Compatibility between rulesets when creating story entires.

[Varsuuk]

I originally started using Parse simply because I liked the idea of a "master" prescanned ready to go version of a pdf. This way, if I wanted to make changes, I could find it easier there then looking through the UI. But another aspect was so I could use the same source to create an additional version for a different ruleset without needing to type all the text again.

I recently mistakenly entered things in 5e then the next day, extracted the story sections from the 5e xml and inserted it into c&c xml. All worked fine.

Can we always count on this for all CoreRPG at least rulesets? Meaning, of course any special stuff like tables or npcs / encounters may not be compatible, but could one systems' story xml be used to load into another rulesets campaign as the starting point then we could edit it to remove/add encounters and other system specific. stuff? Or would it need (like mine was) to be free of system specific stuff before it. an even be opened for editing in another ruleset?

[Zacchaeus]

I think story entries are compatible across all core (and maybe more) rulesets. I think tables might also be. Encounters, NPCs etc are unlikely to be compatible.

[vodokar]

My experiences have been that all text and formatted text entered in either reference manual mode or story mode are compatible across rulesets. Without going into details, as Zacchaeus was hinting at, there are some other assets that are also cross compatible. Generally the encounters and npcs are where the rulesets are different. For what it's worth, I've been doing a lot of work in this area with cross-compatibility of assets with regards to module making for multiple rulesets, so I have a pretty good feel of that pulse.

[Varsuuk]

Cool, my intent is to do what I did with N1, Reptile... Enter the data under my intended ruleset leaving monsters, treasures, encounters in plain copied from pdf text in stories as my CampaignName_Base campaign directory. Then I copy to the real CampaignName directory to put in the encounters as well as modify treasure etc to either ruleset values or my own customizations.

So if I did this for C&C and later decide to put it in 5e, I could copy at min the _Base dir. Thing wanted to know is if as I worked on the "real" C&C one and did edits that would want in "base" (maybe story formatting), I'd have to migrate back.
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Was wondering, If instead - I built it using C&C complete with encounters etc, If I could use THAT as the start point for (e.g.) 5e by copying the "story" part of the XML and then replacing links in story with encounters prepared in 5e ruleset. Basically, would the "story" part of the original campaign get too C&C-ified once I added encounters and could not copy just the story part of the XML to the new ruleset.


I'm probably not speaking on this well. So maybe nutshell of goal is better for pros to suggest how they'd do it.


I want to enter the story of the module once for intended system. Then, would like to use that version in another ruleset - expecting only story to transfer - what would be the easiest way to achieve that?

I expect I cannot copy entire dir (editing ruleset) and open it in other ruleset then remove offending parts because I'm pretty sure offenders would prevent loading? Because that would be easiest since not haven to text edit, could FG GUI edit.

But if not, then best steps on xml parts to copy, not copy, have to copy, etc to do the move over of story screens.


THANKS!

[Moon Wizard]

Generally, if you are using CoreRPG, we try to use the same record format, where it makes sense.

Most likely to be compatible
Stories, Story Templates, Images/Maps, Notes, Tables

Mostly compatible, but some differences
Quests, Encounters, Random Encounters, Parcels

Definitely NOT compatible
PCs, NPCs, Items, PC creation records (class, race, feat, skill, spell, power, talent, etc.)

Cheers,
JPG

[vodokar]

Actually, my experience has been that items not compatible may throw an error, or simply not load at all, it doesn't prevent you from opening up the module in the new ruleset. So, the best approach really is to just open the module, see what didn't appear or had errors and fix those things. Usually, there isn't that much to fix.

As stated before, definitely expect issues with npc's. To a lesser extent, encounters, but that tends to be a very simple xml edit to get them to display. I haven't really encountered issues with items or parcels, though I haven't tried bringing item records into all the rulesets out there. Virtually everything else comes over without incident.

My advice to you, if you haven't tried it yet, is to use Savage Worlds as your module development environment and use Ikael's Enhanced Library extension and the NPC Maker extensions I developed to assist with the issues with the npc generation issues. That's why I built them.

[Varsuuk]

I'll go check the NPC things over there.

I've downloaded and installed Ikael's Ref extension but never used it. While I bought the Savage ruleset along wth several adventures, I haven't looked at much of it yet (played in FG Con one though, fun times)

I saw that NPC Maker things in your sig but no link and it didn't SOUND like something I'd care about (a random NPC generator, you know "traits" etc) but looks like was wrong.

I'll check it out, since it is for C&C that I am building initial adventures, I will prob be able to use your Old School ones since you built on that ruleset.


But ya, I plan on adding the non-combat things AFTER my adventure conversions are "gold" but we all know we end up going back and modifying the finished product (which by this point has all the C&C specific parts in it that I will want to remove)

Grassy-mule
Vars

[vodokar]

Just to be clear, while I designed my tools to work alongside Ikael's, maximizing its usefulness and easing the npc entanglement issues between rulesets, use of his tool isn't actually required in order to find use with mine. I don't actually interact directly with his tool nor was it any type of hack on his work. What I do is simply alter the npc sheet in the SW ruleset to enable outputting npc's in the proper format to be read by the destination ruleset.

In the case of the Old School NPC Maker extension, you can make all your npc's once, in one place, and output them in an xml format that will be able to be read properly by C&C, AD&D, Basic Fantasy and DCC RPG. S&W and Damned Basic Dungeon support is coming in the future.

The New School extensions deal with 5e and 3.5/Pathfinder separately, because they have too many differences from the old school rulesets and also from each other. However, if you were to want to do, let's say, a 5e version of a module also, that you created initially for C&C, you would simply copy the campaign, delete all of the npc and encounter records, reload the ruleset with the appropriate extension enabled and then start rebuilding the npc's and encounters and link them into your module again.

[damned]

reference manuals often use some ruleset specific frames for the different block types.
many are built into corerpg but there are some others that are either missing from other rulesets or vary between rulesets.

[vodokar]

That is good to know. Haven't encountered that yet, but I haven't had much reason to use frames in my work.