Fantasy Grounds convert to 4E HELP!!

[crazz2323]

Ok, I have seen some of the posts and Fantasy Grounds seems to have a great helpful community. I want to convert Fantasy Grounds to 4E.

I know I need to get the 4Eparse (which I did) and I also have a subscription to Dungeons and Dragons Insider. I own all the books and I really would love to use Fantasy Grounds II for a virtual table top to play with my brothers. I beg of someone to please kindly give me a convert Fantasy Grounds II to 4e for noobs step by step guide from start to finish.
I tried looking for posts and did not get a clear path to follow.

So far I know this: I install the 4E parse software, run it, click on the compendium tab, put in the username and select the book (players handbook for example) and choose scrape from the menu. As I type this, it is properly scraping the player handbook from the compendium right now (seems to take quite some time to finish).

If that's it, it seems easy enough I think ... now for some questions:
1) What do I do once its done? I will need to run it for the Dungeon's Master Guide and the Monster Manual as well correct? I just want the main books nothing fancy like the magazines etc.

2) Do I save the scrape of each book into a new folder? Then what after I scrape them all?

3) If I'm GMing, will my very non tech savy brothers have to do this to their versions of Fantasy Grounds as well?

4) What about the character sheets how does that get integrated? Can I just create them in WOTC's Character Creator and import them somehow? Anything else I need to do?

Please, a guide to get this working would be VERY greatly appreciated and you would make 4 sales for the makers of Fantasy Grounds II because once I know how to this I'm buying!

[gmkieran]

Hey, Crazz! Welcome to the fun! If you're looking for info on how to use the parsing tool, this is probably the best thread (it's not a step-by-step, because the tool was recently taken over by a different coder than originally built it and it hasn't been fully documented, yet):

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14951&highlight=parser

I'll do my best to answer your questions, but others will likely weigh in with more information.

1) yes, you will need to scrape and parse each book that you want to use
2) I don't *think* you'll have to create a separate folder for each - the parser should generate a single .mod file that you will store in the Modules folder in FG (should be a shortcut to the data folder where the Modules folder is stored in your start menu)
3) Your brothers should not have to go through the process of parsing everything - FG will push the rules to them when they connect to your server and they can access the PHB data through your connection. If one of them decides to GM at some point, he'll have to have all the same modules, but not 'til then.
4) There is a tool being built specifically for importing characters from WotC's generator, yes - check this thread: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15025&highlight=import+characters

Also, you can build characters in FG using the Character Manager. Basic stats can be rolled and then Feats, Powers, Items, etc can be dragged from the PhB module to populate the rest of the sheet.

Hope that information helps and have fun!
GMK

[crazz2323]

Ok, Thanks for the advice. I feel I am over my head looking through some of this stuff. So far I have done the following:

1) Successfully run the 4E parser (v4.1.2.1) to scrape the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide from DDI (nothing really to scrape from the DM guide, not sure if I even needed to scrape it)
- To get it to scrape successfully, I did have to download the beta release of the Parser and copy it to the application directory where I installed the stable Parser, overwriting the previous Parse4E file. Otherwise, it would always fail on the PHB.

2) Ok, so now I have various text files in separate folders for each book I parsed. For example, I have a folder called Players Handbook which has the scraped text files from the handbook in it. The same for the DM Guide and Monster Manual. Some text files are blank such as class.txt in the monster manual.

- So the questions now are: do I need to install the trial version of Fantasy Grounds II before I parse this information? I read it will automatically put the created mod in the FGII directory.

- Do I parse the information separatly per each folder? I can't combine all the .txt files into one folder because they have the same names and would overwrite correct?

- How do I go about parsing the text files now? I know I need to go to Parse and switch to parse mode. I read there will be errors like /p tags etc? Is the parsing tutorial here still valid? https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11322

- Do I set the Output Format under the parse menu to common.xml or leave it at the default db.xml?

- I get lost after this, There are entries for NPC's - alternate powers, monster stats etc. I have to assign the text files to this ... not really clear what to put where. This tutorial I linked is for an adventure module not setting up the 4E module. So under the NPC's - monster stats - data file for example, what do I assign there?

Basically, I need to know exactly what to assign where setting up the parse after I did the scrape of the PHB, and DMG, and MM.


- I sure wish I could just download the already completed module for 4E from somewhere. I guess even though I already own the books and am subscribed to DDI it's still illegal to get the completed mods huh? Well any more help will be greatly appreciated.

[Trenloe]

Ok, I have seen some of the posts and Fantasy Grounds seems to have a great helpful community. I want to convert Fantasy Grounds to 4E.

Remember that Fantasy Grounds II does not need "converting to 4E" - it already comes with the DnD 4th Edition ruleset built in. You can play 4th ed games from the word go.

What is very, very nice to have is the parsed modules for at least the PHB (for your players) and the Monster Manual (for the DM to create encounters). These allow you to reference the rules, powers, creatures etc in the game; and (the really cool part) drag-and-drop powers, feats, etc onto PC character sheets or drag-and-drop NPCs into encounters. You can play without the modules, it's just you'll have to manually enter the powers, feats, NPCs, etc.

[crazz2323]

Ahh ok! That helps clear things up! I would like to add the MM and PHB for the functionality you speak of.

I am almost to the point of figuring this out but i just need a little help please. I have been following the walkthru here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11322 (scroll down a bit) and am to the point where I need to add the Players Handbook and Monster Manual. I followed all the steps up to this point:

"11. Scroll down to the Reference section and open the Tree for Powers/Feats/Features/Background, Double-click the Data file icon and navigate to the powers.txt file you scraped earlier e.g.

e.g. C:\Users\<your name>\Desktop\PHBRaces-Dragonborn\input\powers.txt

Next Double-Click the Class file icon and navigate to the class.txt file and finally repeat for the Race file icon choosing the race.txt file.

12. Next, Magic Items. Close the Powers/Feats/Features/Background tree and scroll back up to the Items section. Open the Magic Items tree and Double-Click the Data File icon. Navigate to the mi.txt file you scraped earlier."

What do I do here? This walkthough is for adding a race from the players handbook so I get lost here because I need to add the entire players handbook right? How exactly? Do I add it under the REFERENCE - MANUAL section?

What do i do to tell it to use all the scraped text files by assigining them to the correct category (same for the MM)? I have the following from the PHP: armor.txt, class.txt, equip.txt, mi.txt, npcs.txt, powers.txt, race.txt, rituals.txt, weapon.txt. Where do I assign these .txt's exactly?

So for example, I think i link armor.txt to ITEMS-ARMOR. I linked class.txt to REFERENCE-CLASS FILE. I linked equip.txt to ITEMS-EQUIPMENT etc ... this seem correct?

Not sure if I am using the the 4E_JPG v1.51 ruleset or the 4E v2 ruleset? Says I need to change a setting before I parse if I am.

***!!! Yay I think I figured it out and sucessfully parsed the Players Handbook unless I did something wrong above that I don't know about! So, the only problem I have now is parsing the Monster Manual I get an error: (I know I need to use a text editor and fix something but what?)

9/9/2011 7:11:49 PM : ERROR:System.Xml.XmlException: The 'p' start tag on line 525 position 59 does not match the end tag of 'equipment'. Line 525, position 83.

Ok, I am going thru the lines correcting the </p>'s that are missing however I do have a question. How do you load in the tokens? They don't seem to scrape from the compendium, so where do u get the tokens for the monsters from?

Lol I hope this one man post is helpful to someone. I just keep editing as I awnser my own questions and ask new ones. I did it. Thanks for the replys it lead me in the right direction. For anyone who wants to learn how to do this, this post is essential:https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11322
Also here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12948&highlight=db.xml

[DaffyRoth]

Tokens you can get off of the WOTC website, or just get any image you want. Resize them using photoshop or whatever program you happen to have, make a folder for tokens, then link the token to the npc file. I am not sure what the actual command line is, but its in the Parser documentation. But ya all I did was go to the wizards site, copy image, did what needed to be done, (there is a tutorial vid on this site IIRC) then follow the instructions in the parser document. Or you can just manually add the tokens to the sheet in game.

[crazz2323]

Thanks Joseph! I did see that video. This forum is very helpful as well as the people in it. Thanks!

[Trenloe]

Tokens you can get off of the WOTC website...

Check this thread (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10812) for scripts to download DnD mini images from the Wizards website and make them into tokens. Its a long thread that you've got to work through to get the latest scripts etc but worth the work - creates over 800 tokens.