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Xorn
August 21st, 2014, 16:59
I've got HotDQ scanned, OCR'd, and I just finished snipping out all the extra linebreaks:

https://puu.sh/b1UPv/28e19d783e.png

Time to start formatting for PAR5E!

Xorn
August 21st, 2014, 18:59
Images done! https://puu.sh/b22Hz/0c18b87706.jpg

The maps from the artists' website are just ludicrously priced BTW. For a $30 book, I really expect to have the maps (at the very least player versions) available for free.

Anyway, I grabbed the preview images from the artist page and if they end up to blurry I'll use my 300 dpi scans and edit out the DM key numbers. Annoys me that I have to do that in the first place though.

Actually it annoys me that I had to spend 73 minutes (45 sec x 97 pg) scanning the book to make my own PDF, plus letting PDFXchange OCR it overnight.

/endrant

Zeus
August 21st, 2014, 19:07
I got my HotDQ scanned the yesterday, about halfway through Episode 3, all NPCs are done as are Magic Items. No problems parsing so far.

Xorn
August 21st, 2014, 19:44
NPCs parsed! Man I'm on fire!

https://puu.sh/b26fw/9611974cd0.jpg

Xorn
August 21st, 2014, 19:56
Magic Items... https://puu.sh/b26Wt/ffd1dc579f.jpg

Images tab too... https://puu.sh/b279e/938502aa5b.jpg

I feel like we're racing, Zeus. :)

I have to put PAR5E tags in my story.txt still, but the linebreaks are all fixed already. Should be pretty nice at this point.

Zeus
August 21st, 2014, 20:02
No race mate. I told you once you get the hang of PAR5E you would burn through content.

I did the PHB in two nights flat. I imagine I'll finish up HotDQ on Saturday as I'm in the middle of helping my parents move.

tlavalle
August 21st, 2014, 20:08
damn you guys are fast

Xorn
August 21st, 2014, 20:09
Yes, you were right, it's moving very quickly. Having hotkeys to to the heavy lifting on formatting has been very nice, too. Since I stripped down the TXT to have all the line breaks out right off the bat, it's made the rest go very quickly.

NPCs took me like 5 minutes--that was just awesome.

How did you do the encounters in Part 1 (Seek the Keep, for example)? Since there are varying types and numbers, I'm kind of scratching my head with what I want to do. I'm thinking about just making max size encounters for the three types that can be encountered, and letting the DM just strip out what they don't need. Thoughts?

##;Seek the Keep Groups
CR 1 XP 275
4;Cultist;;
5;Kobold;;
1;Winged Kobold;;

That's what I ended up doing.

Xorn
August 21st, 2014, 20:10
damn you guys are fast

I really should have made a video of the NPC block. It was fairly awesome.

Zeus
August 21st, 2014, 20:33
Yes, you were right, it's moving very quickly. Having hotkeys to to the heavy lifting on formatting has been very nice, too. Since I stripped down the TXT to have all the line breaks out right off the bat, it's made the rest go very quickly.

NPCs took me like 5 minutes--that was just awesome.

How did you do the encounters in Part 1 (Seek the Keep, for example)? Since there are varying types and numbers, I'm kind of scratching my head with what I want to do. I'm thinking about just making max size encounters for the three types that can be encountered, and letting the DM just strip out what they don't need. Thoughts?

##;Seek the Keep Groups
CR 1 XP 275
4;Cultist;;
5;Kobold;;
1;Winged Kobold;;

That's what I ended up doing.

For Episode 1 I created multiple encounter entries and linked them all to the Story, that way the DM has every scenario covered. For Seek the Keep which uses a Random table to generate the encounter, I have't pre-built an encounter just created a link to the random table.

#@;HotDQ - Episode 1



##;The Old Tunnel (Rats)
CR 1/8 XP 250
20;Giant Rat;


##;The Old Tunnel (Raiders)
CR 1/8 XP 200
2;Cultist;
6;Kobold;


##;The Old Tunnel (Reinforcements)
CR 1/8 XP 300
2;Cultist;
10;Kobold;
1;Ambush Drake;


##;Save the Mill
CR 1/8 XP 125
1;Cultist;
4;Guard;


##;Sanctuary Group A
CR 1 XP 400
1;Dragonclaw;
2;Cultist;
6;Kobolds;


##;Sanctuary Group B
CR 1/2 XP 425
2;Ambush Drake;
3;Cultist;
10;Kobolds;


##;Sanctuary Group C
CR 1/8 XP 200
2;Cultist;
6;Kobolds;

tlavalle
August 21st, 2014, 20:47
i like that idea. going to give it a whirl.

Xorn
August 21st, 2014, 21:30
Yeah I linked the table for Seek the Keep. Can you drop a #zl; link in the results of a table? That would be rad!

Zeus
August 21st, 2014, 21:58
Yeah I linked the table for Seek the Keep. Can you drop a #zl; link in the results of a table? That would be rad!

The tables in CoreRPG/5E are key to use simple strings for the results not formattedtext so unfortunately no, you cannot add a #zl; reference. However JPG did add a windowreferencelink to each result so you can drag the result link from the chat window (or the table itself). Clicking a resultlink reveals a simple sheet with the result string.

Tidomann
August 21st, 2014, 22:07
I was going to work at HotDQ but now I'm so HUMILIATED.

Perhaps, you could share your results with such a humble man. :p

Xorn
August 22nd, 2014, 02:44
https://puu.sh/b2BmE/4277900f76.jpg

Got Episode 1 finished; everything is linked, encounters built, etc. It really does go quickly once you get used to PAR5E. I had an error when I parsed it, saw what Story entry it stopped on, and knew before I even looked at the file that it was going to be a #zl; tag where I didn't put the category. I was right.

Gonna stop for the night, I imagine I'll get through the rest of it tomorrow.

(I might dump the Episode level Index entries; since the first entry would just be a paragraph or two followed by the same index links...)

Xorn
August 22nd, 2014, 18:42
Hmmm. I'm thinking Zeus got a special digital copy from WotC for HotDQ because I have the rats encounter as 2 Rat Swarms, not 20 Giant Rats. :P

Anyway, I'm done through Episode 5 now. It's going so fast now. Not sure what to do with the Background Template yet though; probably just make a story entry out of it.

Zeus
August 23rd, 2014, 01:01
Hmmm. I'm thinking Zeus got a special digital copy from WotC for HotDQ because I have the rats encounter as 2 Rat Swarms, not 20 Giant Rats. :P

Anyway, I'm done through Episode 5 now. It's going so fast now. Not sure what to do with the Background Template yet though; probably just make a story entry out of it.

:) The 20 Giant Rats were a stop gap as I became confused hunting for the missing Rat Swarm stat block (hint: its not in HotDQ or DM BR v0.2), also you will find Violet Fungi are also missing. Roll on an errata update.

I was planning to add the template a as a new background.

Xorn
August 23rd, 2014, 02:44
Swarm of Rats is in the HotDQ online supplement. :) As is Violet Fungi.

The template isn't really a full background--it's just some pieces of a Background you can substitute for part of another background.

Xorn
August 23rd, 2014, 16:19
All finished! https://puu.sh/b4ztw/28a6088ca7.jpg

Next task... make custom tokens...

Bumamgar
August 23rd, 2014, 16:55
I'm adding the template as a background, but it's dropping the 10th bond from the table.


##;HotDQ Background Template
Below is a background template that applies to any backg
#bp;The Story Thus Far ...
As the Cult of the Dragon has grown bolder, its actions
Feature: Cult of the Dragon Infiltrator
You have infiltrated the ranks of the Cult of the Dragon
Feature: Dragon Scholar
You have studied dragons and their lore for many years.
Suggested Characteristics
The following tables provide you with bonds tailored to

d10 Bond
1 Leosin Erlanthar, a wandering monk, once saved your li
2 When an orc raid drove your family from your home, the
3 Every five nights, you have a strange sequence of apoc
4 Ontharr Frume, a crusading warrior and champion of goo
5 You have heard rumors that your close childhood friend
6 Being the grandchild of a renowned dragon slayer is us
7 On his deathbed, your father confessed that he had bec
8 The dragons destroyed everything you hold dear. They k
9 You and your family were members of the Cult of the Dr
10 You have a secret. You once were a gold dragon who se


What am I doing wrong?

Xorn
August 23rd, 2014, 18:01
Isn't there a bug the Zeus recently discovered with the 10th Bond being dropped? I don't recall if it's been fixed yet. Be sure you have the latest version of PAR5E.

Bumamgar
August 23rd, 2014, 18:03
There was a bug, Zeus fixed it, and I am running the latest version :) This may still be a variation on that issue, however.

Xorn
August 23rd, 2014, 18:20
I just noticed I'm having the same issue with mine, too.

Xorn
August 23rd, 2014, 18:25
It's actually parsing "10 blahblahblah" as additional text. I changed it to 0 and it shows in the table, but since a d10 can't roll a 0 it won't come up. I'm guessing an issue with PAR5E recognizing double digit numbers in Backgrounds?

The_Dragon_Ladis
October 27th, 2014, 03:00
I'm wondering if you are sharing those modules somewhere so others can use them without having to parse content that someone have already parsed. Does exist somewhere where the parsed modules are placed to public domine or something? I have the PHB physically but it would be a pain in the *** to scan, OCR and parse it if you've already done that.

damned
October 27th, 2014, 03:53
@The_Dragon_Ladis there is no license to share this material. Wizards of the Coast do not allow you or anyone else to share their data even if you have bought the physical books.
Even the Basic Edition which you can download for free from their website may not be re-shared in any form.

So... no... sorry.
PITA is the way to go.

Mistamichal
October 27th, 2014, 04:25
Pity about that but, them's the rules. I would love to get a hold of the module, myself because I have no idea how to parse everything and I'm stuck with having to manually enter everything into FG.
But, that's how it's gotta be and if I can do it, so can you The_Dragon_Ladis. Just stick with it...

Xorn
October 29th, 2014, 00:16
Just FYI you can use a program like NAPS2 to scan your book in and save it as a PDF, then PDFXChange to OCR the PDF... the text will need some proofreading, but it beats retyping it all. Both of those programs are free, FYI.

If you work somewhere that gives you access to ABBYY Reader, accept no substitutes... I made some fantastic PDFs with that. (I have every 5E product released turned into a PDF I can read on a kindle now.)

Mistamichal
October 29th, 2014, 01:23
Thanks but, my problem is, I only have a flat bed scanner and I don't want to bend the book to do it. Kind of a bit anal about keeping my books in as good a condition as possible ;)

I'm most of the way through episode 1, though and I'll just do the rest as I need to. It isn't anywhere near as polished as yours but, short of asking someone to break the rules and share a copy, it is what it is :)

Xorn
October 29th, 2014, 04:43
I've been using FG2 since like... 2003 maybe? The first library module I made was with PAR5E, and I still made (in my opinion) fantastic adventure modules just by exporting campaigns. You don't *need* them to have a great FG2 experience, at all.

I'm fortunate to have a large HP multi-function printer at work, which will scan a 2-page spread @ 300 dpi in about 3 seconds. Then I just take the resulting file home and split/deskew/crop the pages, and turn the OCR loose on it. MM stat blocks give it some fuss, but all in all it does a great job. I just started working on my 5E MM now... I finished off "A" tonight. I figure I'll just tackle a letter (D gets broken up by categories) each time I'm feeling up to it, and I'll finish the MM within a week, hopefully.

Once I get my hands on Rise of Tiamat, I'm going to make a video tutorial for how I PAR5E an adventure module.

https://puu.sh/cuApp/9d9e8164b5.jpg (This is my "workshop" mode on my 2 screens. PDFs on the left, then Notepad++, followed by Token Tool and my token folder, and lastly, PAR5E & FG2 share the same screenspace so I can double check each NPC.)

Mistamichal
October 29th, 2014, 04:59
A tutorial would be very useful. I have some Pathfinder adventure pdfs that I could ocr and make into modules. I just don't know how to do it, yet.

jh79
October 31st, 2014, 09:57
Did you see the parse tutorial by this fellow?
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?21964-PAR5E-Tutorial
https://www.twitch.tv/eugeetv/c/5109089

Mistamichal
October 31st, 2014, 10:29
Yes. I used it to do the basic PHB, DM guide and, HotDQ supplement. It's just doing an adventure that's got me stumped.

Xorn
October 31st, 2014, 13:52
Yeah, I need to make tutorials for making a referencemanual.txt as well as putting a whole adventure together still. The first one I stumbled through with my PHB, and I'm now doing the MM--so I'm not ready to teach someone else how. The latter I've done several, and I think I'll use Rise of Tiamat as the material for that tutorial. (Or maybe HotDQ, since I've already done it.)

I wouldn't say that it's faster to parse an adventure module really, just more convenient.

And since this is my bragging thread, I finished "C" in my MM this morning.

7832

jh79
November 6th, 2014, 11:28
Mistamichal, Yes parse is very useful for the PHB and MM but the only way I know how to do a whole adventure module is manually. Yes you can parse and edit a lot of it but there is a lot of linking involved, So I only have done one full module that I am taking my players through now. Some people just make the maps and wing it with no prep and manually put the tokens on maps and the combat tracker, but I like to have everything already done so the night flows more smoothly.

What I mean is, text formatted in the Story part of Fantasy Grounds, like the Original module with red headers, text chat for the players and the rest nice and pretty, all the images and maps made or fixed in Photoshop or any program like that, Encounters setup with tokens ready and placed on a masked map for the combat tracker with one push of a button, items and parcels set up, everything linked up in the story basically ready to go. It is time consuming.

You can go to the link I placed at the bottom to get an idea of how to do everything for an adventure module from the gentleman that did the video. There are some shortcuts I noticed he doesn't use. However it is how I learned and found it very useful.

I don't think there is a magic Parse button that will do all the editing work, placing and linking everything for you in Fantasy Grounds, correct me if I am wrong but I think it takes a lot of hard work after you parse to make a fully complete adventure module with all the linking ect... I think there may be a misconception there with the parse.

Here is the link to the video, hope you find it useful, If you want to PM me and I can meet up with you on teamspeak if you have any questions after you watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yFW3_izigE&list=UUkVdb9Yr8fc05_VbAVfskCA

Xorn
November 6th, 2014, 23:51
I think I made the first tutorials for campaign export adventure modules, and I'll just say that it was easier to build my LMoP and HotDQ modules with PAR5E than doing a campaign export. I'm pretty quick at both, but ultimately, the linking gets REALLY fast once you get the hang of PAR5E.

I'm working on a new set of tutorials right now, basically updating my old series for 5E. The Player Quickstart covers everything players need to know (FG basics, character sheets, targeting & pointers, hotkeys, and effects), and it's almost finished. Then I'll make Hosting Games, which adds the DM perspective, with an in-depth look at campaign data, managing the combat tracker, working with maps, as well as best practices for campaign management. Lastly I'll make Building Adventures, which will show how I build a complete adventure module with story entries, and fully linked images/npcs/items/tokens, and export it to a module that can be open/closed as needed.

The whole series (as usual) will not use Library Modules at all, as I want to emphasize to folks that they are a luxury, and not necessary to have amazing VTT sessions in FG.

I've already got a video demonstrating how to use PAR5E, but I want to make another one showing how to make adventure modules with PAR5E (which is faster than exporting campaigns in the end), and maybe one more for making a Reference Manual module--though that one is pretty low priority for me, as I never use the ones I've made.

Oh, and somewhere in there, I guess I need an example of play, too.

jh79
November 7th, 2014, 00:40
Wow, those vids would be awesome. I wasn't aware you can do it all in parse from start to finish including making encounters ready to go and play, hit the button and they are added to the combat tracker, have them invisible placed on a map, linking treasure parcels, linking images, ect... in parse. I would be extremely interested in seeing those vids.

spoofer
November 20th, 2014, 08:51
I did it. It feels like I ran a marathon, but it is done. My Monster Manual is complete. It has everything; every entry, all of the optional entries, the fluff text, and the best part of all, linked tokens for every entry. Every token has been scaled to the right size, cleaned up, and if needed, given a shadow. I did not do this alone, but rather organized a team of DMs from this community to help with scraping, editing typos, finding / purchasing / creating tokens, and parsing. Now what am I going to do with my life? :)

I want to say thanks to all of you guys out there, and especially to Xorn and Damned. Your tools, your answers to my questions, your help with my modem problems, these things are a very special part of my D&D experience, and the reason why FG is the best VTT experience out there.

Kevin

7962

Xorn
November 20th, 2014, 13:19
Wow, I'm so jealous now. :) Congratulations, man!

damned
November 20th, 2014, 13:29
well done guys!

GunnarGreybeard
November 20th, 2014, 19:41
Man, that's nice.

dberkompas
November 21st, 2014, 00:17
Wow

jh79
November 21st, 2014, 00:52
Great job :)

shemantis
November 21st, 2014, 03:46
I did it. It feels like I ran a marathon, but it is done. My Monster Manual is complete. It has everything; every entry, all of the optional entries, the fluff text, and the best part of all, linked tokens for every entry. Every token has been scaled to the right size, cleaned up, and if needed, given a shadow. I did not do this alone, but rather organized a team of DMs from this community to help with scraping, editing typos, finding / purchasing / creating tokens, and parsing. Now what am I going to do with my life? :)

I want to say thanks to all of you guys out there, and especially to Xorn and Damned. Your tools, your answers to my questions, your help with my modem problems, these things are a very special part of my D&D experience, and the reason why FG is the best VTT experience out there.

Kevin

7962

Hey what are the links in the Beholder Eye Ray tables linking to? I set my table up the same way, but just wondered what you had linked there.

yondar
November 21st, 2014, 10:01
The tokens look great, I would love to have the time and skill to be able to do that, I'd even pay for them.

Yondar

jh79
November 21st, 2014, 10:15
Wow your right, holy tokens batman! Not sure why you have duplicate tokens though

spoofer
November 21st, 2014, 11:41
Hi all,

Thanks. It was a lot of work by several different people. Here are some answers to questions. The links in the beholder table allow the DM to drag and drop a rolled result to the chat window. I set up all of the tokens based on the scale of one square equals 100 pixels. I like to zoom in on the melee fights, so I want big tokens. There are duplicate tokens for some creatures that have, for example a giant version and a normal version, such as the bat. In such a case, the actual tokens are of different sizes. Also, some of the dragon tokens within a type are duplicated (wyrmling, young, adult, ancient), but again they are of different sizes. If at all possible, I tried to use different tokens, or edited a token so that it was different.

As for buying the tokens, many of them were created by Devin Knight. His work is for sale in the FG store. I also used almost all of the tokens that come with FG that were created by Raymond. (I am sorry, I cannot find his last name on his website: https://www.rpgartkits.com/). I purchased some of his kits too.

As for doing the actual editing of tokens, perhaps I should create a tutorial video that shows haw to change colors (for example, to create a bronze dragon token from a red dragon token), create shadows, and other basic editing. It is actually very easy. Could someone (Xorn?) suggest a way to record myself actually doing it, and give some advice about posting the video?

Thanks,

K.

shemantis
November 21st, 2014, 14:44
I cannot believe I haven't found that RPG Art Kits website. That art is fantastic! And honestly, when I have the time, I *love* placing little tiny items in perfect places on maps. Call me crazy.
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing. I have a ways to go, but I am VERY near completion of both the Monster Manual AND the Player's Handbook!

Oh, but for some reason: I have duplicate tokens. Every module I make in PAR5E seems to produce a token bag, even though I *don't* have tokens checked in the PAR5E program. Perhaps this is a question better aimed at the PAR5E board, but I just remember that this has been happening.

dberkompas
November 21st, 2014, 19:39
It's Raymond Gaustadnes from Norway. He had a successful Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vortexgames/game-masters-campaign-the-fantasy-art-kit/) for this art kit, of which FG was a backer, as was d20Pro and one other one (Roll20?)

damned
November 21st, 2014, 22:37
As for doing the actual editing of tokens, perhaps I should create a tutorial video that shows haw to change colors (for example, to create a bronze dragon token from a red dragon token), create shadows, and other basic editing. It is actually very easy. Could someone (Xorn?) suggest a way to record myself actually doing it, and give some advice about posting the video?

Download a Trial of Camtasia and record your session - or do it live on a Hangout on Air and it will auto record it and ask if you want to post to Youtube.

spoofer
November 23rd, 2014, 13:59
Thanks, I will try that.

Xorn
November 23rd, 2014, 18:15
I cannot believe I haven't found that RPG Art Kits website. That art is fantastic! And honestly, when I have the time, I *love* placing little tiny items in perfect places on maps. Call me crazy.
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing. I have a ways to go, but I am VERY near completion of both the Monster Manual AND the Player's Handbook!

Oh, but for some reason: I have duplicate tokens. Every module I make in PAR5E seems to produce a token bag, even though I *don't* have tokens checked in the PAR5E program. Perhaps this is a question better aimed at the PAR5E board, but I just remember that this has been happening.

I imagine you use the same Temp folder for all your modules? I've noticed the temp folder doesn't always get rid of old tokens--that's why I use separate temp folders for each project I parse.

Xorn
November 23rd, 2014, 18:16
Download a Trial of Camtasia and record your session - or do it live on a Hangout on Air and it will auto record it and ask if you want to post to Youtube.

Yeah Camtasia is what I make my videos with; very simple to work with. If you verify your account on YouTube (it sends you an automated text) then you can upload longer videos (which is why I finally made a playlist).