5e Asset Templates

[Nickademus]

For those that do not find PAR5E to their liking, here is another approach to creating custom assets that interact with the automation of the 5e ruleset. Below is a module of templates for races, classes, background, skills, feats, equipment, spells, npcs, and a reference manual based on the design that I use. Simply make a copy of the module, open it up, and edit the various files and follow the directions that appear in the comments. Then save and repack the module to have a finished product ready for FG.

I recommend Notepad++ for editing the xml files as it colors the sections (making it easier to see the commented directions) and allows you to collapse sections with Alt+# hotkeys. This makes it much easier to navigate the file and duplicate desired portions of code.

Disclaimer: I'm still testing some of these templates. The class and race have been thoroughly used in the UA module, but some of the others may have errors. Just let me know here and I'll fix them.

19090

[Gwydion]

For those that do not find PAR5E to their liking, here is another approach to creating custom assets that interact with the automation of the 5e ruleset. Below is a module of templates for races, classes, background, skills, feats, equipment, spells, npcs, and a reference manual based on the design that I use. Simply make a copy of the module, open it up, and edit the various files and follow the directions that appear in the comments. Then save and repack the module to have a finished product ready for FG.

I recommend Notepad++ for editing the xml files as it colors the sections (making it easier to see the commented directions) and allows you to collapse sections with Alt+# hotkeys. This makes it much easier to navigate the file and duplicate desired portions of code.

Disclaimer: I'm still testing some of these templates. The class and race have been thoroughly used in the UA module, but some of the others may have errors. Just let me know here and I'll fix them.

17456

Awesome! Thanks so much for doing this.

[LordEntrails]

Nice share :)

[JohnD]

Nice. Thanks for sharing.

[Thegroo]

Thanks for all that work

[Mavrik6666]

Hi Nickademus - my Par5e skills are poor, basic adding of stuff, so can see the benefit.. I'm just struggling in the execution

When you say 'open it up' - do you mean in FG and edit all the references in there ? or do you mean open it in Notepad (the .mod file) and edit it there ? - as I cant seem to edit a .mod in Notepad++

Mav

[Zacchaeus]

Mavrik. You'll need to change the .mod on the file to .zip and then unzip the file. You will then be able to see the XML file that can be opened in notepad or any other text editer.

[maugrim8866]

Very Nice!!
Thank you for sharing this

[Nickademus]

Hi Nickademus - my Par5e skills are poor, basic adding of stuff, so can see the benefit.. I'm just struggling in the execution

When you say 'open it up' - do you mean in FG and edit all the references in there ? or do you mean open it in Notepad (the .mod file) and edit it there ?
People have different methods of opening module and extension files, so I tend to just leave the directions as a vague 'open it'. Some programs, like the one I use, just treat it as a folder and show the contents without unpacking the file. So your mileage may vary.


Mavrik. You'll need to change the .mod on the file to .zip and then unzip the file. You will then be able to see the XML file that can be opened in notepad or any other text editer.
Thank you for explaining this.

[inawkwardscience]

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for.

[Nickademus]

No problem. Glad my work is helping others.

[Nickademus]

Updated to include the code for copying pregens in. This is only the library code and a place in the reference to hold the pregens. It is best to make the characters as PCs in a normal campaign, open the db.xml file, and then copy the code between the <id-0000#> and </id-0000#> elements in the <charsheet> section.

[rob2e]

Sweet.

[Myrdin Potter]

I am not even sure where I am supposed to begin with this.

I wanted to try and make a reference manual of this:

https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SA-Compendium.pdf

As a test to learn it.

I opened up your .mod and there is everything there to make a module in 5e. But I have little interest in marking up in XML what I can do quickly in game using the in game tools. It would be a nightmare for me to create an NPC in XML.

All I want to do is make a reference manual to display pages on the screen better so you can read more naturally than endless story entries spamming all over the place.

So where do I start?

[rob2e]

^^^

[Talyn]

Even those of us who encourage learning XML to get the most out of your DLC use the in-game tools when possible. NPCs especially! That's just a ton of markup. Reference Manuals aren't bad really, and what I do for each page is just keep a "blank" copy of the required tags commented so I can copy/paste quickly then fill in what I need and move on.

I can try to help in Discord this week, after Tuesday... so can Matt and Chris and any of the other DLC Devs who hang out there.

[Nickademus]

There is content for a reference manual in the <library>, <lists> and <reference> section. If you look through the code, or preferably use Notepad++ and collapse the sections down, you will find the sections for the manual. They are very easy to find when using Notepad++ and hitting Alt+3. The <referencemanual> sections appear at or near the bottom of the list in both <reference> and <lists> and at the top of the list of <library> links.

[Myrdin Potter]

Ok, I will look. I opened it up in n++ but that is a new program for me a well.

Thanks, will try and find it.

[Myrdin Potter]

Found it and completely meaningless to me.

Will have to look at the wiki and your xml template and see how to use to paste text and do formatting. This is going to take a while.

[Nickademus]

Yeah, we need an in-FG UI for making and saving manuals.

[Myrdin Potter]

Or a template for N++ where you could select text and choose from a variety of formatting options.

I am sure once you do a few within XML it is more natural, but I am old enough to remember hand coding HTML and I hated that then and I feel the same trying to figure out what tags to use for a reference manual.

[Myrdin Potter]

I want to make sure I have the right section.

<referencemanual>
<!-- This section contains the heading tree that appears on the left side of the reference
manual window. Subchapters are required. -->
<chapters>
<!-- #Duplicate this section of code for each chapter in the manual -->
<xxChapter>
<name type="string">xxChapterName</name>
<subchapters>
<!-- #Duplicate this section of code for each subchapter in the chapter -->
<xxSubchapter>
<name type="string">xxSubchapterName</name>
<refpages>
<!-- #Duplicate this section of code for each page in the subchapter -->
<xxPage>
<listlink type="windowreference">
<class>reference_manualtextwide</class>
<recordname>reference.referencemanual.xxPage</recordname>
</listlink>
<name type="string">xxPageName</name>
<!-- #Place a list of keywords here to allow the page to be included
when users activate the manual filter -->
<keywords type="string">xxKeyword xxKeyword</keywords>
</xxPage>
</refpages>
</xxSubchapter>
</subchapters>
</xxChapter>
</chapters>
</referencemanual>

That is it? The entire "reference manual" section of the template?

[Zacchaeus]

That's just the section which produces the list of chapters/subchapters that you see in the library. The actual page structure is found further up between the <reference></reference> tags in the <referencemanual><referencemanual> tags

[Nickademus]

There are three sections that make up a reference manual. I highlighted them green in the image I posted previously.

[Myrdin Potter]

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?39953-Learning-by-doing-5e-Reference-manuals-in-XML

Started new thread as to not add too much in this one not related to the .mod

This as well, then:

<referencemanual>
<!-- #Duplicate this section of code for each page in the reference manual -->
<xxPage>
<name type="string">xxPageName</name>
<!-- #This text can be used as the only text of the page or as text preceding the list
of blocks -->
<text type="formattedtext">xxText</text>
<!-- The page of a reference manual consists of a sequence of blocks that are displayed
vertically. Each block can contain a mix of text, image, tokens, or icons, depending
on the type of block. You can place the blocks in any order you want. -->
<blocks>
<!-- #Duplicate the sections of code for each block you wish to add -->
<!-- Simple Text Block -->
<xxBlockName1>
<blocktype type="string">text</blocktype>
<text type="formattedtext"><p>xxText</p></text>
<!-- Possible frame styles: 'blue', 'brown', 'green', 'pink', 'picture', 'page',
'sidebar', 'text 1', 'text2', 'text3', 'text4', 'text5' -->
<frame type="string">xxFrame</frame>
</xxBlockName1>
<!-- Two-Column Text Block -->
<xxBlockName2>
<blocktype type="string">text</blocktype>
<align type="string">left,right</align>
<text type="formattedtext"><p>xxText</p></text>
<text2 type="formattedtext"><p>xxText</p></text2>
</xxBlockName2>
<!-- Image Block -->
<xxBlockName3>
<blocktype type="string">image</blocktype>
<size type="string">138,242</size>
<!-- #Images should be put into a folder called 'images' and placed inside the module;
change this entry to the name of the image file used -->
<image type="image"><bitmap>images/blackmage.jpg</bitmap></image>
<caption type="string">xxCaption</caption>
</xxBlockName3>
<!-- Text and Image Block -->
<xxBlockName4>
<blocktype type="string">image</blocktype>
<align type="string">left,right</align>
<size type="string">138,242</size>
<image type="image"><bitmap>images/blackmage.jpg</bitmap></image>
<caption type="string">xxCaption</caption>
<text type="formattedtext"><p>xxText</p></text>
</xxBlockName4>
<!-- Icon Block -->
<xxBlockName5>
<blocktype type="string">icon</blocktype>
<size type="string">xxWidth,xxHeight</size>
<icon type="string">xxIconName</icon>
</xxBlockName5>
</blocks>
</xxPage>
</referencemanual>

and I can make a file without all the extra and only copy it in if needed.

Ok, I will see if I can make one page of text and then start a new tread when I run into issues (which I know I will).