Version 3.2
By Bruce Gulke
www.mythosa.net

Launch Campaign Sage

Launch Campaign Sage Express

Welcome to Campaign Sage 3.2! Campaign Sage is a reference tool to allow Gamemasters and players easy access to various gaming materials. It is currently intended to be used with a popular fantasy RPG that is currently in its third edition, but it could be modified for whatever game system you use.

Using the tool should be pretty self-explanatory. This page provides a quick-and-dirty rundown on how it works.

The Campaign Sage Interface

Campaign Sage 3.2 runs entirely in a browser (it should work with any browser, other than Mozilla or other browsers that aren't Internet Explorer, or Internet Explorer versions that pre-date 6.0). There are three sections: "Charts & Tables", "Monsters", and "Spells". More may be added at a future date. Each of these sections is accessible by the appropriate icon found at the top of the browser window.

Charts & Tables
This section is designed for looking up charts, tables, and similar things. The left side of this page consists of areas for "QuickSearch" and "Advanced Search". To do a "QuickSearch", simply type the name of the chart you want to look up in the text box at the top of the page. As you type, Sage will dynamically display matching file names in the list below the text box. You can either stop typing and click on the file you want to view in the list, or you can continue typing. If you continue, Sage will automatically display the file corresponding to what you've typed once it has determined that only one item matches your request. For instance, say you have only three charts starting with the letter 'W': "Warrior", "Wizard", and "Warlord". Once you type "W", you'll see those three charts in the list. If you then proceed with "a" (having typed "Wa"), you'll no longer see "Wizard", since that file starts with "Wi". Typing "r" will keep both remaining files. If what you wanted to see was "Warrior", typing the next "r" (for "Warr") will automatically select "Warrior" (since the other file starts with "Warl") and display it in the right side of the window. Note: Typing '*' will display all the charts, tables, etc. in the list.

You can filter your search with the drop-down lists in the "Advanced Search" area. See the section below on "Monsters" for a discussion of "Advanced Search".

Monsters
The monsters section is pretty much the same as "Charts & Tables", described above. The only major difference is that there are more filter options to choose from. You can select a variety of conditions to filter on: choose an item to search on from the first drop-down list (things like "Name", "Attacks", etc.), criteria from the second drop-down (for equals, not equal, greater than or equal, contains, etc.), and then something to look for in the text box below (check the "Proper case" to automatically capitalize words; with the current data, this is probably something you'll want to do). To add your condition to the filter list, click the "and" or "or" buttons (note: there is no "and" or "or" for the first item you add to the list - it is just added regardless of which button you click; "and" and "or" are tacked onto the front of conditions you add after the first). Clicking "Remove" will remove a condition if it's selected in the filter list, while clear will remove them all. "Find" will display the monsters that fit your criteria in the monster list. Clicking on an entry in the list will display the creature's information to the right of the search area.

Example: Say you want to list all the monsters that contain the word "dire" in their name. Select "Name" from the first drop-down, select "contains" from the second, and type "dire" in the text box. Click "+ (and)". If you click "Find", this will display all the creatures that contain the text "dire" (as a separate word, and as part of a word; in this example, "dire wolf" and "direwraith" would both appear if they were creatures in your monster data). The search is case-sensitive, so using the above example, something named "Dire Ferret" wouldn't appear, because the first letter of "dire" in that name is capitalized.

Another Example: You want a list of all the creatures with the word "demon" or "devil" in their name. You'd do the following: Select "Name", select "contains", enter "Demon" (or "demon"), and click "+ (and)". Then, select "Name", select "contains", enter "Devil" (or "devil"), and click "+ (or)". You'll see your criteria is now "Name='Demons' or Name='Devils'". Clicking "Find" will show you all the monsters you have that contain either word in their name.

Spells
Spells works in the exact same manner as "Monsters", above.

Campaign Sage Express

This page is similar to the pages described above, but lacks any filtering functionality. It's purpose is to provide quick access to anything you may be searching for without having to change the page you're on. On this page, in the "QuickSearch" box, you first type a special character for the type of item you're looking for (";" for charts, "'" for monsters, or "/" for spells"). Then, type the rest of the name normally, and Sage will display what you're looking for in the same manner as it described above. Examples: If you wanted to look up the "fireball" spell, you'd type "/fireball"; if you wanted to see the barbarian chart, you'd type ";barbarian"; finally, if you needed a spectre's stats, you'd type "'spectre".

Campaign Sage Data

The data for the charts, monsters, and spells are located in the folder "Data". Monster data is in the file "Monster.xml", spell data is in "Spell.xml", and chart data is in "Chart.xml". If you wish to add items, or modify or remove existing ones, these are the files to edit. No editting tool is provided with Campaign Sage, but since the XML files are text, you can edit them with Notepad or something similar. A better tool would be an XML Editor, such as "XML Notepad", from Microsoft. The XSL files that accompany the XML files describe how to display the various items in Campaign Sage. If you are familiar with XSL, you may want to modify these files to better suit your tastes.

Please note: If you have general (rather than Sage-specific) questions about Javascript, HTML, XML, or XSL, you can find a wealth of information on these topics at any number of sites on the Web. Please do not ask me to teach you about any of them, as I do not have the time to do so, nor would I make a good instructor.

Version History

Copyright Information

Campaign Sage is done under the Open Gaming License. All the data in the 'Charts' and 'Data' folders is Open Content, with the exception of any graphics files. The monster and spell XML files are somewhat modified versions of files made available by the Yahoo d20-xml mailing list.