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Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 55
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Hey guys,
Now that the Import/Export feature is out, how would you go about to merge identical or similar topics from multiple realms to create your 'campaign setting' export to be reusable across the other realms? The best would then be able to import it back in the previous realms and have the topics automatically merged (I guess). What do you guys think? How would you do it (or even did it)? |
#1 |
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 1,528
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As I understand it, topic IDs are preserved in exports, so you could re-import into the original realm updated versions exported from other realms. Topics would not merge or update based on the name; you would just end up with two separate Topics with the same name. Copying, for example, creates a new realm with the same content, but they all have new IDs and would not merge if the content of one realm was exported and imported into the other.
So while export/import should, technically, work... the issues are ones of organization. Who gets to make decisions on what is canon? If two GMs make different changes to the same snippet in different "child" realms, whose takes precedence? |
#2 |
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Greater London, UK
Posts: 2,623
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I would export all your "campaign setting" information to create a new realm which becomes the "campaign setting" realm. You could merge multiple exports from other realms before doing a tidy up to create your master campaign setting realm. (All this importing of current information would use the import option to NOT remember the realm they came from.) This realm would never import data from other realms again.
You would then delete the campaign setting information from your other realms and import the "campaign setting" realm into those realms. Then updates to your "campaign setting" realm can be reimported into those realms as updates are made to the campaign setting realm. - This creates a nice and simple arrangement for export->import, rather than having loops of dependencies which will only lead to problems later. |
#3 |
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Meaning you can create a realm "Copy" and test away with it and it will act in all ways as your original realm. Quote:
After doing the above the data coming out of the master realm will be able to overwrite or merge with the data in the child realms. This means you make all changes in the master realm and then export and import to the campaign/child realms. Hero Lab Resources: Pathfinder - d20pfsrd and Pathfinder Pack Setup 3.5 D&D (d20) - Community Server Setup 5E D&D - Community Server Setup Hero Lab Help - Hero Lab FAQ, Editor Tutorials and Videos, Editor & Scripting Resources. Created by the community for the community - Realm Works kickstarter backer (Alpha Wolf) and Beta tester.- d20 HL package volunteer editor. |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 55
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@Silveras
How would you go about keeping the revealed state of your topics/snippets for the ongoing campaign, since you would end up with a duplicate of all topics? Would you then need to go through each one, one by one, to set the revealed state accordingly? @Farling I understand the idea of the Master Realm idea and reimporting back into the other realms for the ongoing campaigns, but if I want to input new data or improvised information from an ongoing session, wouldn't this be an issue since I wouldn't be in the master realm? would it be possible to import the new information into the Master Realm? Why would reimport loops cause issue on the long run? |
#5 |
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I put in a bug report last week about reveal states. They do not currently appear to be working correctly.
Hero Lab Resources: Pathfinder - d20pfsrd and Pathfinder Pack Setup 3.5 D&D (d20) - Community Server Setup 5E D&D - Community Server Setup Hero Lab Help - Hero Lab FAQ, Editor Tutorials and Videos, Editor & Scripting Resources. Created by the community for the community - Realm Works kickstarter backer (Alpha Wolf) and Beta tester.- d20 HL package volunteer editor. |
#6 |
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#7 |
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Quote:
Updates can be a problem in part because of continuity errors. If you're talking about separate groups operating in the same world under different GMs, then here's one example. Let's say that in Realm A, the PCs kill the NPC "Bob" on Day 10 of the calendar. But in realm B, the PCs join "Bob" as his friends/allies/employees on Day 11. Which one goes into the "canon" ? Now let's say that it is a little less separated. Players in both Realm A and Realm B have heard the news that "Bob is actually a traitor"... so that snippet is revealed to both groups. But in Realm A, they have investigated and also found out that it is false information (Truth level = False). So now one Realm has a note "Players know this is false" and the other doesn't. When importing the updates, somebody has to make a call how to handle that. And a loop can occur when the same topic has different updates in different realms.. each import, if not watched carefully, can switch it back and forth from one version to another, or put the wrong version in place in one of the realms. Exporting NEW content and importing elsewhere has far less issues (and is probably completely safe) compared to trying to propagate changes to existing Topics among multiple realms. For example, let's say the "Master" realm had mentioned a region only by name, with few or no details. If that gets expanded for play later, adding the details to one of the realms and exporting to the others is pretty safe. If more than one realm is adding details, though, then that becomes more of a challenge to manage. |
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#8 |
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In example I have a monster that is linked to the monsters subtype topic in Realm A. If I export and import both the monster & subtype into Realm B the link from the monster to the subtype stays. I don't have to edit the monster to get it to link again to the subtype topic. I think that is what Rob meant as "connections". Hero Lab Resources: Pathfinder - d20pfsrd and Pathfinder Pack Setup 3.5 D&D (d20) - Community Server Setup 5E D&D - Community Server Setup Hero Lab Help - Hero Lab FAQ, Editor Tutorials and Videos, Editor & Scripting Resources. Created by the community for the community - Realm Works kickstarter backer (Alpha Wolf) and Beta tester.- d20 HL package volunteer editor. |
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#9 |
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 55
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In my case, there's only one GM and it is me. For me, the Master Realm would be mostly the world, regions, city names, groups and organisations, encounter areas, etc.
I'm still debating if that includes major NPCs or not. In each campaign, I would then add the fluff for the campaign or story. My issue is that like most DMs, you need to often improvise. When that happens, I sometimes get the opportunity during breaks or RP moments to enter the improvised information back into RW. If I can't import back to the Master Realm, then this becomes lost time and I'm better entering it in Notepad or somesuch and enter it in the Master Realm at some other time when I get the chance. |
#10 |
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