Book of Lost Spells illustrations

[HoratioDrank]

Hey all.

I own the Book of Lost Spells module for FG. It contains tons of illustrations. When I allow it for my players from my campaign being run on an Ultimate Edition, their Images & Maps list is flooded with them all, which makes their lists unnecessarily cluttered. Is there a way for me to get rid of these images so they don't appear on my players' lists?

Thanks for any info!

CNYGamer99

[LordEntrails]

Not that I know of. If you share an entire source, they get all of it. Instead of sharing the whole thing, you can share just the parts of it you want, then they don't end up with tons of stuff. It's not ideal, but its up to you to make the trade-off.

[HoratioDrank]

How would I share just portions of the Book of Lost Spells? When I enter Modules, it seems like it's an all-or-nothing proposition. Once Book of Lost Spells is open, from my Library I can see Images & Maps, Tables, Reference Manual, and Spells. I'd like to be able to share everything but the Images & Maps.

[LordEntrails]

You can open the module for yourself, but then don't share it to the players. But then you have to drag each and every link you want shared from the open module to either the character portrait of via right mouse. So... to share a dozens and dozens... ugh, not friendly.

I think the upcoming v3.2 implements tabs for the players, so then sharing the whole thing wouldn't be so bad. But I'm not sure about that. You could check out the thread here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?32034-Test-Release-v3-2-0&goto=newpost)to see if I'm right or not about this.

[Nickademus]

Here's what you do...

1. Make a backup of the module.
2. Open the module file or use a program that can manipulate the insides (I use WinRAR since it can do the latter).
3. Open the db.xml file in an editor such as Notepad++.
4. Assuming you are using Notepad++, hit Alt+2 to collapse all the main sections.
5. Look for the <lists> section and look inside to make sure there is an <imagewindow> subsection that has all the images (if not STOP here).
6. Then look for the <image> section above the <lists> section.
7. Select the entire section (expand it to make sure).
8. Delete it and save the file.
9. If not using WinRAR, repack the mod file.

Now, this will have deleted all the images from the image window, for both you and the players. You can still access them via links in the story entries or via the library window itself (which is what the <imagewindow> section was).

I'm tired. I reserve the right to be wrong about any of this until I finish waking up.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, some modules have the image data stored in the <images> tag rather than in the <lists>. If this is the case, and the module is able to be freely downloaded/distributed, sent it my way and I'll doctor it up.

[Trenloe]

...
2. Open the module file or use a program that can manipulate the insides (I use WinRAR since it can do the latter).
...
You can't do this as the Book of Lost Spells is a recent release and so is encrypted in the content vault.

[Nickademus]

I think the upcoming v3.2 implements tabs for the players, so then sharing the whole thing wouldn't be so bad. But I'm not sure about that. You could check out the thread here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?32034-Test-Release-v3-2-0&goto=newpost)to see if I'm right or not about this.

That is a reference to something else. To allow the current model to have player window tabs would require a complete overhaul to how the categories are structured and raises security issues for the GM due to tab names. The Unity build might have a solution, but don't expect anything for this model. There was a recent forum thread that talked about this. I posted in it, so you can find it in my Lastest Posts about a week or two ago.

[Nickademus]

You can't do this as the Book of Lost Spells is a recent release and so is encrypted in the content vault.

Yes, well. Legals prevent luxury once again.

There's nothing you can do. Have the players use the filter when searching for Images or don't share the entire module.

EDIT: Wait, this is a FGG product. Why the hell is Smite Works encrypting things not produced by WotC?

[Trenloe]

It is done for all new products.

[Nickademus]

Wow. I guess I won't ever be buying another product for 5e from SW...

[Trenloe]

All new products, not just 5E.

[Nickademus]

*speechless*

[damned]

I think with the new Tabs/Dropdowns the Images would all be in their own Group?
I understand that encrypting stuff doesnt please everyone but from a publishers point of view I think it makes sense.
Sadly more and more people share anything and everything that they can these days.

[Nickademus]

I understand that encrypting stuff doesnt please everyone but from a publishers point of view I think it makes sense.
Sadly more and more people share anything and everything that they can these days.

This sounds great on paper, but the reality is (and always has been) that the pirates still illegally share and the honest people are the ones that suffer from DRM. The only thing that security accomplishes is to prevent the lazy thieves from putting the effort into stealing. Is it worth the hassle that the rest of us have to deal with just so a small percentage of the illegal sharing is stopped?

If there was a 100% effective way to prevent piracy, I'd be all for it even if it was a burden to the honest user. But it isn't 100%, and now I can't use the content I buy the way I want because it's locked. I know that may not be much of a problem for some GMs, but I almost always change things to pre-made modules before running them. It's a hassle to have to make the changes every time you run the module with a new campaign, but it is even more of a hassle when you can't alter the maps. I use a specific format (50 px squares, custom tokens with borders, no scaling) for my battlemaps and at least one of the maps in each module has had to have some work done on it due to things like secret doors still being shown.

Just seems easier to buy the pdf and construct the FG mod file myself than beat my head against the wall trying to improve the resources provided.

[ddavison]

Wherever possible, we try to make the maps 50px per square and we try to edit out the secret content where we see it as well. The average user won't be unzipping the module, editing it and repackaging it. On the positive side, we've picked up a lot of new publishers as a result of being able to encrypt content. FGG was one specifically that we couldn't sign until we were able to secure the content.