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Combat log in Campaign Logger

TheRoeler

New member
Wizard of Story
Does anyone use Campaign Logger to log actual combat rounds. I tried it once and it is quite a lot to keep track of but it was fun to look over the combat later on and see how it developed blow by blow.

An example of this would be:

@PC attacks @Enemy1 with his sword for 12 points of damage

Interested to see if anyone has tried this...
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
I am using form code to track combat effects, but not actual combat rounds. (Not yet, but we talked about some features which would make this easier to use.)
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
I have sometimes thought about doing this the other way round: having Campaign Logger to describe the details of the combat.

There is already the built-in 5 Line Combat Descriptions generator for that, but perhaps some day Campaign Logger would be able to do calculations and input several parameters in order to handle the actual game mechanics. The downside is that unless you keep it very generic, you would need to build support for each game system separately.

On the other hand, there might be too much automation in there. People may prefer to handle some things themselves...
 

TheRoeler

New member
Wizard of Story
I have sometimes thought about doing this the other way round: having Campaign Logger to describe the details of the combat.

Interesting thought. I wonder how many entries are in that generator, ie how often can you generate before it gets repetitive.

On the other hand, there might be too much automation in there. People may prefer to handle some things themselves...

The more the better I say. But I do think there is indeed a danger of Campaign Logger wading into aspects of role playing where other tools are better suited. Think Hero Lab's combat tracking for example. Feature creep basically.
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Interesting thought. I wonder how many entries are in that generator, ie how often can you generate before it gets repetitive.
I believe there are 50 entries per category, which is not bad for this kind of thing. But as these are static entries, repetition will of course happen at some point. Dynamic descriptions (composed from separately randomized components) would make exact repetition much more unlikely.

The more the better I say. But I do think there is indeed a danger of Campaign Logger wading into aspects of role playing where other tools are better suited. Think Hero Lab's combat tracking for example. Feature creep basically.
Something like that could be implemented as a generator, so it would not need to be an actual component of the tool. This would have the benefit that it could be installed on the user interface as required, just as any other generator. But I agree that feature creep can be an issue even with generators. :)
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
I tracked several combats last season of my Murder Hobos campaign. I deleted that log unfortunately.

I found two things worked well.

First, I created a blank note with all PC names tagged. It also had some other details I kept adding to for super fast reference, including links to SRD pages for tricky rules that came up often.

I'd edit that entry each new combat and order PC names in init order.

Then I'd clone that log entry each new round, and re-org the tagged PCs names in init order.

Second was tagging PC actions. ~Fireball or !Sentinel for example. Tagging let me use autocomplete for fast action notes. Each tag was assigned to a PC. ~ for the wizard, ! the fighter, etc.

I tracked combats to help me study player choices and character capabilities after sessions.
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
I am using form code to track combat effects, but not actual combat rounds.
Did I understand this correctly: you have prepared a combat template that uses form codes to add check boxes and (pre-filled?) text fields to the log entry. Then you copy that template for each combat and fill it in, ticking boxes and editing fields as necessary?

That kind of a template could be useful for making all kinds of book keeping easier. Some additional widgets could be a counter (click to increase or decrease the value as required (for effect durations and all kinds of progress tracking), and (if I'm allowed to put on my Utopian visionary hat), maybe even predefined lists that could be reordered by dragging (for initiative tracking, etc).

The nice thing about form controls is that their state is saved with the log. By copying the latest entry you have a good base for the next encounter or event.
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
In a free minute I prepared several possible encounters using form code, it now contains the combat result, of course:

Code:
?FC
{/|*"Vorbereitung"}
=== §"Wandernde Monster" ===
==== Höllenhunde ====
einer pro Held, p.M35/36
I: [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x] - Feueratem: [x][x][ ][ ][ ] - [ ][ ][ ]
II: [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x] - Feueratem: [x][x][ ][ ][ ] - [ ][ ][ ]
III: [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x] - Feueratem: [x][x][x][ ][ ] - [ ][ ][ ]
IV: [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][x][x] - Feueratem: [x][x][x][x][x] - [x][ ][ ]
{\| %21.09.2018}
 

TheRoeler

New member
Wizard of Story
Btw what is the ?FC line of code? It seems to be the code that makes the boxes into tickable tick boxes...
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Btw what is the ?FC line of code? It seems to be the code that makes the boxes into tickable tick boxes...
You are correct - it's short for form code. That shortcode is used because form code is currently an experimental feature that the user must specifically take into use for each log entry. For details, see this thread:
https://campaign-community.com/index.php?threads/beta-markdown-and-form-code.91/

It is my understanding that in a future release form code would become a standard feature and the ?FC syntax would no longer be required, but I'm not sure about the schedule.
 
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