Newbie Question

[Liontower]

I read the thread about editing game settings but I could not seem to find an answer inside it. So here it goes, How do I create a whole new game settings file? I am working on a Homebrew setting and would like to get some playtesting done on it using Maptool but I am not sure how edit the files in Charactertool. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you

[neofax]

First, does this homebrew follow any major type. i.e. D&D, GURPs... If so, just copy the .rpgame of that game unzip and edit the XML files. If not, use the unzipped headers as a guideline to create your homebrew. Now, here comes the kicker, to get the sheet to look like how you want you will need to use abeille (sp?) to create the design layout. I have never used this, so Jay would be better suited to answer questions for that.

[jay]

You should use the Default game settings which I've attached to this post (with a zip file type so that it can be attached to this post). It is pretty much a starter settings file. Change the gameName in the properties.xml file and the <game> element in property/propertyDescriptorSet.xml to the name of your new game. The only other file that is specific to a game is the inittool/eventScripts.xml file. You'll need to modify the two event scripts in it to calculate the initiative properly if you are going to use IT. Then you have a very basic file that's ready to go w/o any forms or data files.

[jay]

First, does this homebrew follow any major type. i.e. D&D, GURPs... If so, just copy the .rpgame of that game unzip and edit the XML files. If not, use the unzipped headers as a guideline to create your homebrew. Now, here comes the kicker, to get the sheet to look like how you want you will need to use abeille (sp?) to create the design layout. I have never used this, so Jay would be better suited to answer questions for that.

This is also a good way to go about it. Abeille is no longer required to generate forms, it's just the easiest way for non-programmers. It is now possible to use any Java Swing form. These can be hand written or you can use a Visual editor like Jigloo for Eclipse. If you would like to do this, tell me and I'll write the instructions for including Java classes into the settings files sooner rather than later

[Azhrei]

Hmm, Jigloo looks pretty cool. I'll have to try that out.

[jay]

I used it to build the individual power display in the new power view for the 4e file. It handles both generating and reading code, although I didn't test it on any of my own Swing apps, just the ones it created. It allowed you to add all of the support code and event handlers. It is a lot more flexible than Abeille in that it allows for other layouts and setting of pretty much any property. You can add your own components to its palette. I liked it. It took me awhile to get used to it, but after that I got fairly proficient. Overall, I liked it.