Exporting

[Belizan]

So, I was just looking at the in-client export options, but I can't seem to figure out how to export a category of assets. For instance, I have a myriad of personalities divided into a few categories, one of which we'll say for example is "Burk" representing the people of the village of Burk. Now, my group leaves Burk, I'd like to export all the Burk personalities and images, but leave the rest alone. How do I do this? Or is the system only constructionist based, not deconstructionist? Anyone know?

[Griogre]

FG is designed is designed more that when your player's enter Burk you load the Burk adventure/area module and when they leave Burk you unload the Burk Adventure module. So the idea is that in your "main" campaign you pretty much only keep the characters. For either locations or events you put them into indivitual campaigns, export them as modules and as you need the information activate/deactivate the modules. Should you need to make a change to Burk you would just load the Burk campaign and make the changes and then re-export. Some people use a "sandbox" campaign for all their module work. Personally, since campaign size tends to trival and I am a habitual tweaker - I just leave all the different campaigns so I can easily update my adventure modules.

In answer to your specific example of Burk being intermingled with your main campaign you can't selectively export just a part of the personalities list or storybook, ect. However, the fix to making a Burk module is pretty easy. All you need to do is make a copy of the campaign folder and call it Burk. Next just start the Burk campaign and delete anything from the Storybook, Personalities, Maps/Images and Items that is not from Burk. Don't bother deleting the PC characters - they don't export anyway. Once you have only the Burk items then type /export and fill out the form (ask if you need help with the form). You will have just made a module for Burk that you can now load and unload in your main campaign. Once you are sure the data in in the module is correct then just delete out the Burk stuff from the main campaign. Needless to say you really should make a backup copy of your original campaign and keep it safe until you are *sure* everything is working.

[Belizan]

Thank you for your detailed response, Griogre ;). It's a shame that FG doesn't allow deconstructionist exportation, as that would allow a much more organic approach to campaign creation. Your suggestion will work, of course. It just represents a lot more work, and something that one would only want to do "once". Personally, I tend to create a lot of my npcs, etc. on the fly, either as I realize such a person should exist, or as an otherwise unimportant personality apparently catches the interest of the players earning it a recuring spot. With such a pattern one is always adding new personalities, notes, story nodes and the like to one's campaign, necessitating frequent tedious copy and pruning to sort them out in the fashion you suggest. Nothing against your recommendation, just saying that I wish FG2 allowed for a less laborious solution.