Backgrounds
 

I'm relatively new to this content editing bit, so it's probably something simple that I'm missing completely, but...

I am trying to enter the Lost Emperor background from Heroes of Baldur's Gate. I add the personality traits, the bonds, the ideals, the flaws.

I make sure I check the box that they're available to the "Lost Emperor" background I'm creating. Save, test - says it's ready to use.

I assign 4 languages, go into the language choices and check the "Exotic Languages" box.

Back in Hero Lab, I choose the new background. It says "Add new background languages: 0 of 4 (4 left). I click on the text to do so and "You must choose a Background before you you can select languages."

Huh? I just did and this is a feature of it. Confusing.

Then I go to select personality traits and... none of the traits I entered show up as options.

I'm screwing up somewhere, but I can't figure out where.

Eric Verhulst

Without seeing the .user file it may be hard to diagnose any issues.

One common issue is testing without restarting/reloading HL. Sometimes Hero Lab just needs a reboot to load the user files correctly.

Another issue is if you created a new Source in Sources. If you did, remove the sources from every one of your entries and see if things show up. Creating a new source can cause issues unless you add it to a .1st file to load properly first. This is a bit complicated to explain but if you look at the community .1st files you can probably figure out what I'm talking about - a new source needs to be selectable pre-character or it will likely "disappear" and take all things tagged with it.

A long shot here might be the use of the Exotic tag on the language selection or on the case of the disappearing traits, using the same Roll number for them.

I haven't been going directly into the user file to edit - I've been using the editor. Based on your suggestions, here's what I found...

Rebooting brought up the traits, bonds, flaws, etc. Great.

With the languages....

If you click the "language choices" button on the background editor, and then select "exotic languages", it does not actually populate any specific languages. It only establishes a category of "exotic languages".

If I just select all (except "new tag"), then I get a list that is broken out into "Standard Languages", "Exotic Languages", and "NPC Languages" neatly labeled as such. If I select all, but don't select those three - Standard, Exotic, and NPC languages - I get the same list of languages to choose from, in the same order, but none of the sections have headings. If I select all, but only one of the headings, then anything from the list above where that label would go still shows up, just without a heading, and everything beneath it shows up as if it's in that category.

For example - select all the individual languages, but then select "Standard Languages". You get a list that shows all the languages under the heading "Standard Languages". If you select all the individual languages, but just "Exotic Languages", then the standard languages populate in the list without a heading, then the heading "Exotic Languages" followed by all the exotic and NPC languages show up.

In effect, the language list and the order of that list is fixed. All you're doing when selecting "Exotic Languages" is inserting a non-selectable category heading into the list. Same for "Standard Languages" and "NPC Languages."

Now that I know this, I can work around it, but it seems a bit odd to me.

Thanks for the help.