoilers ). I write little lores and sages (see next paragraph ). My One-Shot is the skeleton of a campaign before even having one single player for it. In addition I found MapTool and an RPG named EWS. Whiklst building a world, a campaign and the macros for a new RPG I found it a nice idea to translate the MT-Wiki.
Are yousure, you want to test this software?

Tbh it is too big for me and after some research I found out how to manipulate the data structure of the entries. There are lots of data I don't need so I kind of castrated it.
For DnD 5E there is a download for import of the complete bestiary if I remeber right.

[Full Bleed]

My help maybe a bit weak because I searched for a software, found one and was so content with it that I never tested another one. So my personal favorite is:
Fantasia Archive (https://fantasiaarchive.com/)

Looks really interesting. Love that it's local/offline usable.

I do wish it was open source though.

Thanks for the heads-up.

[Snarfbur]

Full Bleed wrote: do wish it was open source though.

At least on the wiki page they wrote:
Fantasia Archive is a free, open source, offline world-building & writing tool packed to the brim with helpful features for any game-master, writer, or world-builder!

Most in Java & Type-Script. Not my favorite languages, but I should give it a closer look. Thx dwian to share it with us.

[Full Bleed]

At least on the wiki page they wrote:
Fantasia Archive is a free, open source, offline world-building & writing tool packed to the brim with helpful features for any game-master, writer, or world-builder!

I don't see the source anywhere. You have a link?

[Jmr3366]

https://fantasiaarchive.com/

Then to their discord channel.

Then under FAQ, there is a bullet point 8.

[Full Bleed]

I guess linking to the actual source is tough.

https://fantasiaarchive.com/

Went here. Could not find source.

Then to their discord channel.

Went here. Did a search for "open source". Did not find anything.

Then under FAQ, there is a bullet point 8.

Could not find FAQ. Not on the site or the discord.

[Jmr3366]

I didn't read through all the content . . .
https://discord.com/channels/8080108568 ... 2961803284