I need tips on organize campaigns

[GainunX]

With my campaign becoming more complex, I was struck by a question about how you organize your adventures on FG.

Keeping a single campaign file for general information and creating separate modules for the adventures seemed the best route at first, but I'm not quite sure. Some problems make me think that maybe it's best to keep everything in one file ...

For example, sometimes I need to make some changes in the module and, although it is open for modifications, I cannot, for example, create an new NPC or a new image inside a particular module, so this new entry is left inside the main campaign...

There are also some bugs when I have more than one open module ... For example, some encounters get mixed up (monsters from one module encounter appear in another ...).

So what tips do I get to organize adventures in a long campaign?

[Zacchaeus]

If this is all homebrew stuff then I would strongly suggest one campaign where you keep all of your general information; maps, places, NPCs, location information etc etc. Export this to a module and use that mudule in each adventure that you run. When you want to update things by adding more locations, maps, NPCs etc do it in your creation campaign and export again and use the revised module.

Don't create new stuff in your adventure campaigns unless it is not needed elsewhere.

Encounters should not be getting mixed up. If you have an encounter A with x monsters in it that's completely different from encounter B even if it has exactly the same monsters in it. Even if the encounter has exactly the same name I don't think that would cause anything to get mixed up. Can you give a more detailed example of what is going on here.

If you are running purchased modules strung together then you can just have one campaign and open the module being played; then when it is done close it, and open the next one. No need to have a completed module open if it is not being used. If you do any edits to the module it will overwrite the actual module unless you revert the changes.

[LordEntrails]

The problem with keeping everything in your play campaign is you can not easily re-use it again if you run another group through the same material later on. Also, at some point the files start to get really large and slows things down (both the campaign data base and all the images etc).

I'm not sure what size that is, but for example, my development campaign for the Dungeon Level of Undermountain takes several minutes just to open (much slower than any other campaign I have, and this is on a MCAD class workstation). This module has dozens of maps, hundreds of story entries, hundreds of encounters, etc. No way would I want to try to have one campaign for more than a dozen levels of UM. Not sure FG couldn't handle it, but performance and sorting through things would certainly be painful. That said, the Dungeon Level probably has as many encounters, story entries and everything that an entire level 1-20 campaign might have.

The biggest issue I've found with having a development campaign (or multiple) and a separate play campaign is keeping things straight and knowing I can only have one open at a time (not sure what might happen if I ran two sessions and tried to modify both and export and update etc). By keeping things straight, I mean that I have to always open up the development campaign to make changes and then exporting it and then if needed (usually not) updating/synching in the play campaign.

But as Zacchaeus says, to help more, I think we need some more details as to what the details are for the problems you are having.

[GainunX]

The problem of mixed encounters occurs as follows: supposing that I have a Module A with a "fight against goblins" encounter with 4 NPCs goblins. And in a Module B, I have a "fight against zombies" encounter with 6 NPCs zombie . So if I have modules A and B open, the "fight against goblins" will appear mixed with "fight against zombies", appearing as if it were a encounter against 4 goblins and 6 zombies.

As sometimes it is necessary to open a second adventure module - say to consult an NPC, place, lore, etc ... this can mess up the encounters.

[LordEntrails]

Huh, if I understand, that shouldn't be happening. And certainly doesn't happen to me when I have multiple modules open (I do this regularly). Can you attach some screenshots? Maybe someone else has some ideas?

[Zacchaeus]

Huh, if I understand, that shouldn't be happening. And certainly doesn't happen to me when I have multiple modules open (I do this regularly). Can you attach some screenshots? Maybe someone else has some ideas?

Yes, this should not happen at all. As I said each encounter is a discreet entity and can't therefore become mixed up. As LE says if you could post a screenshot of what is going on that would be helpful.

[GainunX]

Here are two screenshots.

First I have a single open module, "module A" with a single encounter "fight against goblins" with 4 NPCs goblins: 20359

In the second, I opened another module "missing brother" of an old adventure that I wrote. In this module, there was a encounter of a bandit's ambush, with an NPC called Celtra. Note that just by opening this second module, the bandits and NPC Celtra were added to the fight against goblins encounter: 20360

[Zacchaeus]

I see at the bottom of each encounter there's text saying 'Encounter difficulty', which doesn't appears on standard encounters. Are you using any extensions? If so try in a new campaign without any extensions - I suspect that one of them is causing your issue.

[GainunX]

I tested on a campaign without any extension, and there were no problems. Thanks!
But I use a lot extensions on the main campaign, I'll have to test one by one to see what's causing the problem

[Trenloe]

But I use a lot extensions on the main campaign, I'll have to test one by one to see what's causing the problem
Probably this one: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?26180-Posting-chat-message-only-to-myself&p=233194&viewfull=1#post233194

As you're using a lot of extensions I would recommend checking all of them for updates/compatibility.

[Zacchaeus]

Possibly one that interferes with the encounter difficulty might be a good place to start.

Gah! I knew Trenloe would know :)