Curosity about 4E Book Modules

[ShadeRaven]

As I have added more and more data into FG2 modules from the various rule books and supplements, I am starting to wonder and the sheer volume of books that need to be opened for a game session.

That got me thinking, for those who use 4E with all the options, do you have all the separate books in their own modules to be opened (or left closed) as desired or has anyone considered/tried using a condensed compilation where powers, races, et al, are kept in a more limited number of books?

As it is now, Players have the option to open up PHB, PHB2, FR Player's Guide, Martial Power, Arcane Power, Divine Power, Adv Vault, plus my Manuals for PHB and FR.

[Zeus]

I have each rulebook as a discreat module. At the moment my players can optionally open and use:

PHB1 and 2
DP, AP and MP
FRPG, EPG
Dragon PHB Compilation
AV1 and AV2

For powers my group will use the 4E Catalogue Module option that Tenian built into a recent release of the 4E Parser just as soon as 4E_JPG 2.0 lands.

Reagrding the volume of modules, its actually not that bad asuming you have a moderate spec PC, if I open up all the modules as well as all the DM mods (DMG1, MM1 and 2, Draconimicon, MotP, FRCG, ECG and OG) it still only takes less than 1 minute to startup a campaign.

My MM2 actually also contains the whole of MM1 (for Encounter group chains including linked Tokens) but I suppress the MM1 content so it doesn't reappear in the MM2 Library lists.

Not sure what it will be like by the end of next year though with all the volume 3's coming out.

[ShadeRaven]

Yeah. The load isn't bad at all, but seeing all the books in my module directory (not to mention the adventures) starts to feel cluttery.

So that got me thinking... I wonder how much stress/weight those books would carry if I reconfigured them and compressed them into just a couple of central collections. IE: Book of Player Rules, Book of Monsters, etc. Where the Book of Player Rules would have all the data from the PHBs and Power Books, plus extra sources, while the Book of Monsters would be the collection of creatures from all the various sources. Etc.

That said... I have no idea what the Catalog is. I switched over to it, and noticed it looks at the modules directory and does powers. Is that it? Just a way to create a collection of powers? From all the data sources? How about Feats? Creatures? Races? Manual Reference files?

One thing Tenian did that was very cool was creating those link lists. Currently, my PHB has link lists that will give link boxes to all the different sources for a class. Makes it very easy to open up boxes for Powers for a Wizard from the PHB, AP, and any other module with Wizard Powers I want to link to it.

That said, it still made me wonder if it might be easier to have all of the class features in one listing... all of the class powers in one listing... all of the manual entries in one reference guide. Etc.

[Bert Blaine]

My MM1 is not in mod form it is just a bunch of personalities.
anyone got a better file for that and MM2?
......
as i am a parser failure, I would love a zipped copy of them :)
I promise i bought the real books :)

[Tenian]

The parser will continue to support the 1 book = 1 module approach. This is probably the easiest way to manage the data. Also some groups tend to restrict content via book (for example disallowing Eberron or Forgotten Realms content).

The catalog is non-functional in the 1.5.1 ruleset as the classes required for it are missing. I left it active in the most recent parser releases, but the module it builds is currently useless.

What the catalog does is create a new module that contains links to all your existing modules. This makes it much easier to find things scattered across modules. It currently only supports powers as I got busy working on other things before I having time to finish it.

You can find images of it being developed
Here: https://dnd-4e.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post.html
Here: https://dnd-4e.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-improvements.html
and finally here: https://dnd-4e.blogspot.com/2009/07/divine-reskin.html

[DNH]

The catalog ... currently only supports powers as I got busy working on other things before I having time to finish it.

A catalog of magic items would be a godsend. :)