PDA

View Full Version : Free FG Campaigns?



Xeran
January 12th, 2007, 03:55
Besides Wizards Amulet, are there any free FG Campaigns? It seems kind of weird how I can't find any. All the people who DM on here must also use at least a few homebrew made campaigns. So why don't those people save there campaigns and share them with others? Or am I missing something?

Yenooc
January 12th, 2007, 05:43
I'm new to FG, so more experienced DM's can probably give you a better idea of what's out there, but 99% of what I do and plan to do consists of my taking a classic game or a personally created one dusted off from my (paper) files and translating it into the FG program.

I create a new FG campaign and go from there, putting maps and other images into the appropriate folders, etc. FG allows for an infinite variety of campaigns/adventures/modules, although having more ready-for-FG adventures would be nice. ;)

But, to answer your actual question :D no, I don't know of any other made-for-FG free adventures available.

Xeran
January 12th, 2007, 05:50
Do you think that maybe you would ever share those adventures you have put together? If everyone did that, there would soon be a huge inventory of adventures for people who play FG D&D.

Ged
January 12th, 2007, 07:02
Digital Adventures offers several adventures as free downloads: https://www.digitaladventures.net/downloads.htm. The adventures require either Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved or Iron Heroes ruleset, proprietary (licensed and not free) rulesets also created by Digital Adventures. :rv:

Xeran
January 12th, 2007, 07:39
Argh! First they make you buy FG, then they get you with the add ons. :)

Fade
January 12th, 2007, 08:34
Creating a custom adventure in FG takes a lot of time and effort, you could say it would be a labour of love. It may be a campaign that is personal to the way the DM runs it. And the DM may not want to give the adventure away for free, so that people could change it and mess with it.

I'm not sure why you expect others to give away free adventures. You buy the FG client to allow you to run your own or participate in others adventures, but at the end of the day it is only a client. It's not a stand alone compendium of free adventures. I'm sure if you wish to join some campaigns that are accepting players, you will be welcomed in to the games with open arms, or you could craft and DM your own.

Stuart
January 12th, 2007, 12:05
In addition to the time to write an adventure, creating maps (Dundjinni, Fractal, CC3 etc) takes hours, converting to xml (including the npcs) similarly. You are best off buying these or creating your own from a purchased pdf. At the moment I know of no, or few, "free" adventures.

As a rough guide to the time involved: a 40 page pdf adventure takes about 4-5 hours to cut and paste and format into FG having decided to ignore 5 pages or so of non essential stuff. NPC's, extra non ruleset monsters are time consuming extras.

Redoing the maps (optional) can take another 4-5 hours depending on expertise and the desired end product.

Extra graphic images another 1-2 hours to crop and resize.

A clear weekend is normally sufficent and a 40 page pdf adventure can often last an FG group (assuming 3-4 hours per session, once a week) for 2-4 months.

richvalle
January 12th, 2007, 14:04
Creating The Wizards Amulet took a LOT of effort on our part. We almost started to work on the 2nd adventure on that path and Goodman Game's $2 adventure Dragonfiend Pact but they never got off the ground.

When 2.0 comes out I'll probably update Wizards Amulet. Since I'm running a FG game once a week I don't have time to try and create anything else.

Since the game I'm running is a published book (The Worlds Largest Dungeon) I can't really share it. I don't put in all the content anyway... I just read what I need to from the book as we play.

I have shared the tokens and maps I've made on another site dedicated to WLD.

I think the problem is that you can't share the paid for modules and peoples personal stuff is too tied into their game to be easily shared. Heck, we've had arguments about if WoTC's free adventures can be shared (net result was that they only could with WoTC's blessing which I don't think anyone ever got).

rv

LordTomar
January 12th, 2007, 14:39
Yeah the problem is there are so many layers of copyright issues to go through for an adventure (the adventure, the images/maps, npc/creatures), that your not going to be able to find many free distributed adventures.

devinnight
January 13th, 2007, 00:42
I have a campaign that I ran for 8 months and I'm working on part two of it now, waiting for FGII to be released to actually enter more info. I have thought about making it available but 1st wanted to have Snikle redo the maps since they are all over the place style wise.

However it has occured to me that it maynot make sense to anybody else but me, and adding all the info to make it understandable by other DMs may be too time consuming.

Still, if us fummies ever got it together little 1-2 session adventures would be nice to have around.

-D

Xeran
January 13th, 2007, 01:59
Look Fade and others, I am not trying to grind everybody down or anything, I am sorry if I offended you, because that is what it seems like. I just look at all the free PnP adventures out there and wish I had such freedom of choice with FG as well. Devinnite or anyone else with a campaign they are willing to share but needs some work, I would be happy to help out if I could use your adventure after we were done.

Traygin
January 13th, 2007, 04:49
...I'm not sure why you expect others to give away free adventures...

Fade - Why would someone would want free FG modules, well people do like Free stuff, and not all that you buy is worth what you pay for it. Sure someone spent time working on it, but it is nice to also get something for free. A more detailed adventure made to professional quality standards would be worth paying for. If you look at Neverwinter Nights there are a lot of “FREE” adventures that people spent a lot of time working on, FG should be no different. There are also professionally made modules made for NWN that you have to pay for. If someone wrote a program to help create adventures etc… I am sure most users of FG would rather get it for free rather than paying the Programmer who created the application.

I my working on a campaign and plan on sharing it for free with the rest of the FG community who wish to use it and or improve etc… Anyways I do not think it would be worth paying for. The notion that a DM is so emotionally attached to their campaign that they would not want to share it, is a bit far fetched.

The way that I look at it unless a game module is worth paying for is if the developer has a lot of quality custom made “top down character/monster” images in it.

The whole issue of free FG game modules is somewhat the same way as the people who use Linux and other Open source software that they should get Open Source software for free, and scorn Microsoft because they believe the programmer should be paid (as a programmer I like being paid). Some software should be free some you should pay for, some FG game modules should be free and others should be paid for. Lets not jump down someone’s throat because they bring up the issue of “Free” modules.

Xeran
January 13th, 2007, 05:04
Thanks Traygin. Like I said though Fade, I am not trying to offend anyone. if I did so to you, I am sorry. I am not looking to make people angry here on the boards.

I look forward to your campaign being released Traygin, I am sure at least a few others feel the same way.

richvalle
January 13th, 2007, 05:07
Free!? I like free!

Back when Adventuresomedreams.com was around the guys made some small, free modules with the idea that they could be plugged into a game somewhere. Basicly one encounter at a tower. They were going to have several encounters made at the tower at different levels so there would be 1 for 1-3 level characters and 1 for 4-6 ect.

I thought there were a few made. At least 1. Sinkle, did that stuff make it over to FUM?

Speaking of FUM there might be some stuff over there too.

I think when FG 2.0 comes out there might be an increase as cutting and pasting should be easier (I hope!).

rv

Xeran
January 13th, 2007, 05:40
I keep hearing about this FG 2.0. Where can I learn more about it? Like will I have to pay again? What new features will there be. Will old FG content be compatable? When is it coming out?

Traygin
January 13th, 2007, 05:54
Xeran,
There is some info on the other boards on FG 2. So far you will not have to pay for it. It will be a free upgrade for existing users of FG. It should be compatible with the current version of Fg.

kepli
January 13th, 2007, 14:26
I'm not sure why you expect others to give away free adventures.
Fade asks why others would give away their adventures for free, not if people would like to get free adventures Taygrin ... that last one has an easy answer, doesn't it? ;) LOL

Making an adventure for your own group is usually easy enough, since you write it around that group and you don't even have to write down everything, since you have it all in your head. Some details and storylines are often enough. This also constitutes hobby time for everyone doing this.
Making a generic adventure takes a lot more effort... a whole lot more. It needs to be consistent, complete, exciting, believable (as far as that can be for a fantasy adventure LOL), big enough to last for a few settings at least, NPCs, PCs, maps, etc, etc. Still just a hobby? Perhaps, but you won't find many people with that hobby imo ...
I have been working with someone on an adventure for over 2 months now and we just finished the detailed storyline and a lot of nice encounters. It's a complicated adventure that will take many more months to finish ... don't expect us to just give that away. Why would we?

Fade
January 13th, 2007, 17:46
I'm new to these boards, so perhaps I jumped in a little bit too harshly, its just I saw Xeran's comment "Argh! First they make you buy FG, then they get you with the add ons." and thought... the purchase of FG doesn't necessarily warrant you also getting hold of a stock of free adventures to play in and run. It's a client, and you get some ideas with the starter adventure, but it doesn't come bundled with a whole slew of adventures pre-made. There are one or two free ones out there, and there are DM's essentially sharing their adventures with players, when you sign up with them.

I'm all for community projects (like the NWN stuff, although the NWN community is a couple of orders of magnitude larger than the FG community) and if people build adventures as hobbies and want to share them I'm fine with that, and kudos to them.

Free stuff is good, but I think you shouldn't expect it all free just because you purchase the client.

As for DM's and their emotional attachment to their adventures being a 'bit far fetched', well, all I know is if someone spends a lot of effort and time, crafting a world from their imagination, I'm not sure they'd be so removed as to not have any emotional investment in that world. They may want to give it away for free. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. And its a good thing, when it does. It enriches the community. But I wouldn't want the community to expect campaign builders to relinquish their efforts.

Anyway, I think I probably picked up on a flippant comment from Xeran, and perhaps made too much of it. His comment was closed with a smiley.

kepli
January 13th, 2007, 18:39
He he ... doubt there was any harm done. We can all have our opinions and views on this issue (and many others ;) ).
Hope you have a lot of fun with FG :D

Traygin
January 13th, 2007, 20:27
Fade - As Kepli has said no harm done. And also as Kepli has said is to have a lot of fun with FG!

Kelpli what is “Little Kingdoms”?

Yenooc
January 13th, 2007, 21:53
No offense here, either. ;)

The greatest difficulty in sharing adventures--as was mentioned by someone else, above--is that most of the "meat" is not placed into FG. It is on paper beside the DM, who refers to it as needed.

Maps, other images, and a few other things are best pre-loaded into the program to save time. Unless a DM has taken the significant extra time to write the entire adventure into FG, the bare bones that would be shared would be pretty much meaningless to someone else.

But I like free, too, so if anyone finds another source, please share the wealth. :D

Traygin
January 13th, 2007, 22:06
Yenooc - Very ture on your post.
I see you are also in Washington State, excellent! I am over in Seattle/Bellevue.

MaineCoon
January 13th, 2007, 22:39
I stopped giving away free stuff (not FG, this was years ago with other work) when people started being critical or demanding, as if by having given something away for free I suddenly was their slave to produce more or custom tailor it.

Nowadays I only share my work with others in exchange for money, or on a restrictive license with people who have something to share with me, and that I know can be appreciative and won't make stupid demands.

I'm considering writing a utility for FG for module creation/generation/editing... but given past experiences, I'm very hesitant to give it away, because of the BS I believe I will be subject to again.

Xeran
January 13th, 2007, 23:10
Well...I would never do anything like that MaineCoon. I see what you mean. Beggers can't be choosers and all that. If you ever do create such a program, I would love to get my hands on it, and I would be quite appreciative of merely your effort in making something like that, regardless of how good or poor I personally find it. I don't think I would pay though, sorry. Sad because what you are proposing seems like it might be quite usefull to me.

Oh and Fade, it was indeed a flippant comment on my part, as I tried to convey with my smiley (I thought I had put one in there). I am just sorry such a big deal was made out of it.

Stuart
January 14th, 2007, 00:38
I'm considering writing a utility for FG for module creation/generation/editing... but given past experiences, I'm very hesitant to give it away, because of the BS I believe I will be subject to again.

Please don't write it or release it ! This rakes up all sorts of copyright/property "discussions" that have, ahem .. "excited" the FG community in the not too distant past on other boards.:p

Rule systems and modules are fiercely protected by many publishers ... and they are especially sensitive in this sort of area. I fear that any publuc announcement of a utility that could crank the contents of a commercial pdf (such as the Dungeon Crawl Classics) into an FG module would cause all sorts of trouble.

Those few adventure modules that are for sale are pretty reasonably priced I hope ? Digital, FUM, Ilwan and Kepli ... others too are working on modules , both conversions from pdf and entirely "new" .... I would hope that these will start appearing as FGII comes out.

MaineCoon
January 14th, 2007, 02:04
Please don't write it or release it ! This rakes up all sorts of copyright/property "discussions" that have, ahem .. "excited" the FG community in the not too distant past on other boards.:p

Then you misunderstand what I am talking about. I'm not talking about something that can convert a PDF, but a better, easier to use editor than the in-FG one (the lack of UNDO and the copy/paste facility makes a poor editor), and/or possibly a tool that can take random lists or output of random generators (like PCGen and dungeon generators and such), and convert them into the XML format that FG utilizes.

If I want to write it, I can and will. I am within my rights to create it for personal use. I don't intend to make or release anything that is meant to be merely a tool for copyright infringement. If I write a tool that can take the output of a piece of software that generates OGL data (or if the too litself uses OGL content to randomly generate data), and it produces an XML file that is compatible with FG, that is not a copyright-infringing piece of software. If I write a stand-alone editor for editing modules, that is not much different than what FG itself does right now.

What a person would do with such tool is not much different than what they can do with FG, so it is no more prone to introducing copyright issues than FG itself. It is not the tool, but what it is used for. A tool that could automatically convert a PDF to a module (NOT what I'm planning) might be very useful to module authors and encourage more FG-oriented for-sale module releases by the original content authors or licensees. Even just an easier to use editor for editing nodes in the module's XML files and managing the files in the .mod, could be very useful to original content authors and licensees.

If you push forward the argument that a tool that makes editing FG's XML-formatted files easier, will introduce copyright issues with content creators, then you are also implying that FG itself has introduced copyright issues, and then perhaps the discussion should focus on the root of the problem and not the argument you would present.

Traygin
January 14th, 2007, 02:23
I stopped giving away free stuff (not FG, this was years ago with other work) when people started being critical or demanding, as if by having given something away for free I suddenly was their slave to produce more or custom tailor it....


Well I defiantly do not blame about not give away free stuff when people are so demanding and critical, well shame on them :rolleyes:

Yenooc
January 14th, 2007, 05:58
Yenooc - I see you are also in Washington State, excellent! I am over in Seattle/Bellevue.

I'm waaaaay down at the bottom of the state, just north of Vancouver (Washington, that is ;) )

kepli
January 14th, 2007, 14:16
Fade - As Kepli has said no harm done. And also as Kepli has said is to have a lot of fun with FG!

Kelpli what is “Little Kingdoms”?

Little Kingdoms is a very, very new company I am part of. Keep an eye on the FUM forum for our official start date and more information about us ;)
To quote someone else from the VT world: "It will be glorious" :D

Casamordius
January 14th, 2007, 14:43
I wrote a small tool to edit Modules the last two weekends. It reads a db.xml file and generates an easy-to-edit grid for all entrys of the encounter-node (e.g. chatframes, links etc.) including copy/paste etc.
The other parts of the db.xml are put as raw xml in some memos... so it's easy to make small changes or copy the whole charsheets to another campaign.
Of course there are a lot of features to improve..
I will give it to the community when I've finished some testing.

Stuart
January 14th, 2007, 18:00
Then you misunderstand what I am talking about.
I did !

A campaign/module writer would be nice ... FUM tends to act as a good "distribution" point ... look forward to seeing it.

Traygin
January 15th, 2007, 04:30
Little Kingdoms is a very, very new company I am part of. Keep an eye on the FUM forum for our official start date and more information about us ;)
To quote someone else from the VT world: "It will be glorious" :D

Well I cannot wait till Little Kingdoms is online it will be great :rolleyes:
And I bet your products will rock :o