Using the TenFootWiki for a Campaign Journal

I've set up the Campaign Journal I mentioned in my last post. I'm using the "TenFootWiki" I talked about. I'm hoping it proves to be useful, though I'll no doubt be tweaking it as time goes on.

I'm also putting together a page with the wiki for a Mythosan glossary. I'll be posting what I have soon, though it'll be incomplete for quite some time. Initially it will probably be rather bare-bones, but my eventual plan is to make it more like the "Hârndex" - more an encyclopedia than a glossary.

Uncle Bear's "TenFootWiki"

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, check out Uncle Bear's "TenFootWiki". A very cool tool you can use for campaign reference, campaign management, or whatever. I have to admit that I wasn't particularly impressed when I first started playing with it, but then I unchecked "EnableAnimations" under Options. That made all the difference.

The thing that impresses me the most is that this whole thing is done in a single HTML file via Javascript and CSS ("div tag"-o-rama). If I find the time I'd like to dissect it to see how it's done. I have a good idea, but I'm curious about the details.

If you want something a little more featured, you might want to check out GTDTagglyWiki, which is a derivative of GTDTiddlyWiki, which Uncle Bear's tool came from.

I'm currently setting up a copy for a campaign journal, and I'll probably some other things with it in the future.

Good Example of Bad Advertising

The first post in this thread on ENWorld.

If a product isn't selling or an ad isn't getting clicked, try a different approach other than "You consumers need to check this product out! We spent a lot of money on our advertising!" If people aren't interested in something, you're not going to browbeat them into getting interested. This comes off as very unprofessional, which is not what you want if you want to be taken seriously.

Later in the thread, the original poster mentions that he may stop advertising on ENWorld since he's not getting enough return on his investment, but he would prefer to keep doing it. But then later he says that it's "...not really about money..." So - which is it? Are you running a business or are you spending money on your hobby?

But, I digress. This thread reminded me of a former Inphobia columnist (McCubbin, maybe?) who was ranting a few years ago about how gamers were responsible for the magazine tanking because they weren't sophisticated enough to appreciate it (Inphobia was what White Wolf Magazine warped into). The concept that it simply wasn't to people's tastes was lost on him. Of course, there are a number of prima donna game writers out there with the patronizing attitude that you should simply buy whatever they put out since they know better than you what's good. The ones with long term success are those who actually put out what people want (though that may mean appealling to the LCD) or those who put out good stuff that isn't universally appreciated but don't rant about how Joe Gamer doesn't "get it."

Cool Resource: Terminix Insect Database

While researching a bug I found among some sawdust in our family room (to determine if it was problematic or not), I found a pretty nice resource: the Terminix Pest Library. Granted, it's a corporate site, but don't let that scare you away, hippies! Good, basic insect information.

A number of gaming ideas for fantasy insects...

Sutherland's Passing

This is unfortunate. Those of us who've been playing awhile have fond memories of Dave's art.

What's Been Going On...

Given that I haven't posted much to the site recently and haven't put up a new Mythosa Chronicle in awhile, I figured I should post an update as to what I've been up to for the five or six people who visit this site ;)

World of Warcraft: Of course. I'm past the "I can stop any time" stage to "This really is a problem - someone should intervene". It's not as bad as it could be, but it is cutting into other leisure activities. Work? No. Wife? No. Website, painting, world development? Yes... But if it I wasn't playing WoW I'd be spending a lot of time on Jade Empire for my Xbox, so if it wasn't this it would probably be something else...

Mythosa Chronicle: Originally my plan was to publish this monthly, and it still is, though now it's more like "monthly...or so". You know - like KoDT... Anyway, the Chronicle isn't going away, I've just been busy with other things (outside of WoW) lately. It'll continue in the near future...

Hex Maps: I started working on the hex maps I mentioned in an earlier post. Unfortunately, in the process I discovered that the scale of the main Mythosa map was larger than I really cared for; something I didn't see until I "zoomed" in, as it were, to the smaller scale of the hex maps. So, I scaled down the map by about 20%. This, in turn, invalidated the hex maps I'd created, so I need to create them from scratch. They'll be going up once they're done. Or re-done, as it stands.

TableSmith 5.0: Work continues on TS 5, slowly but surely. The remaining work consists of the DataSet functions, a few other functions, and much of the UI. The bulk of the engine is complete, though I need to do some optimizing as the new version is currently slower than version 4.5.

That's about it for now.