Gamestate Style Guide

Until 2019, BlogNomic used the GNDT to track its main gamestate; by necessity of the software this was always a simple table of rows and columns, one row per player. Although we now use wiki pages to track gamestate, which can be arranged however we like, we do generally tend to stay in that mindset of black text and numbers in one or more grey row-and-column tables.

Here are some notes on ways that we've changed that, with examples from past dynasties.

Players should note that (at the time of writing) the ruleset allows any player to "change the layout or design of a gamestate wiki page if doing so would not change how any rules interpreted its content". There's no real etiquette for who can make such changes or when they can be applied, but if another player objects to a change, the discussion can always be moved to a simple "weapons are colour-coded by damage type" proposal for the group to discuss and vote on.

Emoji and icons

It can save space and make the gamestate more readable if certain concepts are represented as icons rather than words. Historically we've had to upload images and make special templates to display these, but (I think) in more recent years it's become accepted that every player's browser will correctly render emoji, so emoji can just be dropped into the gamestate.

• The Individuals and Artefacts of the SCP dynasty used custom icon images to track types and extents of damage visually
• Zahndorf Crypt in the Vampire dynasty used icons in the cells of the grid map, to show what was present in each location
• The Duel Sheet of the Wizard Duel dynasty put a star next to the star counts, for emphasis
• Once Upon A Time in the Storytelling dynasty, tickbox emoji were used to show that things had been done
• The Puzzle Board of the Matching Symbols dynasty used fruit icons on both the board and the table headings, for easier cross-referencing.

Boxes and chips

Where there's a list of text elements, putting a {{box}} template around each element can make it easier to read the information at a glance, and to see where one starts and the next begins. It also gives a sense of the elements being similar to cards or tokens in a board game, in that they might be gained or lost.

Worker	Inventory
Alice	Angle grinder
Bob	Hammer Calipers Wrench
Chuck	Calipers Propane torch

• The Dead City of the Dead City dynasty used boxes for the factions and technologies of each district
• The Duel Sheet of the Wizard Duel dynasty put boxes around its achievement titles, some of which included commas
• The Atlantean City Plan in the Atlantean City dynasty used a custom version of the box template which showed who owned each building, the boxes being tilted and faded out when flooded
• Blackwater Bay in the Fishing dynasty used the {{chip}} template to mark players on the map grid

Colour coding

Table cells and box templates can be colour-coded to communicate or highlight information, so long as it's agreed among active players that everyone is comfortably able to distinguish the colours.

Amulet of Yendor

Rusty athame

Swirly potion

Colours can also be used to brighten the place up a bit, possibly echoing the colour scheme of the blog. (Even the old GNDT, which had settings for its colour scheme, was often changed to match the blog.)

• Earthlink Tower in the Elevator dynasty displayed powered-up floors in yellow
• The Hall of Records in the Royal Succession dynasty colour-coded its three main tables so that lands were green and claims were yellow
• The Quiet Village of the Blizzard dynasty used the custom {{heat}} template to colour code each player's numerical Heat value, automatically highlighting various game-defined danger levels
• The Dead City of the Dead City dynasty colour-coded the cost of bought Innovations, with a legend beneath
• The Garret of the Thief dynasty colour-coded inventory items to make it clearer at a glance whether something was a tool, a treasure or a pouch

Progress bars

The {{progress bar}} template can be used to give a numerical value more emphasis, where that value has an upper and lower bound. It can also make it easier to compare values at a glance to others.

  7/10 hull integrity  

• The Hall of Records in the Royal Succession dynasty used a progress bar to track the King's health
• The Graveyard in the Necromancer dynasty gave a vivid display of players' individual health values
• The Sublogical Genomics Laboratory in the Alien DNA dynasty used a progress bar to keep track of how many players had submitted orders
• The Snail Track of the Snail Racing dynasty used progress bars for player positions, to make them visually clear

Images

Complex information can sometimes be best represented with an uploaded image, which can be included in the gamestate page.

• Banewood Mansion in the Banewood Mansion dynasty had the map of the building tracked as an image, which was included in the gamestate page and updated by the Emperor whenever things changed

Table arrangement

Most gamestates tend to stack multiple tables vertically, but it's possible to arrange them horizontally and for them still to be legible in the sidebar.

• The Construction Site of the Jenga dynasty had the Jenga tower offset to the left of the gamestate page

Table subcolumns

Related table columns can be grouped together for legibility, and to perhaps make the heading titles easier to abbreviate.

Player	Ink			Score
	R	G	B
Alice	1	4	0	47
Bob	3	1	6	23
Chuck	7	5	3	8

• The Workshop in the Battlebots dynasty colour-coded its main table with subcolumns, to distinguish the Operator from the Bot
• The Isle of Multa in the Island Colony dynasty listed the five Domain types of each Settler as grouped subcolumns of "Domains"