Questions to begin

[blade36]

Hello!

I think of buying Fantasy Grounds to Play D&D 5th Edition. I want to play the official modules (first Hoard of the Dragon Queen). But first I have a few questions:
I know that when I buy the full licence then every Player also Needs the same licence.
1. In the complete core class pack are there other Things as the single class packs and the character customization pack? If I Play, would it first be enough to buy only the class packs that the Player want to Play and the character customization pack?
2. Is in the complete Monster pack something else but the single Monster packs? Because I have counted the packs: There are ten of it worth together 49,99 $ the same as to buy as a whole pack.
3. Do I Need the Monster packs to Play the official modules?

Thanks for answering the questions.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi Blade, welcome to the forums and to Fantasy Grounds.

Firstly you have a couple of options; you can buy the Ultimate license and if you do your players won't need to buy any kind of license - they'll be able to join your game by using the demo license only. You can buy an ultimate license on a monthly subscription - you don't need to buy it outright. If you go for the Full license then your players will also need the full license to join your game. I believe that it is possible to have one player join with a demo license if you have the full license but don't quote me on that.

Your other questions;
1. The Complete Core Class back is essentially the Player's handbook so it's all of the core packs plus the customization pack all rolled into one. Yes you can start with just the packs you want and the customisation pack. Effectively it comes down to what your budget can stand
2. The complete Monster Pack is essentially the Monster Manual so it contains all of the monsters. The individual packs split the MM into bits.
3. No you don't all modules contain everything you need to play.

You can start with the Lost Mines of Phandelver which is a sort of starter adventure; it comes complete with pregenerated characters and everything else you need. I don't believe you need anything else to play other than the adventure.
Finally you can also get the core rules for a very small sum which is the conversion of the PDF's Wizard's produced right at the start of the whole thing. That contains a limited character selection and some monsters but you can get by with it as a starter especially if you get the Lost Mines module.

[blade36]

Hello!

Thanks for the answers. So i understood it right: The modules contain also graphics of the Monster they have? Or are they only in the Monster pack?

To clarify: I wanted to start d&d 5th Edition as a normal tabletop game. But there aren't enough friends near me to meet regularly. So i wanted to ask friends who live in other towns to Play via Fantasy grounds.
As a effect i still have bought the normal books (and the starter set so I know how the modules are).

One last question: I also have old AD&D modules. Is it complicated to create a module in Fantasy grounds?

Greetings,
Carsten

P.S.: Sorry for my bad english, but i am from Germany. I can read english better than write own texts

[Targas]

Hello Blade,

The modules contain graphics (tokens) of the monsters used within the adventure, and if I'm not wrong they are either letter token where they e.g. represent names of NPCs or tokens from the official monster manual.
You can always override them by using either your own created tokens or purchase token packs in the store if you feel they are a better match.
There is a tool called parse which helps creating modules for Fantasy Ground:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?18123-Project-Par5e
You have to follow some rules for converting e.g. 2E to 5E modules, however there are lots of guidelines to be found on how to do so.

In Addition feel free to ask further questions in german by sending a private message to me, or join our next session as a guest to watch and learn on how to use Fantasy Grounds for 5E. FG is a great SW you'll love when you've learned how to use it.
There are plenty of tutorial videos and wiki entries as well, which are worth a visit.

[blade36]

Hello and thanks for the answers. Momentarily I look through the tutorial Videos I found (from Dulux Oz).

[Griogre]

Also it should be mentioned the Basic 5E rules come for free now with FG and that if you go with the non Ultimate license the buy 4 licenses for the cost of 3 is a great deal in the Steam store - but you need to watch the currency conversion. The store here uses paypal.

Because you now get the Basic 5E rules for free you don't have to buy anything for the players since they can use the classes in the basic rules to try out things and if they wanted to play something from the PH then they could just gift you the player pack. Make sure you explore your different options and ask about anything that confuses you.

[JohnD]

blade36 you and your friends are on the cusp of hours and hours of gaming goodness. You're doing the right thing - ask your questions and people will be happy to answer and provide pretty unbiased advice for your particular situation. The community is great for that. :)

[TMO]

One last question: I also have old AD&D modules. Is it complicated to create a module in Fantasy grounds?

It does seem that Par5E is the way to go if you want to create modules. However, it does have a learning curve (one that I have not attempted to get through as of yet.)

Perhaps this isn't the most efficient method, but I'm essentially converting an old AD&D module simply by creating a new campaign and using the internal Story, NPC, Items, Maps, Images, etc., tools. I found the experience very useful. I have all of the official 5E adventures from WotC so I simply opened them up and followed their pattern.

If nothing else, it will help you become a bit more familiar with the layout of Fantasy Grounds and it will help you scratch that itch to start working on converting a classic module.

[Trenloe]

Perhaps this isn't the most efficient method, but I'm essentially converting an old AD&D module simply by creating a new campaign and using the internal Story, NPC, Items, Maps, Images, etc., tools. I found the experience very useful. I have all of the official 5E adventures from WotC so I simply opened them up and followed their pattern.
That's the most common way to do it - and what most FG GMs will use to create their modules.

If you're going to run games using voice, then there isn't a huge amount of info you need in FG - you don't need lots of story entries, as you can just read out from the scenario print/PDF copy. All you really need are: maps/images, NPCs, encounters, items, treasure parcels; and perhaps a few story entries to tie them all together and provide placeholders for the other entries for specific locations. Drag the location story entry to your map and you have a quick way to access the FG info for that location.

[Griogre]

It does seem that Par5E is the way to go if you want to create modules. However, it does have a learning curve (one that I have not attempted to get through as of yet.)

It depends on what you put in your modules. If you use voice then all you need in FG is the maps, monsters and treasure and you can read from the module directly. For a barebones module like that its probably faster to build the adventure inside of FG since its just drag drop and pin.

Par5e shines if you do a lot of text input, something that is usually not that necessary in your home games.

[TMO]

It depends on what you put in your modules. If you use voice then all you need in FG is the maps, monsters and treasure and you can read from the module directly. For a barebones module like that its probably faster to build the adventure inside of FG since its just drag drop and pin.

Par5e shines if you do a lot of text input, something that is usually not that necessary in your home games.

We do use audio (voice) in our games, but the Story content, especially with chat details, is nice because I can either share the Story or drop the chat content onto the Chat window and the player's can review at their leisure. Game play is so fluid that remembering what I said once is not always easy. Otherwise, I get your point.

[Xorn]

I made the PAR5E tutorial videos and I'll say that I use PAR5E for making Libary Modules (like custom classes, races, spells, backgrounds, etc.) but I use FG Campaign Exporting to make Adventure Modules. I like the finite control over grids, pre-placed tokens, and the ability to create fully developed items/magic items.

PAR5E isn't great for those things, especially the items.

[TMO]

I made the PAR5E tutorial videos and I'll say that I use PAR5E for making Libary Modules (like custom classes, races, spells, backgrounds, etc.) but I use FG Campaign Exporting to make Adventure Modules. I like the finite control over grids, pre-placed tokens, and the ability to create fully developed items/magic items.

PAR5E isn't great for those things, especially the items.

Okay, I was going to wait to ask this after I got into using Par5E but this seems like a nice segue into my question: I had always assumed Par5E had limits, especially with regard to image and map management (along the lines that you suggested.) Is it not the case that Par5E could be used to manage the content-heavy materials and then Fantasy Grounds would be used to do the polishing/detail work?

[Zacchaeus]

Okay, I was going to wait to ask this after I got into using Par5E but this seems like a nice segue into my question: I had always assumed Par5E had limits, especially with regard to image and map management (along the lines that you suggested.) Is it not the case that Par5E could be used to manage the content-heavy materials and then Fantasy Grounds would be used to do the polishing/detail work?

Yes. Parse is ideal for getting screeds of (formatted) text and NPC's into a module but for everything else it's better to use Fantasy Grounds itself.

[Trenloe]

Is it not the case that Par5E could be used to manage the content-heavy materials and then Fantasy Grounds would be used to do the polishing/detail work?
The gotcha here is that modules are read only. So if you loaded up a module created with PAR5E into FG you can't directly modify that module. You can pseudo modify module entries within campaign, but the changes aren't written to the module, they're kept within XML files in the campaign moduledb directory. If you're comfortable with XML you could merge the records in this XML file back into your base module XML. Or, you could manually copy the moduledb XML file from one campaign to another if you really wanted to. Otherwise, any "changes" you make to the module within FG are for that campaign only.

[TMO]

The gotcha here is that modules are read only. So if you loaded up a module created with PAR5E into FG you can't directly modify that module. You can pseudo modify module entries within campaign, but the changes aren't written to the module, they're kept within XML files in the campaign moduledb directory. If you're comfortable with XML you could merge the records in this XML file back into your base module XML. Or, you could manually copy the moduledb XML file from one campaign to another if you really wanted to. Otherwise, any "changes" you make to the module within FG are for that campaign only.

Thanks for the tip on this. One of the next items on my to-do list was to explore the differences between modules and campaigns. Technically, my work is in the building of my campaign but I want it to be a legitimate module. I thought I had read there was a way to convert one to the other. If so, wouldn't the reverse also be true?

I am not asking for direct answers, especially if this is all covered elsewhere. Truth is, there are so many things to learn and building a module is not a priority at the moment. I had intended to jump into this down the road when I have mastered a few other areas of Fantasy Grounds.

[Trenloe]

I thought I had read there was a way to convert one to the other. If so, wouldn't the reverse also be true?
Exporting campaign data to a module is built into FG with the Module Export functionality: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Library#Module_Export

There is no similar functionality to convert a module to campaign. You can hack the module XML to create a campaign, but there is a lot of changes you need to make - especially around links and references.


I am not asking for direct answers, especially if this is all covered elsewhere. Truth is, there are so many things to learn and building a module is not a priority at the moment. I had intended to jump into this down the road when I have mastered a few other areas of Fantasy Grounds.
This doc, while written for Pathfinder, will give you some guidelines on creating a module from a campaign: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Fantasy%20Grounds/Adventureaweek%20-%20FG%20conversion%20notes%20V3.pdf

[Zacchaeus]

The best way to think of the difference is that a campaign is everything, story, maps, items, npcs, treasure parcels the lot. A module could also be all of that but it could also be just a list of NPCs or a bunch of maps. Remember the PHB and MM and DMG are all modules as far as FG is concerned.

So you could create a module with a list of NPCs which you could then open and have available in any campaign.

[TMO]

Exporting campaign data to a module is built into FG with the Module Export functionality: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Library#Module_Export

There is no similar functionality to convert a module to campaign. You can hack the module XML to create a campaign, but there is a lot of changes you need to make - especially around links and references.


This doc, while written for Pathfinder, will give you some guidelines on creating a module from a campaign: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39085830/Fantasy%20Grounds/Adventureaweek%20-%20FG%20conversion%20notes%20V3.pdf

Sweet. I'll just bookmark this baby for that special moment when my schedule, energy, and concentration are in perfect alignment...like the planets in the cosmos. :)

Is it feasible to keep the campaign for ongoing maintenance and then just keep publishing into a module? Or are there things that go into a module that would not be easy to support from a campaign perspective?

[TMO]

The best way to think of the difference is that a campaign is everything, story, maps, items, npcs, treasure parcels the lot. A module could also be all of that but it could also be just a list of NPCs or a bunch of maps. Remember the PHB and MM and DMG are all modules as far as FG is concerned.

So you could create a module with a list of NPCs which you could then open and have available in any campaign.

Fair point. I have begun to understand that FG modules are more generic and broad than what a traditional D&D module is. My frame of reference is still stuck in the old terminology.

[Zacchaeus]

Sweet. I'll just bookmark this baby for that special moment when my schedule, energy, and concentration are in perfect alignment...like the planets in the cosmos. :)

Is it feasible to keep the campaign for ongoing maintenance and then just keep publishing into a module? Or are there things that go into a module that would not be easy to support from a campaign perspective?

Yes, you could create a module with all of the basic information for several campaigns; like for example campaign maps, background information, important NPCs.

Your game could then consist of a series of campaigns each of which had local maps, encounters and treasures but you can open the campaign module and have whatever overarching material at hand during each campaign.

Think of the overarching module as being the cover and index of a book with each chapter in the book being an individual campaign.

[Trenloe]

Is it feasible to keep the campaign for ongoing maintenance and then just keep publishing into a module?
This is exactly what you should do. I have lots of "module making" campaigns that I can revisit to modify and re-export an updated module.

[Trenloe]

Think of the overarching module as being the cover and index of a book with each chapter in the book being an individual campaign.
Have you not got this the wrong way round? The campaign is the cover and index book (and some other data), with individual chapters being based off module data? You can't have campaigns inside modules, but you do have modules inside campaigns. This is how most people use modules - and how the commercial modules are used. You can also include modules that are campaign settings/guides - but the FG campaign is the container.

[Zacchaeus]

Have you not got this the wrong way round? The campaign is the cover and index book (and some other data), with individual chapters being based off module data? You can't have campaigns inside modules, but you do have modules inside campaigns. This is how most people use modules - and how the commercial modules are used. You can also include modules that are campaign settings/guides - but the FG campaign is the container.

No, I just explained it rather poorly. For me a campaign is a series of adventures for want of a better phrase, so I would put things like say the Forgotten Realms map in a module which could be opened whilst the players are having an adventure in say Baldur's Gate and also once they move on to Neverwinter. So my FG campaign would first be Baldur's Gate and then another Campaign in Neverwinter. So my FR Map would be the book which wraps around, and is common to, the chapters in the book.

[TMO]

No, I just explained it rather poorly. For me a campaign is a series of adventures for want of a better phrase, so I would put things like say the Forgotten Realms map in a module which could be opened whilst the players are having an adventure in say Baldur's Gate and also once they move on to Neverwinter. So my FG campaign would first be Baldur's Gate and then another Campaign in Neverwinter. So my FR Map would be the book which wraps around, and is common to, the chapters in the book.

I get what you are saying. This actually causes me to think of something that never really occurred to me. Campaigns in Fantasy Grounds really are analogous to traditional table top campaigns. Thus, I should be naming my campaigns from a global/epic perspective and then as my characters graduate from one adventure (LMoP > PotA > and beyond....), I just need to add in the new module and keep on going.

Being relatively new to Fantasy Grounds and D&D 5E, I actually haven't had a single group transition from one major adventure to another. So in my mind I kept think I would be backing up the characters at the end of one campaign, create the new campaign, import the characters, and move forward from there. Each campaign in Fantasy Grounds would be named after the current module/adventure. You presented a much more natural approach and I imagine that's how Fantasy Grounds was intended to be used.

[damned]

I get what you are saying. This actually causes me to think of something that never really occurred to me. Campaigns in Fantasy Grounds really are analogous to traditional table top campaigns. Thus, I should be naming my campaigns from a global/epic perspective and then as my characters graduate from one adventure (LMoP > PotA > and beyond....), I just need to add in the new module and keep on going.

Being relatively new to Fantasy Grounds and D&D 5E, I actually haven't had a single group transition from one major adventure to another. So in my mind I kept think I would be backing up the characters at the end of one campaign, create the new campaign, import the characters, and move forward from there. Each campaign in Fantasy Grounds would be named after the current module/adventure. You presented a much more natural approach and I imagine that's how Fantasy Grounds was intended to be used.

Yes - your characters stay in the same campaign and you just load/unload modules (content) as required.