creating a campaign from scratch

[BlackDot]

I wanted to create a campaign from my pen and paper materials. I wanted to use my own maps, npc's, monsters and such. I'm having a real hard time trying to do this. I've watched the YouTube tutorials but it seems they talk about modules and not creating something from scratch. I'm not a FG sage or expert so I feel I need the communities help on this one.
I've been working on creating a new campaign setting and I was hoping I could start it here before publishing it.

Thanks for your time folks,

BlackDot

[seycyrus]

Fantasy Grounds supports almost all the rpgs out there. What game system would you want to use? Do you already have digital copies of your maps?

[BlackDot]

I'm using 5E. Right now my maps are hand drawn but at the end of the week I'm purchasing Fractal Mapper 8.0 to make digital copies of them. I thought, as far as my stories and any other written materials I have, I thought I could turn those into pdf's but when I try to drop them into the folders nothing shoes up. I know I'm doing something wrong I just don't know what.

[shadzar]

I'm using 5E.

"creating a module" means to create a new 5e campaign, start adding the data, maps, etc where they go in FG, and then use /export in chat.

this is how you get anything into Fantasy Grounds.

the options "Read Only", and "Player module" i am not sure about, someone else would have to explain, but one makes a campaign only in you campaigns folder with a db.xml, and the other saves a zipped up archive of the module, that you can load from the library.

otherwise there is /save in chat that will just save the campaign for you to run, which will be how you use it, but any changes made will be saved, and you cannot return to the unused version unless it was saved as the .MOD file with the /export command.

[damned]

BlackDot enter your data/stories into FG in the first instance or copy and paste sections of text into FG.
FG is not a PDF reader and cannot read your PDF and if it could it wouldnt know what data type each piece of text is.
Click on Images and Folder and drag your images into that folder that opens up.
Keep map images to less than 2000x2000px
Keep other images to within 1000x800px

[Andraax]

My recommendation is a module for "regional" information for the GM, and another module for "regional" information for the players, make the latter a "Player Module". Then make a "custom monsters" module. After that, make one or more adventure modules, using your custom monsters module plus the standard monsters modules. In the adventure module, you put anything related to the adventure, including any custom images and tokens.

When ready to play, you create a campaign for the players. Within this campaign, you open your regional modules (and the players open the player one for themselves). Open an adventure module, and during the next few sessions, play through that adventure. You can be working on subsequent adventure modules while this is going on. Once the adventure is complete, close that module (which automatically unshares any resources in that module) and open the next adventure module. And so on.

This way, the only thing that is stored long term in the campaign itself are the PCs and their personal items / NPCs / etc.

You can even use the same adventure module with multiple groups - create a campaign for each group, and you can open the same adventure in each player campaign. If you edit your adventure while you're playing with one group (notes, etc) - those changes are only visible in the campaign you edited them in. Any other campaigns playing through the same adventure will see the "original" data, unless it's edited there as well.

[LordEntrails]

Check out the link in my signature about Adventure Module creation. It will save you a lot of heartache.

In short, create a new campaign, enter everything (stories, maps, encounters, etc) then export it. Create a new campaign, open your new module and start playing. Keep your "development" campaign to make updates as needed.

In terms of Read Only and Player export options, here is a recent description from one of the developers;


Here are the suggested settings for different module use cases:


* Reference modules (ie rulebooks) for Players and GMs = Read only set to On and Player set to On


* Reference modules for GM only = Read only set to On and Player set to Off


* Adventure modules = Read Only set to Off and Player set to Off


Here’s what the settings do:


* Read Only = Determines whether the GM can edit the module data (changes are not actually applied to the module data, but overridden just for that campaign.)


* Player = Determines whether the players can access the module automatically or not. This just affects the default behavior of the module in a new campaign, and can be overridden by the GM on a per campaign basis.

[ddavison]

I recommend that you check out the included 5E Sample Campaign and open up the Story section. Don't open anything else until you've been instructed to by the tutorial. It will teach you the basics of building your campaign from scratch.

[GarthGiantbane]

Another resource to get you going -

Rob Twohy and Fantasy Grounds College just did their last show on module creation. It's worth watching not only for suggested organization ideas but also several nice helper apps for maps and images.

Here's the link: All Things Fantasy Grounds Talk Show Episode 19 - Module Makings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2caVbp9xMqs&t=3834s)

[BlackDot]

Wow! Thank you folks for all the tips. I will apply this knowledge asap. I believe FG has one of the best online communities around. Thank you all for your time.

BlackDot

[mac40k]

Another thing I like to point out is that you don't need to have all the text for an adventure entered into FG to be able to run it. Yes, you will need to input your maps, and NPCs/monsters, but that's really it. While copy/pasting text into FG and then formatting isn't hard to do, it isn't necessary. Depending on how much time you have for prep, you can always run your adventure from your handwritten notes just like you would at a real table. Even maps are unnecessary if you are going for theater of the mind style of handling combat. Alternately, you could scan a hand drawn map and then resize it a graphics app to the right size to use with the FG grid. May not look as nice as a more professionally produced map, but it works just fine.

[BlackDot]

I really like that idea also. I'm going to try to incorporate as many as these ideas as I can in case I hit a road block.

[Nylanfs]

Especially if you are using a voice program, just read the description then you just need text for notes and letter and such.

[donpaulo]

and keep coming back to the thread.

There are so many great features that we can implement as we move up the learning curve