Tell me more ×
Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gamemasters and players of tabletop, paper-and-pencil role-playing games. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 6 down vote favorite
1

There are a couple of great questions on this site about tools to manage campaign notes. I'm looking for something more specific; it may not exist.

What tool or tools have you used to keep track of the spell list for a game? With hundreds of spells to manage, I need more intelligence than just a list or a list with cross-links (like a wiki). I'd love to be able to sort and filter like Excel, but also make it available online for players and playtesters to see, comment on, and maybe edit. Any recommendations?

I started with Evernote, because I could make notes from any computer or my phone when inspiration struck. As the list got longer I switched to Excel so I could easily count the number of spells in each school of magic and each power level. The best way I know of to have both would be a little MySQL database and basic PHP front end, but I'd rather not spend a weekend on this if there's a decent alternative!

EDIT:

Per seven-sided's comments, here's my wish list:

  • Convenient editing, such as a wiki markup format; raw HTML is a last resort.
  • The data should be either in a web format or easily exportable to the web, so I can easily share it with others. I have web space already, so hosting is not a requirement.
  • I'd like least two views: a list form showing all 500+ spells, and a detail view showing complete specs for one spell.
  • I'd like to be able to record tags upon which I could sort or filter. E.g., show me all Fire spells, or all fourth-level spells.
  • The ability to add or edit content from anywhere would be a big plus.
  • User-generated comments would be nice to have.

I suppose this boils down to one thing: a wiki with a list-management feature. Now that I think of it, tools meant for managing monsters or NPCs would probably work too.

Here's what I'm picturing for a summary:

 School | Spell | Circle | Target | Range | Duration | Mana Cost | Summary | List of Variants and Perfections
 Air      Flight  5th      Caster   N/A     1 hour     10          XXX       Gift of Flight, Lasting Flight

A good data-driven source should be able to use the same table to create this grid summary and to create a statblock on each spell's details page:

 Spell:  Flight
 School: Air
 Circle: 5th
 Target: Caster
 Range:  N/A
 ...
share|improve this question
Nah, not too subjective, if I'm reading between the lines right. You have a specific problem to solve; if you could add what limitations you're trying to overcome in using a spreadsheet, or just more specs for your ideal solution, this could be an excellent question. – SevenSidedDie Oct 9 '11 at 16:23
Incidentally, my answer was going to be "use a database" until you mentioned that. Though, faster to code would be SQLite because it doesn't have complex field typing to complicate your table design, and you really don't need the power of MySQL. That would make it an afternoon for a first working version instead of a weekend. – SevenSidedDie Oct 9 '11 at 16:26
@SevenSidedDie: Thanks for the comments; I've expanded a little. Regarding the time required, at the office, with all my favorite tools, I could probably match that time. For personal projects I have a halfling-sized impediment to productivity. But someday he'll be another gamer to fill the ranks. – Jon of All Trades Oct 9 '11 at 16:54
1  
If there is sufficient demand, I may be able to whip up a quick web app for this purpose. Vote this comment up if you're interested. – edgerunner Oct 9 '11 at 19:04
1  
I just learned about something that may suit you just right, but I have no experience to back that thought enough to be sure (and make it a full answer): semantic wikis, which have the editability of a wiki and the queriability (is that a word?) of a database. – SevenSidedDie Oct 11 '11 at 0:32
show 7 more comments

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Would MediaWiki with category tags (example) do what you want?

share|improve this answer
That's a good start; it has the wiki collaboration, and I gather from a quick browse that you could set up categories for "Fire" and "Necromancy" plus "level 1", "level 2" and then view by either category. However, just the names in a list isn't a lot of info. It would be helpful to show columns of key fields. I'll add an example to my question. – Jon of All Trades Oct 9 '11 at 19:49
up vote 1 down vote

I actually use an access database for said purpose, but also store the results on a wiki. PBWORKS allows for tremendous data sharing, and is the one we use right now. They do allow for tags and sorting by tags.

I am in the exact situation you mention, with a total homebrew, a large spell list, and the needs for it to be able to be able to be able to be accessed by my players. It;s an old game and an old campaign, so the wiki is actually critical for total setting-management.

This is the spells page, but each spell is actually uploaded from the access database. The access database is critical for the sorting functions you mention, which is not available on our wiki right now, but will be very shortly.

share|improve this answer
So you have a central store, but it's only available from a single computer. Or more specifically, a single network, though I've had enough problems using MS Access in a multi-user small business environment that I'd probably favor another platform. Does PBworks offer a feature where you can sort and filter a list of entries? – Jon of All Trades Oct 9 '11 at 19:47
I'm actually checking that right now. – LordVreeg Oct 9 '11 at 20:32

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.