confused on modules and campains and adventures

[Juzzman]

HI There,

I've watched the tutorials and got some really good stuff from them (thanks xorne, great job) but i am still a little hazy on the different terms and terminology being used. When just doing pen and paper games, a campaign is what i/we refer to a collection of different adventures that a group of characters might experience, usually with some underlying theme or thread to bind them together into a story arc. each individual adventure (also known as a mission or adventure, or sometimes module) is one or two sesions of play and involves the characters achieving a short term goal, whilst also adding to long term golad culminating in the end of the campaign.

you get the idea.

Anyway, how does this tie in with the terminology used in FG2. when you load a campaign from the loading screen does it really mean what i expect a campaign to mean or is it really referring to a single adventure?
If a campaign is really just an adventure how do i get the characters from one adventure to another intact?
If it really is a campaign, how do i then load individual adventures or campaigns? Or do i just have to write a campaign as one massive document with an index and links to all the individual adventures that i create, and a massive maps list, massive items list and massive personalities list that contain the data of all the individual adventures.

I hope that is clear, i'm having difficulty settling on a proper naming convention :-) anyway anything you can say to clear that up for me would be appreciated.

Thanks

Juzzman :rv:

[Oberoten]

Well, the campaign with it's setting is the base of the FG "campaign" basically it stores the characters and manually entered Data.

Some GM's prefer to just enter everything into the main-campaign as a big jumble and nevermind if anyone else understand their indexing or anything. (That'd be me. ;) )

Others prefer to start an empty campaign and use that as a place to create modules by creating NPCs maps, tokens etc and then place into that one and export as a module. Modules can then be activated and imported into the main campaign at need.

- Obe

[Tenian]

Campaign:
This can store characters, maps/images, items, npcs, story text, etc. Everything within the campaign is always visible to the DM. They can delete the objects within a campaign but then they are gone. Most GMs I know consider it best practice to only house reusable elements within the campaign. Such as maps of key locations, recurring npcs, etc.

Modules:
This can hold many of the same objects that a campaign holds maps, items, story text, npcs, etc. Modules can be added or removed from the campaign simply by opening or closing them. Modules are usually broken up into two groups:

a) Adventures: These are the traditional modules. All the maps, text, monsters, items for the adventure. When you are finished with the adventure you can close the module and all the objects are no longer visible. This keeps your lists of NPCs, maps, etc small and easy to manage. As an added benefit you could run the module with another group simply by opening it for their campaign, or you could distribute it to other GMs (assuming doing so does not infringe on anyone's IP/copyright).

b) Reference: These are your core/splat type books. They hold spells/powers/feats, npcs, items, etc. They are often left open in the campaign if they are allowed. But as the GM you have the option of controlling the content you want in the campaign. Also you can use these across campaigns, so if you have the "Incomplete Necromancer" as a reference module then any campaign you run can access it if you choose. This saves you the hassle of re-entering static rule type text in each campaign. Oh and they can be distributed (again assuming doing so does not infringe on anyone's IP/copyright).

[Juzzman]

Thanks for the replies.

That makes sense to me. Using that method you wouldn't force new players to download an entire massive campaign just to play one module/adventure.

Is there a good doc that explains how to create a module/adventure, and then use it with your game?

I am excited with FG2 not only for playing with users in different locations, but is using it s a dm tool to make using modules more efficient. i was going to create modules in html with hyperlinks etc but this system is easier to setup and to use. combined with winamp for sounds and background music and a second screen that the players can see for maps, notes picks etc, i have a great set of tools to add that little bit extra to the adventure and get it running quicker and more smoothly.

Thanks for your patience

Juzzman

[Tenian]

In the downloads section, on the lower right there are links to some videos. One covers the basics of module building.

[Juzzman]

Hi,

You are quite right. I watched it again and after your explanation it makes a lot more sense to me. i'll have a play and see how i go

Thanks again

Juzzman