How are you guys using the Mechanics section?

[Silveras]

So it appears that the issue with the Almanacs is that their appearance in the current build is not intuitive.

1. The explanation is buried in the "What's New" topics in the Mechanics Reference (6. World Library).

2. If the intent is that the content of both the Story and World Almanacs are parts of the same "pool", the names could make that clearer. Naming them the "Story Almanac" and "World Almanac" seems more fitting for two separate things, not two parts of the same. Paired names that give a better sense that they belong together would make that more obvious/clear; "Primary" and "Secondary", "In-Focus" and "Out-of-Focus", or "Active" and "Inactive", for example, instead of "Story" and "World".

3. Likewise, the placement on the Ribbon (with "Storyboard" between them) implies they are separate things and not "two parts of one whole".

4. The images used on the ribbon could make this relationship clearer. The "Globe" image for the World Almanac is fine, I think, but would be better with a small piece carved out. The image for the Story Almanac could then *be* that small piece, and being adjacent to the World Almanac, would make the relationship visually clearer.

[Zaphod Beebledoc]

I'm worried about moving things between Story and World. I mean, say you've got all your content for where the players are going to be next week in World, and that you want to move it to Story, but if your content is a large amount of Topics, it could take a while.

What about a marker or something for in the left hand list of topics and categories. It could look something like the reveal topic marker, and when you've marked your content you could move all in one go.

[Kendall-DM]

I don't get the "moving" something from World to Story. Frankly, just by revealing the topic to players (or filtering it even) you will only see what is used for the story in the world almanac. The disconnect is a problem obviously, as well as the linkage (sounds sort of like a quantum particle eh?) between the two not being 1) intuitive and 2) exclusive. All I'm advocating is the ability to hide topics not in use in exclusively for each almanac (or filtering or basically anything that links to both should be exclusive). I'm never going to "move" a topic from one to the other; that is, I'm going to have all my story content in the Story Almanac and all my world building in the World Almanac. It's just that a Nations topic is really for World and I'll never use it (except to reference it) in Story. I don't want to see it in my Story Almanac as a topic at all.

Maybe in Categories, and Category can be set up as Show in... where the choices are Story or World (or both). Then each would only display that which is set up and not those that are not (rather than just doing a Hide, this sort of approaches it in a similar way without a major overhaul).

[Kathorus]

They only way I can think to explain the idea behind "moving" is that you have two three-ring binders, in both you have tabs for everything you track. Your "world" binder is full of all your material, your "story" binder is empty.

You start moving, just the information you need for the next session, into the "story" folder - this is for your own convenience, it makes it easier to look-up the items you need during play.

Then when 'Joe' asks a question about the town they're in and gets some new information you click on it in the Story Almanac, where you moved it and reveal the info. In your scheme you would have to click over to the World Almanac find the info and reveal it, then click back into the Story Almanac to continue on with the encounter.

If it was in the Story Almanac you would cut down on the number of clicks and possible searches that would be required depending on how much data was in your World Almanac. Perhaps it feels intuitive to me because in my day-to-day work I often write views against large, complex databases, and this seems very similar to that.

I guess I will see how it works when I put it into practice in a live game.

I do agree that having the ability to hide those items separately is not a bad option, however, I was just playing around and unchecked the Shown checkbox in the Community category, I only have actual Community things in my Story Almanac, they are still there, while in the World Almanac it is hidden, does it not work that way for you?

[Silveras]

Here's how I view it working, in case this helps:

Our story is set in the country of ABC. It has a City named "Capitol" and some Towns named T1, T2, and T3. Activity in the adventures takes place in "Capitol", "T1", and "T2".

There are neighboring countries of "DEF", "GHI", and "JKL". They are not directly relevant to the story, but people in "ABC" know a little about them (name, general population, etc.) Some PCs could be from one of them, and have family there.

Topic entries for "ABC", and "T2" are in the Story Almanac initially, as that's where play begins.

Topic entries for "DEF", "GHI", "JKL", "Capitol"m "T1", "T3", and any settlements in the other countries are in the "World Almanac". They're available -- with maybe only the name and Overview sections revealed -- and linked from appropriate entries for NPCs in the Story Almanac. This is the "common knowledge" of the world that most citizens of "ABC" would have.

Play starts with the PCs in "T2". Clues lead them to a location in "T1". At that point, "T1" is moved from the World Almanac to the Story Almanac. Additional clues lead to "Capitol", and it is then moved to the Story Almanac.

If it was all in the Story Almanac, then a) it would become cluttered over time and b) it might tip off the players that places named in the Story Almanac are more important than they might seem.

So I think the existing setup works, at least for me.