How are you guys using the Mechanics section? - Page 3

zarlor · September 4th, 2013, 05:21 PM

I'm not sure I do understand, I'd have to pull out my other computer to check, but I think there is an option, just like for Show Nested Hierarchies to hide unused topics, I thought. I could be mis-remembering, though.

Dakadin · September 4th, 2013, 08:03 PM

Zarlor is right. There is an option under Empty Category Heading to choose Hide Always. Then you don't have to see them unless you have something in them.

Silveras · September 5th, 2013, 07:01 AM

From what I read of Kendall-DM's post, he's not looking to hide Categories with no Topics, he's looking to hide Topics. A specific example (with screenshots) might make it more clear.

Dakadin · September 5th, 2013, 07:43 AM

You might be right but then why not just move the topics from Story to World when you want to hide them?

The topics you create in Story don't automatically get created in the World. They can only exist in one location at a time.

zarlor · September 5th, 2013, 09:39 AM

I think that's what I'm not getting, either. Categories exist in both places (and you can hide any ones that don't have any topics in them with the "Empty Category Handling" options off the tools icon). You also have the ability to filter the view down if you need to for making things more manageable, but if you maintain a manageable size in Story to begin with then you'd probably only really need that on your World view anyway. So that's why I'm not quite seeing what the problem is.

AEIOU · September 5th, 2013, 03:31 PM

Re-reading Kendall-DM's post, I think I see the disconnect.

He wants:
World Almanac - Nations, Cities, Geographical Regions, Locations, Language
Story Almanac - Story, plot, characters, motives, modules

RW is currently setup to provide:
World Almanac - Story, plot, characters, motives, modules, Nations, Cities, Geographical Regions, Locations, Language
Story Almanac - Story, plot, characters, motives, modules, Nations, Cities, Geographical Regions, Locations, Language

I can definitely see the advantages of K-DM's thinking but as the number of adventures and other campaign-based content grows I think it would become very unwieldy. The advantage to the current RW structure is you can pull the relevant items out into STORY for the adventures at hand and then move them back to WORLD when they are no longer the focus so your STORY remains streamlined and easy to navigate.

K-DM sparked another thought though. I'd love to be able to create multiple STORY views so I can create subgroups of information by continent or by module or adventure path or party. But I would like WORLD view to reflect everything from all subgroups. Maybe color code the WORLD view to quickly show which STORY views specific elements are mirrored within. In a sense, the STORY views could be subsets of the WORLD view. And the same topics and elements could exist in multiple STORY views.

Kendall-DM · September 5th, 2013, 03:34 PM

You've got it! That's exactly what I mean. The hide works globally (in both Almanacs), which is not what I want. I would like a hide that works for each Almanac independently.

zarlor · September 5th, 2013, 04:01 PM

Ah, I didn't realize you couldn't set the hide filter separately. Is everything else linked like that too? I mean if I set one to Nested view is the other one set that way as well? Or if I filter a view does the filter apply to the other as well? Either way I can definitely see a preference to having any of those things applying separately to the two rather than having a change to one affect both of them. Put me on the +1 column for that! (Especially since I thought it worked that way but hadn't actually tried it!)

Kathorus · September 6th, 2013, 02:45 AM

My understanding of the intent of this is to allow the GM to put in the Story Almanac only the things that are currently in use. Perhaps thinking of it as the "Current Adventure Almanac". The World Almanac is to contain things when they are not in 'active' use. This allows the opening of the Story Almanac and only the information that is needed to run the game.

It's just a matter of scope and scale. The World Almanac will presumably get loaded with hundreds or thousands of items, especially the Individual category, it would be a pain to quickly, visually, scan those items, you would have to search to limit the results. With the Story Almanac I can move, in advance, a subset of only those individuals, places, events, etc... that I am going to use in game, which should make running the game smoother.

AEIOU · September 6th, 2013, 06:46 AM

The more I think about it, the more I really think ALL content needs to appear in the World almanac with the content that is mirrored in Story highlighted somehow so we can quickly see what we are using from the whole. The current Story/World split removes all context for the material so it's very difficult to see what else you might want to include in the Story, where there are holes in the material and where the adventures could naturally flow. On my wish list for 2.0....

With multiple story almanacs, we could start prepping the next adventure(s) which would be very helpful. Especially if the locales they are going are very different -- Magnimar to Korvosa, Alpha Centaurii to Sol, dungeon to town.

Dakadin Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 39 September 4th, 2013, 08:03 PM	Zarlor is right. There is an option under Empty Category Heading to choose Hide Always. Then you don't have to see them unless you have something in them.
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Silveras Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 1,528 September 5th, 2013, 07:01 AM	From what I read of Kendall-DM's post, he's not looking to hide Categories with no Topics, he's looking to hide Topics. A specific example (with screenshots) might make it more clear.
#23

Kendall-DM Spy Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Van Nuys, California Posts: 1,220 September 5th, 2013, 03:34 PM	You've got it! That's exactly what I mean. The hide works globally (in both Almanacs), which is not what I want. I would like a hide that works for each Almanac independently.
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