Some questions before I try GMing

[Halisen]

I am itching to give GMing a try on FG after years of running games IRL. I messed around with converting Season 8 Scenario 1 and am almost ready to post the game.

Since this seems like such a great community I thought I would ask the few questions I have still rather than keep fumbling around looking for fix.

Technical Issues Regarding Scenario Creation:

1. I was able to make NPC's for all the encounters, but I am trying to find a way to resize the tokens to fit non-standard sizes (i.e., if I wanted a huge-sized horse).

2. Are there any tricks to making difficult terrain masks? As in quickly spreading water, or swarms of flesh-eating scarabs?

3. Is there a way to make a consumable that I can just drag onto a player that will let them use the effect, or is it more involved than that?

Questions Regarding Scheduling the Game:

A. How much notice is standard? With my job it is impossible for me to commit to anything more than 15 days in advance and I am not sure if that would be enough time to fill a table.

B. What are the tricks to getting people to work out a time that works for everyone?

Hope the society can help me out here. Look forward to running a game.

-Halisen

[damned]

1. Tokens are sized (automatically) by the Size rating in the NPC stats. Change the stats in your Giant Horse (I cant remember all the standard D&D size descriptors) and it should resize automajically.
2. Verbally!
3. You can share an effects library/module that will allow players to apply the effects to themselves. Make sure the effect is setup to expire automatically. Or keep it simple - for one time effects - just use the Modifier interface.
A. Scheduling.... that depends on what you run and in what tie slot. Run something popular in a convenient timeslot and it could fill in an hour or two... 2 weeks is enough for One Shots.
B. Dont. Work out what YOU can do and set the time. The players can do t or not. If you have a stack of players saying please can you start 1 hour later then you could make a call on that.

[Trenloe]

To expand on damned's replies:
#1 - FG will auto size the tokens from a create when they're placed on the map (from the combat tracker or via the encounter) *if* there is a FG grid on the map and if the creature has it's Pathfinder size set. See the list of sizes recognised in [size] under the Conditional Operators table here:https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/3.5E_Effects#Conditional_Operators
#2 - FG doesn't recognise areas of difficult terrain, etc.. So you'll need to work this out between yourselves, just like you would at the table. You can use circle/square pointers or drawing on the map to indicate the terrain if you wish - more on drawing and pointers here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Images#Drawings
#3 - Items don't have effects etc. against them, nor can you link effects directly to items. So, you can make an item "Potion of Cure Light wounds" for example, but the result of using the potion (heal 1d8+1 HP) cannot be added to the item. You can add a link to the spell in question, and the players could drag that spell to a spell class on their actions tab - but with Pathfinder the actions don't always parse out correctly. Some players set common consumables up within the actions tab of their own PC or some GMs create a dummy PC with these consumables set in the actions tab - then the relevant action can be used by the GM or player when the consumable is used.

#B - I'd do what damned says, set the time you want to run. If you then get a player asking you to move it one hour, check with everyone if that is OK and if it isn't don't feel guilty, stick you what you posted.

[cmdisc]

Hey Halisen, kudos on looking to give GMing here a try.

To add to your point A, GMs will generally put out notification anywhere from 4 to 10 days typically. I tend to aim for about a week prior. But games have been announced (and fill up) in half that time too.