Designing a Timeline for the Tabletop and Tabletop Simulator

[RolRodr]

The Programming Historian has received the following tutorial on 'Designing a Timeline for the Tabletop and Tabletop Simulator' by @copystar. This lesson is now under review and can be read at:

http://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/en/drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

Please feel free to use the line numbers provided on the preview if that helps with anchoring your comments, although you can structure your review as you see fit.

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[anisa-hawes]

Dear Mita @copystar and @RolRodr,

Lesson materials for this submission are now uploaded, and can be found in the following locations:

• .md file: /drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator.md
• images: /images/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator
• assets: /assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

An initial Preview of this lesson is now available: http://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/en/drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

Please note that captions and descriptive alt-text will be required for all figure images. If you would like to email me this information @copystar, I'd be very happy to add these in on your behalf.

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you for providing captions and descriptive alt-text, Mita @copystar. I have added these to the .md file.

[ludicpress]

As someone who uses game design approaches for assignments in my courses, this can potentially be a valuable addition to the growing resources around game design as a pedagogical approach to learning. I have primarily focused on print 'n play board and card games (which Nandeck falls into), interactive fiction with Twine and Inkle, and digital role-playing games in Unity for my instruction. This is certainly a resource that I could potentially use as an option for student assignments.

The constructive feedback I have below is intended to help focus and build upon the work the author has already put together. My main overarching feedback though is: why should someone use Nandeck and Tabletop Simulator versus other available print n' play and simulator tools? And why limit game design to the Timeline mechanic? I think it would benefit the lesson plan if there was more context around print n' play game design and some other examples of tabletop games made with these tools. It also seems like Nandeck is maintained by one person. What will happen if they decide to stop supporting it in a few years? How useful will this lesson plan be at that point? This is why I think it's important you consider adding in additional options for both the tools and game design aspects. Your audience are instructors, like myself, who are looking for options that they can easily teach their students to use, but also robust enough to allow different kinds of tabletop game design. We all know tools come and go, but what principles and learning outcomes should folks takeaway from your lesson plan.

More specific feedback by paragraph:

• There needs to be explicit learning outcomes in the introduction that are adaptable enough for other game design environments. Right now it's extremely focused on a specific game mechanic, in a specific tool, which is then simulated in a specific simulator. What broad game design principles and learning outcomes will instructors and students gain from the lesson plan? I think you're right to focus on a specific approach and outcome for folks to follow, but chances are most instructors will be thinking of other types of game design, not Timeline, when they adapt your lesson plan for their instruction and curriculum needs.
• Reference to "in this paper" several times. It should probably read "in this lesson plan" or something similar (.e.g, paragraph 1 and 13),
• The Nandeck instructions are very clear. However, the Tabletop Simulator instructions are very brief. Can you provide more detail on how you create the simulator game with the Nandeck cards? For example, what steps are involved in ingesting them? What steps are involved in publishing the game? And so forth.
• For the Nandeck example and Tabletop Simulator example, I'd recommend giving folks access to the cards decks you've created. It might be easier for people to import them in Nandeck and then edit them in the interface. This isn't a requirement for the lesson plan, but it would make it easier for folks who have less experience with bespoke digital tools. Some may just want to follow along your steps without having to create all the detailed content (e.g., descriptive text, images, and encoding).
• The conclusion is very brief. This might also be a good place (other than the introduction) to provide examples of other tools and approaches to print n' play game design.

[hawc2]

@RolRodr if you're still looking for another reviewer, I sent you an email with another potential person you can ask

[RolRodr]

Thank you so much for your review, @ludicpress. Your review was thorough and thoughtful as we consider how to prepare lessons which can be adopted and adapted by other instructors. We're waiting for a confirmation for the second reviewer, which I will introduce upon confirmation.

[adamlporter]

Where I'm coming from: I've played a wide variety of card games (poker, spades, hearts, blackjack, etc., Magic the Gathering, Dominion (years ago), Flux, etc.). At my small, liberal arts college, I use role-playing games, both complex games like Reacting to the Past games and also simpler role-playing type games that put students into teams to work together on creating position papers and then enact some event in their team's roles. I have not used cards as described in this lesson, but I really like the idea.

Overall, I really like this lesson and think that it has a lot of potential. I appreciate the discussion of how to produce the cards and how to solve problems like putting the date on one side and not the other.

I think it might be helpful to describe other ways to incorporate card games into a classroom. There are a lot of card games that require thinking about probability and statistics (like poker) or require some basic math skills (blackjack); others are really complex (Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Dominion); others have strategy but a lot of luck (Flux).

It seems to me that better games for classrooms would have a simple mechanism (MTG is over the top!) like the Timeline game described. Perhaps I'm not thinking broadly enough? Some discussion of this issue would be welcome.

It would also be helpful, perhaps, to have examples of other games with simple mechanisms to get instructors thinking about what might be possible. I thought of Trivia Pursuit and Pictionary. Are there other examples that could be provided to help instructors image how to use cards in the classroom?

I agree that it would be helpful to discuss alternatives to nanDECK, in case it goes out of business, stops development, etc. On the other hand, much of the lesson focuses on how to use nanDECK; it doesn't seem reasonable to expect this level of detail for several other software packages. I'm not sure how to balance these two requests.

Many of the articles I have read on PH (although I have read only a fraction of the total!) walk users through how to use software, techniques, etc. Currently, this article seems to straddle (a) explaining how ND works generally and (b) walking the user through a specific example.

I downloaded and installed nanDECK (it would be nice to have a live links to the various sites in parags 27-30; this may be planned for the final version of the lesson). I created a quick-and-dirty Excel file with four rows using images I got from Wikipedia. But following the lesson, I was unable to get a deck created. Some specific errors that I encountered:

• Parag 63 and 64 -- one uses quotes around the file name, the other doesn't. I tried with quotes and field names and ND wouldn't load the excel file. When I used just the filename without quotes it loaded.
• I think paragraph 54 is somewhat optimistic: generating the cards may require only 12 lines of script, but it also requires work to prepare the data in Excel -- line 4 of the script draws on a LOT of prep work! I would find it helpful to have more discussion of how to configure the Excel file. For example:
  • In the example (paragraph 65), are the images in a subdirectory (Images) below the directory that contains the .XLSX? If the image isn't found, does ND crash, throw an error, or create a card with a blank image?
  • Is there a character limit for the text? If not, does nanDECK use a smaller font if the line is too long?
• Parag 79 -- I got an error b/c I don't have Transport New Heavy or Light on my system. I switched this to Times New Roman and the error disappeared. I'm not sure what the default Windows fonts are (and even less about Apple or Linux) but using one of the standard fonts would be helpful in the lesson; noting the problem would help lesson readers.
• It's unclear from the directions what to do once the 12 sample lines are entered. Validate Deck? Card Preview? My very small deck seems to be loaded into ND but I'm stuck -- what do I do next?

I realize that a lot of these questions could be resolved by reading ND's documentation. But that's leads me to my general question: "What is this lesson supposed to do?" If it is a demonstration / walk-thru of ND, it would be helpful to have sample data (along with some instructions on where to install the sample data, the file structure needed, etc.) and more explicit step-by-step instructions. I shouldn't need to go to ND's manual/documentation to complete a demonstration / walk-thru. But this may not be the goal of the lesson: ND has a tutorial (which I haven't done) and perhaps the lesson should tell readers to go thru the tutorial and then return to the lesson. Why duplicate work that ND has done already?

On the other hand, having all of this contained in the lesson would make it easier for readers to work through the lesson and decide if ND is a tool they want to pursue using. So personally, I would recommend revising this lesson to include a more hands-on, walk-through approach, including providing sample data and instructions on how to install it. Doing so would also make it easier to give to students, should instructors want to have students make cards as a classroom activity.

At my college, we use Google docs a lot. I could see cards in the classroom where students might collaborate to create cards; they would do this by collaborating in Google Sheets to create the input file. The lesson notes this is possible (parag 62) and advises reading the ND manual. A link to the page in the manual would be helpful. This could also be expanded a bit in the lesson text with some evaluation of the process: how hard is this to set up? How well does it work? Is it easier just to download the Google sheet as an Excel file and load it into ND?

I think the discussion of TTS should be expanded. The author notes that she doesn't have a good use case for the TTS, nor do I. But for faculty who are teaching online courses, TTS might be quite useful. I don't think PH has any articles that discuss TTS -- searching for "Table top" in the PH interface resulted in zero hits. So explaining how TTS works more fulsomely (or providing links to YouTube videos that show it in action or other resources) would be useful for PH readers generally. Given the level of detail for using nanDECK, the two or three paragraphs about TTS seems brief.

• It may be less likely that TTS will stop development but since there is an acknowledgement that other digital platforms exist that offer a similar function (parag 98), it might be helpful to list a couple examples.
• More detail about importing decks would be welcome: Looking at the filenames in the screen shots, it seems like the .xlsx file loaded into TTS is NOT the same one that gets loaded into ND. How is the TTS file created? From within ND? Messing around in ND didn't make it obvious how the two decks are created -- the save as function does not have an .xlsx option. (I didn't install TTS on my computer, so I couldn't try this; since I wasn't able to generate an ND deck, I wouldn't have anything to input as a test.)

[hawc2]

@RolRodr can you summarize the review feedback here, give any additional advice to the author, and then give the author the go-ahead to start revising this lesson?

It sounds like there are some substantial revisions for the author to resolve regarding how this lesson replicates material on the NanDeck documentation, and I agree with @adamlporter that it makes sense this lesson defer to ND documentation for some granular steps (which might change in the future), and focus more on providing a walk through of using this tool with specific data for answering a specific research question. Both reviewers feedback seem to invite some concrete changes that make sense to me.

If @copystar can address these changes this fall, I'm optimistic we can publish this lesson this winter. Let me know how I can be of help in the meantime, and feel free to also email me at english@programminghistorian.org if you need assistance or have questions.

[RolRodr]

I apologize for my delay in pushing this process along.

Thank you so much @ludicpress and @adamlporter for your helpful reviews of this lesson.

Summarizing from both reviews and looking over the lesson again, here are some general points of revision:

• It could be helpful to provide the readers with a small set of sample data, either in the form of a link to a CSV or a table within the tutorial
• It would be helpful to add a section about the creation of the excel file that is uploaded to nanDECK (ND) and the file structure that holds the images; this could be a good area to include a small table of sample data or a link to sample data
• The section on nanDECK would be improved with links to the manual/documentation regarding the particular step the tutorial is addressing. It could also be improved by providing a more guided research question that ties this and the TTS section together.
• The section on the Tabletop Simulator (TTS) should be expanded with more information about TTS and clearer instructions so that walk the reader through the process of moving from ND to TTS
• The conclusion could also be expanded to include alternative tools and approaches or other potential uses of these tools in the classroom and outside (e.g. MTG, Trivia Pursuit, Pictionary, etc.)

Apart from the general revisions that should be done, below are some more discrete areas of editing from both reviews and some additional ones from me:

• p. 14 - change ‘In this paper’ to ‘In this tutorial’ to parallel language in pp. 1
• pp. 27-32 - urls should become live links
• pp. 56,58,60,61,66,70 – The headers, such as “Line 1: Comments” and “Line 2: PAGE” should have consistent capitalization of the variables. The paragraphs between 56-73 also refer to variables in various ways (e.g. PAGE in p.58 while the code block under p.59 readers ‘page’)
• p. 63 – the code box under p.63 should have ”Windsor-Timeline.xlsx” instead of Windsor-Timeline.xlsx
• p. 79 – Provide an alternative standard font to “Transport New Heavy” or change the code so it uses a standard font like “Times New Roman”
• pp.93-94 – include explicit instructions about what’s the next step within ND after the 12 lines of code have been written
• p. 98 – change the links to live links (e.g. Tabletop Simulator (https://www.tabletopsimulator.com/) to Table Simulator
• pp. 99-10 – TTS is sometimes italicized and other times not, this should be consistent.
• p.101 - It seems like the caption for the image is a placeholder

@copystar, you are good to start revising the tutorial with these revisions in mind. If there are any questions that arise or we can help with any of these revisions, please don't hesitate to reach out to myself, @hawc2 , or @anisa-hawes

[hawc2]

Thanks @RolRodr for these final review comments. @copystar, will you be able to make these revisions in the coming weeks?

[copystar]

Hello @hawc2 - Yes, I've set aside some time over the next two weeks to make these revisions. Thank you! Mita

[anisa-hawes]

Hello Mita @copystar,

I hope you're well. Thank you for sharing your revisions with us. I've applied them on your behalf: https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/9f54adf8f1400f5dbc094af75a33121cc3d82954 and I've replaced Figures 2 and 5 with the updated files you sent me: https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/ae6290d44573dd79ec83f9d5311f3598a94533d1.

I've also made some small additions to the YAML and adjusted the link syntax throughout this lesson: https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/2341d36775399cab935010aeeeafa249bb3c5f84. Our preference is to embed URLs within running prose (rather than to show them in full) to support reader experience. In the next Phase of our workflow, our publishing team will generate archival versions of any external URLs featured in the lesson (except those which represent a direct activity, for example to download software or install a package). This helps to ensure the sustainability of this lesson as a learning resource.

I wanted to ask you about the sample Google Drive link you provide. Is this a sample path? Or does it represent an example document for readers work with? If it is an example document, then we can consider it an "asset" that is part of the lesson. In this case, it will be important for us to host this within our PH infrastructure so that we can sustain it.

Thank you. Anisa

[copystar]

Hello Anisa,

Thank you so much for applying these revisions for me.

The Google Drive is a directory of files that the reader can download and work with: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kkGOz3QHGSTj0ca4HlOEl1eIgX2NN0c6

If it is preferred to have these files hosted on PH, I would be happy to have them hosted on the Github. I'm just not sure how I would do that.

Please let me know me know how I can help or if there is anything you are waiting on me to do!

Thank you, Mita

On Thu, Dec 7, 2023 at 4:14 PM Anisa Hawes @.***> wrote:

Hello Mita @copystar https://github.com/copystar,

I hope you're well. Thank you for sharing your revisions with us. I've applied them on your behalf: 9f54adf https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/9f54adf8f1400f5dbc094af75a33121cc3d82954 and I've replaced Figures 2 and 5 with the updated files you sent me: ae6290d https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/ae6290d44573dd79ec83f9d5311f3598a94533d1 .

I've also made some small additions to the YAML and adjusted the link syntax throughout this lesson: 2341d36 https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/2341d36775399cab935010aeeeafa249bb3c5f84. Our preference is to embed URLs within running prose (rather than to show them in full) to support reader experience. In the next Phase of our workflow, our publishing team will generate archival versions of any external URLs featured in the lesson (except those which represent a direct activity, for example to download software or install a package). This helps to ensure the sustainability of this lesson as a learning resource.

I wanted to ask you about the sample Google Drive link you provide. Is this a sample path? Or does it represent an example document for readers work with? If it is an example document, then we can consider it an "asset" that is part of the lesson. In this case, it will be important for us to host this within our PH infrastructure so that we can sustain it.

Thank you. Anisa

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/issues/553#issuecomment-1846122685, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAGWWSTZGNIE64HZARDFE43YIIWUVAVCNFSM6AAAAAAWISB77WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQNBWGEZDENRYGU . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

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[anisa-hawes]

Ah! Thank you for clarifying, Mita @copystar.

As these are example files for readers to work with, we'd like to host these within our /assets directory.

Is it everything in that folder? Or specific files within it? If it is specific files only, please comment here / or email me a file list. We're happy to take care of processing the download + upload for you, and we'll replace any links in the lesson which point to the Google Drive with new links to the hosted assets.

[copystar]

Hello Anisa

Happy to answer! Please host everything in the folder. There should be https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cXNyla3THA8cYNZKGLXeh7_5ctK8xOYX

• 1 textfile
• 1 spreadsheet
• 1 pdf
• 6 png images (these are all cc-by and they have the name of the creator on the image)
• 1 folder which contains - 2 text files, 2 spreadsheets and 2 pdfs

Thank you! Mita

On Thu, Dec 7, 2023 at 4:40 PM Anisa Hawes @.***> wrote:

Ah! Thank you for clarifying, Mita.

As these are example files for readers to work with, we'd like to host these within our /assets https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/tree/gh-pages/assets directory.

Is it everything in that folder? Or specific files within it? If it is specific files only, please comment here / or email me a file list. We're happy to take care of processing the download + upload for you, and we'll replace any links in the lesson which point to the Google Drive with new links to the hosted assets.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/issues/553#issuecomment-1846153359, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAGWWSTAV4VHESJFWA2D4NDYIIZWJAVCNFSM6AAAAAAWISB77WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQNBWGE2TGMZVHE . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

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[charlottejmc]

Hello Mita (@copystar),

I have made some changes to the section ## Build Your Own Timeline so that we redirect our readers to the folder /assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator instead of the Google Drive.

I have also turned all the filenames in your explanatory list into links to individual files, so readers can download them separately if they wish.

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you, @charlottejmc – These adjustments are very clear.

---

Hello again Mita @copystar,

There are a few other elements which it would be useful to clarify:

• At paragraph 70 of the Preview, you mention a 'small sample Excel spreadsheet (Windsor-Timeline-Spreadsheet-Example.xlsx)' but we noticed that this wasn't included in the Google Drive folder. Did you decide to use a different example? Or is this missing?
• At paragraph 65 of the Preview (inside the grey box), you reference a Google Share link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/**1s_p1gcL2BBO_zYIe_v8bADjWzFtc0hh_eY8DIw8OPfY**/edit?usp=sharing. I intuit that this is a sample link which is used only to represent how a Google Share link is structured. Is that correct? If so, I think it would help readers if it was more clearly a sample rather than a live link. For example: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/SAMPLE_ID/edit?usp=sharing. We could then replace this part of the URL path in the following paragraphs 66 and 67 of the Preview too.

Are you intending to make further revisions to the lesson from here?

• If so, I'm happy for you to work on the Markdown file directly /drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator.md, or send me your revisions by email again – whatever feels more comfortable for you.
• If not, let us know that you feel you've made all the revisions you want to at this stage, and we can move this lesson on to Copyediting.

Thank you for collaborating with these adjustments!

[anisa-hawes]

Hello Mita @copystar.

Thank you for your email which clarifies that:

• [x] At paragraph 65 of the Preview (inside the grey box), you are referencing a sample Google Share link. I think it would help readers if it was more clearly a sample rather than a live link. I've adjusted it to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/SAMPLE_ID/edit?usp=sharing https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/2407cea8636728ea17c822d3db6b0b6f5786fd21 at paragraph 65, and also in the following paragraphs 66 and 67 of the Preview. After copyediting, my team will also typeset this lesson which I think will help us to clarify things further.

  • [ ] You mention that the text within this grey box is a direct quote of the NanDECK manual. If so, I think we will need to create an endnote here so that this is cited specifically. (At the moment, you include the manual in your general References list). Question: Are there any other points in the lesson where you quote the manual directly?

• [x] At paragraph 70 of the Preview, you mentioned a 'small sample Excel spreadsheet (Windsor-Timeline-Spreadsheet-Example.xlsx)' but we noticed that this wasn't included in the Google Drive folder. You explain in your email that you decided to use different sample spreadsheet in the end, because the images associated with the Windsor example were not available for reuse under open licenses.

  • [ ] In this case, it will be important to remove and replace the references to the Windsor-Timeline.xlsx throughout the lesson and the figures so that readers are not confused. Question: Are you able to advise which .xlsx files of those now hosted in our /assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator directory are the relevant ones here?

• [ ] Scanning through the text with this question in mind, I noticed that the caption for Figure 3 seems to be incorrect. It reads: An example of a page of cards generated by nanDECK with requested black borders between cards and dotted lines to make cutting easier but it depicts a data table with columns headed Year, Fact, Images. Question: Are you able to check these through and let me know what the correct caption should read here?

If you and @RolRodr are in agreement that you've completed the revisions, I can hand it over to Alex @hawc2 for a thorough read-through before approving its move into the copyediting phase where we will draw out any final remaining queries.

I'd be grateful for your help us with the questions above.

Very best, Anisa

[copystar]

Hello Anisa

You mention that the text within this grey box is a direct quote of the

NanDECK manual. If so, I think we will need to create an endnote here so that this is cited specifically. (At the moment, you include the manual in your general References list). Question: Are there any other points in the lesson where you quote the manual directly?

If the reference that I provide in Para 62 is not sufficient (" It is also possible to LINK to a Google Sheets spreadsheet. The additional steps necessary are outlined within the nanDECK Manual under the section for LINK and are reproduced here (Nini):"), then I'm happy to create an additional endnote. From a copyediting point of view, where should that be?

In this case, it will be important to remove and replace the references to

the Windsor-Timeline.xlsx throughout the lesson and the figures so that readers are not confused. Question: Are you able to advise which .xlsx files of those now hosted in our /assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/tree/gh-pages/assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator directory are the relevant ones here?

Oh, thanks for catching this. In my edits, I had forgotten to return to this passage to include these assets. I've added an example asset called Windsor-Timeline.xlsx and five sample images to this directory: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dSJFH31sNlceNZJCrPDwQMpQNp03F1Tk?usp=sharing

Could these be added to the assets directory for hosting?

Paragraph 70 needs to be replaced with this:

This lesson provides a small sample Excel spreadsheet (Windsor-Timeline.xlsx) and five images depicting five historical events for the city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada that can be used to generate an example deck of five cards.

Scanning through the text with this question in mind, I noticed that the

caption for Figure 3 seems to be incorrect. It reads: An example of a page of cards generated by nanDECK with requested black borders between cards and dotted lines to make cutting easier but it depicts a data table with columns headed Year, Fact, Images. Are you able to check these through and let me know what the correct caption should read here?

Yes, thanks for catching this! I've also attached an alternative Figure 3. The replacement caption should read, Windsor-Timeline.xlsx is a spreadsheet with 3 columns, Year, Fact and Images.

I believe that this would complete all the requested revisions at this point,

Thank you Mita

On Wed, Dec 13, 2023 at 2:01 PM Anisa Hawes @.***> wrote:

Hello Mita @copystar https://github.com/copystar.

Thank you for your email which clarifies that:

• At paragraph 65 of the Preview (inside the grey box), you are referencing a sample Google Share link. I think it would help readers if it was more clearly a sample rather than a live link. I've adjusted it to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/SAMPLE_ID/edit?usp=sharing 2407cea https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/2407cea8636728ea17c822d3db6b0b6f5786fd21 at paragraph 65, and also in the following paragraphs 66 and 67 of the Preview. After copyediting, my team will also typeset this lesson which I think will help us to clarify things further.

• You mention that the text within this grey box is a direct quote of the NanDECK manual. If so, I think we will need to create an endnote here so that this is cited specifically. (At the moment, you include the manual in your general References list). Question: Are there any other points in the lesson where you quote the manual directly?

• At paragraph 70 of the Preview, you mentioned a 'small sample Excel spreadsheet (Windsor-Timeline-Spreadsheet-Example.xlsx)' but we noticed that this wasn't included in the Google Drive folder. You explain in your email that you decided to use different sample images in the end, which are available for reuse under open licenses.

• In this case, it will be important to remove and replace the references to the Windsor-Timeline.xlsx throughout the lesson and the figures so that readers are not confused. Question: Are you able to advise which .xlsx files of those now hosted in our /assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/tree/gh-pages/assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator directory are the relevant ones here?

• Scanning through the text with this question in mind, I noticed that the caption for Figure 3 seems to be incorrect. It reads: An example of a page of cards generated by nanDECK with requested black borders between cards and dotted lines to make cutting easier but it depicts a data table with columns headed Year, Fact, Images. Are you able to check these through and let me know what the correct caption should read here?

If you and @RolRodr https://github.com/RolRodr are in agreement that you've completed the revisions, I can organise for this lesson to move into the copyediting phase where we will draw out any remaining queries.

I'd be grateful for your help us with the questions above.

Very best, Anisa

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[anisa-hawes]

Thank you for these detailed answers, Mita @copystar. Charlotte and I will work through the adjustments today 🙂

[charlottejmc]

Hello @copystar,

Thank you for your help. I've had a look at these adjustments today.

• [ ] Paragraph 62: I see you have indeed referenced the NanDeck manual using an author-date referencing system (Nini). We use the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition's endnote system in our lessons, so I will update all references throughout the lesson. I will do this during the typesetting phase of our publication workflow.
• [ ] Paragraph 70: I have made this replacement and changed the wording slightly so I could link the Windsor-Timeline-Example files, which I have now uploaded to our assets directory.
• [ ] Figure 3: I have updated the caption with the sentence you suggest. However, because your email is in essence a reply on GitHub, it hasn't sent over the alternative image you attached. Am I correct in assuming it would be a screenshot of the new Windsor-Timeline.xlsx table? I won't make the change just yet, though, because we might determine in the following phases that a Markdown-formatted table including the same headings might better fulfil our commitment to sustainability and accessibility. We are aiming to reduce screenshot images of textual or tabular data in our lessons.
• [ ] Windsor-Timeline.xlsx: when checking the new table against our current Figure 3, I noticed that it seems like rows 7-11 are a duplicate of 2-6, without the Year. Can you confirm that this is how the table should look?

Thanks again,

Charlotte

[copystar]

Thanks for the update.

I've added a copy of Figure 3 to my Drive for download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ilErsVLEmSabf3q0Yaqb9iiY9VZSU1mz/view?usp=sharing And I understand if the image is considered superfluous.

When checking the new table against our current Figure 3, I noticed that it

seems like rows 7-11 are a duplicate of 2-6, without the Year. Can you confirm that this is how the table should look?

Yes, this is correct. I explain why this is so in para 91. For clarity, we could re-caption figure 3 to read 'Rows 2-6 generate the card faces and rows 7-11 generate the card backs.

Thank you! Mita

On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 9:58 AM charlottejmc @.***> wrote:

Hello @copystar https://github.com/copystar,

Thank you for your help. I've had a look at these adjustments today.

• Paragraph 62: I see you have indeed referenced the NanDeck manual using an author-date referencing system (Nini). We use the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html's endnote system in our lessons, so I will update all references throughout the lesson. I will do this during the typesetting phase https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/wiki/Phase-6-Sustainability-Accessibility of our publication workflow.
• Paragraph 70: I have made this replacement and changed the wording slightly so I could link the Windsor-Timeline-Example files, which I have now uploaded to our assets directory.
• Figure 3: I have updated the caption with the sentence you suggest. However, because your email is in essence a reply on GitHub, it hasn't sent over the alternative image you attached. Am I correct in assuming it would be a screenshot of the new Windsor-Timeline.xlsx table? I won't make the change just yet, though, because we might determine in the following phases that this image is slightly superfluous (our commitment to sustainability and accessibility drives our desire to minimise the number of large files like images in our lessons).
• Windsor-Timeline.xlsx: when checking the new table against our current Figure 3, I noticed that it seems like rows 7-11 are a duplicate of 2-6, without the Year. Can you confirm that this is how the table should look?

Thanks again,

Charlotte

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[anisa-hawes]

Thank you, Mita @copystar!

We've updated the caption for Figure 3 https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/dedb98e314c5364c72b4ada3ef84fcf696acbdce, and replaced the image for now https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/01dd11288e211258941070c94693dc993dc143b7 (to decide later if a Markdown-formatted data table would be a suitable substitute).

--

Hello @hawc2,

Over to you. You will note that there remain a couple of queries which Charlotte and I outline in our comments above, but my sense is that it would be most efficient to tackle these following your read-through.

A.

[hawc2]

Hi @copystar, thanks for this interesting lesson, I’m excited to add this contribution to ProgHist’s repertoire, as it really expands our range into some new spheres. I’ve done a thorough read through and line edit, mostly simplifying some of the language and clarifying some sentences. Those changes can be viewed in the online preview here: https://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/en/drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

I have additional comments I’m itemizing below for you to take into consideration as you make a final round of revisions before copyedits. Before I get into my feedback, though, I wanted to highlight remarks made by @adamlporter during his review, as I think your revisions haven’t fully addressed those concerns. Please read carefully Adam’s comments from “I realize that alot” to the paragraph about “I think the discussion of TTS should be expanded.” I think most of my comments below are going to help flesh out the changes Adam requested there.

• [x] A minor addition would be to add wikipedia links and related references, for instance, when defining table top games, or when citing software or authors.

• [x] Nandeck online does not seem functional, should we remove that option? There’s probably more installation instructions than necessary, considering these things can change and should be documented by the software.

• [x] It would help to have a section earlier in the lesson, before you describe how to install the nandeck software, where you overview what the lesson will cover, and the main steps and learning outcomes of this lesson (you can look at other lessons for useful examples). What’s important is that you add a subsection where you describe your ‘sample dataset,’ which you currently don’t describe until halfway through the lesson (the Windsor Timeline Example). Ideally this use-case is woven through the lesson more consistently. Why not use it for every example you provide? The early examples about Font settings and the like are kinda bland because they don’t use the usecase the rest of the lesson is about, which sounds much more interesting.

• [x] I’d also say you could afford to describe the sample dataset in a little more detail - when you first bring it up, you say it represents 5 historical events? Which ones? It wouldn’t hurt to have a couple sentences describing the historical context.

• [x] My main concern is that some of the technical sections can be a little hard to follow. There are areas where you could afford to say a little more to describe the step in more detail. I was also wondering if in a couple cases the images and descriptions of images can be improved. We can continue to refine this during copyedits, but thinking now about how to make this appear best and be readable on the web is where alot of your attention should turn now.

• [x] In some cases, I can’t tell if your description is vague or if there is a typo, but as one example, I am not sure what this is directing the reader to do: “In this case, the range of cards is being defined as the first card to the total number of items in the range of images (that we had just imported using the LINK declaration).” Can you clarify this sentence? Try to keep sentences short, and make sure each reference for each step is clearly delineated.

• [x] One thing that’s confusing throughout is the way you describe the Timeline design of the card with an event on both sides, and the date on only one. You don’t really provide the useful terms of “face” and “back” of the card until very late in the lesson, but they would probably make sense to bring up the first time you try to define the Timeline. Although I guess what’s even more confusing is both sides of the Timeline card are faces. Try with sentences on topics like this to write it in the most succinct and concrete way possible. You'll see I've already made a lot of edits to make sentences about "one side" and the "other side" more clear cut. I should also point out that you are somewhat inconsistent in your terminology, referring to the backs and fronts of cards, and at other times, referring to the back and face of cards. It might be better to just settle with one terminology and not use the other. Either way, back and front is better than ‘side’ in almost every case.

• [x] Similarly, look at the places you describe the ‘middle window in the screen’ and other aspects of the GUI - it can get hard to follow when you use a series of such vague directional references. It might be helpful to actually outline in red the screenshot around the box you are referring to in the screenshot, grant it a number like Window 1, Window 2, etc.

• [x] Near the end you write, “The workaround that I came up with to solve this design problem cannot be found in the nanDECK script” - for what design problem? Before this sentence, you need to better delineate what exactly is the design problem you are solving here.

• [x] I also couldn’t decipher this sentence: “After the first 58 cards are printed with an image, a description, and a year, the next 58 cards are printed and these are the same as the first 58 cards except for these, there is no value of ‘Year’ to be printed.”

• [x] Reading this through, one thing that surprised me was how little Tabletop Simulator appears in the lesson. It strikes me as odd to include it in the title if it is such a brief mention. I would offer you to either explore additional elements of its integration, or we can remove that reference from the title. It would be worth mentioning earlier how you will eventually get to the various outputs of nanDECK including for Tabletop Simulator, and then when you get to the Tabletop Simulator, to reflect on further extensions made possible through it, including for online learning. Perhaps it is a chance to return to your original tenets of game design to reflect on how they differ when a table top game takes place in a virtual environment. As an alternate title, how about “Designing a Timeline in NanDECK for Tabletop and Virtual Gaming”

• [x] Generally, I’d love to see additional commentary peppered throughout where the specific historical reference of the dataset you’re doing is brought to life through your discussion of the methodological steps to build the board game. How does all this methodology affect how we think about the relevant history through working on the design of a game around it? This also requires you getting a little bit further outside your own perspective and orienting this lesson towards the reader. There are places you use the word 'local' to refer to the history, but of course people around the world won't know what you mean by 'local.' You should refer to the specific geographic area that this history covers, and you shouldn't assume readers will know anything about it.

• [x] Your use of first person is generally a little unusual for a ProgHist lesson, but I think it works nicely for some sections. I think those references could be briefer, though, and more importantly, I don’t think the lesson should end with you reflecting on a personal memory. Can you draw back from that anecdote at the end to say something more significant for the reader about what they can go on to do with this lesson? End the lesson by focusing on the reader, not yourself, and make sure to conclude with something that opens up the potential of the lesson's use in the future.

• [ ] One other confusing thing about your datasets - It mixes multiple different examples (multiple spreadsheets associated with image sets) but these are not defined clearly in the lesson. I’d probably suggest packaging these into distinct directories: working-sample-set-1, working-sample-set-2, etc. Anisa can help further organize thse materials. I find the figures and screenshots very confusing too. They jump back and forth, referencing several of the sample spreadsheets and several different image sets. I suspect readers would find a single example, fully worked-through, much more useful.

• [x] I would also suggest reorganizing some of the sections so no section begins with a code block. For instance, you have the sections entitled Line 1: Comments, etc. and each of these should begin with a brief commentary before you provide the relevant code block. Ideally you first explain what the reader will encounter, before providing the code block or image that is related.

• [x] Finally, it would be nice if you could include a brief mention of other relevant lessons that ProgHist has published which the reader might be interested in. There could be a mention early on about how readers of this lesson might want to turn to specific other lessons if they are interested in the field of gaming, such as the Twine lesson we've published.

One you've addressed these additional revisions, we'll be ready to go into copyediting. Thanks for all your work getting this into shape. I understand it's not the best time of the year to do work like this, so no worries if you need to hold off on revisions until early January. We're not in a huge rush to publish this piece, so let's take the time to make it the best it can be.

[hawc2]

@copystar Will you be able to complete revisions soon? We'd like to move this forward to publish in coming month.

[copystar]

Hello Alex, Yes, I will get the revisions to you shortly, hopefully during the week. Thank you, Mita

On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 2:22 PM Alex Wermer-Colan @.***> wrote:

@copystar https://github.com/copystar Will you be able to complete revisions soon? We'd like to move this forward to publish in coming month.

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[charlottejmc]

Hello @copystar,

I have uploaded your edits to the /drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator.md markdown file. You can see the 'rich diff' of the changes you made in this commit.

Just one thing: I believe some steps might still be referring to files inside the Windsor Timeline Example folder, although I can see you have removed the links to it. Could you confirm that we can still delete the folder from the lesson's /assets?

Thank you!

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you, @charlottejmc!

--

Hello @hawc2.

Mita @copystar's revisions are now available for you to re-read in our Preview.

[hawc2]

Thanks @copystar for your edits. These mostly addressed my concerns.

It's possible during copyediting, we may address further some of the issues I raised, including the way datasets are labeled and shared. I may also have additional small changes to request after copyediting is complete.

Note I've made a few line edits to this current version, including to make sure code blocks are prefaced by commentary.

@anisa-hawes this lesson is ready for copyediting!

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you, @hawc2!

--

Hello Mita @copystar,

Your lesson will now be copyedited by our Publishing Assistant, Charlotte (@charlottejmc). We aim to complete the work within ~21 days by 28th February.

Please note that you won't have direct access to make further edits to your files during this Phase.

Any further revisions can be discussed with your editor @RolRodr and agreed with Alex @hawc2 after copyedits are complete. Thank you for your understanding.

Anisa.

[copystar]

Thank you all. I'm happy to continue working through necessary edits, through @RolRodr and @hawc2 as necessary. Mita

[charlottejmc]

Hello @copystar and @RolRodr, I've prepared a PR with the copyedits for your review.

There, you'll be able to review the 'rich-diff' to see my edits in detail. You'll also find brief instructions for how to reply to my questions and comments, which I've tied to specific lines of the file. I've also left a separate comment with a couple further questions for us to look at.

When you're both happy, we can merge in the PR.

[charlottejmc]

Hi @copystar, @RolRodr and @hawc2,

I thought I would provide an overview of the final outstanding points which Mita and I are discussing in the Pull Request before we merge our edits.

• [x] Confirm the lesson title
• [x] Confirm the number of cards, images and rows at the various stages in which they are mentioned
• [x] Ensure the lesson gives enough context to understand how to upload the card backs into Tabletop Simulator, and how to align them with the faces
• [x] Give context to the use of Windsor-Timeline filenames, if deemed necessary

When we're all happy that these points have been addressed and resolved, we can merge in the PR.

[charlottejmc]

Hello @hawc2,

We're making progress through this lesson's sustainability + accessibility checks:

• Preview:

http://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/en/drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

Publisher's sustainability + accessibility actions:

• [x] Copyediting
• [x] Typesetting
• [x] Addition of Perma.cc links
• [x] Check/resize images
• [x] Check/adjust image filenames
• [x] Receipt of author(s) copyright agreement (EN declaration form. Hello @copystar, Our authorial copyright declaration form is an opportunity to acknowledge copyright and grant us permission to publish the lesson. Could you download this, complete the details, and email it to me (publishing.assistant [@] programminghistorian.org)?. Many thanks.
• [x] Add doi
• [x] Add all contributor names to our list of Unique Contributors

Authorial / editorial input to YAML: Hello @RolRodr and @hawc2, Could you help with the following?

• [x] Define difficulty:, based on the criteria set out here
• [x] Define the research activity: this lesson supports (acquiring, transforming, analysing, presenting, or sustaining) Choose one
• [x] Define the lesson's topics: (api, python, data-management, data-manipulation, distant-reading, get-ready, linked-open-data, mapping, network-analysis, web-scraping, digital-publishing, r, machine-learning, creative-coding, or data-visualization) Choose one or more. Let us know if you'd like us to add a new topic
• [x] Provide alt-text for all figures
• [x] Provide a short abstract: for the lesson
• [x] Agree an avatar (thumbnail image) to accompany the lesson

The image must be:

• copyright-free
• non-offensive
• an illustration (not a photograph)
• at least 200 pixels width and height Image collections of the British Library, Internet Archive Book Images, Library of Congress Maps as well as their Photos/Prints/Drawings or the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland are useful places to search

• [x] Provide avatar_alt: (visual description of that thumbnail image)
• [x] Hello Mita @copystar, Please could you send us your one-sentence bio for ph_authors.yml using this template? Something like the following suggestion (please check for errors!):

- name: Mita Williams
  orcid: 0000-0001-7816-6965
  team: false
  bio:
    en: |
      Mita Williams is the Acting Law Librarian at the Don & Gail Rodzik Law Library, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Files we're preparing for transfer to Jekyll:

• .md file: /en/drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator.md
• images: /images/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator
• assets: /assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator
• original avatar: /gallery/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator-original
• gallery avatar: /gallery/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

Promotion:

• [x] Prepare announcement post (using template)
• [ ] Prepare evergreen posts – @hawc2, could you please provide x2 posts for future promotion via our social media channels? You can add these directly to the ph-evergreens-twitter-x spreadsheet that has been shared with you, or email them to me at publishing.assistant[@]programminghistorian.org.

[anisa-hawes]

Hello @hawc2 ,

This lesson's sustainability + accessibility checks are now complete, so it is ready for your final review.

• author(s) bio for ph_authors.yml

• name: Mita Williams orcid: 0000-0001-7816-6965 team: false bio: en: | Mita Williams is the Acting Law Librarian at the Don & Gail Rodzik Law Library, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

• .md file: /en/drafts/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator.md

• images: /images/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

• assets: /assets/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

• original avatar: /gallery/originals/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator-original

• gallery avatar: /gallery/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator

Promotion:

• [x] Template announcement posts
• [ ] Prepare evergreen posts – @hawc2 could you please provide x2 posts for future promotion via our social media channels? You can add these directly to the ph-evergreens-twitter-x spreadsheet that has been shared with you, or email them to Charlotte at publishing.assistant[@]programminghistorian.org.

Thank you.

[hawc2]

@anisa-hawes I can take a closer look later, but from a brief skim it looks mostly ready to go.

Two minor issues with images: 1) Figure 9 isn't rendering. 2) Some images seem slightly blurry? I don't know if it's just me and the computer I'm on, but the screenshot of the spreadsheet looks kind of blurry or grainy to me here and the text is not the easiest to read on most images: https://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/images/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator/en-or-designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator-03.png

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you, @hawc2. Apologies for the oversight - a small correction was needed in the image filenames. All figures are rendering now.

In terms of the 'blurriness', I would agree that the images which depict the nanDECK interface (Figures 1, 2 and 5) are not sharp. These have been resized according to our conventions, but actually looking back the original images we received were already somewhat blurry. You can see figures 2 and 5 as received here: https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/ae6290d44573dd79ec83f9d5311f3598a94533d1 and Figure 1 here: https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/ef6ea6da52778dd04e366f6a4881a166aa7b4e17 (Note: the images numbered 2 and 5 uploaded in this initial commit were later replaced).

My suggestion to improve Figures 3 and 7 (which display Excel spreadsheets) is to create tables in raw Markdown. This would also improve accessibility to this resource. If you agree, Charlotte and I can take care of transforming those two.

[hawc2]

That sounds fine to me, whatever you think is best here is fine by me.

On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 at 12:25, Anisa Hawes @.***> wrote:

Thank you, @hawc2 https://github.com/hawc2. Apologies for the oversight

• a small correction was needed in the image filenames. All figures are rendering now.

In terms of the 'blurriness', I would agree that the images which depict the nanDECK interface (Figures 1, 2 and 5) are not sharp. These have been resized according to our conventions, but actually looking back the original images we received were already somewhat blurry. You can see figures 2 and 5 as received here: ae6290d https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/ae6290d44573dd79ec83f9d5311f3598a94533d1 and Figure 1 here: ef6ea6d https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/commit/ef6ea6da52778dd04e366f6a4881a166aa7b4e17 (Note: the images numbered 2 and 5 uploaded in this initial commit were later replaced).

My suggestion to improve Figures 3 and 7 (which display Excel spreadsheets) is to create tables in raw Markdown. This would also improve accessibility to this resource. If you agree, Charlotte and I can take care of transforming those two.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/programminghistorian/ph-submissions/issues/553#issuecomment-1994874298, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADXF4EGI3C4SFLRIA3XO4JDYYB4XHAVCNFSM6AAAAAAWISB77WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSOJUHA3TIMRZHA . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

[charlottejmc]

Hi @hawc2 and @copystar,

I've replaced figures 3 and 7 with markdown tables, and renumbered the remaining figures to stay consistent.

• This lesson now has 7 figures in total (instead of 9)
• The "blurry" figure 5 mentioned in Anisa's comment above is now figure 4
• Figures 1 and 2 are unchanged

[anisa-hawes]

Thank you, @charlottejmc !

--

Hello @hawc2,

My view is that the spreadsheets as Markdown tables are a positive improvement. We've made the necessary slight adjustments to the surrounding sentences which clarify that what is provided in the tables represent what would be in a readers' Excel spreadsheet.

I don't think there is a great deal we can do about the blurriness of the figures depicting the nanDECK interface (now Figure numbers 1, 2, and 4) unless Mita @copystar is able to re-supply them as higher resolution screenshots if she would like to?

[hawc2]

@copystar could you take fresh screenshots of the images included in this lesson? I've looked over the lesson and I think it's otherwise ready to move forward.

But if you look at most of the screenshots, you'll see they could definitely be clearer, and in their current state, they detract from the lesson's quality for sure. For example, this image is tough to look at, especially if you zoom in: https://programminghistorian.github.io/ph-submissions/images/designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator/en-or-designing-a-timeline-tabletop-simulator-02.png

Once we update the screenshots, we can move this forward to publication @anisa-hawes.

[copystar]

Is this better? I've tried another method to screen capture.

[charlottejmc]

Thank you @copystar, Anisa and I both think that looks better.

Could you please send new screenshots of figures 1, 2 and 4 to my email address, publishing.assistant[@]programminghistorian.org?

If it's not too much trouble, you could also send me new screenshots of figures 3 and 6, but I think their legibility is perhaps less essential.

[charlottejmc]

@copystar, thank you for sending me the new images by email. I've replaced them, and they look great in the preview!

This lesson is now definitely ready for publication 🎉

[anisa-hawes]

Designing a Deck of Timeline Cards for Tabletops and Tabletop Simulator is published!

Congratulations @copystar! Thank you all for your contributions

---

Our suggested citation for this lesson is:

Mita Williams, "Designing a Deck of Timeline Cards for Tabletops and Tabletop Simulator," Programming Historian 13 (2024), https://doi.org/10.46430/phen0118.

We appreciate your help to circulate our social media announcements about this lesson among your networks: Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ProgHist/status/1770199437354168371 Mastodon: https://hcommons.social/@proghist/112124454789294087

---

Sincere thanks.