Perl + Pathfinder == <3

By JT Smith on January 28, 2012 3:00 AM

Chris Nehren will give a talk at YAPC::NA 2012 that he describes as:

I like Perl. I like tabletop RPGs (especially tabletop RPGs whose mechanics are licensed under the OGL, like D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder). I like Unix. And I like running games.

But I’m lazy. And running games is a *lot* of work. What’s a lazy GM to do? Solve the problem in as generic a way as possible, of course! I’ll give the computer some data and some instructions about how to do the tedious stuff (managing initiatives, monster health, combatant status, that sort of thing). Then, I can focus on the fun part—interacting with my players.

And as I like Unix, this means simple text files and a text mode interface. No Web servers or browsers needed—I want this to run offline and not kill my laptop’s battery.

So, in this talk I’ll be discussing some tools I’ve put together to make running an OGL d20 tabletop RPG easier. They may / may not be useful for anyone else. But hopefully they’ll be interesting on their own.

[From the YAPC::NA Blog.]