"Game Night Score Keeper" TW instance in the works

Charlie_Veniot · January 27, 2026, 4:43am

NOTE: Many members of this community often disagree with my “UNORTHODOX” approach to doing things. Everything I share is only meant as fun insights into TW behaviour and types of fun things that can be done with TW.

I have a cognitive disability and bad eyesight (Fuchs Dystrophy). So please pay no mind to the many little, surely very odd to you, tricks I use to compensate.

This is just a fun use-case scenario for TiddlyWiki.

My kiddo gave me the “Wingspan” board game for Christmas.

The production quality of that game is outstanding. However: it was not well-designed for folk with visual impairments (Fuchs dystrophy in my case.)

Although a magnifying glass with built-in light is helpful, the score pad is still really hard to read because of gray text colour on a pale green background.

Vision aside, there are a lot of numbers to add up for end-of-game scoring (and a lot of “subtotal” mental calculations). I’m all for “brain-age” kind of games, but not when I’ve just done some brain-burning playing a board game.

So, I figured why not put together a TiddlyWiki instance to help me out. The bonus: it makes for a nice diary of played games (for a whole bunch of board games), and I can add whatever queries/reports when I get the itch.

Very early going as I’ve just started RAD prototyping this bad boy tonight:

Game Night Score Keeper

Charlie_Veniot · January 27, 2026, 4:45am

The tiddler’s of note:

Wingspan GP Editor
Footer
Game Play Manager
2026-01-26 (a Wingspan game instance sample)

Charlie_Veniot · January 28, 2026, 1:25am

I’m redesigning the scoring sheet, moving from wiki table to html table.

Here’s what the wiki text table (a prototype) looked like:

Charlie_Veniot · January 28, 2026, 3:01am

Some lines on the score sheet do involve adding multiple things, and some involve multiplying a number of things by some number. So, I need the ability to do simple additions, simple multiplications, and combinations of simple additions and simple multiplications.

Charlie_Veniot · January 28, 2026, 4:20am

(Game Night Score Keeper)

Wingspan score sheet now working:

The editor for Wingspan game scoring:

A test game scoring:

The TW code for the editor:

\define thr(l)
<th class="thr">$l$:</th>
\end
\define e(fld)
<$edit-text class="stde" tag=textarea tiddler={{!!title}} field={{{ [[p]] [<n>] [[_$fld$]] +[join[]] }}}/>
\end
\define 🔷header()
<tr><<thr Players>>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]]">
<td style="width:1em;">//-<<n>>-//<br><<e 🧑>></td> 
</$list>
<$list filter="[{!!p_a}match[y]]"><td style="width:1em;">''Automa''</td></$list>
</tr>
\end
\define 🦜birds()
<tr><<thr Birds>>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]] [{!!p_a}match[y]then[a]]">
<td><<e 🦜>></td>
</$list>
</tr>
\end
\define 🎁bonus()
<tr><<thr Bonus>>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]]">
<td><<e 🎁>></td>
</$list>
<$list filter="[{!!p_a}match[y]]"><td style="background-color:#dddddd;">''0''</td></$list>
</tr>
\end
\define 🏈goals() 
<tr><<thr "End-of-Round Goals">>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]] [{!!p_a}match[y]then[a]]">
<td><<e 🏈>></td>
</$list>
</tr>
\end
\define 🥚eggs() 
<tr><<thr "Eggs">>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]] [{!!p_a}match[y]then[a]]">
<td><<e 🥚>></td>
</$list>
</tr>
\end
\define 🍏food()
<tr><<thr "Food on Cards">>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]]">
<td><<e 🍏>></td>
</$list>
<$list filter="[{!!p_a}match[y]]"><td style="background-color:#dddddd;">''0''</td></$list>
</tr>
\end
\define 👁tucks()
<tr><<thr "Tucked Cards">>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]]">
<td><<e 👁>></td>
</$list>
<$list filter="[{!!p_a}match[y]]"><td style="background-color:#dddddd;">''0''</td></$list>
</tr>
\end
\define 💲t(n)
<$let f={{{ =[{!!p$n$_🦜}!is[blank]] =[{!!p$n$_🎁}!is[blank]] =[{!!p$n$_🏈}!is[blank]] =[{!!p$n$_🥚}!is[blank]] =[{!!p$n$_🍏}!is[blank]] =[{!!p$n$_👁}!is[blank]] +[join[ + ]] }}}>
<iframe
 srcdoc={{{ [[<script> document.write(]] [<f>] [[);</script><body style="font-family:]] [{$:/themes/tiddlywiki/vanilla/settings/fontfamily}] [[;font-weight:bold;font-size:1.5em;text-align:center;"></body>]] +[join[]] }}} style="height:3em;border:none;overflow:hidden;">
</iframe>
</$let>
\end
\define 💲total()
<tr style="border:3px double black;"><<thr TOTAL>>
<$list variable=n filter="[range[1],{!!p_num},[1]] [{!!p_a}match[y]then[a]]">
<td><$macrocall $name="💲t" n=<<n>>/></td>
</$list>
</tr>
\end

''Player count:'' <$range tiddler={{!!title}} field="p_num" min="1" max="5" increment="1"/> //({{!!p_num}})//
<br><$checkbox tiddler={{!!title}} field="p_a" checked="y" unchecked="n" default="n"> ''Automa''</$checkbox>

<div style="max-width:100%;overflow:auto;">
<table style="text-align:center;">
<<🔷header>>
<<🦜birds>>
<<🎁bonus>>
<<🏈goals>>
<<🥚eggs>>
<<🍏food>>
<<👁tucks>>
<<💲total>>
</table>
</div>

Scott_Sauyet · January 28, 2026, 1:36pm

I don’t have anything to say about the table design, but I am impressed by the calculation approach via an iframe. I’m wondering if there’s some simple way to use postMessage to pass the calculation result back directly. I’ve never tried combining that with TW. Have you? Anyone else?

Also, with all the unicode characters floating around, I’m surprised you don’t rename your <<e ...>> to <<✎ ...>>!

Charlie_Veniot · January 28, 2026, 2:20pm

Anybody who would like to comment about the table design: please feel free to contact Stonemaier Games. That is the layout of the score sheet for their game.

My primary need for unicode characters is for visual cues to make it quick and easy to find things that are related to each other. It helps make things “pop out”.

If the thing isn’t something I want grabbing me by the jugular, I don’t want it to have a unicode character in it.

The unicode characters are much like the color tabs on dividers in a filing cabinet.

I very much dislike coding in javascript. My approach to sharing things between a TW instance and an iframe: local storage.

Scott_Sauyet · January 28, 2026, 3:23pm

I was just picturing having a TW tool – widget, macro, function, procedure, something – which accepts a filter that would output an expression and result in the value of that expression. It could use your IFrame trick or some safety-wrapped eval. And it could start as a plugin rather than TW-internal.

Somebody would have to code the JS for this… but it wouldn’t necessarily have to be you!

Scott_Sauyet · January 28, 2026, 3:27pm

I meant only about your move from wiki tables to html tables. I guess I should have used “implementation” rather than “design”. I still have nothing to say about this.

Charlie_Veniot · January 28, 2026, 3:34pm

It does not take me long to find myself annoyed working with a wiki table. I only use wiki tables for very simple and static content, or for quick prototyping of an idea that will get converted to an html table.

Charlie_Veniot · January 28, 2026, 3:36pm

HistoryBuff · January 28, 2026, 5:53pm

Thanks @Charlie_Veniot. I love Wingspan and other games like it. I’m going to look at using this for the next time we play.

Charlie_Veniot · January 28, 2026, 6:50pm

It is a beautiful game, eh ?

Make sure to download your own copy of that TiddlyWiki, just in case I go and break something between now and your next game. (I have this habit of continuously tweaking things.)

Charlie_Veniot · January 29, 2026, 4:12am

Setup of the “Games Manager” tiddler in the works:

Charlie_Veniot · January 31, 2026, 1:02am

(Game Night Score Keeper)

I’ve started to design a “Game Inventory” tiddler to manage board games for which the TW instance can manage game session scores
Instead of having “Editor” tiddlers for each game in the inventory, the tiddler for a game will be the template for the scores of a game session
Renamed the “Game Sessions Manager” to “Game Sessions”
Added a few games, just to test the game inventory
Added the scoring sheet for the game “Grove”

(Grove and Wingspan are the only games currently set up with a scoring sheet; at some point, it would be nice to have some sort of “wizard” to build score sheets.)

Although Grove is a one-player card game, it is possible to have a multi-player game if each person has a copy of the game. So I’ve set up the scorecard to allow up to 5 players.

The squirrel penalty, unlike the other categories, is subtracted from the total.

Charlie_Veniot · January 31, 2026, 3:42am

On my mind: the ability for friends to export game sessions for import into other friends’ TW’s.

So tiddler title ought to at least have some degree of uniqueness.

I think the easiest thing to do is include “host initials/whatever” in tiddler titles. So tiddler titles that are a combination of date and host initials/whatever.

Something to chew on.

(Game Night Score Keeper)

Charlie_Veniot · January 31, 2026, 5:43pm

I’m creating a blog to share updates about this and whatever other TiddlyWiki things I want to share.

If you are interested in this particular project, follow along using this link for all things tagged “Project-GNSK”: Game-Night Score-Keeper updates

Brian_Radspinner · January 31, 2026, 8:12pm

This is the first I can remember someone referencing other people’s wikis that may not be already be fellow users of this forum, or may just have you hosting or otherwise “running the show” for their wikis.

I’m also assuming that your friends would likely use this game manager on a phone/tablet at get-togethers and would want mobile access.

As someone who has only ever handed static exports of info from my wikis (text file, PDF, Word docs.etc…) you mentioning handing over actual tiddlers to someone else stood out to me. If you have any examples of other people around you using tiddlywiki on their own, I would love to hear any basic details on their setups.

If none of this applies, sorry for going a bit off-topic. Feel free to remove this post if you like.

Charlie_Veniot · January 31, 2026, 8:42pm

It is just something I’m chewing on.

I imagine a fairly large circle of friends, not necessarily the same friends involved in each game night or each other’s game nights.

If you and I each have our own TiddlyWiki for tracking games, I might attend one of your game nights and want to include the games you hosted that night in my own TiddlyWiki as part of the info I’m tracking for one or more games I’ve played with you and not played with you.

Really, this is the first time I’ve ever considered independent TW instances with some “cross-pollination” on certain things of common interest, while having a ton of things that are not of common interest.

Not a huge thing to share what are really static tiddlers (records of game session events). It would be more of a dog’s breakfast if they were tiddlers that change over time (much more involved to keep two or more TW instances in sync with each other.)

Nah, they wouldn’t have to be online. If you have an offline TW on your tablet/phone/computer, easy enough to export a game night’s score sheet for whatever game to a file and email it to one or more participants who would like it (for import into their TW instance.)

Really, the only thing I need to chew on is making it easy for those tiddlers to have unique titles, and maybe eventually have a custom interface that is very specialized for the job of managing a games inventory, managing game sessions and game scoring, and sharing tiddlers.

I’m going to need a few more sleeps to connect the dots.

Charlie_Veniot · January 31, 2026, 8:51pm

Oops, I’m just now “clicking” on what you are saying.

No, I’m not talking about managing TW instances for other people.

You have a TW for managing your board games and board game sessions you host (“host” as in “invite people to your house”). I have a TW for managing board games and board game sessions I host (“host” as in “invite people to my house”).

When you host a board games night I attend, I might ask you to send me the final score sheet for one or more of the board games played that night.

When I host a board games night you attend, you might ask me to send you the final score sheet for one or more of the board games played that night.

You host (as in put/store) your TW wherever you want (online or local), and I host (as in put/store) my TW wherever I want (online or local.)