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damned
March 9th, 2014, 08:03
Ok - so Ive tried everything can think of... is it possible to fully prep multiple encounters?
At the moment I add creatures and npc's to the NPCs.
I then create an encounter from NPCs and add creatures/npcs and adjust numbers.

When it comes time to run the encounter I go to npcs -> encounters -> encounter-name and click the down arrow to populate the combat tracker.
I then drag tokens to the map and then the action begins.

Is this the complete way to do it or can you also save token placement on map?

Targas
March 9th, 2014, 09:18
Hi, yes it's possible to prep multiple encounters. Wondered what you mean with NPC's, but I assume you meant Personalities.
So first I create lots of personalities. In fact I create encounter tables from the information provided in adventure modules.
For this I copy each of the monster entries from the monsters manual into the Personalities window (drag'n drop) and add
a decent token to it.
After done so for a couple of monsters, I create an encounter entry for each of the monsters in the personality window.
Here, you can already specify a given amount of monsters of a kind, or even bundle different ones together as one encounter.
I set the HP to random, as I don't like to have all monsters to get the identical average HPs.
-> What I'm missing is the possibility to set the HP individually for each monster in advance, which is not possible at the moment from what I know. <-
Then I duplicate the encounter entries (just drag the icon of the entry down below in the encounter list) for having different encounters for
dfferent areas. I rename them e.g. Goblin #4, Area 1, Goblin #4, Area 3, and put pinpoints on a map image linked to those Encounters.
Then I open the encounter, click the 'down' arrow to place them in the combat tracker and from the combat tracker _only_! I drag the
encounters to the map. You will notice a green thumb up in the encounter window if you do so.
I then remove the monsters from the combat tracker, but the green thumb up still exists - meaning when you click the down arrow again,
you will notice the monsters will pop up on the map image as well. All is set.

When adventurers wander around (I always keep their entries in the combat tracker and put them on the appropiate map),
I just need to press CTRL and click on the pinpoint to automatically populate the combat tracker and the map as well!

Btw., after combat do a 'short rest'. This will reset the turn counter in the combat tracker to 1 again.

It is important to duplicate encounter entries for two reasons. The first is you can only place monsters on the map for each encounter entry.
The second is if you want to automatically distribute experience points (by dragging the encounter entry to the party XP window),
identically named encounter entries will overwrite each other.

Do a /save afterwards, zip the campagin folder for each session you run and ready you are to go.
If you experience login connection problems due to lots of images, tokens, entries, you can still go back to a previous version.
And usually, if you complete one adventure, it makes sense to export those entries you no longer use.

I love it to instead placing 20 pixies manually during the game session, you just click on the 'down' arrow once you did this in advance.

Took me awhile gathering this information from questions, watching and forum entries. Maybe we can create a 'sticky' for this ?

damned
March 9th, 2014, 10:22
Hey Targas - thanks for the response - Im still not quite there.
Yes - NPCs is Personalities - sorry.
I do the following steps as per pic below but Im still missing something.
https://www.fg-con.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/encounter-setup.jpg
Where is this Green Thumb? Im using Castles&Crusades.
Once I have done above I delete the Combat Tracker entries and when I relaunch from Pin and down arrow nothing populates the map...

Absolutely - once we have this clarified - lets get it stickied.

Targas
March 9th, 2014, 12:53
Hi damned,

you're nearly there. Sorry, my mistake. Don't drag from the combat tracker, but from the Encounter Placement: <token> field instead. First time, the token size might not match the real size, given in the monster stats S/M/L, but clicking on the down arrow on the encounter window next time, sizing is correct.

phantomwhale
March 9th, 2014, 13:37
Thanks for your post - this was something I've been lax at doing in previous games, but now I'm running dungeon crawls it's a real time saver



Then I open the encounter, click the 'down' arrow to place them in the combat tracker and from the combat tracker _only_! I drag the
encounters to the map. You will notice a green thumb up in the encounter window if you do so.
I then remove the monsters from the combat tracker, but the green thumb up still exists - meaning when you click the down arrow again,
you will notice the monsters will pop up on the map image as well. All is set.

In C&C (so presumably all CoreRPG-based rulesets), I just do this:

* Create an encounter
* Drag the tokens of that encounter onto the map of choice
* Close the encounter

This has the same effect; all tokens vanish from the map as the encounter is closed, and they only reappear when you press the "down arrow" and add them into the combat tracker. And even then, they are placed but invisible until made visible via the combat tracker.

Ben

P.S. I am rewriting the Rising Knight module that comes with C&C to use this approach. Once I've got the update done and published, hopefully others can use it as a reference point for setting up encounters / maps

damned
March 9th, 2014, 13:53
Awesome - thanks Targas.
Ive put this image/guide together - is it complete do you think? (typos aside!!! - Ill fix those in a minute)

https://www.fg-con.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pre-prepped-encounters.jpg

Targas
March 9th, 2014, 14:55
That's exactly how I do it, damned.
@Phantomwhale, agree. It's areal timesaver. Didn't know the other approach, but will probably stick to mine. :)
I'm already ready redoing A0 The rising knight with encounter settings, encounter tables and new maps.
As this is partially copyright by the Token creator and partially by Troll Lords I thought sharing would be a problem.
Besides, I may ask Trolllord games to include my selfemade maps? Will see...

damned
March 9th, 2014, 15:18
awesome - thanks for your help guys.

Targas
March 9th, 2014, 17:31
Instead of 'right click - enable shortcuts' you could press and hold the CTRL key and drag the encounter, story entry, link from another map, etc. directly. Btw., contacted Troll Lord Games.

damned
March 10th, 2014, 00:07
Ok - I think this should be the final version:

Preparation
1. Add Monsters to the Personalities Tab
2. Create Encounter and Add Monsters
3. Enable Shortcuts on Map: right click -> open map -> layers -> enable shortcuts
4. Drag Encounter to Map or ctrl+drag encounter to map
5. Drag Placement tokens into position on the Map

Running The Encounter
6. When ready to rn the Encounter open map and click the Encounter Shortcut
7. On Encounter Window click the button (bottom left) to populate the Combat Tracker and the Map

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Dakadin
March 10th, 2014, 05:28
It looks good damned. I would just add a note that the tokens will disappear off the map when the encounter is closed during prep since that tends to throw people off.

damned
March 11th, 2014, 06:24
While you good people are all at the same table - Id really like to better understand Effects - how to apply them, expire them, format them... Any takers?

damned
March 11th, 2014, 07:26
Sorry - Ive just gone back to re-read the other Sticky...

guttert
March 15th, 2014, 02:01
That's a helpful graphic. For some reason, I didn't grasp this process when going through the docs and videos, but it makes sense.

I'm preparing to run A0 myself. I was surprised the encounters weren't set up and that all the monsters for this adventure weren't added to the Personalities/Monster window.

@Targas: What maps are you replacing? I'm adding a map of the village and placing the NPCs there (directly from the personalities window).

damned
March 15th, 2014, 02:15
Ive been quite disappointed with the early C&C modules in the store.
Really not taking advantage of the features of the product.
Anyway - it is being redone shortly and store version will be updated.

As you can tell - I couldnt grasp it either - thats why I made the graphic :)

guttert
March 15th, 2014, 02:35
Oh, I didn't realize the store version would be updated. I thought folks were just updating on their own.

I'm also going through and marking which text to say to the players. Even something as simple as that really helps.

I'm debating how to handle treasure on the monster corpses. I was thinking of adding to the Items window and then adding to the Story for each room (along with a link to the Encounter). Or maybe skip adding to the Items window and just add to the Story window.

Trenloe
March 15th, 2014, 03:16
I'm debating how to handle treasure on the monster corpses. I was thinking of adding to the Items window and then adding to the Story for each room (along with a link to the Encounter). Or maybe skip adding to the Items window and just add to the Story window.
Use the treasure parcel feature - click the "parcels" button at the top of the items window. You can add coins and individual items to the treasure parcel - then link this to the NPC story entry, or put the link in the "other" tab of the NPC.

This can be shared with the players when they find the loot, it can also be dragged to the "Inventory" section of the party sheet and distributed to the party through that interface - money gets shared equally, the GM can type the name of the player who is getting which special item and auto allocate these items to the player PC sheet. You can show this page of the party sheet to the players if you wish - using the option "Party: Show Inventory to Clients".

EDIT: Info about this in the new Wiki: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Party_Sheet

This is similar to dragging encounters to the party sheet to auto allocate XP, but has more options around special items.

Moon Wizard
March 15th, 2014, 03:23
The other benefit of the party sheet is that you can drag and drop items from the party sheet onto character portrait or inventory to distribute as they pick. A note on how item distributed is added to the chat window.

Regards,
JPG

Targas
March 15th, 2014, 12:06
That's a helpful graphic. For some reason, I didn't grasp this process when going through the docs and videos, but it makes sense.

I'm preparing to run A0 myself. I was surprised the encounters weren't set up and that all the monsters for this adventure weren't added to the Personalities/Monster window.

@Targas: What maps are you replacing? I'm adding a map of the village and placing the NPCs there (directly from the personalities window).

I crated about half a dozen maps for A0 using Campaign Cartographer3. As some of them are not detailed in the module at all, it's easy to share as I don't infringe copyright. I redid those in the A0 module as well, but I don't know how to handle sharing those. I contacted Troll Lords a week ago, but didn't get a reply. Basically for each entry: town/outdoor setting, etc. I did maps and in addition with the encounter I used from Immortal Night it looks like a charm.
I asked Doug if we could add the .mods I made for the free tokens for the store (even made .mods for all token packs), but with so many tokens already available there's no interest.

I have no place to put the images public (and won't do due to copyright) - any idea on how to contribute to the community ?

damned
March 15th, 2014, 13:25
have a chat with phantomwhale - if he is doing an official update he may be able to include some of the maps if the fit with what he is doing.

i think the smiteworks guys are pretty snowed under post v3 release...

phantomwhale
March 17th, 2014, 12:21
Have just finished an updated version of Rising Knight A0 with all the encounters filled in, treasures parcelled, identification descriptions set and monsters actually given weapons, so you don't have to add them in when your in the middle of a fight !

I've also sent an email to Targas to see if I can get some of his maps to include too - need to clear that with Smiteworks / Troll Lord Games, but I would have thought extra graphical content volunteered would be highly welcome - digital adventures need a few extra maps / images which face-to-face games can often get away without.

Targas
March 17th, 2014, 20:17
Thanks for doing this once for all, phantomwhale. Just did the same finishing yesterday night, so I know how much effort you did go through.
The next update will really help newcomers to get into C&C more easily.

damned
March 18th, 2014, 14:40
Dupe Post!

damned
March 18th, 2014, 14:41
Another update - at least so I can upload image - this is now found in Wiki here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Encounters

Encounter Preparation
1. Create monsters in NPC list. (or use Library module containing monsters.)
2. Open Encounters list from button, and create new Encounter record.
3. Drag NPCs to Encounter window and choose the number of each NPC in this encounter.
4. Assign tokens to Encounter NPCs from token box. (if not already assigned)
5. Open map record from Images list.
6. Right click map and choose
Layers -> Set Grid
7. Drag and drop Encounter onto map record. (Hold CTRL while dragging, or enable image shortcuts first by Right click map and choose Layers -> Enable Shortcuts)
8. Drag and drop Placement tokens from Encounter NPC list onto map record.
9. Close Encounter record. (Placement tokens will be removed from map.)

Running The Encounter
1. Open the Map and Click the Shortcut Pin (press CTRL if Pin not visible) to open the Encounter record.
2. Click on Add to Combat Tracker button (lower left of window), or drag and drop Encounter link onto combat tracker. The Encounter NPCs will automatically be added to the combat tracker, and any pre-placed tokens will be placed on the map.

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