making a spellbook

[Doombringer]

What is the best way to make a spellbook similar to the one found in the basic rules modules? By best in this case I mean relatively easy. I have made a massive text document of various spells culled from closed material that is used in my games, mostly wizards stuff, and so unfortunately I can't distribute. I'd like this to be available in game to my players, is there a relatively easy and fast way to do this? I am not even sure in what format the program formats the spells to begin with.

[Griogre]

If you have a massive document there really is no easy way. It is pretty trival to add a few spells but if you want to add a massive number of spells it is going to be work because you need to add each spell in a specific input format.

My experience is that only a handful of spells are actually used of any level of spells and a few more are used as "scroll" spells. Because typically so few spells are actually used it is likely you will spend far more time typing spells in than they will ever be used. I would suggest you just input the ones your guys use or save yourself the effort and tell them to get the book.

Here is something I wrote a week or so ago about adding spells to the existing book. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showpost.php?p=53834&postcount=10
The way I talked about here works best if you only want to add a few spells. If you want to add more than about 20 I would put them in a seperate book by themselves.

[Foen]

When I'm dealing with large data collections for modules (such as weapon lists, skill lists and spell lists) I'm afraid I use a spreadsheet to hold the data with a column for each attribute (name, description, realm etc).

I then create the XML using a spreadsheet formula and can apply it to the whole list more easily. The XML is then copied and pasted into the module.

Just a thought

Stuart

[ldyparadox99]

No, there really isn't any easy way.

The ruleset I use, while d20, does not use the standard 3.5 spells so I've been having to enter them. I don't know if this is an option you want to consider, but in order to not drive myself batty from entering the whole spell book, I enter the spells as the characters level.

Also, if you have the spells stored in a word document, cutting and pasting the description helps ease the load.

[Doombringer]

When I'm dealing with large data collections for modules (such as weapon lists, skill lists and spell lists) I'm afraid I use a spreadsheet to hold the data with a column for each attribute (name, description, realm etc).

I then create the XML using a spreadsheet formula and can apply it to the whole list more easily. The XML is then copied and pasted into the module.

Just a thought

Stuart

This sounds like it might work out well for what I need to do, if I do input all the spells. The suggestion that I only do as much work as I absolutely have to do keeps coming up though, so maybe entering only those actually used right now would be best.

Could I ask if you would consider posting this spreadsheet, or a copy that only has the formula macros so I can see how it is done?

[Oberoten]

In my Arm ruleset for FG1 ... I made something a bit odd. I added in an Anvil for adding new weapon-data on the fly. When pleased with how it all looked you could just pull the db.xml and copy-paste it into the equipment file at the proper place.

It should be simple enough to do something similiar in FG2 I assume?

[Foen]

I've attached a sample spreadsheet (zipped). I assume folks know how to create module files and the structure of the xml, but here are some specific comments on the spreadsheet:


In most instances, the formulae use the column header as the node name. I just found that easy and makes the formulae similar (and therefore easy to copy from column to column).
The formulae have the node type (string, number, formattedtext etc) hard coded. Once you have one string node though, you can copy its formula to other columns that represent string fields. The sample file has formulae for strings, numbers and formatted text.
The first column has a different formula, which changes the node name for each line of data. This is used for lists of entries in FG, and the node name itself determines the order in which these items are displayed.
For string and formattedtext fields, I replace any ampersands in the source with the correct xml attribute. This saves a bit of aggro.
For formattedtext fields, I wrap the column data in paragraph tags. FG doesn't seem to like formatted text fields without containing tags, and it means that typing the raw data into the body of the spreadsheet is a bit easier.
To use the xml, copy the final result from column H (in this example) and paste it into your module.


The spreadsheet doesn't do the work for you, but it saves a lot of time when you are playing around with the wording, fields etc. It also allows you to share the module creation work with someone who doesn't know xml (give them a spreadsheet template to fill in, then add the formulae afterwards).

Cheers

Stuart

[cougar0930]

What is the best way to make a spellbook similar to the one found in the basic rules modules? By best in this case I mean relatively easy. I have made a massive text document of various spells culled from closed material that is used in my games, mostly wizards stuff, and so unfortunately I can't distribute. I'd like this to be available in game to my players, is there a relatively easy and fast way to do this? I am not even sure in what format the program formats the spells to begin with.

check out Zane's tutorial on rulesets. near the end of his tutorial he talks about doing a mail merge for creating secondary reference nodes. he basically creates a spreadsheet (using excel) with the columns being the node name and data entered below. from there he does the mail merge option from microsoft word to help create the document that he needs. the address to checkout his thread is https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4493 hope this helps.

[Doombringer]

Foen/Stuart you are awesome! Many, many heartfelt thanks for your help. I'll starting working with it today.

[Doombringer]

check out Zane's tutorial on rulesets. near the end of his tutorial he talks about doing a mail merge for creating secondary reference nodes. he basically creates a spreadsheet (using excel) with the columns being the node name and data entered below. from there he does the mail merge option from microsoft word to help create the document that he needs. the address to checkout his thread is https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4493 hope this helps.

I looked at his advice in the past, and then realized it was for FG1. I stopped working with it, but I will give it a second look.

[Griogre]

Most of Zane's Tutorial specific references are obsolete for FG2, but the advice on mail merge is still golden. It's in the section about “Secondary References” starting about page 23. The monster xml is a little different in FG2 now but from an understanding point of view good enough. On page 25ish he writes a section called "Creating Secondary References Nodes with Mail Merge" this section explains how to use word & excel to generate xml for things like spells, monsters and equipment. You would still have to cut and paste into excel which will be the time consuming part.

Where you could really make things easy on yourself was *if* your data is already structured such that you could get it in to excel in a fashion where you could mail merge it without having to modify the data.

Foen's spreadsheet does the same thing without the mail merge through the use of formulas and might be a simpler option if you don't have word and mail merge.

[Sacman]

I am entering the entire Monsternomicon from Iron Kingdoms and since it is not found anywhere already in a text format, I am having to enter everything by hand.

I use the Excel method using formulas to finish out the xml format. It is time consuming but not nearly as bad as if I tried to enter it directly into the xml file.