Am I missing something with auto linking?

[jkthomsen9]

I am starting a new campaign for my kids. OMG Wrath of the Righteous is AWESOME. If you haven't checked it out I highly encourage you to do so.

My question is that I am now entering the the events. I am using the name of the room as the SCENE topic name and the map key as the "the identifier for the topic". IE name "Guard post" identifier "H1"

I am not getting RW to auto detect H1 in other rooms. For instance the text in H2 stats that if they hear combat in H1 they arrive in 1d4 rds. It seems this worked in my first realm, did i inadvertently turn something off or was there a change?

[Farling]

You need to put the location code as an Alias to get the auto-linking to work.

Putting it as the identifier helps on sorting the topic list.

[AEIOU]

Identifiers don't link.

[jkthomsen9]

huh. I went back and looked what I was originally doing and found I was using the map key as the name and the room name as the identifier. This worked in the beginning but fell apart when you get six A1's.

[Pollution]

Originally Posted by jkthomsen9

huh. I went back and looked what I was originally doing and found I was using the map key as the name and the room name as the identifier. This worked in the beginning but fell apart when you get six A1's.

That's what I did for RotRL, and it was working out just fine.....until I got the PE for my players.... It's not as great of a solution.

Something I did to fix the six A1's was to start eating a lot of steak (ba dum dum dum).

Seriously though, the aniversery edition of RotRL is great except for 2 of the dungeons have A1-A40 type rooms. So what I did there, is just make the second set AA1-AA40. Solved it nicely.

BUT, the issue became that the topic group looked terrible being A1 (map room) A2 (dining room) etc... I REALLY should have altered the category first (or created a dupe) to have the topic name AFTER the identifier (i.e. change it from suffix to prefix).

So instead of, "A1 (Entry Hall)," it would say, "(Entry Hall) A1," which would look nicer.

But...I made so many mistakes and missteps with my RotRL data entry from a PE point of view that I'd be WAY better off just buying the official version once the market place comes out.

In closing....when you're putting in Righteous, make sure you swap the Alias to a Prefix BEFORE you enter any topics for locations. if you put them in first, you have to either delete them to change it, OR, you have to dupe the category, change it to prefix, then change all the rooms you already did to the new category.

Lesson learned? Always make sure you have your categories set up properly BEFORE entering in any data. It will save your ass.

[AEIOU]

You could combine the map key and room name as one: A1 Guard Room

You could have topic as map key and identifier as room name and place them in a container for the level or building. This would separate all the A1's. But if you try to add them to a relationship or link to them later, it'll be tough to figure out which is which.

The material I've been entering conveniently had both the map key and room descriptions in the text blocks in the format of "A1 - Guard Room" which was very helpful as the "Guard Room" would link and I still had the "A1" as a map reference. Where they chose to just list "A1" I've now gotten into the habit of adding the room name. So I get the sorting benefit of the identifiers and the linking benefit of the topic name. I've decided I like this even though it means I need to be careful to look for map keys when entering so it's a little extra work.

[AEIOU]

Lesson learned? Always make sure you have your categories set up properly BEFORE entering in any data. It will save your ass.

My RotRL was abandoned after I was in too deep and had learned too much. Once again, Rob was right...start small.

I'd really recommend doing a really small module like We Be Goblins as the first RW work someone does. And then read through the best practices stuff to see what LWD recommends compared to what you did....

My RotRL work was a great learning tool though so I don't regret the time spent with it. But if I'd tackled something small instead, I probably would have seen the issues with my initial methods sooner.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by jkthomsen9

huh. I went back and looked what I was originally doing and found I was using the map key as the name and the room name as the identifier. This worked in the beginning but fell apart when you get six A1's.

For my Skull and Shackles AP I am entering I always use the full "A1" name. So in example from your first post I would put in "H1. Guard Post" as the topic name. This does mean I have to change the text in later areas that references "H1" to be "H1. Guard Post" but it means everything is unique and auto-links easier.

Just what I found that works well for myself....

[Farling]

My method is to use the book and area number as the identifier (and as an alias).

So B1-A1 for encounter A1 in book 1 of the adventure path.

[AEIOU]

This is a really, really interesting thread as we've all found very workable workarounds. And we're not consistent....

I'm curious now how it will be tackled in standard Market releases and what LWD is implementing for commercial releases as those are what we are all dealing with as well.