Skill Module?

[adminwheel3]

How would you recommend making a Module which would hold all of the PHB Skill information?

From what I understand this info can't be scraped from the Compendium, so I asume I would have to manually copy it, paste it into a text file and then edit it. I created such a file and pointed my updated 4E parser to it with a sample of information, however no additional Skill entry was available in the Library after I opened the module:

ZSkill; Perception
ZAbility; Wisdom
ZText; Make a Perception check to notice clues, detect secret doors, spot imminent dangers, find traps, follow tracks, listen for sounds behind a closed door, or locate hidden objects.
ZText; This skill is used against another creature’s Stealth check or against a DC set by the DM. In most situations, the DM uses your passive Perception check result to determine if you notice a clue or an imminent danger.

[PublicJohnDoe]

You have to "close" every skill "block" (ZSkill, ZAbility, ZText) with this:

Zarmorcheckpenalty; 0

Otherwise, it won't work correctly.

[adminwheel3]

Not having any luck. I've tried both this:

ZSkill; Perception
Zarmorcheckpenalty; 0
ZAbility; Wisdom
Zarmorcheckpenalty; 0
ZText; Make a Perception check.
Zarmorcheckpenalty; 0

And this:

ZSkill; Perception
ZAbility; Wisdom
ZText; Make a Perception check.
Zarmorcheckpenalty; 0

And the results are the same - I get a Skill entry in the Library Module, I get a Perception entry under Skills and opening Perception it even had [Wisdom] listed. However there is no descriptive text.

(see attached screen shot)

[PublicJohnDoe]

Mmm... strange.

Here's an excerpt from my file:

ZSkill; Streetwise
ZAbility; Charisma
ZText; <p>When in a settlement... [snip]...</p>
Zarmorcheckpenalty; 0

This way it works perfectly. Have you tried formatting the ZText with <p>...</p> tags?

[adminwheel3]

That did it!

Tenian, if you happen to read this, capturing the fact that <p> is required in the documentation would be handy. I'd also recommend rephrasing "Zarmorcheckpenalty has no real use." to something like "Zarmorcheckpenalty has no real use other than to close the skill blocks and as such, is required at the end of each."

Lastly, "ZAbility; {Skill}" should be changed to "ZAbility; {Ability}" since you're lising the stat there and not the skill again.

Currently it reads:

*************************************************
Skills
*************************************************
-Output:
Data is displayed in the Library "Skills"
-Input:
Data File:
ZSkill;{Name}
ZAbility; {Skill}
ZText; {formatted text}
Zarmorcheckpenalty; {1|0}

-Notes:
Zarmorcheckpenalty has no real use.
ZText; must preceed every line of formatted text. This was the first parser that handled formatted text so it is a bit clunky. Some day I may rewrite it.

[adminwheel3]

Does anyone happen to know if the parser supports, or if I can manually edit the resulting .mod file to include formating such as bullet points and tables and such?

[Zeus]

That did it!

Tenian, if you happen to read this, capturing the fact that <p> is required in the documentation would be handy. I'd also recommend rephrasing "Zarmorcheckpenalty has no real use." to something like "Zarmorcheckpenalty has no real use other than to close the skill blocks and as such, is required at the end of each."

Lastly, "ZAbility; {Skill}" should be changed to "ZAbility; {Ability}" since you're lising the stat there and not the skill again.

Currently it reads:

*************************************************
Skills
*************************************************
-Output:
Data is displayed in the Library "Skills"
-Input:
Data File:
ZSkill;{Name}
ZAbility; {Skill}
ZText; {formatted text}
Zarmorcheckpenalty; {1|0}

-Notes:
Zarmorcheckpenalty has no real use.
ZText; must preceed every line of formatted text. This was the first parser that handled formatted text so it is a bit clunky. Some day I may rewrite it.

Zarmorcheckpenaltyl {1|0} is used to not only mark the end of a skill block but also determines if skill checks based upon the skill are impeded by heavy armor e.g. Acrobatics which if a player is wearing say plate armor would be at -1 on any Acrobatics skill check.

So Zarmorcheckability does have a functional use.

[Zeus]

Does anyone happen to know if the parser supports, or if I can manually edit the resulting .mod file to include formating such as bullet points and tables and such?

The ZText; {formatted text} line means you can use FGII formatted text tags including <p>, <b>, <i>, <list>, <table> and <frame> for Skill text.

Your probably better off editing the skill ZText to include the bulleted lists rather than attempting to hand edit the .mod XML output.

[Stitched]

Does this format apply to creating all the inherent Class features as well? (They don't parse when using the 4e Parser)

For example: Fighter (page 76 of the PHB)

"Combat Challenge, Combat Superiority, Fighter Weapon Talent"

While for the most part, this is Fluff text and is usually calculated into a DDI sheet's numbers, it would be nice to have the database links in the PHB to fill out the "Special Abilities" slot on the Player's character sheet.

What is the link to Tenian's database syntax for creating mods?

[adminwheel3]

Thanks DrZeuss, I'll play with <list> <table> and <frame> and see what happens.

Stitched, I ended up manually editing my powers.txt file and setting those class features up as feats so I could have them on the special abilities area.

However I'm sure there's a better way to do it.

As for the documentation, when you install the parser it also creates a shortcut to a "Documents" folder, which contains a txt file on known issues, version history and the parser documentation itself.