Grimoire - Open Source Rule Book Storage
Following on from my last post about preparing for a table top rpg session, I figured I'd write about a recently released open source tool. One that I have been running on my homelab for a couple of months now. It's called Grimoire and it acts as a one stop shop for storing and managing your various digital TTRPG assets - from pdf rule books and sound files to the most recent addition, 3D printable STL files.
I'm going to be up front about this, I really like this tool. So much so that I personally wrote a pair of add-ons (yes it is extensible) that allow you to pull data from RPGGeek.com (more on data sources later). Not only that, but I contributed improvements to the add-on system to allow you to use multiple add-on repos at the same time. Sort of similar to the plugin system you find in self hosted media management apps like Jellyfin.
Open up Grimoire and the first thing you see is an extremely polished, ebook library view. This is the minimum for a tool like this, but you'd be surprised how badly I've seen it done elsewhere... From this view you can open and read (making use of its rather fantastic options for book reading views) any rulebook, sourcebook or handouts that you own. All of them sorted into categories within the game system that owns them.
Clicking into a game system you can see all of its content, as well as a bunch of information about the game. The information details who publishes it, what genre it is, and what resources you will need to play it. Think D4, D6, D8, D12, D20/s or in my case for the game "Dread" - a Jenga Tower.
The power of Grimoire and what drew my attention to it as a system in the first place is that this data doesn't have to be filled out yourself. A godsend if you have a habit of buying game systems regularly. You can automatically pull the data from any data source that you personally want to use (or multiple if you're that way inclined) provided there's an add-on for said source.
When you first install Grimoire you won't have any sources installed. It's recommended that you use the DriveThruRPG and TTRPG Wiki plugins to get started as they work out of the box without the need for any API Keys. Just head to the add-ons page in settings and hit install. If you want to install the RPGGeek source mentioned before, that can also be done from this page (although you will need a Board Game Geek API Key).
On the side panel of the app, you can see the other categories of content that Grimoire supports: Music and sound files that you might wish to use at the gaming table; Maps for your play space; STL files for miniatures and terrain that you plan on printing at a later date but never will; or even 2D tokens you've made with its oddly flexible token creator.
Grimoire has support for different auth levels (eg. player, GM and Admin) with each having access only to what you give them. GMs and above can set up campaigns to store their game notes and give guest users access to only the books and notes needed for that campaign. Another really powerful tool for both online and in person GMs.
Despite all of its functionality, Grimoire is not designed to compete with VTTs. It handles storing and managing your assets in such way that you can use them wherever you want. Maps are expected to be stored as Universal VTT maps; There's quick download buttons for everything and there is even talk of VTT integration add-on support at a later date.
If you play table top RPGs and haven't been convinced already, I'd highly recommend checking out the official website and giving the official demo a go. Especially as version 1.7 should be out any day now is out now!
If you do decide to give it a go, let me know. I'd love to hear more about your experience with this incredible application.