The Core Worlds

Complete Spell Cards and a Call For Help

The Other Game Company has released Complete Spell Cards. The concept is simple enough, pdf files containing playing card sized references for all the spells in D&D. Its actually something I had considered making myself a while back, the reason I didn't - the SRDs are just in too nasty a format. Writing a program capable of automatically converting all the data was just more trouble then the benefits were worth. As the preview says:

We would have loved to make the Complete Spell Cards available for free, but the work involved is too immense. Sorry for that.

The problem is that the SRDs aren't provided in a very sane format. The RTFs simply are not very parsable (although as I type this I'm getting a few ideas about I might actually succeed in doing it). Things would be a lot easier if Wizards provided nice HTML documents with proper semantic markup.

OK, new idea...

1. People (this means you!) contact me (link now works) and let me know that they are interested in taking part in this project. People also spread the word so that others who don't read my blog can find out about it (if you can blog about this project it would be great!).
2. I create a series of XML templates for areas such as skills, feats and spells. These templates will contain lots of meta data so that they are very friendly for any automated software that people write to process them (e.g. a program could produce a list of all wizard spells of level 3 or lower that are not from a particular skills - ideal for picking the two new spells wizards get when they level up).
3. The templates are discussed to make sure they have enough information in them.
4. People pick a section of the SRD (I'll set up a facility so we can avoid duplication of effort), the transfer that section into the template.
5. I collate the different sources in to a central resource
6. We end up with a machine friendly copy of the SRD that we can use for just about anything.
   • An HTML version will be generated, with hyperlinked class lists
   • A nice to print version can be generated
   • A palmtop friendly version can be generated
   • A searchable (maybe with Google) version can be generated

Now, as the above might sound a little scary, I'll run by an example in a moment. This may also look scary, but its really pretty easy once you get past the fear. If you are helping, I'll be available to offer help and advice on the subject of converting these

And now... the template! (Please note that this is something I've just thrown together, as I mentioned above - the structure is subject to discussion.)

<spell>
 <name> </name>
 <school></school> <subschool></subschool> <descriptor></descriptor>
 <levels> 
  <level class="?"></level>
 </levels>
 <components>
  <component></component>
 </components>
 <range></range>
 <effect></effect>
 <duration></duration>
 <save></save>
 <spellresistance></spellresistance>
 <description></description>
 <material></material>
 <focus></focus>
</spell>

Now lets see how that would translate to a spell. We'll use Acid Arrow (because it happens to be at the top of the list).

<spell>
 <name>Acid Arrow</name>
 <school>Conjuration</school> <subschool>Creation</subschool>  <descriptor>Acid</descriptor>
 <levels> 
  <level class="Sor">2</level>
  <level class="Wiz">2</level>
 </levels>
 <components>
  <component>V</component>
  <component>S</component>
  <component>M</component>
  <component>F</component>
 </components>
 <time>1 standard action</time>
 <range>Long</range>
 <effect>One arrow of acid</effect>
 <duration>1 round + 1 round per 3 levels</duration>
 <save>None</save>
 <spellresistance>No</spellresistance>
 <description>
<p>A magical arrow of acid springs from your hand and speeds to
its target.  You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to hit your
target. The arrow deals 2d4 points of acid damage with no splash
damage. For every three caster levels (to a maximum of 18th), the
acid, unless somehow neutralized, lasts for another round, dealing
another 2d4 points of damage in that round.</p>
 </description>
 <material>Powdered rhubarb leaf and an adder's stomach.</material>
 <focus>A dart.</focus>
</spell>

As you can, hopefully, see -- its little more then a case of filling in the blanks. The two areas that might cause concern are:

1. Sometimes you have to duplicate elements. For example, the <component> had to be repeated a few times as more then one component was required. This is just a matter of copy/paste on the element.

2. The description needs HTML formatting, for most spells this is just a case of marking the places where paragraphs begin (<p>) and end (</p>). Some spells are a little trickier though, and may require the use of <table>. If you end up with such a section, don't worry about asking me for advice, or even if I'll do it for you (there aren't that many of them, so it won't add much to my work).

Remember, if you help out on this project, I'll be on hand if you need any aid getting to grips with the tempates. They really are little more then knowning where to copy and paste the data.

Posted by at 09:35 AM. You can comment on this entry.