I'm learning SR4/A for the first time (old SR1/2/3 player) while preparing to run a new campaign next year, and want to organize my reference materials for use at the table. I have learned through experience that I prefer to roll openly and not use a GM's screen. Instead, I have a notebook PC (technically, an "ultraportable" with an 11" screen, kind of like a netbook hopped-up on steriods) that allows me to lookup anything I need while not getting in my way or occupying a huge footprint on the table. However, PDFs absolutely suck in this form-factor, and I prefer something more flexible for reading on the fly. My eyesight isn't what it used to be!
So what I've decided to try is building a simple, portable wiki that contains the same tables you'd see on the GM's screen, using html for a far more practical display. I'm using a wiki package called TiddlyWiki. Yes, TiddlyWiki. TiddlyWiki has been described as a "kind of midget wiki on crack." It uses scripting tricks to self-contain all its data in a single html file, making it super-portable. While I will have net access during some games, this is not always the case. A TiddlyWiki can easily be carried around on a thumbdrive, and its a simple drag-and-drop or email attachment to transfer it around. The way the wiki entries (called Tiddlers) are displayed is ideal for my quick reference use case. I'm also using a recursive tagging variant (this is all open source) called MPTW. That's Monkey Pirate TiddlyWiki. I'm serious.
What I have so far is a simple wiki with a hacked-up theme I borrowed from an old version of another tiddlywiki variant (called GTD; Getting Things Done), the MPTW recursive tagging scheme, and a few helpful plugins from the tiddlywiki community. I have added:
- All the table data from the Fanpro SR4 Gamemaster's Screen, including the extras in the booklet, with all the SR4A updates I could find.
- The SR4 FAQ from the shadowrun4 website.
- Plus, the SR4A changes document, also from the Catalyst website.
Hopefully this is kosher to post; the spreadsheets floating around contain a lot more data than this. I also started working on the errata docs from shadowrun4.com, and got a couple of pages in before I realized this was errata for SR4, not SR4A.., d'oh! You are welcome to use and modify this thing to your heart's content. TiddlyWikis make awesome campaign organizers; see Encounter-a-Day for an example. I've tested my file in Chrome and IE8. It should work fine in Firefox, but let me know if it doesn't. Because of the scripting arcana required to execute the TiddlyWiki webpage, you will get some kind of warning the first time it loads in your browser. TiddlyWiki only modifies itself, but you will need to finesse your security a little to use it. Here is a link to the current file:
SR4A Quick Reference Wiki (2010.12.01)
Some follow-up questions and comments:
- If you find any out of date entries, please let me know! I will make data corrections.
- If there are errata documents relevant to the SR4A ruleset, I would consider adding those.
- If you have any suggestions for other reference material that would be appropriate and won't get me in trouble, fire away!
- If you want to add material yourself that you'd like to share, I'll consider merging your changes.
- I plan on extending this idea to other elements of my campaign; journaling, contacts lists, mission notes.., sky's the limit. SRM missions will wiki-fi (sans images) very easily, for example.
Let me know if you find this useful!
Cheers,
Kurt
