What am I getting in the FG version of an adventure vs PDF? (Cat & Mouse)

[Magnimost]

I'm running a one-shot for my group soon, and am looking at Cat & Mouse (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.php?id=KPFG5EKPMA6). I'm a veteran GM, players are a mix of some to no experience. I'm not a fan of dungeon crawls or railroading, and this seems to be much more open-ended than the other level 1 one-shots I've seen and bought. It also offers RP as an option to hack and slash - I get enough murder hoboes with my regular CoC group :)

It's much cheaper as a PDF from DriveThruRPG than the FG conversion. I'm new to FG 5E, normally run CoC. What am I getting for the extra cost? I'm used to running CoC scenarios from PDFs - currently thirty sessions into HotOE -, so copy-pasting maps and handouts is familiar to me.

How are NPCs in 5E, are they quick and easy to convert from a PDF?

We only have the vanilla 5E rules which come with the Ultimate license (which seem to be basic rules and SRD, which is really confusing to have three different versions of the rules), don't have any other D&D books as I'm not sure if this will turn into a campaign or not. Would this be a limitation in either FG version or PDF?

[superteddy57]

Well the cost would be the time to enter in the data into the ruleset to create the module. Also providing tokens, maps, images. If you are familiar with creating modules, then the pdf conversion should follow the same process except that it's with 5E's guidelines. I would suggest for NPCs to stick to the same format as you see with other examples from the SRD. The text not following the correct format may not produce the automation you are looking for. As for the many versions, that is based on the purchase(s) you made and what is provided for free. SRD is provided for free with the ruleset. The limitation you may face would only be in providing the player content to create classes and possibly additional enemies if you wish to improvise an encounter or two. So not only prepping the PDF, you may need to create modules for the books you do have and what available to your players for creation or additional enemies to throw at them from the dungeon master's guide. Hope this helps, and I'm sure more will chime in as well to provide additional thoughts.

[Magnimost]

Thanks, that's really helpful! As this is for a one-shot and I might need to eat the cost by myself if this doesn't turn into a campaign, I think I'll go with the PDF.

[LordEntrails]

Regarding the confusion with 3 rule books for D&D 5E...

Unlike previous/other SRDs, the 5E SRD is not intended for use as rules for playing. It's designed as a sourcebook for third parties to be able to build 5E compatible supplements. The monster list and the items list does become very handy for DMs to pull from though. But character creation is... very restricted.

The Basic Rules you should consider a quick start. They are the free introduction to D&D. They provide all the rules a player and GM need to get started running the simplest of characters and adventures. This is the teaser so people can see what D&D is about and play enough to get hooked. ('Here, try a taste, it's free!')

The PHB is then of course the full set of rules for core character creation and player info.

[Magnimost]

Regarding the confusion with 3 rule books for D&D 5E...

Unlike previous/other SRDs, the 5E SRD is not intended for use as rules for playing. It's designed as a sourcebook for third parties to be able to build 5E compatible supplements. The monster list and the items list does become very handy for DMs to pull from though. But character creation is... very restricted.

The Basic Rules you should consider a quick start. They are the free introduction to D&D. They provide all the rules a player and GM need to get started running the simplest of characters and adventures. This is the teaser so people can see what D&D is about and play enough to get hooked. ('Here, try a taste, it's free!')

The PHB is then of course the full set of rules for core character creation and player info.

That's the most succinct and clearest explanation of the difference between the three I've seen! Might be good to include that in the sticky about what you really need to play :)

I'm an oldschool D&D GM (red box, TSR and all that) who moved to CoC decades ago, and have missed all the developments since.

We are using Basic Rules for now, I didn't allow the players to use SRD for character creation, sounds like I did the right choice. If this becomes a campaign we'll fork out for PHB at least.

Thanks!

[Talyn]

For direct PDF comparison, the "Basic Rules" module(s) in Fantasy Grounds are the equivalent to the official Basic Rules PDF (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules) from Wizards of the Coast. That's the quick-and-dirtiest way of getting a game going.

Next is the 5E SRD module, which again is the equivalent to the 5E SRD (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd) by Wizards of the Coast. This has a bit more "stuff" than the Basic Rules, and also explicitly states which bits of 5E are considered "open content" for other creators to use in their own published adventures or supplements.

Then there's the full-blown Player's Handbook which has everything from the base game.

NOTE: In Fantasy Grounds, you'd want to only have one of the above loaded. If you have the PHB, just use that. If you're doing a game based off the SRD, just load that. Ditto for Basic Rules. Otherwise you're getting all the common data between them duplicated.

As for Cat and Mouse, I have the PDF but since I ended up not playing D&D I've never actually used it. NPCs in the 5E ruleset have a lot more data and fiddly bits to build them than CoC does, but it's certainly not impossible to do so, just time-consuming.