Scary Parse stuff

[Ant]

okay im dyslexic and looking to parse the books I've seen the videos and my dyslexia runs and hides in a corner weeping, walls of text and hockey usage and programming code,
can anyone offer me some practical and helpful advice on ways to do this as it all seems to much and scary.

Thanks for any help you can give

[damned]

Ant - there are no shortcuts to make this a quick and easy task.
Watch Xorns video. Do your Scan and OCR and then search the forums for your errors - most errors that people encounter have been previously posted and resolved.
Good luck!
:)

[grapper]

If the parser is too overwhelming, you can enter monsters by hand. This is extremely labor intensive and tedious, but realistically you only need a handful of monsters for any given adventure, so it is doable. If it makes the difference between playing and giving up in frustration, it may be worthwhile to go this route.

If you do go this route, I suggest starting a separate campaign just for making monsters. Create whatever you need for your next adventure there, then export it as a module. This keeps them all together and eliminates the need to remake monsters that you use in more than one adventure.

[damned]

And start with Valeros Basic Parser - it give syou so much for a 5 minute effort!

[Trenloe]

As damned says, try Valeros's basic "parser" - yes, it parses, but it does the spells and monsters from the freely available PDFs for you - a great place to start, as you get 2 library modules in 5 minutes with the push of a button. Find the application here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?21835-D-amp-D-Basic-Rules-PDF-Parser

[Vgamer]

I don't see the point in using that minimal parser for the free PDF's from Wizards, those free pdf's aren't the complete 5e books, and I'm sure it's not what most people want, most people want the complete PHB, MM and DMG for 5e. You don't get all the monsters, you can't make all the races and classes, you can't do a full DMG with all the magic items with that little parser. ect, ect.

It parses a fraction of the actual fully parsed books. If you want a REAL PHB, DMG and MM you have to use the big Par5e tool and it takes a lot of time, a lot of bug fixing and brain power, NO WAY AROUND IT.... and a hell of a lot of effort...

[JohnD]

okay im dyslexic and looking to parse the books I've seen the videos and my dyslexia runs and hides in a corner weeping, walls of text and hockey usage and programming code,
can anyone offer me some practical and helpful advice on ways to do this as it all seems to much and scary.

Thanks for any help you can give
I'm going to make a suggestion in a bit of a different direction.

You need to know what it is you are interested in more; gaming or specifically/only 5e gaming.

If it's 5e and nothing else, then you're probably stuck based on what I've read here.

If you just want to game, then there are other editions of D&D, or close (i.e. C&C). You could game using a system that's better supported right now, and if in the future FG gets a 5e license, you'll probably get all the modules etc... in an update or with a small outlay DLC purchase, switching over at that time (or starting a new campaign).

Just thought I'd throw another option out there.

[GunnarGreybeard]

The basic "parser" certainly won't give you but a fraction of the real books but its all the foundation you need to get started. I have been running a campaign for a few months now using just the information parsed from the free rules and my players build their PC's manually using the books they have if they want stuff from those books. The creation time is not much more that filling out a hard copy character sheet although getting the formatting of powers and things like that right can sometimes get tedious.

[Griogre]

In response to VGamer and to Ant. From the DM perspective the most important thing to get started actually running a game is having the monsters. The Basic Monster Manual has several hundred monsters. It's worth it running the the basic parser just for that, IMHO. It give you the markup for Par5e for those monsters as well so you can just add to it for your Monster Manual and that is a big thing.

Even though I agree the Basic rules are a bit thin for players they are functional and will also generate text files you can to see and build from in the bigger parser. Classes seem to be the most tricky to parse so having examples from the basic parse is a good starting point.

[Ant]

Thanks for all the replies here you've defiantly given me lots of advice and stuff to mull over.

[Vgamer]

Even though I agree the Basic rules are a bit thin for players they are functional and will also generate text files you can to see and build from in the bigger parser. Classes seem to be the most tricky to parse so having examples from the basic parse is a good starting point.

IMHO, I disagree with that. Our group tried the little parser, and the free pdf's for our game, and quickly became frustrated with the lack of content in them, for example, not having all the classes, races, etc... I mean really, who wants that?
Also the DM was tired of not having the monsters he wanted. So all of us wanted the real, big Parser PHB, MM, DMG with the Par5e tool. With all the content.

Luckily we have a hard working smart DM, that was smart enough to accomplish this for us and we couldn't be happier. Now we can reference his library and build any character in less than 5 minutes, or grab any magic items or potions from the DMG and just drag them over, or pull any monster straight from the MM and make an on the fly encounter in under 1 min.

I agree with you that the little parser free books may stop the bleeding, but we like all of our toys, not just a fraction of them. I say find a DM that has taken the time to build the big parse books to have the full potential of 5e, or if you are skilled enough and have tons of time (I couldn't do it, and really didn't have that kind of time), build the big Par5e books yourself.

[seycyrus]

Wow, I hope you take care of that DM. Free pizza and beer for him every game session?

[Vgamer]

Wow, I hope you take care of that DM. Free pizza and beer for him every game session?

Why would I? they're his books not ours, we just use them from his library when we log on and play, but maybe I'll send him a cookie though, just kidding! Please don't kill me DM :p