Out Of Character

[waysoftheearth]

sulldawga wrote:

Okay folks, I have finally got around to updating the party statistics.

You rock, Ways! Thanks for this.

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:

Ways, how did you do that? I'm interested because I have the same problems with the games I'm running and trying to keep stats updated is an absolute PITA!

Okay, so here's the gritty detail...

Firstly (as I see it), refs running play-by-post games on Proboards face several challenges including:

1) Maintaining the ref's information AND a copy for the players is hard work,
2) Presenting tables of information on Proboards is hard work.

I found myself maintaining three main spreadsheets for each of my games;
* Basic PC sheets (abilities, HD, AC, hp, gear, etc),
* Experience point totals, and
* Finances.

And if that wasn't enough effort, THEN I needed to periodically copy stuff from these spread sheets into Proboards tables and post them for the players. I got "reasonably good" at this, but it is a lot of effort, I could only ever do it from my home PC (where the spread sheets are saved), and the player's view of the information would regularly be out of date.

So, I have recently started uploading my spreadsheets to any online tool called EditGrid (http://http://www.editgrid.com/). It's free and essentially replicates all of the features of Excel or Calc right in your web browser. Now I can edit my spread sheets online from anywhere I am. Great!

Editgrid also allows you to publish your spreadsheets, or any subpart of them for blogs and webpages. This feature is simply awesome. It means that anyone who visits the blog or webpage will see the most up to date view of the published part of your spreadsheet.

The catch is, it doesn't work with Proboards [img]images/smiley/sad.png[/img]

Not out of the box anyway. The reason is that in order to see a published Editgrid spreadsheet in another site (including a Proboards forum), you need to embed an HTML in that site. Proboards doesn't allow this for various security reasons (a malicious coder could write some nasty code embedded in an iframe, and give the Proboards guys a lot of grief).

However, it is not impossible. I wrote a little piece of javascript and discussed it with Marv, and he agreed to add it to odd74's (invisible) page footer. Thus, the odd74 boards will now recognise bbcode that looks like this:


{editgrid-username}/{editgrid-document-id}


Of course you would use regular square brackets instead of angle brackets.

It is pretty basic (meaning it doesn't support all of the parameters that editgrid supports), but it works.

And that, friends, is why you can see the pretty spread sheets in my game.

In the not too distant future I intend to put up individual character sheets which will be editable inline right here on odd74 (by their owners), and also the finances sheet.

It should be good ;D

[waysoftheearth]

sulldawga wrote:
I still want to clear the basement but I wanted to clarify that we should do so with everyone (i.e. wait until Olaf is available to accompany us).

The average PbP game is slow enough without having to sit around and wait for folks to come back from adventuring without you!

[waysoftheearth]

ehiker133 wrote:

Very good. With Highbough and Gustave's votes, it appears that the company is intent upon exploring the secret tunnels beneath the manse.

Any exploration will have to wait until the morning in order for Olaf to participate, and also to gain access to the secret passage, which can only be entered from the fireplace in the great hall. And right now, the great hall is filled mumbling nuns.

That leaves a couple of hours to purchase any last moment supplies before sundown.

Please post here whatever you wish to purchase (or have the Goblin staff purchase for you). I will start the new adventure thread tomorrow [img]images/smiley/smiley.png[/img]

So what all do we need?

Desmond has no lamps or torches. We'll need some of either (or both). Not sure we want a link boy (or two), though, as we're talking about exploring secret passages in our own manse, right? So... it's what we can carry ourselves. And if we want to avoid using open flames under the house, then maybe lamps?

Might also want to have a few coils of rope with us? And some burlap sacks for hauling loots! Anything else anyone can think of?

[waysoftheearth]

eris wrote:
Olaf isn't in on the planning. Have we decided to clear the basement? That's fine with me, if we have.

Whether for the "clean up" job or the "quest" Olaf wants a bow and 20 arrows, 2 shields, a helmet (I think he's lost his helmet, but his armor is okay, right Ways?), torches, oil (burning the centipedes out from under the house is NOT a good idea if there's a chance we set the house on fire, but if it's all stonework down there it might be a good way to mop up) and did someone mention Anti-venom?

For the quest mission we're going to need food and water (trail rations and waterskins).

[waysoftheearth]

doctorx wrote:
Josiane's out of coin, so she's unable to add anything to the pot to buy equipment I'm afraid. [img]images/smiley/sad.png[/img]

[waysoftheearth]

danhem wrote:
Ulric has a lantern and four flasks of oil for the cellar delve.

I think we should take care of this before we worry about purchasing gear and hiring henchmen for the temple quest.

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
Right O folks.

Dorgan has discovered a second entrance to the cellar, which could be investigated right away.

All I need to know is whether you want to proceed this evening, while the nuns are seeing to Olaf, or whether you want to wait until after a good breakfast on the morrow?

[waysoftheearth]

sulldawga wrote:
Dorgan wants to wait for Olaf.

[waysoftheearth]

doctorx wrote:
Josiane seconds the above.