Role Playing Database 3.1.3

Preface

1. Introduction
   1. What Is the Role Playing Database?
   2. How this manual is organized.
2. Tutorial
   1. Creating a Template Bundle
   1. Adding heading text to a container
   2. Adding a field to a container
   3. Adding a container to a container
3. Creating a character sheet
4. Creating a map

1. Creating a new level
2. Creating a space
   1. Adding items and exits to a space

- Reference
  1. Main Window
  2. Configuration Editor
  3. Sheet Template Editor Window
  4. Sheet Editor Windows
  5. Map Editing Windows
     1. Main map editing window
     2. Level editing window
     3. Space editing window">Space editing window
  6. Printing
- Help
- Version
- GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
RPGs are a popular pastime among many people these days. Maybe they are a form of escape from the rather mundane lives many people live, at least during the workday. A RPG allows the players to escape into a world where some things are simpler, and some things more complex, in interesting ways.

I have played AD&D a few times and was dismayed at the amount of paperwork needed to keep track of everything. Being a computer person, it seemed to me that most of this paperwork could be replaced by a computer and the information managed by a clever database system. Given that now there are high-powered laptop computers business people use to keep track of and manage large corporations, it should be possible to manage the odd imaginary universe on such a machine. So I wrote the Role Playing Database System to manage all of the information that goes with an RPG.

The Role Playing Database System maintains a database describing an RPG "universe". This "universe" contains a group of "characters", some player and some non-player, a collection of "monsters", and one or more "places" (dungeons usually) where the "monsters" reside, generally guarding some treasure. The Role Playing Database System helps game masters and players keep track of the various things in the make-believe universe in which the RPG takes place.

If you have any comments about this package, please let me know. My electronic mail addresses are listed on the back side of the title page. I would be very interested in any comments users of the Role Playing Database System package might have.

  Robert Heller
  Deepwoods Software
  Wendell, MA, USA
  January 1999

# Addendum to the V2.1 manual

After to talking to various people, I have made a number of upgrades to the Role Playing Database System, mostly colorful graphics. I have also written in more details into this user manual.

# Addendum to the V3.0 manual

This is a complete rewrite of the system. Character, monster, spell, treasure, trick/trap, and dressing "sheets" can be customized using a template editor. This allows the system to be used with any table-top RPG system. The data files are all "bundled" up as Zip archives containing an XML file with the sheet information, plus any associated media (graphics files or documents). Template files are also Zip archives containing an XML files that describe the various sheets. Each of these files is self-contained and can be carried from computer to computer on the media of your choice (eg CD/DVD-Rs, thumb drives, flash cards, etc.). Map files are also Zip archives containing an XML files along with any associated media (graphics files or documents).

  Robert Heller
  Deepwoods Software
  Wendell, MA, USA
  October 2000