New FG User with Lots of Questions

[Orsalak]

5) When setting up a map, can you define spots as walls or difficult terrain, or are those things just handled manually when determining movement?

[LordEntrails]

Manually. FG doesn't have any conditions or effects on movement. The best you can do is have movement be locked, require GM approval or just happen.

[Callum]

2) What is a campaign in Fantasy Grounds? Do you create one for each Adventure you play or do you create one for the group for as long as it lasts?

A campaign is a set of Fantasy Grounds data, which includes all the records created - such as PCs, NPCs, images, story entries, etc. I always have a "base" campaign that has the PCs in it, and then create separate campaigns for each adventure, which I export as modules. When I'm running a game, I do so using the "base" campaign, and - once in that campaign - open the modules for the adventure that the PCs are currently going through. I also have campaigns (and exported modules) for major towns and cities that the PCs can visit.

[Orsalak]

A campaign is a set of Fantasy Grounds data, which includes all the records created - such as PCs, NPCs, images, story entries, etc. I always have a "base" campaign that has the PCs in it, and then create separate campaigns for each adventure, which I export as modules. When I'm running a game, I do so using the "base" campaign, and - once in that campaign - open the modules for the adventure that the PCs are currently going through. I also have campaigns (and exported modules) for major towns and cities that the PCs can visit.

I like your thought on this. It sounds modular and easier to maintain. Thanks for the advice!

[kp9911]

If you have the patience you can use one of the many parsers found on this forum and try and create your own .mod files which you can use later in any other campaign of that ruleset.

[Orsalak]

If you have the patience you can use one of the many parsers found on this forum and try and create your own .mod files which you can use later in any other campaign of that ruleset.

I haven't read much about the parsers. I believe par5e creates 5e modules from free official pdfs, but I own PHB, MM and DMG core mods, so I wouldn't need that. Are there others that might be of interest? Will the parsers you mentioned help with converting PDF adventures to mods?

[LordEntrails]

All the parsers take text files that you create, eitehr from scanning your copy of the PHB to text, or creating a file from scratch. You then have to format or markup the file according to the parser, and then it creates the FG module for you.

Originally Par5E was written so that people could make their own 5E PHB, DMG, MM etc. (Before WotC granted the license). I think the common opinion now is that buying the official PHB/MM, DMG is worth the time because it takes dozens of hours to get a scan of your own of one of those books to be error free. Plus you don't have all the drag/drop/tables etc that come in the official products.

kp and Masaq are both working on parsers that are much more friendly and intuitive than Par5E, but neither is completed yet (though they are usable as is for many things). Par5E is also dated, it dones not have all of the newest functionality in it.

Also, remember most everything you can do with the parsers or by hand coding the xml you can do through the user interface. Not everything, but if you are creating the content while you go, imo, it's just as easy to do it in FG as in a text file (except for the need to spellcheck).

[Maasq]

Mine is a companion to Par5e or KP's, really. I am too lazy and unskilled for the whole parser experience!

What I am working on is an NPC (monsters!) module. There's lots of interesting stuff out there on Reddit and in pdfs, both free and purchasable. There's also several NPC designers to create your own monsters or NPCs, and I felt it would be really useful to have an application take the output (or <CTRL><C> copy in many cases) and get the resulting text into shape for Par5e. I have further goals, but for the moment it is all NPC based.

I have to say that much of the drive is learning to program again, and I'm enjoying it, but hearing that someone finds it useful is very encouraging too!

Lord - if you are intending having a pdf of your campaign for any reason, then the only sane way to do it is PDF first then copy over to FG IMHO.

Maasq

[kp9911]

Not really, I have worked on a tool that instantly takes the db.xml dump of the campaign and auto formats it into a word file. Its something that I will implement in the new parser as an addon functionality. The trick is getting it to work, there are a lot of moving pieces and its complicated for a lay person to understand how to use efficiently.

@Dan sorry its taking so long, one day I will have it ready for you.

[LordEntrails]

...
Lord - if you are intending having a pdf of your campaign for any reason, then the only sane way to do it is PDF first then copy over to FG IMHO.

I've done, and continue to do the PDF first in some instances. A traditional campaign or adventure this works well. But, doing Undermountain, there's just too much. Too hard to keep track of what's done and not done. What rooms still need descriptions and encounters and parcels and.... In this case, where I have hundreds of story entries and encounters per level, a PDF would be hundreds of pages long. With KP's help, I do intend to release a PDF, but it is not going to be as usable as the FG module (rooms are going to have to have coordinates to find them, numbering is just not useful enough).

Not really, I have worked on a tool that instantly takes the db.xml dump of the campaign and auto formats it into a word file. Its something that I will implement in the new parser as an addon functionality. The trick is getting it to work, there are a lot of moving pieces and its complicated for a lay person to understand how to use efficiently.

@Dan sorry its taking so long, one day I will have it ready for you.

No problem, life has slowed me down too. I thought I would be ready in June, not going to happen. Hopefully July.