I'm baaaack . . . with questions!

[King Joey]

Howdy, all! Trying to get back into FGII, and boy am I glad to see Pathfinder so well supported. Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen!

Now, for the question:

Is there a way to create a fully functional NPC, as in using the PC character sheet? I like my major NPCs to have the fully developed feel of a regular PC and I can't seem to get it to work. Do I have use the NPC sheets with their limited type choices of creature, trap/haunt, or vehicle (I don't see the King of the Realm as a "trap", "haunt" or "vehicle", and "creature" seems a bit too generic)? Can I just create a character and slot it as an NPC (that's how I always did my major NPCs in pen & paper games)?

Edit to add: Question #2: Is there a way to auto-populate the NPCs list in the campaign? For example, I've got a town entered as a story entry, and within its description is a list of a dozen or so important NPCs. Is there a way to auto-generate NPC listings for each of them (even just the names) that I can then go into and flesh out, or do I have to manually generate each one?

Thanks again for the work y'all've done!

Joey

[Trenloe]

Howdy, all! Trying to get back into FGII, and boy am I glad to see Pathfinder so well supported. Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen!
Welcome back!


Is there a way to create a fully functional NPC, as in using the PC character sheet? I like my major NPCs to have the fully developed feel of a regular PC and I can't seem to get it to work. Do I have use the NPC sheets with their limited type choices of creature, trap/haunt, or vehicle (I don't see the King of the Realm as a "trap", "haunt" or "vehicle", and "creature" seems a bit too generic)? Can I just create a character and slot it as an NPC (that's how I always did my major NPCs in pen & paper games)?
You could create the King of the realm as a PC and then login as a player called "GM" and select it so none of the players get to see it as an option. Then, just running as a normal single GM session you could refer to it whenever you wanted from the character selection window. You could add it to the combat tracker when things get ugly and the players should be able to interact with it OK (target, attack, damage, etc.).

I think would work OK...

Or, just stat the NPC out as a normal NPC statblock (in the Paizo format) and use the creature parser to bring it in as an NPC: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15475. The NPC format seems to be enough for even the BBEG at the end of Paizo adventure paths, so it could still work OK.


Edit to add: Question #2: Is there a way to auto-populate the NPCs list in the campaign? For example, I've got a town entered as a story entry, and within its description is a list of a dozen or so important NPCs. Is there a way to auto-generate NPC listings for each of them (even just the names) that I can then go into and flesh out, or do I have to manually generate each one?
Use Ardem's awesome random extenstion: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17072

[King Joey]

Thanks, Trenloe.

As for the DM-run PC option, can that be dropped into the combat tracker as an enemy of the party? I'll look into what the npc statblocks can accommodate, but at first glance it seemed limited.

As for the random generator, that looks really cool but is not quite what I meant. What I'm looking at is this: I have a story entry describing a city, and that description includes a list of a dozen or so specific important NPCs that I have already created on paper. What I'm trying to do (since there are several more cities to come with the same situation) is somehow use the list I created in the story entry to generate NPC entries in the "Personalities" section of the campaign. Something like a radio button for "Create NPC entry" in the editor features of the story entries, perhaps as a submenu item under "List" or "Link" formatting?

Thanks, again!

[Mgrancey]

As far as I know you would have to code something that would automatically bring them up. You can create a table that will roll and then place links on the notes tab for NPCs, you can't put characters in links. So you could build templates or basic versions then drag a copy into personalities and customize them from there, names, weapons, etc.

Yep, all you would need to do is after adding to tracker is change their hostility

[King Joey]

Hmm. So is there any way to link a character in a story entry?

Edit to clarify: Not an NPC, but a "PC" run by the DM?

[Mgrancey]

Not directly, characters are meant for players; you can create combat encounters which you could put a character in, which can then be connected using links in story entries though.

NPCs can be put in directly into links though.

[Moon Wizard]

There have been a number of extensions written to perform PC-to-NPC conversions as well.
Here is one written by DrZeuss for the 4E ruleset. (https://www.drzeuss.co.uk/fantasy-grounds-ii/extensions/)

In the next version of FG, you should be able to drag character records from the character selection screen or combat tracker into a story entry as well.

Regards,
JPG

[King Joey]

In the next version of FG, you should be able to drag character records from the character selection screen or combat tracker into a story entry as well.
That will be great! Is there a programming/coding reason for not allowing full character sheets in the NPCs bin?

[Trenloe]

That will be great! Is there a programming/coding reason for not allowing full character sheets in the NPCs bin?
It probably depends on which ruleset you're using. For 3.5e/Pathfinder the data is stored in a different format between a PC and NPC record. Mostly to do with the extra detail and also the ability to add on data that is needed with a PC in Fantasy Grounds. In general, NPC data is static.

A lot of RPGs simply don't have the same detail in their NPC records as they do in their PC records - giving the GMs just what they need to run the NPC and for more efficient use in documenting them. Personally, I wouldn't want to see a full blown PC character sheet for my NPCs - I've grown used to the Paizo standard NPC statblock (which FG mirrors), I can run multiple NPCs at the same time using it and I haven't found an occasion where I'd actually need a full blown, 7 tab character sheet for an NPC.

[Moon Wizard]

As Trenloe mentioned, the main finding is that NPCs and PCs have different data fields in almost every game system. While they typically share quite a few fields, they are never exactly the same, nor require the same amount of detail in every area. I've worked with on about a dozen different game system rulesets, and this seems to hold true for all of them.

The solution would be to request that the ruleset developer allow conversions between the 2 record types, and allow game system logic to be specified in the conversion. It won't be a lossless conversion, due to field differences; but it will go a long way. I just implemented PC-to-NPC and NPC-to-PC conversion for an updated CoC ruleset I am working on.

Regards,
JPG

[Mgrancey]

It should be noted, that NPCs for all systems I have experienced on FG all have at least a 2nd tab where you can put notes on the NPC.

Personally, as a GM I haven't seen the need to sketch out full characters for most NPCs in any system and I usually have more beneficial stuff that could be done, plotting against PCs, prepping maps/tokens/encounters/npcs (limited)/etc. If you like making detailed NPCs with backstories and such, you could probably put them together in a PDF and sell them thru RPGNOW.com, prebuilt stuff, if not expensive, if usually a boon.

[King Joey]

Cool. And I am using Pathfinder, for the record. I'm trying to translate a campaign that I've created on paper into FGII, and as I mentioned before it has always been my habit to generate my major NPCs with PC character sheets for fuller detail. That's why I'm reluctant to do the NCP-statblock conversion and lose some of the depth, although I can always keep the paper sheets for in-game reference.

[Trenloe]

Cool. And I am using Pathfinder, for the record. I'm trying to translate a campaign that I've created on paper into FGII, and as I mentioned before it has always been my habit to generate my major NPCs with PC character sheets for fuller detail. That's why I'm reluctant to do the NCP-statblock conversion and lose some of the depth, although I can always keep the paper sheets for in-game reference.
I think you're underestimating how much information the NPC statblock can hold - and any extra info you need can be put on the "Other" tab.

For example, take the Pathfinder Iconic Wizard Ezren: https://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/iconic/ezren.html

I copy/pasted the stats from the web page for the 12th level NPC and ran this through the creature parser - see the attached module. (unzip this to your modules directory and then open in "Module Activation" and view in the library).

4482

This has all of the main statblock "stuff" on the main tab, fully detailed spells on the "Spells" tab and then other info on the "Other" tab. Plenty of space to edit this NPC (you need to drag it to a campaign NPC list before you can unlock and edit the records, you can't edit the module record) and add lots and lots of info on the "Other" tab - e.g. feat/special ability descriptions, NPC notes, etc..

This allows you to cover off everything that is on a standard PC character sheet - in a more compact format which is ideal for a GM. You really won't be losing any depth by doing it this way.

[King Joey]

Okay, apparently I've been gone longer than I thought (or y'all have upgraded FG way more than I realized). It seems I've forgotten how to do almost everything, so I was going to go watch the tutorials again. But there appear to be multiple ones and I can't really tell if some of them are outdated or if they are actually talking about different things. For example, Xorne's tutorials (which is what I learned from originally) look like they are working from a much different (older, I presume) version than I have now. Which ones are the best tutorials for the current version of FGII?

[Nickademus]

I haven't found a set of tutorial, or user manuals actually, that cover version 2.9.4. I would also be interested in the existence of some up-to-date tuts.

Edit: Omg, Dulux, where were you when I posted this!

Update: There are tutorial videos for the newest version of FG (3.0.x) here (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-pNvUFwsrAHTtuQna02FEA/videos?flow=grid&view=1).

[Bidmaron]

In the next version of FG, you should be able to drag character records from the character selection screen or combat tracker into a story entry as well.

Regards,
JPG

JPG, I don't remember this being implemented yet. Did it make it into 3.0x?

[Dakadin]

I just tested it and it is working in v3.0.2.

[Bidmaron]

Thanks. Great feature.