Running a 5e game without parsed content

[GunnarGreybeard]

Just curious if anyone out there is running a 5e game without fully parsed or even partially parsed content and how smooth has it gone?

I'm itching to try my hand at GM'ing at least a couple one shots and eventually a full blown campaign but due to real life and work time commitments and bungling my way through the parsing process (been playing with parser and the MM just to get a feel for the steps required to get this done) and I doubt I'll get to a workable stage anytime soon.

I know I can run without any parsed content but would rather not make things harder on myself than they will already be. That and my OCD wants ALL the content in FG. :cry:

The last time I played any D&D was probably the early 80's other than a few sessions as player and I haven't really run anything in FG for about 2 years now so saying I'm pretty "rusty" would be an understatement.

[GunnarGreybeard]

I guess to help me prioritize where to start and maybe reduce my potential workload, what things would you concentrate of getting into FG in order to run a game of 5e if you couldn't get it all in there?

[Kelendros78]

At minimum the PHB its not that bad to parse it took me about a week but that was 4 hours a night minumum. Next I would do the Monster Manual that took me 4 days but I had help. 2 of us working through google doc's made it go much quicker...

[damned]

use Valeros Basic Parse tool - gives you at least 150 monsters and 200 spells - in 5 minutes flat.
have your players get their own PHB and they can do all their own character sheet entry.
thats the minimum work you need to do to use FG as the DM.

[ddavison]

My recommendation would be to build out some monsters for use in a random encounter table, maybe a few set encounters and enough for a single session. In between each session, just add the next dozen monsters you need and you should get there slowly over time.

[Draca]

Of course you don't really need anything but a few scraps of paper and your own books , but man is it nice to have all players and monster manual parsed , such a time saver.

in order of importance i would say.

Monster manual then Players handbook and then DMG.

After that its nothing but your modules to run.

[GunnarGreybeard]

use Valeros Basic Parse tool - gives you at least 150 monsters and 200 spells - in 5 minutes flat.
have your players get their own PHB and they can do all their own character sheet entry.
thats the minimum work you need to do to use FG as the DM.
Thanks Damned, had forgotten about the Basic Parse tool. No need to do the books right off since with the basic information added I could then work on the books as I go along and enable those library mods once completed enough for my needs.

[GunnarGreybeard]

My recommendation would be to build out some monsters for use in a random encounter table, maybe a few set encounters and enough for a single session. In between each session, just add the next dozen monsters you need and you should get there slowly over time.
Yeah, since it'll be a homebrew, well Harn actually, I'm using Par5e to build my monster library manually and that seems to be going well, slow, but well. Hardest part is converting the stats and stuff from Harn to D&D5e, still working out a good conversion formula.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Of course you don't really need anything but a few scraps of paper and your own books , but man is it nice to have all players and monster manual parsed , such a time saver.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

I think the best option for me right now is to parse the Basic Rules per Damned's recommendation and then build the other modules as I go along and have time.

[GunnarGreybeard]

At minimum the PHB its not that bad to parse it took me about a week but that was 4 hours a night minumum. Next I would do the Monster Manual that took me 4 days but I had help. 2 of us working through google doc's made it go much quicker...
Just curious how clean of a scan you had to use? Mine seems pretty good but I find myself having to manually edit a lot of stuff. I think some of the images are interfering with the nearby text and blocking it out since testing shows I can't copy a few words near the top of the monster stat block (the text right underneath some monster images) in the monster manual.

[Zacchaeus]

I suppose it depends on what you are wanting to do. All I have parsed are the Monsters and Spells from the downloadable Players Handbook and Monster Manual. I'm setting up to run the Keep on the Shadowfells module from 4e (converted to 5e of course) and since I have the PDF for that as well as all the maps for it (either d/l or made myself) it was easy enough to get the DM stuff going. My players all have the PHB so they were able to work out their own characters. I suppose what I have spent most time on is getting to grips with FG (since it is new to me), particularly getting effects to work so that as much as possible can be automated, and also sorting out token scales and things like that.

[Xorn]

GunnarGreybeard,

Until the creation of PAR5E, I used FG for 10 years without library modules. PAR5E is amazing, but as I've always tried to make clear in my videos--you do not need library modules for FG to be awesome. You could just create NPCs and Items in a single campaign, then export that campaign to a module--now you don't have to repeatedly make NPCs. If you're going to prioritize what is the most useful to parse though, here's my ranking:

1. NPCs
2. Equipment/Magic Items
3. Feats/Spells
4. Class/Race/Backgrounds
5. The rest.

NPCs are far and away the most useful thing to parse in my opinion, because you will use them all the time. You don't need to put them in all at once, though! Put in all the monsters you want for the adventure you're running, and parse it. Later, add some more monsters, and parse it again to update your library module. When you have some spare time, add some more and parse it. It doesn't need to be all at once.

Equipment is extremely handy, and you'll use it a lot. It's also really nice to drag-n-drop a weapon onto a character and have it auto-populate. Magic Items are great, but a lot like NPCs--don't tackle them all at once--just build them and parse as you need, and when you are bored with some spare time (like watching a movie or something).

Feats are easy and every character will use them. They are also low reward for low effort--you probably won't be like super excited you have feats done. Spells on the other hand are amazing, and your spellcaster players will love you for it. But at the same time, there's nothing preventing them from just typing in their spells themselves--so I'd call it a high reward for high investment--because there are a TON of spells. You might tackle it in pieces by just having all the level 1 spells parsed at first, then add level 2 over time, etc.

Class/Race/Backgrounds is only really used at character creation and level-ups. It's true that I have all the class links for my group on a hotkey bar so I can look their class up in a pinch, but my PHB is sitting on the desk next to me, too. Still, it's nice to have built eventually. Backgrounds are very easy to enter, and races aren't that bad. Classes are probably the hardest thing to parse, and it's still not that bad--plus there aren't 50 pages of them, like spells.

I guess "the rest" is parsing a reference manual. Knock yourself out, but in all seriousness--I have a fully parsed PHB, MM, and DMG, and I never use the reference manual portion. It's annoying because I spent days trying to decide how I wanted to break down the chapters, and I literally never look at it. At the point I'm using the reference manual, I would seriously prefer to just open the book up or search my PDF.

Good luck with the parsing, I hope this is a helpful breakdown of priorities.

P.S. Now making adventure modules is the reason to DM with Fantasy Grounds--but you don't need to parse to do that--but you can if you want! I'm sure you've seen them, but there's a tutorial playlist in my signature that shows how to do everything I described above.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Definitely helps give me a plan.

Oh and Xorn, thanks for reminding me about the old school parse, i.e., entering the data directly into FG and then exporting the content to build the library modules that way.