Making one's first 'module'...

[Zakarius]

After having made numerous changes to the default d20 ruleset and running my home-grown campaign now for 4 months, the first major plot is coming to an end. I'm planning on starting to flesh out more of the 'world' and already have 6 tabs of 'personalities' with anywhere from just a handful to 20. I hope to reorganize some of this information as well as city- or area-specific maps, background, etc. but have no idea where to begin in creating a new module. (I also just spent 30 min searching & scanning articles here and didn't find what I was looking for.) Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Also, if personalities/NPCs are embedded in a module, does this mean they're static?--(I think I came across this somewhere)

Finally, if any of you have a suggestion other than using modules to include massive amounts of well-categorized information, I'm all ears!

Thanks,
Zakarius

[Toadwart]

I've only done this on a small scale and found modules to have benefits and drawbacks. But I wouldn't want to try and live without em.

Setting up a module is pretty easy:
- Create a new campaign (using your ruleset).
- Enter all of the info (personaly/item/story). If you know your way around xml you could cut-n-paste this from your main campaign into the new campaign (it's all stored in the db.xml file in the campaign folder). Images are simply copied into the campaign folder as-per-usual.
- Now to export the module: while in your new campaign type something like the following into the chat window: /export mymodule description of my module
That would export your campaign into the modules folder with filename "mymodule.mod". You should now be able to start your main campaign and activate that module (will have the description "description of my module")


The main drawback of using modules is that they are static (though it's not immediately obvious that this is the case).
Once you have 'activated' a module you can add/edit the items but you are not actually changing the data in the module file. Any additions are actually kept as new items within your main campaign. So that, if you deactivate the module those new items are not lost (but neither are they kept within the module - also I think ? that changes, like changing the AC of a personality, are lost if you deactivate the module)

I use modules in a few ways:
a) isolating an adventure (usually all of the stuff related to a published module or an adventure arc) e.g. I have a module for The Forge of Fury with the maps, npcs, items and story entries related to that adventure.
I can then activate that module to run the games and after it's complete de-activate it to reduce clutter but still have it available to re-activate if I need to look up something or if the PCs re-visit that location
b) keepingtrack of treasure and NPCs. I have one module for 'generic' NPCs and another for 'coded items'
The NPCs module contains a set of pre-generated NPCs I can throw in at a moments notice (e.g. a wandering encounter with a travelling bard)
c) For 'generic' maps. Have a few forest/plain/mountain maps premade that are useful (and can be re-used) for random encounters.

For a) and b) I have to be careful to, after a session, manually apply any changes/additions made during the session into my module campaigns. Then I export the modules again, deactivate the modules in my main campaign, manually remove the additions and re-activate the modules.
Works ok if you are diligent about keeping them up-to-date.

other tips:
- dragging the /export command to the shortcut bar makes it easier to re-export a module later with the same name/description.
- I recommend using a particular tab color and/or icon for all of the tabs in a single module. I also label the tabs (type some text into the chat line and drag it over top of the tab) When you have multiple modules activated in your main campaign you get visual clues and pop-up tooltips to help locate the info from a particular module. also: adding additional tab colors/icons is quite easy - post again if you need more info on how to do this.
- I believe the user you log on as affects a (hidden) unique id used by FG to identify the tabs so it's best to always use the same username when exporting/re-exporting a module. However, I don't think it's a big deal if you use a different name, just might end up with lots of duplicated tabs in your main campaign - but they can simply be deleted (assuming they are empty ; )

[Zakarius]

First of all, my thanks to Toadwart for the excellent response.

Now I have to wonder, however, whether or not some of you might have some other suggestions for organizing the information in my game. To give you an idea of what I'm working with:

my 'world' has 13 major towns/cities and will eventually (after much bottom-up building) each have:
a series of maps (esp. a large city map and some combat-able zoom-ins)
a large list of people like political figures, the militia, shopkeepers, etc.
background information on the history, political camps, etc.

So what's the best way to have all of these different kinds of information at my fingertips and still be able to make on-the-fly alterations as the need arises?

Zakarius

[unimatrixzero]

my thought would be to use the maps and then use the shortcut pins to zoom into towns/locations. On the jpeg/tga of the map you could have a table that reads 'personalities', 'items'...etc and then set up shortcut pins over these which then lead to your lists of characters and items etc.....kinda like navigating through folders in Windows.. These could be set up for each major town.
regards
Uni

[Griogre]

The way I do it is I have a "Main" campaign which pretty much has only the PCs and their stuff in it. I make modules for each adventure and location. This way when the party goes somewhere I just load the module where they are going. Also like Toadwart, I have modules that have just generic outdoor, indoor and building maps for encounters.

As Toadwart mentioned it is important to realize that module data is static. If the if you need to change something then create a new storybook entry in the campaign and add it to the module later. Also the tip on different colors for modules is a good one. I do that also so you can see at a glance what the tab belongs to.

[Zakarius]

Great. Thanks to unimatrixzero and Griogre -- I'll give your ideas a try ;)

Zakarius

[whitewyrm1]

All this sounds great. The program does not like to cut and paste. I would like to be able to make the rulebook like in the modules folder. The program has 4 modules all of which are books. I cannot get those to show on the module activation screen in my ruleset/campaign. I copied the entire d20 ruleset in the ruleset folder and named the folder. I then noticed that the default Dinor camnpaign has a modulestate.xml. I tried copying that into my campaign but to no avail. when the campaign loads it clears the data from the file. How do I get modules created from xml files and zipped to show on the activation screen.

[Foen]

Each module has a definition.xml file that links it to the ruleset, so if you renamed the d20 ruleset you will need to edit the definition file for the module to be visible. The ruleset name and folder names are case-sensitive.

The module is activated from the module icon (looks like a book in the top right-hand corner of the screen). A module is opened from this screen by dragging its own brown book to the left. You should then be able to access the module contents from the library icon (stack of books and papers, middle right).

Hope that helps, but if not give me a shout and I'd be happy to be more explicit about the steps.

Cheers

Stuart
(Foen)