Crafter Guidelines - Linking to other items in your Forge items
FG Forge Guidelines for linking to other products
The way Fantasy Grounds Unity is built allows crafters to easily link to other official products, as well as to other FG Forge items directly within the program. This means that original content and intellectual property (IP) is not duplicated at all, but is instead referenced. If ProductA links to ProductB within FGU, then accessing the linked item in ProductA will prompt the user to open ProductB. This is a very powerful feature that allows people to build off of each other's work in a way that increases the value of the original product, without undermining it. The possible downside of this approach is that it requires crafters to clearly communicate this to users so that they don't get surprised by missing dependencies during usage.
Product Description Requirement:
Any dependencies should be listed clearly in the product description at the top of the short and long description fields.
Short Description Syntax:
Requires: Tome of Beasts
[Rest of short description]
Long Description Syntax:
Requires: Tome of Beasts
[Rest of Long description]
* Note: the formatting for the URL linking, font sizes, and colors is different on the forums here than it is in the FG Forge. Use the editor buttons to style it appropriately in the FG Forge.
Ruleset and Extension Dependencies
These should write an announcement listing any dependencies. This announcement should occur immediately after any primary announcements for the extension.
Module Dependencies
There is no announcement functionality for modules. Instead, include a list of Dependencies in the reference manual or main story entry text for the module.
Anonymous Linking:
You can use the FG Dev Tools: Anonymous Linker to make your links anonymous. Links in Fantasy Grounds Unity include a path to the module by default.
For example, a link to a dragon eel from Tome of Beasts might look like this: reference.npcdata.dragoneel@Tome of Beasts.
An anonymous version removes the module name and will find any matching record with reference.npcdata.dragoneel among any open modules. The link will look like this: reference.npcdata.dragoneel@*. This is great for cases where you only need a reference to a goblin and you don't care if it comes from the SRD or another source.
Participating Publishers
SmiteWorks USA LLC - you can set the FG Art Pack Subscription as a dependency or link to individual products
AAW Games - You can link to any of their map products, tile packs, or other modules.
Devin Night - you can list any of his token packs or require Devin Night Bundles. You cannot duplicate his individual token images in your module directly.
Kobold Press - Map Products or other modules.
Mongoose Publishing - link to anything, as long as you distribute your creation for free. They are considering whether or not they would allow paid creations, but at this time it is free items only.
Pinnacle Entertainment Games - Follow same rules as "guild" program offered at DTRPG. You can link to main SWADE rules but not to content of actual worlds or IPs.
Goodman Games - anything from their catalog.
Legendary Games - anything in their catalog.
Paradox Interactive - You can write your own modules and link to official Vampire the Masquerade modules in your modules as long as you don't copy the original source material.
Free League Publishing - you can link to any officially released products. This includes Alien, Vaesen, and Symbaroum.
Other publishers - I will add them to the list as I receive confirmation. If you are a publisher and you would like me to list your name here, please email me or post in the thread below.
