Preparing sessions consumes too much time

[Pau_wolf]

It's one year that i have fantasygrounds, and I used it just once. I have 7 hours of play on steam

My opinion is this: preparing all the tables, the NPC stats, the encounter tables etc. Is time consuming

I already have them on my manuals. Adding the treasure tables would make me spare some time during the game, but only if I spend hours inserting the parameters.

I can add some NPC warriors stats for example, to make them guard the city, but why should I waste my time if I already have their stats in the book?

Preparing this software to play is very time consuming, it doesn't worth the pain to spare a few seconds of play

Is there a way to spare time? Maybe taking the NPC files, the treasure tables, the weather tables, the encounter tables from other sources who already prepared them? There should be something similar on the site. Or this software is much less useful than a paper handbook and a sheet of wordpad?

I talk Like that because I use fantasygrounds to play face to face... I'm not interested in playing online. I thought that this software could help me

[Valyar]

Hello Pau_wolf and welcome to the forums.

Depending on the game system you are using, you might or might not have already prepared modules from the store. If you play D&D 5e, almost all is in FG and you have close to none preparation time when it comes to data entry.

If you play different game with ruleset that is empty of content (such as 40k Multiruleset, MoreCore, Core), then you will have to spend some time if you want to have some form of automation and extras. Nothing prevents you from playing without those things and just use FG to roll dice as you would on normal table, but it is significantly better experience.

[Zacchaeus]

Hello Pau-wolf welcome to FG.

You don't say what ruleset you are using and that is important as to what you will have available.

Fantasy Grounds is a VTT or Virtual Table Top specifically designed for on line play but it can be used successfully for face to face games. See here for more details.

If you want to have Fantasy Grounds do some or a lot of the automation for you then you will have to have the player characters and the monsters in your campaign in Fantasy Grounds. Obviously Fantasy Grounds isn't going to be able to read your physical books for you. So, once you let us know what ruleset you are using we can maybe guide you a little more.

[damned]

being that it is a computer program it needs data in the application to work with.
You will need to enter or buy the data so that you have data to work with.

5e includes several SRD volumes and Maasq makes an excellent NPC Engineer.
3.5e and Pathfinder have many monsters included and/or available.

[JohnD]

Well waiting "one year" to ask a question is probably not ideal.

What are you using the program for if you're playing face-to-face with all of your data in books etc...?

Edit: As a DM, you presumably are aware that preparing for any game "takes time".

[Pau_wolf]

thank you for your answers... I understand that I have been a few rude yesterday, but I was a few angry. I play D&D 3.5, and making a table just for treasures consumes a lot of time (minor items, art items, gems, and then weapon tables, armor tables etc. and repeat again the process for every CR of treasure). Even weather is treated in a complicated manner, by that rule system

Well waiting "one year" to ask a question is probably not ideal.

What are you using the program for if you're playing face-to-face with all of your data in books etc...?

Edit: As a DM, you presumably are aware that preparing for any game "takes time".

I didn't have time before, nor the chance to play again D&D. Next week I will play again, so I downloaded again fantasygrounds, hoping that somebody would add those missing tables, or hoping to have time and patience to do it myself. I have datas about items and NPCs in books, and I write my adventures usually in Word, and keep it open while playing for a quick plot reference. I hoped to speed up the game by having at least the SRD and all of its tables already in the software.

As DM, I already have to write a lot in order to have the adventure ready for the following week. And also, I have some other things to do, like working, playing tennis, playing the piano and other stuff during my week. I don't have time nor desire to stay in front of a computer writing one by one all the lines for all the tables. You want me to have a burnout?

[damned]

Hi pau_wolf have you activated the modules that come with FG?
Click Library -> Modules and activate the 3.5E SRD modules that are included.
Have a browse thru that data as a starting point.

[Pau_wolf]

Done. It' s a good starting point to have all the magic items, the monsters etc., but I still need to use books to spare time

If you would add a DLC with all the missing tables I would buy it, for example

[Valyar]

Unfortunately we don't live in perfect world where publishers make available the content for all possible platforms and in all possible forms. Heck, they don't even allow a single character sometimes unless it is controlled and royalties paid. I am not putting any irony here... only bitter sadness as I play game systems that have no ruleset or modules.

I know the pain - I spent several days copying data from Realm Works to Fantasy Grounds and weeks to copy data from .PDFs to Realm Works...
In the end the effort is justified only for games you will host and play for long time.

[LordEntrails]

Done. It' s a good starting point to have all the magic items, the monsters etc., but I still need to use books to spare time

If you would add a DLC with all the missing tables I would buy it, for example

Unfortunately, WotC does not allow 3.5 products to be distributed (even for sale) in FG format. So, all the official 3.5 books can't be converted and distributes. Only the SRD, which is released under the OGL can be distributed.

If you were playing 5E, you could purchase all the WotC books (and many 3rd party products) in FG format. If you were playing Pathfinder, you could buy the books, or many other game systems (see the store). But, since WotC won't give a license for 3.5, if you want to play that edition, you will have to enter the books all yourself

If you are just getting back into playing now, you might consider a system that has all the source books available in FG format. I think you'll enjoy what FG brings to your table if you do.