Can I keep Personality tokens through /export?

[Xorn]

I'm sorry for not spending longer searching, I'm at work on break and almost out of time!

I've exported my 4E Raiders of Oakhurst fan playtest adventure to a module, which I've done plenty of times. But I've never figured out if there was any way to make the tokens I assign to personalities in the module persistent. I always have had to reassign them every time I open the module in a different campaign. Is there any way to save the token assignments through the /export?

[Astinus]

Apparently not. They don't stick. I use modules all the time so if someone knows something I don't, I hope they come along and share it. But I'm pretty sure it's a no go.

[joshuha]

Hmm strange. When creating a sandbox campaign, creating some new personalities, and then exporting them the tokens did stick for me.

If you are talking about AFTER something is already in a module then it won't stick (like the default d20 monsters module). Once something is in a module it can be edited that session but the module itself is read only.

[Foen]

There is an issue with export-generated paths for tokens. I usually have to edit the database xml file manually, to fix up the broken token references.

For example in my Withered Lands adventure module, I have an NPC called Darshi and she has a token (called DarshiToken.png). The NPC sheet has the token attached, and both the NPC and token are exported.

The export process creates a reference to campaign/tokens/DarshiToken.png, but it should be a reference to tokens/DarshiToken.png@WL1. That is, it links to the non-existent token in the campaign directory instead of to the exported instance in the module.

If the xml is edited after exporting, the token appears as it should on the NPC sheet.

Stuart

[Xorn]

I made campaign (my 4E raiders of oakhurst campaign) which I've been running the 4E playtests. I decided to put the characters into a sandbox campaign, and make the adventure a module (since I'm now making two more adventures). I copied the campaign folder, renamed one "4E Playtests" and deleted everything out of it but the characters, and one story/map/personality/item. Saved it, closed it.

Then I opened up the Adventure campaign, deleted the characters out of it, made sure tokens were assigned to each Personality (all my 4E monsters are personalities) and /exported it. I sent everything to export as Host, and put in the tokens at the bottom (I only use 4 "iconic" tokens) and it exported successfully.

Open up the 4E Playtests module, and my Story/Map/Personality/Item entries are all there, as expected. Open up a Personality, and there's not token attached to it. The only thing changed on my ruleset is that player portraits drag over to make 128 pixel tokens. (Changed those 4 files in the Icons folder). I have to attach the tokens to the personality each time I open the campaign at use the module. It's not a huge deal, as I can put a token there and it works for the whole game, but still a little annoying.

[Griogre]

Instead of editing the paths to make the tokens stick you can also use tokens out of your tokens/host or tokens/shared. That's what I do. It makes it less portable but if you are the one using it that is not important.

[Xorn]

Foen replied at the same time as me. So if I were to put all my tokens in the main campaign folder (same filenames) it should work just fine, without modifying the .xml, right?

[Foen]

I haven't tried using references to campaign or shared tokens, as I wanted the module to be self-contained. But it should work given the experience I've had.

Stuart

[Griogre]

That won't work I don't think. You need the referance to the module. The @WL1 in Foen's example. The easy way is just to drop the tokens into a folder in your host folder and link the personalities with tokens from your token box instead of dragging them onto the export window. This host (or shared) folder works because the path is the same to either a module or a campaign.

As Foen says though this is not a real good way to do this for a module that is suppose to be self contained.

[joshuha]

Instead of editing the paths to make the tokens stick you can also use tokens out of your tokens/host or tokens/shared. That's what I do. It makes it less portable but if you are the one using it that is not important.

This is what I was doing. Also, rulesets have token folders that for non-d20 ruleset ones should work as well.

[Xorn]

Yup, this worked. Instead of including the tokens in the /export, I just copied them into the campaign's \tokens\host folder. When I fired up the campaign and then opened the module personalities the tokens were assigned already. Since the tokens are buried in the host folder, it's not a big deal, and if I wanted to share this module with someone, I would just include the tokens used in a .zip file.

Since we're on the topic, here's my next question--when I close down a campaign with maps I'm using out of a module, the masks and tokens placed on the map are not persistent. So if I don't finish with the adventure, I have to make a new mask when I restart the game up.

[Foen]

That is well documented, and I don't know of a fix. Two quoted work-arounds are either to copy the map you want to use to your campaign folder then delete it when finished, or to take a screen shot at the end of each game and recreate the setting before the next session.

Stuart

[Griogre]

The error is similar to the tokens - the path to masks and images is screwed up in the db campaign file. The image data is actually saved so you will have an ever growing number of files in the maskedimages and drawing folders of your campaign.

Stuart's advice is good. If I know the party won't finish a map I usually put a copy into the campaign folder and use that map for masking, drawing ect. Once they finish I just delete it out of the folder. I don't always bother for simple maps.