Quickstart

The current version of the OBR Compendium Browser is a beta release. The published schema formats are not necessarily stable and may change without warning. Similarly abrupt changes should be expected to the app's functionality.

Some bugs are to be expected while the app is being stress tested by actual users.

What is the OBR Compendium Browser?

The Compendium Browser is a free extension for Owlbear Rodeo designed to provide a handy reference tool for GMs running their games on the platform. You can import packs of documents into the application, with each document representing a monster, a weapon, a spell, and so on. These collections of documents are categorised within the browser and can be searched. The application supports fuzzy searching, so little typos won't slow you down.

Currently, there are no pre-configured packs available, but you can create your own packs very easily. Instructions are available here.

Installing the Compendium Browser

To install this extension, go to your profile and click manage extensions. In the top right corner, you'll see a little plus icon, and hovering over it will reveal a tooltip saying, "Add custom extension".

Clicking this button will reveal a small dialog window where you can enter an install link.

Copy the following URL into the field and wait for Owlbear Rodeo to fetch the extension information.

https://obr-compendium-browser.phillip.best/manifest.json

A little card should appear saying "Compendium Browser" alongside an extension version. If you instead get some kind of error notification, doublecheck that you copied the URL correctly. Once the card appears, you should be able to press the "Add" button to install the extension.

Once the extension has been installed, make sure to activate it for any worlds you want to use it for.

Owlbear Rodeo has their own guide for installing extensions if you need additional help.

The Compendium Browser interface

When you load the extension for the first time, you'll be presented with an interface like this:

The default Compendium Browser interface with no content loaded.

As we don't have any content to display, the browser isn't a lot of use. To add content, click the plus icon, which will open the pack installation interface.

Installing packs

The pack installation interface looks like this:

The compendium upload interface.

The plus icon should turn purple to indicate that the tab is active.

To install a pack, simply drag and drop one or more compendium files into the drop area or click on the box to open your file browser. You can drop any files you like into this interface, and invalid files will be discarded with appropriate warnings.

Examples of both correct and incorrect documents.

Sometimes a pack will be generally valid, but will have invalid documents inside. It's possible to install packs like this, but invalid documents will be ignored.

Example of a pack that contains some invalid data.

Once you've uploaded the packs you wish to install, click the "Install Packs" button to process and install the valid files.

You may be wondering where your pack data is stored. Due to limitations with Owlbear Rodeo and my own unwillingness to host user data at the moment, your data is located in browser local storage. A consequence of this is that your data will be unavailable to you should you switch to a new browser, and you'll have to install your packs again. Thankfully, this is a very quick and painless process.

Managing your installed packs

Once you've installed some packs, you can navigate to the compendium management tab, indicated by a little book icon.

Here, you'll find a list of all of the packs you have installed, their version numbers (if available), how many documents each contains, and whether those packs are currently active. Packs are activated on a per-room basis, so you can have different packs active for different games.

Documents contained in inactive packs are not displayed in the browser, so toggling different packs on and off can be very helpful in cutting down on clutter, especially if you run games for several rulesets.