Topic: ICE needs an SRD for thier systems.

[Bruce]

This is especially true for RMU and HARP. Having an SRD can help a great deal to get the game out there and into the world more and that helps attract more potential players. There are so many great ideas for game organization and management and they all support SRD's.
I personally use Obsidian.md.
Obsidian.md is a markdown note taking app that has a lot of community support for a variety of RPGs and the systems that get the most push are those with SRD's because people do not want to spend the extra time putting all the core rules and stuff into the format for ready use.
Obsidian.md is free and it some really cool community designed plug ins that help with TTRPGs from campaign management down to running a complete game from within Obsidian.
Having the SRD stuff in a set of files like that which Obsidian.md uses helps to get people interested in a game system.

[cdcooley]

What in the world is an SRD?

[B Hanson]

What in the world is an SRD?

I believe it's the abbreviation for Surinamese Dollars....but it could also be a system reference document that provides guidelines for publishing material under a Open Game License. Given the context here I'm going to go with the second option.

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

He's talking about the game system, so System Research & Development? Or mayhap a Service Release Date because releases are only estimations? Or a System Readiness Test because there are still typos in the final products? So many options possible~

[Merkir]

Here's a few...
https://www.dicegeeks.com/rpg-srds/
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/srd/

[Cory Magel]

I'm of two, or maybe even three at some point, minds.

Owner of RM license hat from a profitability standpoint: I don't want a bunch of people creating material for my system with little to no control on quality when I could be making a percentage of that by them doing it through me and making sure the masses don't churn out a potentially large percentage of crap.

Owner of RM license from hat a 'legacy' standpoint: I'd love it if people started making a bunch of content for my game and, thereby, spread it's popularity with little to no effort on my end.

Personally, if I had the time to really dedicate to it, I'd rather just create the material and let ICE do the rest the work and pay me royalties.  If I thought I could make a living at it I'd do it full time, but I don't believe I could with any system outside of D&D.  Yes, I could go work for or maybe even start my own RPG company, but I wouldn't be making more than I do now.

[Merkir]

Posting to raise my post count by one (no, I'm not superstitious at all... never)

[pastaav]

Would it not be better to use the thread to about if it can be solved to have the rules in markdown so users can use them in mentioned app?

[jdale]

I think a better case can be made for it in modules and setting materials than for rules.

Regarding obsidian.md, I have never heard of that and searching for their website doesn't really tell me anything about how it relates to an SRD or game material in general.

[Bruce]

I think a better case can be made for it in modules and setting materials than for rules.

Regarding obsidian.md, I have never heard of that and searching for their website doesn't really tell me anything about how it relates to an SRD or game material in general.

Obsidian.md is simply a note taking/writing app that's note solely just for RPGs. But growing TTRPG community has adopted Obsidian.md for RPGs. It's being used for everything from Campaign Management to running live sessions. It has plenty of plugins for RPG content like a fantasy calendar, statblocks that work with an initiative encounter, a graphical Dice roller (I've got mine set up for open-ended rolls on percentile dice), and so much more.
The only issue with it is that it takes a lot to put all your own stuff into the program. The RPGs that get the most attention are the ones that have an SRD and the people behind the TTRPG OBsidian community have already loaded quite a few SRD's into Obsidian.
Unfortunately neither HARP or RMU have an SRD so you would have to enter in all that info manually. Lucky for me I already had a lot of HARP programmed into Realm Works and someone created an importer plugin that will convert Realm Works files into markdown files so it was a much easier transfer than it could have been. It is an incredible program.
Here is a great beginner video by Joshua Plunket, a patreon I support. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV3Dp1Kki1E&ab_channel=JoshPlunkett

[jdale]

Is there a non-video place I can read about it?

[Haeshka]

Here: https://obsidian.md/publish

I feel you, Bruce, unfortunately- ICE in all its instances has been very against allowing others involved in their growth.  Lots of factors have to be contemplated, and lots of carefully-worded documents have to be written.  And, with all steam working towards publishing RMU and HARP products in such a small team, I doubt there's much mental capacity left to work on such an answer; which is really too bad, as it will forever prevent RMU from getting anywhere outside of the die-hards.

[jdale]

Is there a non-video place I can read specifically about the RPG applications? I want to understand what you're talking about, but I don't want to spend half an hour watching a video to figure out whether it's relevant.

[Barner Cobblewood]

Perhaps look at

https://publish.obsidian.md/hub/04+-+Guides%2C+Workflows%2C+%26+Courses/for+TTRPG

and scroll down to the "Vaults" section.

[jdale]

The blogs were more what I was looking for. I don't know, open source people just don't know how to present concise explanations of what things are for. I see that everywhere. Here's a directory of all our files! Here are all the plug-ins! Here's a log of recent changes! But no "this is the purpose of this project."

Anyway, ok, I can see the utility. It's not what I would use personally, because I find Markdown too constraining, but ok.

[Hansuke]

This discussion got me to wondering if I could use google sites to create a campaign manager. I just filled in some random data and came up with:
https://sites.google.com/view/offrong-campaign/home.

It only took an hour or so. I am thinking it might make a good campaign manager. It's certainly easy to build. While not complete by any means, I think if provides a proof of concept.

[Bruce]

This discussion got me to wondering if I could use google sites to create a campaign manager. I just filled in some random data and came up with:
https://sites.google.com/view/offrong-campaign/home.

It only took an hour or so. I am thinking it might make a good campaign manager. It's certainly easy to build. While not complete by any means, I think if provides a proof of concept.

Interesting. For one I didn't know there was a thing called Google Sites (when I first looked at it I misread it as Google Sheets...lol). It looks good but not sure it would work good for my campaign management. I also have all my data already programmed into Obsidian (much of it was ported from Realm Works) and I am daily adding things in.

The blogs were more what I was looking for. I don't know, open source people just don't know how to present concise explanations of what things are for. I see that everywhere. Here's a directory of all our files! Here are all the plug-ins! Here's a log of recent changes! But no "this is the purpose of this project."

Anyway, ok, I can see the utility. It's not what I would use personally, because I find Markdown too constraining, but ok.

I come from using Realm Works as my original campaign management software and I found it extremely useful to have everything I need within a few clicks and on different tabs, but it was never organized the way I wanted it to be. Then they announced there would be no more development for Realm Works and along came Obsidian.md.
I can use Obsidian during a game for easy rules reference and to look up info on the current scenario and any relevant data. I can post maps and other images on external screens so the PCs can see them. There is also a plugin for using spreadsheet formulas within a note inside Obsidian (but adds a little extra to entering formulas).
I am not a programmer (dabbled a little in Javascript for PDFs) so I don't do any programming for plugins and what not. But I can usually get some help in the Discord if need be.

[jdale]

The name is a bit funny. For my online part, I use ObsidianPortal, which also uses Markdown, but I don't think has anything to do with Obsidian.

[Hansuke]

This conversation also got me to thinking about what could be copied to a campaign manager website. I guess that's the gist of this whole thread. Several months back I bought SM Beyond the Core module to help complete my collection. If I wanted to add certain data from that module to my campaign site, wouldn't it be verboten? For example, what if I wanted to copy the basic system information from page 18 regarding ABRAX 6 F9 V. Even though it would give the players something helpful to read about the system, I believe that I cannot copy that information and put it on the website; having to opt for my players to buy the module to read it for themselves. Maybe some kind of fair use standard, or maybe some kind of restricted SRD, would be helpful. Please forgive my attempt at legalese; I have not idea what legal maneuvers would have to be made.

[pastaav]

How much would you willing to pay for having the rules in markdown?