Heya, guys...
I started working with this about eight months ago as a format for detailing
a campaign world. (If you want a peek, let me know. I'll not attach it so
not to spam everyone this time) I agree...XML is perfectly suited to
working with d20 info. And with XSL is wonderful for rendering it as web
pages, or transforming it into some other usable form.
If you boys are putting together some folks to explore and develop, count me
in.
---------------------------------------
Christopher T. Miller -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
OtherWorld Creations -- http://www.otherworlds.cx
http://www.diomin.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sasha Bilton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 11:39 AM
Subject: [Open_Gaming] XML for d20 (longish)
> I had the chance to look over "Three Days To Kill" (John Tynes/Atlas
> Games) the other day. I was impressed - it reminded me of some of the
> really good adventures found in the old White Dwarf magazine (for those
> that remember the good old days!),
>
> Anyway, the booklet contains two main OGL/d20 sections - a bunch of
> monsters and some rules for drinking game.
>
> What has struck me is that quite a lot of d20 sections will contain
> discrete data - monsters stats, weapons stats, spell stats, etc. Given
> that one purpose of d20 and OGL is to distribute this cool stuff about
> so that others can reuse it, shouldn't we start thinking about the
> medium to do this, at least electronically.
>
> Now for the 3 non-gearheads on the list, XML (eXtensible Mark-up
> Language www.xml.com) is a platform, protocol neutral way of storing and
> describing data. What this means, simply, is that Mac, Windows and Linux
> users can swap files without worrying about Word 2000 or StarOffice or
> rtf compatibility. It also means software can understand the data,
> rather than it just being a bunch of words. An example XML document for
> d20 might be....
>
>
> <monster>
> <name> Goblin </name>
> <alignment> chaotic evil </alignment>
> <armour class> 12 </armour class>
> ...etc...
> </monster>
>
> Now say you had an entire Monster Manual done in this format, rather
> than .pdf, given a good XML editor you could quickly find all the
> monsters that are chaotic evil, or have an armour class more than 16.
> More over you could very easily (using XSLT and ECMAscript) generate
> hit points and treasure for individual monsters on the fly.
>
> The best things in some ways about XML is the ability to transform it
> into other formats - the most obvious being html and pdf. Take our
> Monster Manual again, we're going to produce a Lightning Print (soon
> available in the UK BTW) adventure booklet. We've design some cool
> layouts and written our Non OGL stuff. Now we import our XML defined
> monsters into the document - they immediately get turned to text that
> follows of layout designs, after a little editing it's done and goes off
> to the printers. On our website we provide the XML versions of monsters,
> so that anyone can take them off the web and use them - formatting them
> how they like.
>
> I strongly believe that if the OGF can provide DTD (document definitions
> - basically what should go into the monster XML documents) for things
> like Monsters, Weapons, Armour, Equipment, Spells, etc., all us budding
> d20 writer will have a much, much easier time. It will also open the
> space for RPG software tools developers to give loads of toys to play
> with.
>
> Maybe people have already spoken about this? Maybe it's to early to
> think about it? Let me know. Flame me privately for inaccurancies in my
> description of XML.
>
> Sasha Bilton
> -------------
> For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
>
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
