Adventures: Easy access to skills, items and traits descriptions

Hello everyone.

I am currently using FG with the PF2 adventure "The Fall of Plaguestone". Unfortunately abilities of creatures or items are only described when explicitly written out, but there are no mouse-overs over those not written out. Here are some examples.

- Creature traits can be accessed by double-clicking on them. This is perfect.

- None of the skills are described, so if I need to look up how a certain skill works I need to look at the rulebook. Double-clicking on a skill opens a window for manual dice or just roles a dice.

- Random tables include items, but no description of said items. For example, there is a table of random alchemical bombs that two npcs take from a desk and throw at the party. But I don't know what these bombs do unless I look it up in the book.

- Weapon traits are listed in after weapons on the character sheet and in the attack section of the combat tracker, but again there is no way to access a description of said trait directly. The workaround is to open the character sheet, click on Other, click on Gear, open the window of the specific item/weapon and then double-click on its traits. By that point someone might already have found the page in a physical book.

- A special ability/cantrip of a NPC causes the "Enfeebled" condition. But there is no description of what said condition does.

Does any of this improve when the full FG PF2 rules are bought on top of the adventure?

The information is accessible within the Core Rules module - in the reference manual and the campaign data (accessible from the right side of the desktop) for skill and trait details, but you need to look these up manually (open the list and use the search facility).

There are plans to make reference data more easily available in the future - things like skill descriptions, conditions and such. You would need the Core Rules module to get details of these as they are contained in the Core Rules module, not the PFRPG2 ruleset framework.

Note that whereas adventures contain a lot of information, they don't reproduce most information that is available within the Core Rules DLC.

clicking on the dragon links on the skill tab of the character sheet brings up the CRB description for skills, although the link is not on the party sheet skills. These descriptions are much too long for mouseovers, they popup another window.

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Originally Posted by Trenloe

The information is accessible within the Core Rules module - in the reference manual and the campaign data (accessible from the right side of the desktop) for skill and trait details, but you need to look these up manually (open the list and use the search facility).

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This can be even less convenient than just looking things up in a PDF, especially because said PDF can be open as a background process that does not need extra screen-space. A simple click like on the creature traits would really be very appreciated, especially for weapon traits.

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There are plans to make reference data more easily available in the future - things like skill descriptions, conditions and such. You would need the Core Rules module to get details of these as they are contained in the Core Rules module, not the PFRPG2 ruleset framework.

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I am very willing to buy the Core Rules, especially since I already own the PDF. But if I understood you correctly this will not get me more accessible reference data for the time being?!

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Note that whereas adventures contain a lot of information, they don't reproduce most information that is available within the Core Rules DLC.

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That is why I am asking here if the Core Rules will make things more convenient. But if I have to open up a search window first then it does not seem not more convenient to just using the PDF.

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Originally Posted by yarnevk

clicking on the dragon links on the skill tab of the character sheet brings up the CRB description for skills, although the link is not on the party sheet skills. These descriptions are much too long for mouseovers, they popup another window.

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Not for adventure NPCs/ecounters, though, there is no skill tab for them. The most convenient way would be to open a window from their main character sheet, just like with their traits. A double-click on skills already rolls a dice, so some other way would be needed (right click or modifier key). It would also be useful if I could just click on gear from there, instead of having to go the long route via Other -> Gear -> Dragon symbol.

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Originally Posted by Weissrolf

I am very willing to buy the Core Rules, especially since I already own the PDF. But if I understood you correctly this will not get me more accessible reference data for the time being?!

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In terms of automated look up data, all you’ll get with the Core Rules is the full trait data (double click to open) from the Core Rules - covering abilities, feats, spells, etc..

Obviously the core rules module comes with a lot more data than that. It’s surprising that you’re running a game without it truth be told...

I already do get traits for creatures and items/weapons with the adventure files, but it's a lot of clicking and going down a tree of windows. Creature traits can be double-clicked right in the character overview, item/weapon traits need me to click through to the gear sub-window.

There are no spellcasters in the adventure, just special powers implemented as cantrips, so no traits there. But there are description windows upon clicking on the dragon icon in the spell-list tab. Unfortunately said descriptions do not include links to conditions and traits when they are part of the description. So a power/weapon may cause someone to get frightened, but the frightened condition is not described/linked to.

I am playing at the table and FG does not support printing out characters for PF2, thus I saw no real use for the Core Rules module yet. I tinkered a bit with the converter utility to get printable results. If using the Core Rules module still means that I have to look things up via search dialogs instead of direct links then I do not see much of an advantage over just using search in, though.

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Originally Posted by Weissrolf

Creature traits can be double-clicked right in the character overview...

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Which modules do you have loaded? Because double-clicking on a trait in a creature, spell, PC or item does a lookup against the "traits" database - which is only populated in the Core Rules module. So, unless you have some other module that contains trait lookup data, double-clicking on a trait in one of the traits field won't bring up any data. If you have the playtest rules module loaded this will bring up data, but a lot of it won't be correct.

Ah, yes. Then it is coming from the playtest module and not from the adventure. Good to know. But when I unload the module the traits are still highlighted upon mouse-over, but no such thing happens with immunities (for example). There also are no mouse-over highlights for the alchemical bombs on the alchemist table in the Plaguestone "Forrest laboratory". So I don't get any description of what these do even when I buy the Core Rules, correct?

Two NPCs also have alchemist bombs, which I can at least click on when I go the NPC sheet -> Other -> Gear route. Since the descriptions for these keep showing up when I unload the playtest module I assume that they are part of the adventure? The "Bottled Lightning" description lacks the part about becoming flat-footed, though, which I assume would not be updated when the Core Rules are updated then (as it seems to be part of the adventure)?! On the other hand it says "Non ID name: unknown alchemical item", so maybe it becomes known once I install the Core Rules and thus gets updated?

Both skills, weapons and items are all listed in the main NPC sheet. Skills and weapons do a roll when double-clicked, items do nothing. It would be nice being able to click on items and weapon traits directly there, maybe via CTRL-click or something?! Same for the combat tracker.

Like I said in my first reply. There are plans afoot...