Newbie Questions

[Psywolf]

Sorry if these have been addressed before, but I did a search and could not find the info.

1)Does Out of the Abyss come with a reference manual? Bought it last week (because I know when to buy things, apparently) and could not find it. I am not sure if it just a thing for core (ruleset) books and the new modules (ToA, TfYP)

2) Is there a way to change the amount of xp needed to level up from the party sheet (from DM perspective) or does it have to be done only via character sheets?

Thanks in advance

[damned]

Welcome Psywolf

The Reference Manuals are a fairly new thing and were originally just for Core Books. Zacchaeus has done one for Lost Mines of Phandelver and has suggested he might do the others time permitting. They are very much a nice thing to have but it is also a big task. New premium modules like the 5e ones will have both Reference and Story but there is no guarantee that the older ones will get that treatment.

You as DM can set the XP to whatever level you like. I dont track XP at all - I level the party up at various milestones and leave it at that.

[Zacchaeus]

1) No there isn't a reference section in OotA and there is unlikely ever to be one. As damned says adding a reference section to adventures is a relatively new thing; I did update LMoP with one because a) it was easy enough to do in that case and b) it is a short adventure comparatively and only took about a week to do. OotA is a whole other level of time and because of the way it was put together I'd pretty much have to rewrite the entire module - which is 300 hours or more's work.
2) You can't edit the XP in the party sheet directly, so the only method is to amend it in the character sheets. Of course this is something the players should be doing anyway - not the DM.

[wmsmitty]

That all being said, can I as a creator of my own module works, create a Reference Section? Or is this something that can only be done by SmiteWorks? And if so, how would one go adding a reference section?

[Trenloe]

That all being said, can I as a creator of my own module works, create a Reference Section? Or is this something that can only be done by SmiteWorks? And if so, how would one go adding a reference section?
You can create your own, but you need to manually edit some XML.

Wiki article here: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Reference_Manuals&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjzwbON0bnZAhWQxIMKHaS-BSkQFggFMAA&client=internal-uds-cse&cx=010772646014076752437:l_cx3x-oggq&usg=AOvVaw0o5O4hvZS7phejLrlXHHz6

And use the "Site Search" link at the top of this page and search for reference manual There are a number of threads that have discussed this. And also a couple of extensions you may find useful.

[wmsmitty]

You can create your own, but you need to manually edit some XML.

Wiki article here: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Reference_Manuals&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjzwbON0bnZAhWQxIMKHaS-BSkQFggFMAA&client=internal-uds-cse&cx=010772646014076752437:l_cx3x-oggq&usg=AOvVaw0o5O4hvZS7phejLrlXHHz6

And use the "Site Search" link at the top of this page and search for reference manual There are a number of threads that have discussed this. And also a couple of extensions you may find useful.
Excellent! Thank you.

[Psywolf]

Welcome Psywolf

The Reference Manuals are a fairly new thing and were originally just for Core Books. Zacchaeus has done one for Lost Mines of Phandelver and has suggested he might do the others time permitting. They are very much a nice thing to have but it is also a big task. New premium modules like the 5e ones will have both Reference and Story but there is no guarantee that the older ones will get that treatment.

You as DM can set the XP to whatever level you like. I dont track XP at all - I level the party up at various milestones and leave it at that.


1) No there isn't a reference section in OotA and there is unlikely ever to be one. As damned says adding a reference section to adventures is a relatively new thing; I did update LMoP with one because a) it was easy enough to do in that case and b) it is a short adventure comparatively and only took about a week to do. OotA is a whole other level of time and because of the way it was put together I'd pretty much have to rewrite the entire module - which is 300 hours or more's work.
2) You can't edit the XP in the party sheet directly, so the only method is to amend it in the character sheets. Of course this is something the players should be doing anyway - not the DM.

Alright. Thank you.