Beginner Issues Please Help!!

[Ertle]

im real new to FG and im tryin to just get a grasp on what alls goin on. i downloaded a campaign, the wizards amulet, but its not showing up at all. also the people who pitched in for the program (ive got FG II, 2.8.1 Ultimate) are askin for pathfinder and d20, but all that it came with is 3.5 and 4, and ive no idea where to get anything, and i just cant figure out what many of the posts mean or where exactly to put them.

apologies for being such a huge nub, but im pretty much asking to be led by the you-know-what for figuring this out; tryin not to let my friends down TOO much. I have vent and skype, or just anything good for you. ill even settle for a phone call, its just important to me that i figure this all out.

yours in desperation,
Ertle

[Trenloe]

Hi Ertle,

Welcome to Fnatasy Grounds - I'm sure you'll get some great gaming done once you get over the first few hurdles... It can be a little daunting at first.

As a start, check out Talen's newbie Pathfinder videos inthis thread here. (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15525)

Also, the "Library" link at the top of this page has manuals for 3.5E and 4E.

FYI - Pathfinder is included in the 3.5E ruleset - when you create a new 3.5E campaign and have it loaded up for the first time it will ask you if you want 3.5E or Pathfinder. Also, you should be able to run d20 games with the 3.5E ruleset too - if not to your liking, you can still download the d20_JPG ruleset from the "download" page (link above) - but this isn't being developed any more so I'd recommend going with 3.5E.

When you say you've downloaded a campaign - the wizards amulet, what do you mean by that? Is it a module for Fantasy Grounds or is it an actual zipped up file of a Fantasy Grounds campaign directory? If it is a module, you can load it by opening in the module in the module activation window - access from the "modules" icon (looks like an open book) in the top right of the screen once you've created and loaded a campaign. You will only see modules here that are compatible with the ruleset you have loaded (3.5E, 4E, etc.). If it is a campaign directory zipped up, you need to unzip this directory within your Fantasy Grounds "campaigns" directory - accessible from Windows Start -> All Programs -> Fantasy Grounds II -> Application Data folder.

I'd recommend you follow the videos first to get an idea of the interface etc. Then check the user guide and take it from there. Some of the 4E and Savage Worlds videos under "Downloads" may also help - even if you're not interested in those rulesets.

Also, do some searches on the forums - you're not the first newbie who has come here lost and asked for help! :)

[Trenloe]

Plus, Xorn's "4E Hosting Games" video (under "downloads") is also a great place to start as this shows you how to create your first campaign, open modules, etc...

[Ertle]

https://www.mapventures.com/freebies.html is where i got the wizards amulet from. it was a completely zipped campaign that comes with all the stuff needed but it runs off of d20. i dl'd the d20 rules and put the unzipped folder into the ruleset folder but it still isnt showing up, the whole ruleset isnt selectable. i just have no idea what needs to go where to make it work right

[Trenloe]

https://www.mapventures.com/freebies.html is where i got the wizards amulet from. it was a completely zipped campaign that comes with all the stuff needed but it runs off of d20. i dl'd the d20 rules and put the unzipped folder into the ruleset folder but it still isnt showing up, the whole ruleset isnt selectable. i just have no idea what needs to go where to make it work right

This is actually quite an old module - and it uses the d20 ruleset. This will work for you, but the recent 3.5E ruleset has much more functionality. Perhaps try running the example campaign that comes with Fantasy Grounds "A Tale of Dinor" to give you an idea of Fantasy Grounds.

However, to get The Wizards Amulet running:

When I refer to <FG app data folder> this is the folder accessible from Windows Start -> All Programs -> Fantasy Grounds II -> Application Data folder.

1) Unzip the contents of the zip file "The Wizards Amulet.zip" into the <FG app data folder>\campaigns directory - if the campaigns directory doesn't exist then create it.

Note: "The Wizards Amulet.zip" is actually another zip file within the downloaded "TheWizardsAmulet.zip".

2) download and install the "d20 ruleset" - accessible from the "downloads" page - at the bottom right (don't download the d20_JPG Ruleset).

3) Unzip the tokens.zip file from "TheWizardsAmulet.zip" to <FG app data folder> - this should create a tokens directory if there is not one already, overwrite any files that are already there.

You should now be ready to load your campaign!

Start Fantasy Grounds. Go to "Load Campaign" and you should see "The Wizards Amulet" in the "Select Campaign" section. Enter a "Username" if there isn't one and press "Start".

This campaign has entries under "Maps & Images" and some tokens.

As mentioned earlier, check "A Tale of Dinor" for another campaign which includes story, images and maps, combat encounters, NPCs, Items and 2 characters for your players to get started with. This is in the 3.5E ruleset (change the "Game System" option to PFRPG if you want to play Pathfinder) and so you can use the included 3.5E/Pathfinder refence modules (rules, spells, creatures, etc) easily - you won't have access to these reference modules in the d20 ruleset.

Another good place to see a complete adventure is to create a new 3.5E campaign and then when it loads open the "Well met in Kith'takharos" module. This will give you entries (under the green tabs) in Story, Images and Maps, NPCs, Items and tokens - allowing you to run an adventure in the Kith'takharos setting.

These are 2 great options to get started that are provided free with Fantasy Grounds.

[Ertle]

thanks for the help but oh man i feel like a total moron... Apparently when i made a shortcut to the fg folder on my desktop it made a copy of it, so no wonder when i put stuff in that folder it wasnt showing up :dead:

like i said though i appreciate your help a lot. thanks again!

[Callum]

3.5E is a development of the d20 ruleset, so you should be able to run the Wizard's Amulet d20 module under 3.5E. You just need to make them accept one another, as Sorcerer describes in his post here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showpost.php?p=100344&postcount=5). Note that those instructions are for the other way round (making a 3.5E module run under d20_JPG). If you change the module's definition file to say it's 3.5E, it will probably work.

[Trenloe]

Hey Ertle,

How have you got on with The Wizards Amulet?

Looking at the campaign it contains a lot of information - PCs, story entries, images, NPCs, Items. However, when I load it in the d20 ruleset (the one dowloaded from the "downloads" section) everything is missing except the images.

When I exit the campaign the campaign db.xml file is saved without all of the extra info - just the image references. I've tried loading this in d20_JPG and 3.5E as well.

So, unfortunately, it looks like this campaign was based on an even older version of the d20 ruleset, or something in recent Fantasy Grounds (I'm using the latest - 2.8.1) doesn't recognise the entries in the campaign.

:cry:

[Griogre]

I did the conversion from FG1 to FG2 for this module. I just did a fast and dirty conversion to the 3.5 ruleset and it seems to work. You can get it here: https://www.mediafire.com/download.php?bbxu3crz3u3qmh3

[Trenloe]

I did the conversion from FG1 to FG2 for this module. I just did a fast and dirty conversion to the 3.5 ruleset and it seems to work. You can get it here: https://www.mediafire.com/download.php?bbxu3crz3u3qmh3

That'll certainly explain it - thanks Griogre.

[Griogre]

I think the Necromancer guys recently cut a deal with Piazo. If someone was interested you could probably get permission to convert the module to pathfinder.