Help with creating Module

[irish_carbomb]

Alrighty. Not sure what the heck i'm doing wrong here but it is frustrating the crap out of me.

I have created a new module using Par5e that takes place after Lost Mine of Phandelver and guides the Players to a new adventure. I only use Par5s for the main story, and to setup initial links for table of contents and such. The Par5e worked fine, and the story and such is in FG. Now in FG I want to create more links, and encounters, and push pin on maps etc.. So I do some editing in FG. I then go to export it, and I get a .mod file that is 1k and will not load.

So trial 2.. I start a fresh campaign and just create a couple story entries, and a couple of other items. I then export the info to a mod, and it works. However when I come back into FG and load my newly created .mod I get duplicates of everything.

Trial 2.5.. I delete my campaign, created a new one and load my .mod and everything looks ok. So I continue editing and adding info to my story. I do another export, and BOOM i'm back to a 1k file that will not load, or only the newest entries show up when i come back into FG. But only newly created entries, not existing ones that I edited or added to.

I've been working on this for like 6 hours now, and I'm right back where I started.. I've watched about 5 videos and I don't see what I'm doing wrong.

Here is a pic of the duplicates, as seen in the images & maps window. It's the same in every other window that has entries.
Also a pic of how i'm exporting

17272

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Thank
Irish

[damned]

1. When you create some content and export it as a mod only teh stuff that is NEW gets exported. So if you are adding stuff to a map that was in another module you are exporting the stuff and not the map. It should load but if you dont have the original module with the map in it the module will be pretty useless.
2. You create some content and export it. You open the mod. The content is duplicated. That is because you have added the mod containing the content to the campaign that contains the content so you do in fact have duplicates.
3. Is the same as 1. You have exported only the changes and not the original data.

What you should do is...
1. Use Par5e for reference material and not for modules (opinion/subjective).
2. setup a blank campaign for making your module from.
3. Add all campaign content to this module.
4. Export it.
5. Open a new or existing campaign - just not the one above - and open the new module in it - it should be available for playing.
6. You want to make some edits? go back and edit the original campaign and re-export the module again.

[Zacchaeus]

Here's another method

1) Use par5e to create the story (which you've already done)
2) Start a new campaign and open the module you created
3) Copy all of the story entries by dragging and dropping back down into the campaign story window (In other words create an entire duplicate of the module you created)
4) Close the original module
5) Now create your maps, encounters, npcs or whatever
6) Export the module.
7) If you want to make changes in the future go back to this campaign - make the changes - and re-export the module.

As damned says only material from the campaign gets exported so you can't export the original module again unless you make a copy of it.

[Trenloe]

Yep, what the people say above.

Expanding on what damned says: always test your exported module in a new campaign - not the one you created the module from. Tt will be confusing and you'll see duplicates of the data if you open the module in the campaign you created it from.

[LordEntrails]

This does address the Par5e aspects, but you can find more info on module creation best practices here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33538-Adventure-Module-Creation-Best-Practices

[irish_carbomb]

Wow thanks guys. You are a great resource on this board, and I really appreciate it..

I am going to try these suggestions right now and see how it goes.

Once again thanks a ton..

Irish

[irish_carbomb]

Ok so here is what I have done.

1. I deleted all Campaign and .mod files related to my project.
2. Re-Par5ed my project
3. Created a new Campaign
4. Opened my newly Par5ed .mod in my new Campaign
5. Opened the Story window and drug down on all Story Entries making copies of all of them
6. Created a new group in the Story Window and drug all my copied Entries (I assume they are the ones without little books next to them on the right)
7. Closed the Original Par5ed .mod file
---- 7.1. First problem I see is that all my links in my Story Entries are broken. When I go to click on them I see in the chat box "Could not open sheet with data from unloaded module." Not a big deal I can delete the links and recreate them.
---- 7.2. Second problem I see is that none of my Images & Maps are available. So I duplicated step 5, 6, and 7 to duplicate those.
-------- 7.2.1 Problem I see by doing step 7.2 is that when I open my images they show up as Grey Squares, no actual Image.
---- 7.3. Deleted all images that I had copied in 7.2. and clicked on the folder button and copied images over.
8. Set all my pins on a map for one town
9. Created an encounter, put the Pogs on the map, then linked the Encounter to the into the Story Entree
10. Exported the Module, selecting the Encounters, Images & Maps, NPC's, and Story data.
11. After Export, closed FG, re-opened it and created a new Test Campaign. Opened my new .mod and it seems to work perfectly.

Question about making edits. So I have re-opened the original Campaign, and made edits, and added to my Module. Before I export, do I want the original Module loaded or not. Because I recal doing this before and it duplicated all sorts of stuff..

[Trenloe]

As I mentioned above, do not open your module in the original "module making" campaign. It won't make any difference to the exported dadta, but will just cause you confusion with duplicated entries and links that seem to work but might not work in the exported module. Have it open only once when you're dragging/dropping stuff from the original PAR5E module, then close it.

[Zacchaeus]

To answer your last question first, no. See what Trenloe says above. (when I say above I mean above above since he's ninja'd me again whilst I was typing :))

Yes, any story links that you create in par5e will break becasue essentially you are creating a new module. There is a way around this if you are willing to get your hands dirty with XML; but the easiest solution for you is probably to create the links in the campaign and not in par5e.

You are also correct in that you need to duplicate everything that you par5ed before export. Generally I will only do Story and NPCs in Par5e and everything else in FG - although it is very possible to create an entire module in par5e

[irish_carbomb]

Ha got it.. Thank you all so much for the help.. You guys are some of the nicest and most helpful people I have every had the pleasure of chatting with on Forums..

My confusion was

Modules
#1 - Created by Par5e, and only used originally to bring the story elements into FG. Never used again..
#2 - First Export of my module from FG

So I was just making sure that I didn't want #2 open when I re-export after adding to my adventure.

Thanks again all. And I"m sure my players thank you also.

Irish

[Waldbaer]

Hi guys - i have nothing to do with this thread; but I honestly enjoy seeing you to solve such issues as fast as you do.
I appreciate that response time...which actually cannot get better...

So, I just would like to say go on with the great work and I have nothing further to add :)

Waldbaer

[damned]

Ha got it.. Thank you all so much for the help.. You guys are some of the nicest and most helpful people I have every had the pleasure of chatting with on Forums..

My confusion was

Modules
#1 - Created by Par5e, and only used originally to bring the story elements into FG. Never used again..
#2 - First Export of my module from FG

So I was just making sure that I didn't want #2 open when I re-export after adding to my adventure.

Thanks again all. And I"m sure my players thank you also.

Irish

I know Zacchaeus does do the story in Par5e and then edits further but most people dont for adventures. They work entirely from the FG client (maybe a tiny bit of post editing in xml). For someone without Z's experience and practise (he has done a lot of this stuff) Id do it all in FG and it will be simpler for you to follow the process... Just my 2c worth of thoughts. If you have already got the process down then continue as you are :)