Is a mod the same as a ruleset?

[FredrikVladimir]

I was looking through the wiki and can't find anything about mods. I do see a bit about creating rulesets. And so I've got questions.

If I wanted to write some custom code for my campaign, it looks like I'll need to learn lua. Is this correct? I've learned other languages, so what's one more language. (It's been a while, so getting back up to speed might take a while.)

If my code is going to interact with the existing campaign or player data, have The Powers That Be documented the XML existing format? It would be much easier to work with the existing formats rather than reinventing the wheel. (Although I'll probably have to create new fields within the existing taxonomy.)

Is custom code considered a ruleset which means all those tutorials about rulesets are applicable, or is it something different? And if something different, are there any tutorials or documents discussing specifics about programming them? And if they're the same, how would I create a campaign that includes both the Traveller ruleset as well as the custom code?

At this point, I'm mostly interested in being pointed in the right direction. I doubt anything will come from this for a while. If ever.

[Zacchaeus]

A module is not the same as a ruleset. A ruleset is the framework within which you play the game. A module contains data such as classes, races, items, or adventures which you use to create a campaign.

I suspect that when you say mod you mean extension - which is the terminology that Fantasy Grounds uses when describing something which changes the ruleset.

To write an extension you will need to learn lua and xml code (both of which are used in extensions). An extension will then be selected at the time of loading a campaign and the extension code will overwrite the ruleset code - adding in or taking away the bits of code from the ruleset that the extension overwrites.

You'll find the developer guide here https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassia...eveloper+Guide

Now I don't know for sure but the Traveller ruleset may not be something that you can access easily since many rulesets are in the vault and so are encrypted. Without access to the ruleset code I feel you will struggle to write an extension for it. However I could be wrong on this and if I am you'll find the traveller ruleset in your rulesets folder in FG data. You can copy this (to somewhere outside the ruleset folder) and if you change the .pak file extension to .zip on the copy you'll be able to unzip the file and see what's inside.

[FredrikVladimir]

Looks like it's in the vault. On the other hand, I might be able to write a module that can be shared with my players that creates an xml file, and then use the import facility to move it into a campaign. It could use other information in the campaign database to drive the choices in the module.

I've worked with xml when Microsoft was supporting InfoPath, but lua will be new to me. Time to crack the books. These are the ones I'm looking at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/8590379868/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596004206/

(Yeah, I could probably do it cheaper with online resources. But there's something about a book for learning code...)

[Zacchaeus]

I'm not familiar with the Traveller ruleset and again it may be a question of terminology.

At any rate a module (or mod) is something which you can create within Fantasy Grounds - no special knowledge of any code is required. You can create a module of NPCs for example, or items, or a whole adventure. Once created it can be shared with players and they can access the data (if that is the desired outcome). However what you cannot do with a module is change anything in the ruleset. So, for example, you can't use a module to create a new window type, or add a new box to a character sheet, or add new weapon damage types. For things which change the ruleset you need an extension; and as I said above if you can't access the ruleset you will have real problems creating such an extension.

So it depends on what exactly it is you want to do. If you want to just add some data then you can probably do that from inside FG and export that as a module. If, however, you want to change something about how the ruleset works then you'll need an extension. (Also an extension is something which the host selects when starting a campaign and once you do that then all players also use the extension - players cannot use extensions independently of the host. So sending the players an extension is pointless).