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  1. #1

    Project: Author

    Works with CoreRPG v2021.07.06+ and layered rulesets.

    If you're having issues with extension please read this post first on making sure you have correct extension installed.

    The goal of this tool is to make it a little easier to write ref-manuals. The idea is to use the parts of FG that are easy to use and then export that to the ref-manual format. So, you can use the Story editor, with all the tables, bold, italic and other formatting tools easily and then create a ref-manual.

    This tool is not much use to anyone other than content creators. Also keep in mind there are some limitations with the ability to create ref-manuals.

    How does it work?

    I've put together a short tutorial on how to use Author.




    If you still are not sure how to use it read on, perhaps that will help.

    Each category in your Story records will be set as a chapter. Each Story entry that has the checkbox ticked will be the start of a sub-chapter. Each Story entry also has a Frame option that can be set. If the Frame value is empty the default set in the Export window will be used.

    Note: you can organize category names by using leading numbers before the name so it appears in the order you want it to appear in the ref-manual listing. These numbers will be stripped out in the ref-manual so you dont have them dangling around. TIP: When using this method to keep the chapters and stories organized, remember to give them a name. Do not just name a category "05" as this will show up as a blank entry in the reference manual index list since the numbers are stripped out. So, name it something like "05 Chapter - 1".

    Create story entries in each group/category how you wish them to appear in each chapter. You can also set the frame on individual story entries or leave them blank to use the global default set in the export window. If you wish to indent a story name you can add a underscore to the entry. Example "056.009 _The Deep Caves". This would indent the story in the ref-manual listing.



    A kind person put together a reference manual module with images of the CoreRPG frames. Use this to see examples of what the frames appear like in the reference manual.

    If you would like to have "tags" added to links, then use this method to drag/drop those links where you'd like them.



    Type /author (or click the Author icon in top part of the sidebar or in the drop down menu (if you use 2E or Better Menus)). From the Author window you can import the Story entries into the Builder as well as a few other options.


    • Frame - The default "background" frame used when importing story entries into the builder. Will bring up a new window and you select which frame you wish to use. This will alter the Author window for visual reference of the frame selected.
    • Purge - Delete the current Builder content. Tthis cannot be undone.
    • Build - Import the Story entries into the Builder. This WILL remove any existing Builder (same as purge) before importing. This cannot be undone.
    • Lock all - Lock all records (best effort to lock all content).
    • Unlock all - Unlock all records.




    After you've loaded the module you should be able to see something like this.


    For command line options, type "/author help" and you will see this.



    Inline images are now supported with a few caveats.
    • The drag/dropped image link in the Story must be by itself. If you want a list of images you'll need to list them as individual, not stacked.
    • The descriptive text for the link must not contain <>'s. This also means you cannot apply bold/underline/italic options.


    If you have any suggestions or feedback please feel free to post them.

    Update 6.0

    • Updated to support new Builder system from Core update.


    Avaliable at the forge link here. You can send a donation to the creator if you like this tool.
    Last edited by celestian; February 1st, 2022 at 21:42.
    ---
    Fantasy Grounds AD&D Reference Bundle, AD&D Adventure Bundle 1, AD&D Adventure Bundle 2
    Documentation for AD&D 2E ruleset.
    Custom Maps (I2, S4, T1-4, Barrowmaze,Lost City of Barakus)
    Note: Please do not message me directly on this site, post in the forums or ping me in FG's discord.

  2. #2
    LordEntrails's Avatar
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    Very exciting! Have some questions/ideas, but will play with it before asking.

    Problems? See; How to Report Issues, Bugs & Problems
    On Licensing & Distributing Community Content
    Community Contributions: Gemstones, 5E Quick Ref Decal, Adventure Module Creation, Dungeon Trinkets, Balance Disturbed, Dungeon Room Descriptions
    Note, I am not a SmiteWorks employee or representative, I'm just a user like you.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by celestian View Post
    bug: story with leading numbers in name trimmed will not show properly when linked in another story. (going to look at resolving this)
    This turned out to not be a bug I changed the name of the story and didn't update the link in the other story entry to reflect it.

    Something else I should mention... right now the idea isn't that this will get the ref-manual 100% done. There aren't enough hooks I can grab to do that... but if this can get 80-90% done I'll call it good
    ---
    Fantasy Grounds AD&D Reference Bundle, AD&D Adventure Bundle 1, AD&D Adventure Bundle 2
    Documentation for AD&D 2E ruleset.
    Custom Maps (I2, S4, T1-4, Barrowmaze,Lost City of Barakus)
    Note: Please do not message me directly on this site, post in the forums or ping me in FG's discord.

  4. #4

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    I wish someone familiar with the SW reference manual (I'm not) stuff would give you some feedback. If you read the SW thread (very long), he has worked very thorough magic, but it uses SW-specific classes in many cases, so not very useful to other content creators. He does have a good reference manual module that you might take a look at to see what else can be done.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Bidmaron View Post
    I wish someone familiar with the SW reference manual (I'm not) stuff would give you some feedback. If you read the SW thread (very long), he has worked very thorough magic, but it uses SW-specific classes in many cases, so not very useful to other content creators. He does have a good reference manual module that you might take a look at to see what else can be done.
    Does it allow you to edit the ref-manual within the ref-manual viewer? If someone could give me a quick primer on what it does and where it does it I'll play with it and see if I can figure/use parts of it.
    ---
    Fantasy Grounds AD&D Reference Bundle, AD&D Adventure Bundle 1, AD&D Adventure Bundle 2
    Documentation for AD&D 2E ruleset.
    Custom Maps (I2, S4, T1-4, Barrowmaze,Lost City of Barakus)
    Note: Please do not message me directly on this site, post in the forums or ping me in FG's discord.

  6. #6

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    He's referring to SWEL -- Savage Worlds Extended Library which includes a Content Importer where you can paste its custom markup into the window and preview the reference manual on the fly. It's nice, it's fast and pretty easy to work with (I've done one DLC project with it already and am currently doing one as I write this) and if you're only doing the reference manual you can just export that and copy it into your file for any other ruleset. It is heavily linked to the Savage Worlds ruleset and its API however; that's why it freaks the eff out (I think I set a personal record for the number of errors it generated) if you load it in other rulesets.

    Just to clarify, there's nothing "custom" about reference manuals in Savage Worlds or any other ruleset. They are purely a CoreRPG feature. However SWEL itself only works within Savage Worlds and @Ikael has little enough time with a new baby daughter that he doesn't want to chisel out the bits that could be a generic CoreRPG library for any ruleset. I'd imagine anyone wanting to tackle that, he'd probably offer his guidance.
    Last edited by Talyn; January 9th, 2018 at 20:48.

  7. #7
    Ikael's Avatar
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    Indeed this project is very similar to Savage Worlds Enhanced Library (SWEL), Talyn mentioned. The focus is to allow users to create complex reference manuals with simple text markup. Source codes are free and can be found from Talyn's pointed link but the code is very much strictly attached to SavageWorlds ruleset because that's where my "domain" is (I don't play other systems anymore). I have already used SWEL to create three production ready products (three The Last Parsec settings) and next I will be doing Savage Worlds Flash Gordon conversion with it. The scope it wider in SWEL compared to your project, but the idea is the same, provide tools for content developers!

    You can use SWEL to create reference manual for any ruleset, but you need to do it using SavageWorlds ruleset (which allows you to use the magical extension). After the export you are alter the ruleset dependency to be whatever you want and it will work as the reference manuals are shared standard for all CoreRPG derived rulesets.


    SWEL existed before CoreRPG was ever a thing and before I got SavageWorlds lead developer role which is why its so bind to it. You are free to replicate any of SWEL code you see it in your case.

    Your approach doesn't seem to support reference manual block layouts yet, but I would be interested seeing if you provide some GUI tools to do it; in SWEL block layouts are defined in the text markup with combination of FG UI to preview them partially WYSIWYG.
    "Alright, you primitive screwheads, listen up: THIS... is my BOOMSTICK!" -- Ash Williams, Army of Darkness

    Post your SavageWorlds ruleset feature requests and issue reports here!

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Ikael View Post
    Your approach doesn't seem to support reference manual block layouts yet, but I would be interested seeing if you provide some GUI tools to do it; in SWEL block layouts are defined in the text markup with combination of FG UI to preview them partially WYSIWYG.
    Forgive my ignorance on this topic, what do you mean "manual block layouts" ? Inline images perhaps?
    ---
    Fantasy Grounds AD&D Reference Bundle, AD&D Adventure Bundle 1, AD&D Adventure Bundle 2
    Documentation for AD&D 2E ruleset.
    Custom Maps (I2, S4, T1-4, Barrowmaze,Lost City of Barakus)
    Note: Please do not message me directly on this site, post in the forums or ping me in FG's discord.

  9. #9

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    The "big feature" (aside from being together in pseudo "book" form) to refpages is putting the content into blocks so you can use the various frame graphics, embedded images, and other features.

    If you're doing nothing more than formatted text with no blocks then you've got formatted text smashed right up against the page borders and no other features.

    Knowing the XML helps with tackling projects that create the XML for others.

    Even using SWEL doesn't eliminate the need to delve into the XML due to the FG client itself preventing the writing of certain data (specifically images come to mind) so even after it creates my reference manuals, I still have to go back in and add in the image tag and make sure the file location is correct.
    Last edited by Talyn; January 9th, 2018 at 23:19.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Talyn View Post
    The "big feature" (aside from being together in pseudo "book" form) to refpages is putting the content into blocks so you can use the various frame graphics, embedded images, and other features.

    If you're doing nothing more than formatted text with no blocks then you've got formatted text smashed right up against the page borders and no other features.

    Knowing the XML helps with tackling projects that create the XML for others.

    Even using SWEL doesn't eliminate the need to delve into the XML due to the FG client itself preventing the writing of certain data (specifically images come to mind) so even after it creates my reference manuals, I still have to go back in and add in the image tag and make sure the file location is correct.
    I was confused by the terminology. I've used imagines in ref manuals and the alignment/etc via XML but wasn't sure if that was what he was referring to.

    Unless that support is added to story records in general I don't see it'll be something I'll have for the short term. As I said initially, this isn't going to get it 100% done (ref-manual). It's to get a bulk of it out of XML editing where I can.

    In a perfect world I'd have a option to edit ref-manuals directly. I'm not to that point yet ... or know if that's even possible.
    ---
    Fantasy Grounds AD&D Reference Bundle, AD&D Adventure Bundle 1, AD&D Adventure Bundle 2
    Documentation for AD&D 2E ruleset.
    Custom Maps (I2, S4, T1-4, Barrowmaze,Lost City of Barakus)
    Note: Please do not message me directly on this site, post in the forums or ping me in FG's discord.

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