The Chronicler's Table

A character creator and rules reference for a simplified tabletop RPG ruleset — six attributes scored 0–3, every mechanic resolved by looking up one small table instead of doing arithmetic at the table.

Live: https://hoodedhacker32.github.io/simple-dnd/ Editor: https://hoodedhacker32.github.io/simple-dnd/editor/

Changing the game without touching code

The game lives in src/content/pack.json. The DM Screen editor at /editor/ edits that file through a UI — races, classes, the rules themselves, the fields a character records, and the Codex prose.

The flow is:

1. Open the editor and enter the passphrase.
2. Edit whatever you like — stat spreads, lore, hit points, multiplier tables, dodge targets, which fields a character even has. Changes are kept in your browser as you go.
3. On the Publish tab, describe the change, paste a GitHub token, and press Propose these changes.
4. The editor commits to a new branch and opens a pull request. Review the diff on GitHub, then merge it.
5. Merging to main redeploys the site automatically.

Nothing you do in the editor touches the live game until that pull request is merged.

The passphrase is not security

The site is static, so the passphrase check runs in the browser and the phrase is readable in the page source. It stops casual wandering and nothing more. The real boundary is the GitHub token, which lives only in the visitor's own tab and is never committed.

The token

Use a fine-grained personal access token, scoped to only this repository, with Contents: read and write and Pull requests: read and write. Do not use a classic token — a classic repo-scoped token would give the page access to every repository you own. The editor keeps the token in sessionStorage, so it is forgotten when the tab closes.

Running it

npm install

npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:5173.

Building for the web

npm run build

This produces a fully static dist/ folder with no backend. To publish it:

• Netlify — drag dist/ onto the Netlify dashboard, or connect the repo with build command npm run build and publish directory dist.
• GitHub Pages — push dist/ to a gh-pages branch, or use a Pages action. If the site is served from a subpath (e.g. user.github.io/repo/), set base: '/repo/' in vite.config.ts first.
• Vercel / Cloudflare Pages — framework preset "Vite", no further config needed.

What's in it

• Character tab — pick a race and a class, fill in the details the DM has defined (by default name, age, gender, pronouns, alignment and backstory), and get a finished sheet with every derived number already worked out (hit points, weapon access, movement range, bow range, stealth targets, dodge table, class ability effects).
• Codex tab — every rule table in the game with a plain-English explanation, plus race and class reference matrices.
• Party panel — characters are kept in browser storage so they survive a refresh. Save any character to a .dndchar.json file and load it back later.
• Exports — JSON save file, PNG, PDF, Word (.docx) and spreadsheet (.xlsx).

Where the game data lives

All rules content is data, not code — editing these files is enough to change the game:

File	Contains
src/content/pack.json	All races, classes and Codex prose — edited via the DM Screen
src/content/schema.ts	Validation for the pack, shared by the app and the editor
src/data/rules.ts	Re-exports pack content; holds no rules of its own

src/engine/statCalculator.ts combines those into final stats. It is written around a swappable strategy: raceClass (the current mode — final stats are simply race + class) and a pointBuy mode that is already wired up but unused, so adding a point-allocation step later does not require rewriting the engine.

The Codex's lookup tables are generated from mechanics in the pack, so what a player reads can never disagree with what the app calculates. Change a multiplier on the Rules tab and both the sheet and the Codex follow.

Known gaps

• Class effects come from a fixed set of kinds. A class can carry real mechanics (unarmed damage, bow range, spell power, movement, social rolls, stealth), each a table keyed to a stat. An effect of a genuinely new shape — one that does not fit any of those — still needs code in src/engine/statCalculator.ts. The Rogue's Detect Traps and Perceptive, and the Cleric's Word of Recall, are ability text for the DM to adjudicate rather than computed values.
• The Ranger's Archer wording is inconsistent in the source rules. The card says "+0.5 to your existing Dexterity modifier", but its own worked table lists Dexterity 1 as 1x (0.75 + 0.5 would be 1.25). The explicit table is treated as authoritative and is now editable on the class's Effects list.
• PSD export is not implemented. It was scoped as an optional stretch item.

How this relates to official D&D

The race and class blurbs describe traditional D&D lore, and the ages and lifespans follow the 5e Player's Handbook.

The stat system is this ruleset's own. Six attributes scored 0–3 is an invention; D&D uses six different abilities on a 1–20 scale. Nothing here is meant to be compatible with an official character sheet.

The paladin's broken oath is a DM ruling, not a departure. The PHB deliberately leaves the consequence to the DM, listing options up to abandoning the class or taking the DMG's Oathbreaker subclass. Losing the divine power is squarely within that discretion, so Oath Broken losing its spellcasting is this table's answer to a question the rules ask the DM to answer.

Aarakocra is spelled with two a's, per the Elemental Evil Player's Companion. Its internal id stays arakocra because saved characters point at it.