GM Tools: Lore Reference Board

A system agnostic Foundry VTT module built for GMs who want an organized reference board that stored all your information as well as image references of your favorite art. Keep your maps, image references,, documents, and world documents organized and accessible in one window that stays consistent no matter which scene or scenario you're running.

History / Reasoning

I run fairly complex campaigns. Between session prep I found myself constantly flipping between file explorer windows, journal entries, actor sheets, roll tables, and reference PDFs while trying to run encounters or narrate moments. There was no good way to have everything visible and ready in one place without leaving Foundry or opening ten separate applications/windows.

The Lore Reference Board started as a way to keep a campaign map open with clickable pins tied to images and journal entries. It grew from there into something that covers most of what I needed: a window where I can pin notes to a map, see the images I have related to that area, keep a full-width document open, or build a dashboard of anything I would need for the games.

All data is stored world-scoped (not tied to any scene) so the board is always where you left it, regardless of which scene you or your players are viewing.

Tab Types

The board supports four types of tabs. You can have as many tabs as you need and mix types freely.

Tabs can also be pinned to keep them grouped at the start of the tab bar (separated by a divider from the rest), and reordered via drag-and-drop using the reorder toggle in the toolbar. (New in v1.2)

Each tab is also color-coded by type (blue for Image, coral for Document, purple for Reference, amber for Faction), so you can tell at a glance what kind of tab you're looking at. (New in v1.2)

Image Tabs

A full-view image viewer (mostly for maps of any kind, but can be any image you want to put references on) with placeable pins. The image/map supports pan and zoom via mouse wheel and drag. Each pin can be:

• Given a title, description, color, and icon (Default selectable icon set list)
• Linked to any journal entry in your world or compendiums journals
• A pin gallery with image folders imported from your data directory so you can see all your references quickly

Clicking a pin opens a preview dialog to help you describe things. If a journal is linked, it renders the journal content on this screen with multi-page navigation. The preview window also allows you to add additional Journals/Lore to the image, copy the image location to clipboard to be used elsewhere, create this image as a token, and/or create it as a scene.

If the GM Tools: Encounter Forge module is active, creating a token offers a choice between a blank actor or a fully generated NPC (via Encounter Forge's generator, pre-loaded with the image as portrait/token). (New in v1.2)

A 4-column grid dashboard. Each cell links to a Foundry document or embeds a file. Cells can span multiple columns and rows. The grid scrolls and expands vertically as you add more content. To support system agnostic settings, I had to cut some visual functionality, but still act as a quick load dashboard.

Supported document types per cell:

Each cell has a small pencil button in the header that opens the edit dialog. You can re-link it to a different document, swap to a file, or resize the cell without deleting and re-adding it.

Cell Placement Picker

When you add or edit a cell, a visual grid picker shows the current layout and lets you draw a rectangle for where the cell should go. Click once to set the start corner, hover to preview the selection, click again to confirm. Occupied cells are shown with a striped overlay and cannot be selected. Invalid overlapping selections turn red. You can also (while editing) change the dimensions of existing cells with the pencil icon in the header.

Faction Tabs (New in v1.2)

A freeform relationship map for tracking factions, NPCs, and how they all feel about each other and the party. Each faction is a draggable, resizable circle on a pannable/zoomable canvas.

• Add factions with the Add Faction (plus) button. Each gets a name, a color, and a party standing rating
• Drag a faction to reposition it, or hover over the circle to see a double arrow symbol and drag it from this corner handle to resize it
• Adjust a faction's rating with the +/- buttons, or type directly into the rating box. You can enter a plain number, or use +N / -N to adjust the current value, or =N to set it exactly
• Drag any Actor, Item, Journal Entry, or other Foundry document onto a faction circle to link it as a member/entity. Linked entities show as small portrait tokens you can click to open their sheet; an overflow button appears if there are too many to fit
• Use Add Relationship (link icon) to enter link mode, then click two factions to draw a relationship line between them and choose its type
• Click an existing relationship line to change its type or click the line while link mode is toggled off to edit/delete it
• Relationship Types (palette icon) lets you add, edit, or remove the line styles (solid, dashed, dotted, dash-dot) and colors used for relationships. The module ships with a default set (Allies, Rivals, Trade Partners, Vassal/Liege, Blood Feud, Truce/Ceasefire, Mentor & Student, Spy Network)
• Standing Tiers (sliders icon) lets you configure the rating ranges and labels used to describe a faction's standing (defaults: Hostile, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Allied)
• Party Standing (handshake icon) opens a side panel listing every faction on all faction tabs with its current standing label, collapsible faction tab label or all at once button
• A zoom slider and reset view button are available for the canvas, same as Image tabs

Relationship lines currently connect exactly two factions each. There's no support yet for one line representing a group of factions.

Screenshots

https://github.com/ElemorSeru/lore-reference-board/releases/latest/download/module.json