Best way to improvise encounters

[Danimal66]

I'm the kind of DM who sometimes likes to create encounter spontaneously. FG makes this nice as I can just grab a battle map and go. However I'm looking for advice on the best way to handle this.

Should I...

1. Just drag some monsters / npc's into the combat tracker and then onto the map.
2. Create an encounter on the fly and then add it to the CT
3. Create some random encounters ahead of time? Kind of defeats my original intent

As we're all still new I find these types of encounters are getting us all familiar with the game and how to run combat. We still have things come up, like last night one of my players rolls where being hidden to everyone, no idea how he did that and haven't had time to look yet.

I want to be able to use the encounters effectively in game. For example last night I used method 1, but later had to manually give them XP. So just looking for general advice.

[Trenloe]

My recommendation would be #2. The main reasons being:

FG will tell you the CR of the encounter (press the refresh icon to recalculate) so you can easily get an idea of how difficult the on-the-fly encounter might be.
If the PCs defeat the encounter, drag the encounter entry to the XP tab of the party sheet and auto allocate XP from the encounter.

[Trenloe]

Additionally, you could setup some skeleton encounters (not encounters with skeletons) that have the base creatures already present, but not the exact numbers you might use. Then you can link these to a random encounter table using the FG tables. Rolling for an encounter (if that's your thing) will give you a link to the skeleton encounter with the right creature, adjust the numbers of each as necessary and then add to the combat tracker. Drag the adjusted encounter to the party sheet for XP allocation. Either reset the original encounter record or leave as is for future use.

[Danimal66]

I haven't even looked at tables yet or how to use them. I would love to set up different random encounter tables but I feel like that is a long way off. I'm still struggling with simple things, like healing potions or applying effects to PC's outside of the CT. One of my players gained a fireball spell before the last session and wanted to target an area on the map instead of a monster and I was completely lost if that was possible. :)

Needless to say I need to crawl before I walk. I appreciate the advice. I was thinking #2 was the best method myself.

[Zacchaeus]

You should definitely have look at tables. They are very easy to put together.
1) click on the 'tables' button in the top right hand menu
2) click the little mark on the bottom right of the pop up and then click the green 'plus' button to add a new table
3) select 2 rows from the first menu, select 2 rows from the second menu
4) In the window that opens give the table a name and a description
5) drag a 4 sided dice into the dice space just under the description
6) drag an encounter to the 'label' section and drop it next to the 1-2, give it a name drag another one and drop it next to the 3-4, give it a name.
7) you are done.

This should get you started. Play with it until you are comfortable. As a first step you can expend the entries to 4 (click the red button next to the dice slot and then use the green add button to add rows. change the rows to be 1-1, 2-2 etc)

You can use tables for many things not just for random encounter since you can link story entries and other stuff as well.
Mastering tables is probably easier than mastering some of the effects, and it will give you a sense of satisfaction if you can get this under your belt :)

[Danimal66]

Thanks very helpful. I'll play with this tonight. My group only meets once a week but I find myself in FG daily. Maybe I should try finding a game as a player.

[damned]

Thanks very helpful. I'll play with this tonight. My group only meets once a week but I find myself in FG daily. Maybe I should try finding a game as a player.

Playing certainly helps you see what other GMs are doing. You will find that GMs will vary widely in how they use FG. Some use all the bells and whistles and others use a much smaller set of features. In my opinion the most important thing to learn is encounters - which includes how to add combatants to CT, to Map, to Encounter, prepopulating maps, pinning encounters to the map and targeting. Most other things - leave them to the players.

For your AoE spell - you can draw a circle on map to show the AoE but you must then target each critter inside that Area - click and ctrl+click away!

[Danimal66]

Does anyone know why one of my players rolls are hidden from all the other players? Am I missing an obvious option? I know how to hide and unhide my GM rolls. He claims he doesn't see an option to hide his rolls.

[kylania]

Is he rolling the dice in the chat window? He can roll dice anywhere else all day long and only he will see the roll but only rolls within the chat window will register in the log and for others. If he's using the Dice Tower other players can see a ghost roll but not the results.

[damned]

Is he rolling the dice in the chat window? He can roll dice anywhere else all day long and only he will see the roll but only rolls within the chat window will register in the log and for others. If he's using the Dice Tower other players can see a ghost roll but not the results.

Almost ninja'd me! Well you would have - except you were so fast I didn't even get to start typing!
If the player is rolling on the desktop all you will see is phantom dice.

[Trenloe]

If the player rolls on the desktop (i.e. not in the chat window or the dice tower) no one will see any phantom dice (not the players or the GM) nor will the player rolling see anything posted in their chat window.

Danimal66 - assuming you were the GM, did you see any results posted to the chat window for this player? Or was it a case of no one could see any rolls from this player? If just the GM is seeing the rolls, looks to the left of the result line posted in the GM chat window - if there is a tower icon and/or a ? question mark icon, then the player is using the dice tower for rolls.

If this doesn't make sense with what the player is doing, ask them do to a basic test - like a Strength test. On the "Main" tab of their character sheet, ask them to double-click on the "STR" entry (where the number for the strength stat is - the mouse pointer will change from a pointer to a hand). Double-clicking will do a roll directly into the chat window which everyone (GM and players) should be able to see.

[Danimal66]

Is he rolling the dice in the chat window? He can roll dice anywhere else all day long and only he will see the roll but only rolls within the chat window will register in the log and for others. If he's using the Dice Tower other players can see a ghost roll but not the results.

According to him he was rolling in the dice tower. His rolls were ghosted to him and all other players but i could see the results as DM.

[Danimal66]

Danimal66 - assuming you were the GM, did you see any results posted to the chat window for this player? Or was it a case of no one could see any rolls from this player? If just the GM is seeing the rolls, looks to the left of the result line posted in the GM chat window - if there is a tower icon and/or a ? question mark icon, then the player is using the dice tower for rolls.

To be more specific I was GM.

If he did a check or attack from his character sheet it worked fine.

If he tried to roll some dice into the tower his rolls were ghosted to everyone (including him) but me. I recall see a Tower icon next to his rolls.

[Trenloe]

If he tried to roll some dice into the tower his rolls were ghosted to everyone (including him) but me. I recall see a Tower icon next to his rolls.
That's working correctly. That's what the tower is there for - to allow the GM to ask players to make a roll, but only the GM sees the result. Such as checking for traps, a knowledge check, etc. - something where you don't want the players to know if they've rolled well or not.

The dice tower is not like a player having a dice tower in a face-to-face game - it's the mechanism to do rolls that only the GM sees.

[Danimal66]

So just so I understand (sorry this is all learning as I go) with the lose dice i.e. not from his sheet.

If he rolls on the "table or anywhere else" nothing logs.

If he rolls in the dice tower only I will see the result.

If he rolls it in the chat window everyone sees the results and it logs.

The roll in question was rolling for the results of a healing potion.

[Trenloe]

If he rolls on the "table or anywhere else" nothing logs.

If he rolls in the dice tower only I will see the result.

If he rolls it in the chat window everyone sees the results and it logs.
Correct.

I would add to the last one - if the player double clicks a rollable field on the character sheet everyone will see the result, this is the same as doing a roll in the chat window.

Further info in the "Dice" page of the Wiki: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Dice