NPC list?

[zedturtle]

Huh. Interesting. I copied over some of my pages from the rpg.net wiki and despite minor formatting changes it seemed to be working well. The problem is that only I could make changes... no one else could, so my players wouldn't be able to update their character sheets.

Close, but just not there, yet.

[jacksarge]

A Wiki would be the best way of doing this. There are several options for personal wiki software that could be used locally on a laptop but probably not a tablet/phone though.

Hmm, using a TiddlyWiki could be a neat fit for this: a self-contained wiki in a HTML page, which can be viewed offline and (with browser plugins) save changes across a variety of different platforms/browsers.

Simply being able to create and record links between different NPCs would be useful, but taking it to the next level, there is already e.g. an implementation of a contact address book that might perhaps be the basis for a more extended sort of NPC register. I imagine too a customisation to add in links to the PDFs for Heart of the Wild, Rivendell etc. opening at the relevant page, somewhat like Glorelendil's Bestiary...

May have a tinker around with this, whenever I get the time!

Mate that would be brilliant if you could, you've already done us a great service by creating the Palantir!

[StuartJ]

A Wiki would be the best way of doing this. There are several options for personal wiki software that could be used locally on a laptop but probably not a tablet/phone though.

Hmm, using a TiddlyWiki could be a neat fit for this: a self-contained wiki in a HTML page, which can be viewed offline and (with browser plugins) save changes across a variety of different platforms/browsers.

Simply being able to create and record links between different NPCs would be useful, but taking it to the next level, there is already e.g. an implementation of a contact address book that might perhaps be the basis for a more extended sort of NPC register. I imagine too a customisation to add in links to the PDFs for Heart of the Wild, Rivendell etc. opening at the relevant page, somewhat like Glorelendil's Bestiary...

May have a tinker around with this, whenever I get the time!

Mate that would be brilliant if you could, you've already done us a great service by creating the Palantir!

Well, when you put it like that... I've knocked up a proof of concept as the

The idea is that the Campaign Lore wiki would be a baseline for Loremasters to then customise as their own campaign evolves, with all the NPCs from the official books with links to the source PDFs for more detail. One nice feature that's come out in development is tagging different entries with the appropriate Lore - so e.g. 'Anduin Lore' collects all the people and places of the Anduin valleys. I imagine eventually being able to customise the view, so players could get a version with only the lore their characters have, as well as notes on anybody they've encountered in their adventures.

As I said, currently it's just a proof of concept: I added a few NPCs from Heart of the Wild, and information from Robin Smallburrow's very useful handout for new players not familiar with Middle-earth.

This is targetting usability (viewing and editing) at the gaming table offline, though it would be also shareable and readable online. This means it doesn't meet Zed's need for players to be able to edit their own character sheets, at least not yet (need to look more into shareable Twiddlywikis).

[jacksarge]

Excellent! That's a great start, the hyperlinks to the place where the NPC lives is an excellent idea.
So far you have the region as the parent folder (or tab), will it then have child folders under that like Anduin->Stonyford->Ava, or Anduin->Easterly Inn->Dinodas?
Just thinking that as I run a game and players arrive at a particular settlement I can bring that place up and see all the NPCs who reside there, then think about any potential interactions. Good to have open in another tab as we run our Roll20 game.
Sorry for rambling, this probably seems all pretty self evident.

[zedturtle]

Looks very interesting. I imagine the idea is to share out a master Tiddlywinks file? Wrapping up updates into the master file could use a diff style program. Actually, this might be a great thing for a SVN/github/whatever's in vogue now; you could share it out and then approve commits to the master file.

[StuartJ]

Thanks for the feedback jacksarge and zedturtle

So far you have the region as the parent folder (or tab), will it then have child folders under that like Anduin->Stonyford->Ava, or Anduin->Easterly Inn->Dinodas?
Just thinking that as I run a game and players arrive at a particular settlement I can bring that place up and see all the NPCs who reside there, then think about any potential interactions. Good to have open in another tab as we run our Roll20 game.

Yes, there could be that sort of hierarchical rollup. I like the notion of making a ready list of all the NPCs in a region or location. I'd wanted to keep it quite lightweight for anyone adding in their own NPCs etc. but I'm also looking at doing some means to bulk import data from a spreadsheet, which would help with adding that detail.

Looks very interesting. I imagine the idea is to share out a master Tiddlywinks file? Wrapping up updates into the master file could use a diff style program. Actually, this might be a great thing for a SVN/github/whatever's in vogue now; you could share it out and then approve commits to the master file.

Yes, I definitely have the master file under version control already, to save me from my own mistakes! It might work too for taking contributions, but I think the most probable case is adding in new NPCs and locations ... like your own Theft of the Moon, for example That's where I hope working out a bulk import/export mechanism would help share data, including to Loremasters who have already started customising with their own data, so wouldn't want to start over.

Speaking of Theft of the Moon, I think that would make an excellent test case for combining NPCs etc. from two different sources - and also give me a PDF to which I can link without infringing Cubicle 7's copyright! Is there an authoritative URL for Theft of the Moon now?

[zedturtle]

I'll make a final link, the actual final file is waiting on final art from a well known Tolkien artist to round out the project.

[jacksarge]

This is a cool project Stuart! It sounds similar to the stuff you can do on Obsidian Portal as far as linking and nesting data for campaigns, NPCs etc.
The specialist TOR setup you are working on would save us all loads of work, whilst also allowing us to customise it with our own campaign setting stuff.

[jacksarge]

I'll make a final link, the actual final file is waiting on final art from a well known Tolkien artist to round out the project.

Man, I wish I had that version for the session I'm running today. Hopefully the group will finish the adventure this afternoon (Tasmanian time). I shall think of us as "beta testers" .

[zedturtle]

To reiterate, nothing much has changed... a few name changes, a little bit of text massaging, etc. I'm still waiting on the art, otherwise you'd have it right now.