NPC Engineer

[Dax Doomslayer]

I'm always late to the party. I just found this and it's really cool. Is there a tutorial or any documentation as to how to use this and get the output into FG (or point me to it if I missed it in this thread). It looks like I need another program to get the nice stat block that NPC engineer outputs into FG? Any help is appreciated.

[Maasq]

Hey Dax!

There's a newer thread than this one... https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...680#post360680

The newest version of NPC Engineer can be downloaded from my website (link in my sig) and it will do everything to create a bestiary in FG for you.

• Input an NPC - either by typing it in, field by field, or by importing it from another source such as D&D Beyond or a PDF.
• Attach an image and a token to the NPC.
• Save the NPC for later use.
• Put the NPC in a project to be compiled to a FG module.
• Compile all your added NPCs in one swoop into a FG module in the correct directory.
• Create a pretty decent reference manual for the bestiary.

There's a user manual, but it is lagging way behind the functionality. It'll help you work your way around the creation of an NPC at least. It gets installed to the same directory as NPC Engineer when you use the installer.

There's also a video that Fantasy Grounds college hosts - an interview with me, so if you can handle the Scottish accent, then I talk through the various functions.

Finally - join the Discord chat channel. If I'm not around, there are quite a few people who use it regularly and will talk you through it. I can do a screen share with you if need be to help you out.

Hope this helps!

Maasq

[Dax Doomslayer]

Thanks Maasq! I downloaded the newest version and I can get it to generate the stat block and save it as an .npc file - so I'm good with bullets 1 - 3. My issue is your 4th & 5th bullets (and 6th I guess). I don't see how this is done...This is really a pretty cool little program!

[Maasq]

Thanks Maasq! I downloaded the newest version and I can get it to generate the stat block and save it as an .npc file - so I'm good with bullets 1 - 3. My issue is your 4th & 5th bullets (and 6th I guess). I don't see how this is done...This is really a pretty cool little program!

Thank you!
Wait till you see the reference manual pages it generates, you'll love it

Bullet point 4 - add to project. Click the add to project button at the bottom right of the window, just next to the save NPC button.
(note that you will need to have a project defined to do this, and the manual will give you details about it. You can create a project using the Create Project button in the button bar, or the menu entry under Engineer Suite)
Bullet point 5 - click the dragon head button in the button bar. That's it - open your module in FG now.

Maasq

[Dax Doomslayer]

Thanks so much for your replies Maasq. I've started to kind of play around with this and I'm even more impressed. This thing looks to be a potential life saver if you are doing a module with lots of creatures / npcs! A couple of additional questions: 1). If you "Add to Project", do you eventually need to go to the Engineer Suite>>Manage Project>>Save Project route or does this save those records you put in automatically? If not, how does one tell what one entered or is there no way?; 2). When adding a token, when I then go to add the next record, I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of that token if I just want to leave it essentially blank; 3). How do you add images to the record? I'm having a bit of an issue figuring that out right now. Thanks again for answering my dumb questions!

[Maasq]

Hiya!

1) Once you have created your project, you don't really need to worry too much about it (especially if you select in options to reload it automatically each time you start). Clicking 'Add to Project' writes that NPC to the project file on disk and that is all you have to do.

If you want a way to see what is in your project, use Options|Manage npcs.json (json is just a file structure for storing objects, in case you aren't a programmer). A wee dialogue pops up, allowing you to see what is in the project, delete things that aren't needed, and choose to edit things that you forgot to save as *.npc files

2) I would strongly suggest you always click the 'New NPC' button between NPCs - it will clear everything, including tokens and images, giving you a blank canvas to work with.

3) Click the image tab (or press F9). Click in the big box to open a file selector, and choose your image from your hard drive. Point to note: only jpg images are allowed, so convert them first. Way back when I was starting this journey, some information I found suggested that only jpgs were supported by FG. I'm fairly sure this isn't the case but I never got around to widening the image support!

The 'artist name' and 'link' are of course optional, but proper attributing is important if you are going to distribute your work.

Hope this helps, and be sure to download the new update (which I am about to post!)

Maasq

[Dax Doomslayer]

Ahhh OK - I'm able to do these things. I was trying to drag and drop the image. I just exported the module. This program is so f'ing cool!! What a time saver. Why did I just find this!?

[GunbunnyFuFu]

Maasq,

I've got a creature that has a table of actions listed in a trait...how do we work this so that the table is readable?

GB

[epithet]

Maasq,

I've got a creature that has a table of actions listed in a trait...how do we work this so that the table is readable?

GB

Trial and error, mostly, but don't put periods in--those will often be interpreted as designating a new trait. Hyphens work well. How large is your table? It might be easier to put the table in the description tab if it is more than a 3 x 3 matrix.

[Maasq]

Maasq,

I've got a creature that has a table of actions listed in a trait...how do we work this so that the table is readable?

GB

Hiya

The traits area of FG is not a free text area, so it won't support tables. As Epithet said, you'll need to get creative with symbols.
The description tab will host tables (and will have a dedicated button at some point), although I know this isn't much help to you now. Put this creature to one side to see if I get the feature enabled before you finish the project!

Maasq