Newbie help

[phild]

I've just bought a GM license and I wanted to go in and play around with making characters, but something's not working right*

Anyway, I'm logging in to Manage Characters but the libraries are inactive and the system seems to think I'm a player so I can't activate the SRD documents that come with the standard license. When I select Create New Campaign I can see the library modules and activate as normal.

How can I get the SRD modules to be active for Manage Characters?


*and I am really rather annoyed that there isn't a decent user manual, it's not like this is free software - and no, community videos are not a substitute. I'm a roleplayer, I like getting my instructions through 180pg books, videos are not my thing! There are better instructions available for roll20 and Maptools, and they are both free.

[damned]

launch fg and start a campaign
launch a second instance of fg and connect to server "localhost" with a different username than that used in your GM instance.
then you should be able to do all your character creation etc.
if the book arent there for player but ae for GM make sure you share the modules/libraries from GM side - make sure you "open" them as a player.

its not a perfect world. its true that many programmers hate documentation. there is doco but im not really sure where it is...

[phild]

Thanks for the reply. Is that always going to be the way to create characters? Or once I've established a localhost ID, thereafter I'll be able to go straight into Manage Characters without needing to run 2 instances?

[damned]

dunno... i dont do it very often... some rulesets let you manage characters locally and then join them into campaigns (i think) but I only play C&C and im pretty sure you can only "manage" characters from within the campaign.
im pretty sure you can import and export characters from 3.5/PF/4E...
i just dont know the procedure...

[phild]

Thanks anyway. It's probably detailed in the User Manual... ;-)

[damned]

ahh yes... right there below unicorns...

there is a learning curve... ok so the curve can look a bit like a seismograph hitting 8.6...
one thing you will find is lots pf people here answering questions - not as quick as hitting the index and going to p42 but it does work...
join a game or sit in on one and you will learn lots.
and start your own game and learn on the fly.

ps right click is your friend...

[JohnD]

Thanks anyway. It's probably detailed in the User Manual... ;-)
I'm guessing that in your haste to have the program anticipate your needs and questions <1 second before your brain thinks of them you've neglected to see the user manual pages in the Library section at the top of the page.

This isn't an EA or Craptivision product with a few hundred million bankrolling development efforts and crippling bugs after release that never get fixed because the company already made its profits.

Not perfect but there is an active community more than ready to help a new person out by responding to posts and requests for guidance, if the instructions in the Library and videos (some do a better job than others) don't help.

[phild]

I'm guessing that in your haste to have the program anticipate your needs and questions <1 second before your brain thinks of them you've neglected to see the user manual pages in the Library sectin at the top of the page.
I may be a newbie, but there's no need for that tone. I went through the Library, searched through the forum and watched several of the Youtube videos. If you could point out where it covers this particular point that I've missed, I'd be really grateful.

I didn't say there wasn't a User Manual. I did say there wasn't a decent User Manual. I stick by this. I don't believe that its particularly stretching to anticipate that someone with a Full license might want to roll up a PC using the 3.5 ruleset. As is always the case, my opinion is my opinion and your mileage may vary of course.

[JohnD]

Ah, well, then damned has already taken care of that in post 2.

I fully realize the initial learning curve can be a little onerous. Personally after less than a year of semi-regular use (used it for 2 months, took a 3 month break for summer and then have been using it for another 6 months) I look back at some of what was challenging back at the start and realize I just had to go through the learning curve to get where I am now (which, by the way, is in a good place but realizing I still haven't finished travelling the curve... there's more I still don't know).

Many times FG veterans suggest that new people find an existing game to join and just observe a session or two. Believe it or not that goes a huge way to advancing yourself along the curve. Usually a DM willing to have someone observe is the kind of person who doesn't mind answering a few questions before/during/after sessions. If this interests you, I'm sure a polite, non-petulant request for the opportunity will get you an opportunity (I'd offer up one of my three campaigns but they start after midnight your time... not likely a good fit).

Start slow and don't expect to run before you can walk.

[phild]

Thanks for the thoughts. I contacted 5 DMs listed on the "Available for quick demo" sticky thread a couple of days ago, so hoping one of them might be able to help.

On the other hand, if anyone is reading and wouldn't mind a lurker, I'm not beneath the occasional grovel if it serves a purpose :-)

[Griogre]

Depending on what you are trying to do, using Manage Characters might not be the best way to approach character generation as a GM. This is 1) because Manage Character was designed to primarily be used by players and 2) it is only functional for some rulesets - usually the built in ones. 3) It's old and predates importing and exporting of characters.

Manage characters was designed to allow a player to build a character prior to a game and then connect and transfer the character to the server at game time so no game time would be lost by character generation. When I ran my open table Rappan Athuk game a few years ago it was useful, but it not that useful for long term campaign games. For manage characters to work right for players with just the lite license of FG the ruleset had to be built to use it and most rulesets not built by Smiteworks were not. However most versions of GM licenses have some functionality in Manage Characters.

Back to your original question, in manage character to see the libraries you first have to activate the library module. You did not mention what ruleset you were using. In older rulesets you would have a button on the top right of the FG desktop called Modules (or something similar - its ruleset dependant). In the newer ones you would click the Library button and then Module activation.

If as a GM you just want to make some characters you would be better off not using manage characters. Once again this is ruleset dependant, but to do this you would create or start an existing campaign and then click a button on the top right of the FG desktop called Characters or something similar (hover the mouse over the buttons to see the tooltip). Once you click the button you should get a popup called Character Selection or something similar. Right click on this window a select add character or new item or something similar and you should get a new character sheet you can fill out. You will still need to open any library modules you want as GM.

You do it exactly like in manage characters, click either the top button or the Library button depending on the ruleset and then find the module you want to activate and then double click on the icon to the left of the module name so the book icon on the right of the module name "opens."

[JohnD]

To go a bit further from what Griogre said (all of it 100% right IMO), if you're planning a long term (I guess what that means is different for everyone) 3.5e or Pathfinder campaign, you may want to seriously consider getting a license for Hero Lab.

Create your PCs in HL and export/import into FG... believe me this gets you 95% of the way there to a complete PC... and you as DM know they're valid. That's what I do and I sure wouldn't want to be building from scratch (and personally don't allow this approach to character generation in my games).

[phild]

Thanks for the feedback. The long and the short of it... I like making characters, and I wanted to play with that part of the system. I didn't realise how little FG actually does in that regard though. Hey ho, probably not playing D&D through it anyway.

One further question. Through Manage Characters I was able to roll 4d6 and keep best 3. By starting 2 instances and having Player join local boss, that option wasn't available through Create Character. Any idea what the /die code is for this? (e.g. in roll20, it's /roll 4d6h3)

[Griogre]

On just making characters there's no reason to start a second instance, its just clunky, just do it in a campaign. Sometimes if you are making pre-gen characters its useful to start a second instance so you can assign a character portrait, but that's really the only reason to bother other than just to see what the player's see.

Hmm, I don't think you can actually automatically roll 4 dice and drop one except in manage characters. I've never used that option to make stats so I could be wrong though. Honestly in online games most people would either roll the dice in front of the GM and do it manually like at a table, but my experience is 95%+ online games use point buy for stats.

As you noticed FG is not a character builder, its meant to be just like a paper character sheet where you can write pretty much anything you want. This can make it a pain during character generation but this flexibility means you can have almost any house rules you want and not have to fight the character sheet.

[damned]

my first few games as dm were also pretty close to my first few games on FG. I did play a one shot GURPs courtesy of Ronnke and a short 4e encounter with someone else...
anyways.. i spent a fair bit of time asking my more experienced players how to do certain things! we got there in the end. sometimes players still tell me stuff.
you could probably sit in on a session with me - we play 830pm Sydney time (currently +10) every second Sat - this weekend being the on weekend.
we do however play C&C - not 3.5 or PF. or if you prefer you can probably pick up and play one of the characters - someone is almost always missing from our group of 7...
that might help with your learning curve too...?

[phild]

you could probably sit in on a session with me - we play 830pm Sydney time (currently +10) every second Sat - this weekend being the on weekend.
we do however play C&C - not 3.5 or PF. or if you prefer you can probably pick up and play one of the characters - someone is almost always missing from our group of 7...
that might help with your learning curve too...?
Thanks for the offer, but I'm on Toddler / Roleplayer-in-Training Monitoring duty Saturday mornings. :-)

p.s. For the record, I'm system-ambivalent, probably a consequence of doing far more RPG reading than RPG playing for the last 20 years!