[Proposal] Wiki for a Campaign

[tjoneslo]

This is a proposal for setting up and using the Traveller Wiki as a Traveller Campaign site to manage a Campaign log, source of information for the Campaign, and track other information. As an example in this message I'll be using the campaign name "Rimward Borders", and set in the Ustral Quadrant sector.

The Main Page serves as the root anchor of the information about the campaign. In the Wiki the page should be called "Campaign: <name>", or in our example "Campaign: Rimward Borders".

The Referee can then create related pages by adding a "/" to the name. For Example "Campaign: Rimward Borders/characters". In mediawiki terminology, the pages with a / in the name are called sub-pages and does a little bit of extra parsing on the names. When I turn it on, the sub pages will have a breadcrumb menu at the top of the page.

To add campaign specific notes to an existing library article, there would be template named after the campaign to add to the article. In our example, adding "{{Rimward Borders}}" to the Ustral Quadrant Sector article would add a text box which says "This article contains information specific to the Rimward Borders campaign", the bold portion being a link to a Rimward Borders sub-page of the original article.

Sandbox support. This is what requires some configuration on my part. I would need to create a "Referee:" namspace and a referee group, such that only users who are in the Referee group (and administrators) can read or write to pages in the Referee namespace.

So for the perspective campaign GM, they would need to do the following:

1. Register on the Traveller Wiki.
2. Specifically let me know they want a campaign setup in the wiki.

The user databases between the Traveller Wiki and the CotI boards are separate, so separate registrations are required. The Referee must register, and let me know their username in the wiki, and if they want the sandbox support as I'll need to specifically allow that. I would request, but not require, that the players also register on the wiki.

As I don't follow every thread on every board on the CotI, I would ask that I be specifically notified, either by PM, or a note here on the wiki discussion board, or a message on my wiki talk page.

This, I think, covers the basics of a campaign tracker on the wiki. If there are specific formatting issues or other new functionality you are interested in, you would need to let me know.

 

[rancke]

I suggest that SpaceBadger takes a look at my Play-by-Wiki protocol and the posts on the Play-by-Wiki Forum and see if he might be able to use some of the ideas contained therein. My attempt to run a P-b-W campaign didn't last long, but we had fun while it did. I think the rules worked very well.


Hans

 

[SpaceBadger]

Tjoneslo: I am in favor of your proposal. It sounds like it would do the things that I was asking for in our prior discussion, to use the wiki for Library Data and game info, with Referee info hidden from players.

One question, would there be a way when the campaign is finished to move some of the materials over to the regular Wiki for the benefit of all users? For example, I expect to do quite a bit of work on backward extrapolation of worlds in Reavers' Deep and adjacent sectors to speculate what those worlds were like in the time of this campaign, during the Long Night. My speculation would not be canon, but still might be useful to someone also wanting to run something in the same timeframe. Would there be some way of moving the pages, and marking them as non-canon, for use by the whole community?

I suggest that SpaceBadger takes a look at my Play-by-Wiki protocol and the posts on the Play-by-Wiki Forum and see if he might be able to use some of the ideas contained therein. My attempt to run a P-b-W campaign didn't last long, but we had fun while it did. I think the rules worked very well.

Thanks, Hans, I will look at those. We aren't actually planning to use the wiki as our play media - this will be a regular Play-by-Post in the forum in that respect - but I really like the idea of a wiki for Library Data, etc.

 

[tjoneslo]

Tjoneslo: I am in favor of your proposal. It sounds like it would do the things that I was asking for in our prior discussion, to use the wiki for Library Data and game info, with Referee info hidden from players.

I'll start working on this this week end.

One question, would there be a way when the campaign is finished to move some of the materials over to the regular Wiki for the benefit of all users? Would there be some way of moving the pages, and marking them as non-canon, for use by the whole community?

We have policy in place to include, and clearly mark, non-canon material contributed by fans, writers, or anyone else in the main library. Part of the reason for requesting people sign up is so we can attribute sources correctly.

There are several ways to move material from one page to another (move the page, copy the content, use templates to include the content from one page to another). Part of the process of moving article text from the campaign library data to the full one will probably involve some level of rewriting, reformatting, spitting, or joining articles to match the main wikis policy/desires to be an encyclopedia.

What I had not decided was how permissive or lenient the policy about moving the material should be. That is, when the campaign is over should the wiki editors be allowed to:

• Move all of the library articles to the main wiki
• Move all the library articles except ones (or sections) specifically marked
• Copy only the articles or sections specifically marked
• Copy none of it.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Thank you for your work on this! It sounds like it will be very helpful to our upcoming campaign (and save me having to learn the way of wikis), and I think that others will also find it useful for future campaigns.

 

[rancke]

Thanks, Hans, I will look at those. We aren't actually planning to use the wiki as our play media - this will be a regular Play-by-Post in the forum in that respect - but I really like the idea of a wiki for Library Data, etc.

Sure, use what you like, ignore the rest. As for your plans, if you were not planning to play by wiki because you had never thought of doing so, rather than having thought about it and decided against it, you might have wanted to consider it; it does have some advantages. But that is, obviously, entirely up to you.


Hans