Possible to update an already exported module?

[merkvah]

Hey, everyone. =) I'm working on creating a module of a one-shot that I found. I went through and copied the PDF into story boards, added maps, pre-placed encounters, all of that. I finished the module and exported it (Wolves of Welton, from DM's Guild, I'll be happy to share it if anyone wants, it was free on DM's Guild).

After I got the module exported, I got to thinking that it would be pretty great to include pre-genned characters with the module also. I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was possible to export to already created modules if I use the same file name... that is, I could create the characters, then export them to the same file, and they would simply add onto the old module, rather than overwriting it... is that right? Or am I making things up?

Am I missing something? Is there a website you can direct me to which explains this better? I very much appreciate your time and attention. Many thanks!

[darrenan]

If you do another export from the same campaign where you initially created the module it will overwrite the previous export. If you didn't keep the campaign around however, I believe you can do the following:

0. Make a backup copy of the current module, as you'll be overwriting it in step 6 below.
1. Create a new campaign.
2. Load the original module in this campaign.
3. Make copies of all the records in the module via drag/drop. For example, if you just start dragging a story entry, move it a little, then drop it a copy of that story entry will be made and the new copy will not be in any current category.
4. Once you've copied all the entries from the module, you can unload the module.
5. Add your pre-gens.
6. Export from this new campaign to the same file name as the existing module.

That's a lot of work, so I hope you saved the original campaign.

Another alternative, if you're comfortable editing XML directly is to create a new campaign, add the pregens and then export those pregens to a different module. Open the module in your favorite ZIP file program (7-zip or whatever), open the db.xml in an editor, find the pregens in the XML and copy and paste them into the db.xml of the original module.

[merkvah]

Thank you! I made a couple of copies of the module just in case something like this happened. =) So I'll do as you suggest. Thanks for your help!

[LordEntrails]

See the Adventure Module Creation link in my signature. It will help you prevent headaches. Next week I have plans to update it again to focus on FGU from it's current FGC focus, but it's still pretty much the same.