Newbie Question(s) - Adventures & Modules

[Aakav]

Hey All,
I'm brand new to FG and am really looking forward to using it! One feature that really made me choose it as my VT is the integration with D&D resources to save me a lot of time as a DM.

As such, I bought the D&D 5e Core Class Pack, as well as the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure. I'm wondering though - does buying the adventure just give me the library of encounters, monsters, etc. and I'll still need to build the modules myself, or does it give me a module that I can basically just walk my PC's through? I was under the impression that the latter was the case, but if I still need to do a lot of setup for the module ahead of time, I should know that too...

If I'm way off base on my understanding, or forgetting anything important to this, let me know that, too!

[Nylanfs]

When you buy the module almost everything is setup for you.

[Bloodsausage]

Follow up question to Aakav's:

If you buy a module like HotDQ, does it come with all of the monsters preloaded, or only the ones not in the Monster Pack? Do you need the Monster Pack to run the HotDQ module?

[Zacchaeus]

All modules come with the monsters added complete with tokens for those monsters. You don't need the Monster Manual.

To the OP, this isn't an easy question to answer since it depends on how much you put into things as a DM. You can run any module without touching a thing straight out of the box. The only preparation that you need to do in that case is read and understand the module, how it is laid out and how best to run it.

If, like me, you like lot's of read aloud text and room descriptions, whispers to players, many more maps, treasure parcels which are geared towards the party etc etc then you will need to get your hands dirty and do some extra work.

Oh, and welcome to the forums and the community.

[damned]

everything in the paper based module is in the FG module
if there is a map, an encounter, a text box - they will all be in there
if there is an encounter in the paper copy that doesnt have a map in the paper copy then FG will also have the encounter and not the map

[Sibia]

I'm new as well and still not understanding everything but I guess the best way to come about learning how to play is to host a game myself at my times lol... I don't know how I feel about it but i'm definitely a dirty hands kind of DM lol. I used to play this a lot with friends and I enjoy the creation of adventure that text based adventuring gives. I just got FG today so... hope to have a blast with someone here. lol!!! but who knows. just gotta find a game first and see if I can make it to one of those, however i'm more interested in long term games =D

[Tuatara]

Everything in the PnP module is included, but you might find that with some modules they will leave you with combat encounters that don't have maps (due to being a direct copy from the print version). It's best to check through the module first for these and have a few generic city/forest/mountains/plains/interior battlemaps available.

Although theatre of the mind gaming is totally possible in FG some people prefer the consistency of a map for each encounter.

[Nickademus]

I believe there are some generic battlemap available in the FG Store. These might fill in the gaps where the modules (and the print versions) left out a map.

[Trenloe]

The FG store does have some nice maps.

To get you started FG comes installed with a generic map module "FG Battle Maps" which currently contains 41 maps.

It's a good idea to take the time to build up your own library of useful maps.

There are also many community produced maps here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?90-Maps

Then there are lots of websites where maps can be downloaded.