Parser?

[chillybilly]

Is there a parser (or something like that) for the Savage Worlds ruleset like there is for 4E? After looking around, my assumption is no but it never hurts to ask.

[Ikael]

Unfortunately there is not. However DrZeus is working on new parser tool (Par5e) which could at some point be fudged to work for Savage Worlds, but I think that SW products doesn't use specific formating, nor provides DDI like database, which could turn out to be problematic with the parser implementation.

Meanwhile if you're looking for making rulemodules you can use Enhanced Library extension (or SWFI which contains the most updated code) to create your own modules without need to touch XML. If you're looking for NPC parser, then no, there is no tool for that but I would be interested to have one as well.

[chillybilly]

Thank you for the quick response. I figured as much but then I've GMed an entire SW adventure without knowing about the wonderful SWFI extension so that made me wonder what else was out there that I was too stupid to discover.

[Doswelk]

To my knowledge every SW module/rule set so far (well at least one that PW and I have made are basically copy/paste from PDF to Notepad++

[phantomwhale]

Yep, have played with tools, but there is no solid digital format they would serve well for a Savage Worlds importing tool (perhaps just the stat blocks might ?)

Most of the work on library modules and scenarios are done with copy / paste / reformat, and a bit of GIMP / Photoshoppery

[chillybilly]

Yeah, I was thinking it would mostly help for making NPCs. It's pretty much always been cut and paste (and eliminate that weird double spacing issue most pdfs have when you do that) for me.

[S Ferguson]

Yep, have played with tools, but there is no solid digital format they would serve well for a Savage Worlds importing tool (perhaps just the stat blocks might ?)

Most of the work on library modules and scenarios are done with copy / paste / reformat, and a bit of GIMP / Photoshoppery

Geez. Photoshoppery? Is that even a word? Would it be like GIMPing? I've heard of photochopping, in reference to it's general use to crop and resize images, but wow. I'm stumped on this one.:confused:

Cheers,
SF

[Griogre]

Personally when I was making SW modues I mostly used IrfanViewery. :D

[S Ferguson]

My, my. I'm surrounded by Webster and Oxford. :)

[Doswelk]

In that case I was GIMPing and Notepad++ery :p

[S Ferguson]

You guys are just making this difficult for me.

[Ikael]

Not to mention Eclipsing, JEditing and photochopping modules. However nowdays I avoid XML as much as possible, if possible :)

[S Ferguson]

Oh, please stop. I beggeth you. I beseech thee; I implore; I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I Am.

[Doswelk]

Is there a parser (or something like that) for the Savage Worlds ruleset like there is for 4E? After looking around, my assumption is no but it never hurts to ask.

In an attempt to get back to the original point of this thread I go this kickstarter update about Wild Card Creator (a Savage Worlds character creation program that will read a PDF and import all the data so you can create a character for that setting).

This highlights the problem with trying to create a Savage Worlds Parser


PDF importing is going very smoothly, although I'm discovering that every PDF seems to have at least one weird quirk that keeps it from being a breeze. Last night I was starting to support Hell on Earth Reloaded and found out that whenever I extracted text, all periods were bizarrely converted to the Unicode backspace character (basically, a text representation of when you type the backspace key, but without actually performing the backspace). Fortunately I've been able to figure out the problems like these and keep things going.

[S Ferguson]

In an attempt to get back to the original point of this thread I go this kickstarter update about Wild Card Creator (a Savage Worlds character creation program that will read a PDF and import all the data so you can create a character for that setting).

This highlights the problem with trying to create a Savage Worlds Parser...

I can't for the life of me figure out how the period got switched to backspaces. Would it be possible to place the Adobe file version? I've just found the problems with the hidden paragraph marker, which is the reason all those extra spaces show up when you try to scrape PDFs. I've *never* encountered a Unicode error.

As per a parser to scrape Wild Cards, in theory there's no reason why it couldn't be done, except as our floating large mammalian denizen said: there's no standard format. It depends on the publisher of the material, and even then there are discrepancies in the blocks (try TOD compared with DL:R compared to Evernight, just in the Pinnicle line, now throw in RoC). One of the things about a parser is that it has to know "roughly" what to look for, examplia gratia "edges." If the parser encounter's a new "edge" on a Wild Card, it won't be nice, invite you in for tea and add the Edge; it will just toss up an error in the wastebasket, and crash.

It sounds like a nice idea in theory, but practically, I can't really see how it could be accomplished. Some game lines I'm sure could be parsed (ones in which the formatting for Wild Cards is similar), but a generic parser would probably have to be similar to the Pathfinder NPC/Monster parser, in which you impose format on the 'Card and put it in a text file prior to parsing. It would be just as easy typing them in manually.

Thoughts?

[Mgrancey]

Depending on what I'm working on I'll use Notepad++ for most content, building NPCs/critters in FGII (then export and move in Notepad++) and save pictures to OneNote then edit in Gimp if needed. Most of this was done on 1 monitor while I had an old show that wouldn't distract me too much on as well. So far I have gone through A-Team, Macgyver, and a season of Murder, She wrote.

Though I am going to give Irfanview a try after having taken a look for it.

[S Ferguson]

Ooooh. Bad T.V. choice. I usually sit through re-runs of Mission Impossible, and Firefly (yes all 17 episodes) and Farscape. As long as it's MI or Farscape I'm relatively O.K. Cutting, extraction, editing go smoothly using eXpert PDF. Photoshop and UltraEdit, and it usually takes up an afternoon (I slide on the maps - in my games the miniatures line of thinking is replaced by "real-world" distances - the maps are displayed and I scribble on them like I would a greasemat to get everyone's approximate position - it keeps the players in character). I think I must have seen these series more times than I care to admit (esp. Firefly - it was a good show, why they canned it after 17 episodes is beyond me). I can't even fathom watching the A-Team.

[Mgrancey]

AH but then I would end up watching them rather than working. I just need something to help occupy some of my attention not get all of it. Cheesy 80's action is just right.

[S Ferguson]

I still can neither stomach the A-Team (with the helicopters ramming into mountains, blowing up, and then people stumbling out of the wreckage crying I have a headache this big and it has Excedrin written all over it) nor McGuyver (I mean how many things can you diffuse with a paper clip, chewing gum and an old painting). That would just grate on my nerves (it did in the '80's, why change now?). Magnum P.I. and Simon and Simon I can handle.

T.V. and FG module scraping. I didn't think anyone else did that.;)