Please to make blank playbook in format I can use

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Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« on: June 16, 2012, 04:28:38 PM »
Please, someone with talent, make a blank playbook in a format I can use--Word or Publisher, or something easy to get.

Or tell me that the existing blank playbook is easier to use than I think it is.

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sage

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Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2012, 04:44:51 PM »
We're working on it! I have this plan to get someone with some CSS skill to make a template so that we can just provide an HTML file. Failing that, Word would be a real stretch but publisher is possible, I think.

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2012, 05:03:40 PM »
uh, the druid in my group actually knows a lot about css and html. If help is needed I could tell him.
Oh, the things we tell ourselves to feel better about the long, dark nights.

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sage

  • 549
Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2012, 05:38:34 PM »
(not that) adam— that's be awesome! Not sure when we'll get around to actually doing it, but if you could get us in touch with him (gm@dungeon-world.com) that'd be awesome!

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2012, 02:57:56 AM »
(not that) adam— that's be awesome! Not sure when we'll get around to actually doing it, but if you could get us in touch with him (gm@dungeon-world.com) that'd be awesome!

Sage, is there a requirement for CSS? I have a quick xslt file I have been building that isn't finished yet, but is sort of functional. I was doing it for myself but if you guys want it I can work on cleaning it up. In my experience xslt is considerably more pliable, and you don't have to convert your XML to HTML, your browser does it for you! Or should.

Edit:
I just realized that the bard file actually points to an XSL style sheet already. (this is what I get for only using a single file for testing purposes). So it looks like there is some movement in that direction. Does anyone know why the dungeon-world-class.xsl file is not on github?
« Last Edit: June 17, 2012, 01:07:14 PM by Mtallen »

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stras

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Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2012, 04:04:03 AM »
Also, if you're using XSLT, a quick PHP/TCPDF script can make playable files in short order.  Printable output FOR THE WIN.

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2012, 04:19:19 AM »
Heyya, I'm the Druid of which Adam was talking about here above.

I'm a web designer so I'm pretty involved in html and css. Just let me know if you need something in this field.

p.s talking by player side: Dungeon World rocks ;D

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sage

  • 549
Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2012, 01:11:12 PM »
Ha! I thought that xslt reference was only in my other branch. Guess I got confused!

Yes, I've been working with xslt to display the character sheets and it works perfectly well, but it doesn't look very good. Without some styling (either straight in the HTML or via css) it just looks like My Very First Web Page. So yeah, getting it to look decent and hopefully be easily printable is somewhere down the road.

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2012, 10:47:16 AM »
I suppose this depends on who the target audience is. I suspect that the technical sophistication of many players does not go much beyond Word, let alone xml + xslt.

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sage

  • 549
Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2012, 12:37:50 PM »
I'm hoping that a template (and the fact that really they only need to write HTML) would work, but who knows!

The idea is that we'd have a template that looked like this:

<div id="Races">
Write you race options here. Use this as a template:

<h3>Elf</h3>
<p>You're all elfy and stuff</p></div>

That's still too complex for a lot of people, but WAY easier than asking them to already have InDesign.

I've messed with a Word template but just haven't been able to get it to work to anything close to the same standard. Then again, I'm not a Word guru.

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2012, 01:44:36 PM »
I'm hoping that a template (and the fact that really they only need to write HTML) would work, but who knows!

The idea is that we'd have a template that looked like this:

<div id="Races">
Write you race options here. Use this as a template:

<h3>Elf</h3>
<p>You're all elfy and stuff</p></div>

That's still too complex for a lot of people, but WAY easier than asking them to already have InDesign.

I've messed with a Word template but just haven't been able to get it to work to anything close to the same standard. Then again, I'm not a Word guru.

I really like this intent. It would be pretty easy for a couple of slightly more technically oriented folks to put together a number of templates that people could hack if they wanted. Since the XML is mostly HTML writing css for it is actually easy then building an XSL file that mimics HTML. So I may take that route.

Also if you set up the XML with a fair amount of comments:
<!-- Add elfy data here -->

It should work fine for the neophyte. Word templates are pretty easy, but in general word is not nearly as robust as either inDesign or even Web/HTML. I would stick with what you have.

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #11 on: June 19, 2012, 02:04:27 PM »
I just have to say, watching you guys get all webdev about Dungeon World is giving me some nerd happiness I did not expect.

Thumbs universally up, over here.

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #12 on: June 19, 2012, 02:11:50 PM »
The problem with word is that it isn't a layout tool, it just does word processing. I'm debating putting together a quick web app that is just "fill in the blanks" and hit go. I'd generate LaTeX, or something on the backend to render the pdf, and server it up to the user. Granted, these are famous last words, but it would be fairly simple to put together.

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sage

  • 549
Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #13 on: June 19, 2012, 02:28:38 PM »
jj, I looked at doing something similar, but ultimately ended up not having the time to put into it. It does seem entirely possible, but my expertise isn't really in web apps. (For those who don't know my day job is software development, but I'm more in the client/app space than server-side.)

Re: Please to make blank playbook in format I can use
« Reply #14 on: June 19, 2012, 03:18:47 PM »
Sage, time is always the biggest factor. Once you've settled on the new/final? character sheet layout I'll give it a crack and see how labor intense it would be.