Monster Conversion Tool

[cnygamer]

I attached a program for managing monsters.
https://geocities.com/freniajj/fgconvert.jpg

This allows you to open and modify monsters.xml from FG1 or db.xml from FG2 and save them in either format.

Notes:
** Backup anything you work on; just so you can always revert back if you want to
** Requires a Windows operating system and .NET 2.0 runtime from Microsoft

Quick directions:
Download the program and extract to a folder (anywhere you like)
Click the monsters button
Select the File menu and open (currently supports FG1 and FG2 xml files, the module option doesn't work yet)
Make any changes you want
Select the File Menu and save to save in either format. (If you are saving to FG2 format, you'll still need to add the db.xml file with definition.xml and thumbnail.png into a zip file and rename into your <ruleset>monsters.mod for it to work in FG2 - I plan to have it auto make the module file soon)

Let me know if you have any problems.
Joe

[cnygamer]

Also, I'm open to suggestions on what to work on next if people find this useful.

[sloejack]

What irony, I wrote a script to do this very thing (convert 1.05 to 2.x format) this morning. Though yours is prettier. :)

[cnygamer]

LOL, well I had entered in Monster Manual II and Monster Manual III into FG1, so a conversion for me was essential. As I dug into it, I thought I might as well take the next step and allow modification of it. I'm working on parsing and making the module directly from the program now.

[sloejack]

LOL, well I had entered in Monster Manual II and Monster Manual III into FG1, so a conversion for me was essential. As I dug into it, I thought I might as well take the next step and allow modification of it. I'm working on parsing and making the module directly from the program now.
For what I was doing I just took the d20monster.mod file, ripped out the stuff between the <entries> </entries> tags in db.xml and pasted my converted material in. Changed the thumbnail.png and the name of the module (in the definition.xml and in the db.xml) and that was it.

I also wrote a excel tool awhile back for creating monster entries from a spreadsheet to make creation of the xml a bit easier. The thing I couldn't solve in the time I wanted to spend on it was how to cut and paste the raw text, parse it and then format it all in excel. I ended up writing a perl script to parse it and put it into csv format and then having my excel tool mangle it into the proper format. Since then (and for my current tool) I just cut excel out of the picture and do it all from perl. I lose the nice gui piece but I'm a command line guy so that's ok.

[cnygamer]

I lose the nice gui piece but I'm a command line guy so that's ok.

Whatever gets the job done :)

[richvalle]

So, using this I could open up the monsters.xlm from FG1 and then save it as FG2 xml and all the critters would be there?

If so that is awsome and thank you very much!

rv

[cnygamer]

Not in that few steps.

Step 1 is create a new ruleset for FG2
For me that meant copying d20 from \Fantasy Grounds II\pexamples\rulesets\ into the \Fantasy Grounds II\rulesets folder and name it what you want, in my case I called it dnd35

Step 2 copy the modules
Copy all 4 modules in \Fantasy Grounds II\modules into the same folder and rename them to your ruleset. In my case I had dnd35basicrules.mod; dnd35magicitems.mod; dnd35monsters.mod; and dnd35spells.mod

Step 3 extract dnd35monsters.mod
rename dnd35monsters.mod to dnd35monsters.zip and extract all of the files into a folder.

Step 4 using my tool open monsters.xml from FG1

Step 5 using my tool save your monsters in FG2 format into the folder you extracted to in Step 3 (it will replace db.xml)

Step 6 modify definition.xml to have your ruleset name in there

Step 7 zip up the 3 files (db.xml, definition.xml, and thumbnail.png) and name dnd35monsters.mod

Step 8 put this file into your modules folder

Step 9 Run FG2 creating a new campaign with you new ruleset; all your FG1 monsters should be there

[richvalle]

What might be nice is to somehow do a 'diff' between the fg1 file and fg2 file and then create a NEW file with the difference. Then we could turn that new file into a mod and use it in the fg2 d20 ruleset.

I think...

rv

[cnygamer]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you can't modify the d20 ruleset. I do have another version of the program that opens and saves .mod files. I'll attach it here.

[richvalle]

You can't change the d20 ruleset but you CAN add mods to it. I think this is one of the great things about mods.

For example I need a Black Dragon for my game last night. I created a mod (well, used one that someone else created for me as mine wasn't working) and put the Black Dragon info inside of it. Then I activate that mod and now I can access the critter.

So, my idea above would allow us to create a new mod with all the monsters we had in FG1 and activate them in FG2.

I've not had a chance to play with your tool yet... but thanks for sharing!

rv

[bonzai95]

CNYGamer - Does this allow you to add new monsters as well? Any chance I can get the source code for that tool?

bonzai