Using SMW for RPGs

In Web parlance, Semantics is the process of defining machine-readable meaning behind the human-readable text on a page. In the case of Semantic MediaWiki, the population of a country, or the Alma Mater of a Nobel Prize winner is defined discreetly so that one might list all the countries within a certain population range, or all the Nobel winners who attended a university.

But we're gamers. We have information, and we know exactly what we want to do with it. We can bend this to our will, if we wish

Gather your fields
Your fist task is to know your system. The more you know about the fields on a standard character sheet as well as the fields that might be particular to your game or never be included on a standard sheet, the easier this will be.

Get out the tools you normally use to organize a game, character of world and get to work. Here is what you will want to create. If you take the time now to organize in text on a computer, this will save you lots of time down the line.


 * 1) A list of all the things a character sheet will have on it
 * 2) ; Stats
 * This one's easy. AC, Stress, Dex, Height. All the aspects of a character the boil down to a number or a word or two. Don't forget game-specifics like the Name of the Game the character will take part in, the rule set, the player's name or, if they exist, game, specific affiliations or aspects. E.g., Clan, tribe, company, organization, hometown, family.
 * 1) ; Info
 * These are you larger fields of text that help define a Stat, a weapon or power, or the character in general.
 * 1) * You'll want to organize these the way you want to see them in the sheet, and in a logical, correlative fashion. Meaning, Skills go with other skills and many Stats also have or need a longer textual explanation. One of the major advantages to SMW implantation is the ability to cram ever possible bit of data into the sheet for reference, but to hide it away until you need it. This makes it wonderful for first-time play on new systems.
 * 2) * Much of this work is done for you with pre-gen character sheets, and reference materials.

Properties
All this data is going to make it into the wiki as Properties. A Property, in SMW, is a type of data. E.g., a String, Number, Quantity or a bunch of Text. Properties can have predefined values, or allowed ranges. The Race of your character, for instance, is chosen from a list provided by the system. Well, that list will exist as a Property. It will be a String, and the allowed values will be a list. When a player creates a character, they can choose a Race by checking a box or using a pull-down list.