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Sylvesr
July 28th, 2020, 23:42
Fellow Fantasy Grounders,
I am a brand new member to the FG environment and grown quickly frustrated. I have a large home spun custom Traveller campaign that I want to convert in FG into something for my friends and I to play. I read the reviews and FG was the winner though it was a tad co$tly. So I am into FG for nearly $200 now but cannot get a darned thing to build for me other than the player character sheets. I tried to follow the training vids but they are all aimed at 5E and there are glitches. I scrolled the FGU web pages but don't find Traveller specific how to vids.

I am trying to follow the instructions on a 5E vid but sadly the presenter is doing things only using the 5E system and I am trying to do Traveller so the buttonology is different. For example there is no Images AND MAPs button on the right only Images. But...buried In the library there is one named Images and Maps. I open it up and follow his instructions to drag and drop my map image...no joy. I repeated his steps over again and looked at the accompanying PDF for clarity. Again, no luck and the PDF too is all 5E focused, so the instructions do not jive with Traveller and I am getting nowhere except frustrated. If this is not going to work for Traveller I have to find another platform.

Are there any Traveller GMs who have experience with building a custom campaign who have the time to assist? I am working from home so for the most part have availability during the day and evening.

Thanks,
Watchcase (Lee)

adzling
July 29th, 2020, 01:29
let me know how it works out.

i just did the same thing but am using a pre-made adventure before i branch out into a homespun campaign.

GregRex
July 29th, 2020, 03:05
Hi Watchcase, I have a buch of experience with 5e and importing modules to to FG. I recently got into playing Traveller on FG and might be able to interpret what the videos you are watching to Traveller lingo to get you up and rolling.

How is your campaign's text structured? Word, pdf, notepad, etc.

I can help you out with images and maps, they are different things to us everyday players but are considered the same type of assets in the game.

Feel free to send my a pm or follow up here.

Cheers,

Greg

LordEntrails
July 29th, 2020, 03:35
Also, I'm not sure if FG College has a traveller GM on staff, but it doesn't hurt to ask. You can put in an assistance request here; https://fantasygroundscollege.net/assistance-request/

Sylvesr
July 29th, 2020, 03:58
Smashing idea. I did that. Thanks.

Sylvesr
July 29th, 2020, 04:02
The campaign text is MS word. The graphics are in PowerPoint but I can save the maps and other elements as jpg easily enough. I printed it all out to hand carry to the game sessions but have it all on my laptop.

I'll shoot you a note/PM tomorrow morning and see if you can perhaps talk via text or phone or Google hangouts or whatnot to help me see the light. I'm sure it's bright but I'm not so much... Thank's for the offer King Greg.

Lee

pzane
July 29th, 2020, 07:39
I am kind of an 'adjunct' over at Fantasy Grounds College - you can find me in the #other_rulesets channel on their discord server. I host a few classes in Char Creation, DM-ing, and am working on creating a class or video for creating your own FG modules - either using a pdf of a published adventure that hasn't been converted yet or using your own content. I primarily work with Fantasy Grounds Classic but many of the principles can be applied to Unity as well.

MadBeardMan
July 29th, 2020, 11:33
Hi,

Sorry you are so frustrated. There is always a learning curve with things. I welcome all your comments as I believe that first time users ask those questions the rest of us don't think about. So if you have questions, ask away and @Pzane thanks for doing what you've done so far.

I'm happy to give help to those that help the community. My main focus of time is on the ruleset and the core rulebooks. One the core rulebooks are out, most of the ruleset will be done I can then look at creating documentation.

Cheers,
MBM

pzane
July 29th, 2020, 16:26
This is a mod I have created to facilitate creating adventures as FG conversions. Organized in the same way as a published MGT2 mod, you can create your own adventure mod with your existing Mongoose or TAS pdfs or with your own adventure's copy and images.

And thanks MBM! I feel this ruleset needs a little more championing, so I am trying to do my part over at FGC... along with CoC, of course!

LordNanoc
July 29th, 2020, 18:41
I am running a homebrew campaign for nearly 2 years now. We started with 1E and changed to 2E as soon as MBM had it converted.

After having all PC created, the central part for me is the story.
I devide my story in chapters, containing text and images as well as tables etc, all the things I need.
Images, I am "appropriating" *coff,coff* from PInterest.

As for combat:
Sometimes I prepare battles, but mostly I just add PCs and NPCs to the combat tracker as I see fit in the situation.
After adding them to the cobattracker, i drag them from there to the Battlemap image. The battlemap has to have a grid and you need to share it with your players.
Then do your round to round combat.

Else, follow your story.
Whenever you deem it necessary, let the PCs roll their skills.
Have some generic battlemaps and NPCs ready, in case the players take a turn into an unanticipated direction.

Do follow the rules but be prepared to bend them or add to them, where flow of game and fun requires it.

There's not much more to it.
Hope this helps, have fun!
Nanoc

Sylvesr
July 29th, 2020, 19:59
Thank you for your note above Pzane. I will look you up in Discord.

I understand that there is a learning curve and am willing to learn new things and skills I am not shy about trying. However, there are usually mentors readily available or at least more bread crumbs to follow when learning a new program or skill. In this situation the bread crumbs are from a different kind of bread and the mentors, while available, are hidden and need to be found or step forward and volunteer (which is where you come in~and I thank you)

Regarding your next post with the file:
What folder do I down load it into? how do I access it? I assume I drop it into the module file? I dropped it in there but it doesn't show up anywhere when I open FG up. I check the data module activation screen, nada. Not in the library, notes nor assets. C:\Users\g8rgi\AppData\Roaming\SmiteWorks\Fantasy Grounds\campaigns\Have Ship Will Travel\moduledb

As far as the create your own adventure mod...That is what I am stuck on. All of this program is Greek to me. I don't know the first thing, the first step. I try to use the guides but hit dead ends for example I went to the community rulesets link and there is no FGU Traveller 2 (MGT2), only classic and D20 nothing for FGU https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/68452365/Community+Rulesets#Traveller20

I am continuing to work on it.
Thanks, I will look for you on Discord
Lee

Sylvesr
July 29th, 2020, 23:40
Good news somehow the template mod you shared with me uploaded into the Traveller program. Looking it over and seeing if I can reverse engineer it.

backwardoracle
July 30th, 2020, 15:26
Hi, I've been creating my own games in FG traveller for some time, & running two campaigns for the moment.

I'd be happy to help out with your problems, you can drop me a private message here, as well as posting more direct messages on this forum.

It is a bit of a learning curve, but well worth it, seriously, I'll be using to help manage tabletop sessions when I can resume face to face playing.

adzling
July 30th, 2020, 16:50
Hey Backward what time zone are you in?

(I am PST)

I'd love 15 minutes of your time over zoom or discord if possible.

backwardoracle
July 30th, 2020, 17:14
Np, I'm in UK, be happy to help, discord will be fine, send a pm & I'll drop you my username

Sylvesr
July 30th, 2020, 18:24
Update: All thank you. I am making progress and moving forward. The template provided was hugely assistive. I will circle back with other questions.
my timezone is in the US East Coast

pzane
July 31st, 2020, 15:42
Good to hear.
I am zane#4583 on Discord and can be found at the Fantasy Ground College discord server... https://discordapp.com/invite/Ew6nYyw

DHRo1970
July 2nd, 2021, 20:47
Hi Pzane and Sylvesr,

I am sort of in the same space Sylvesr was a year ago. I am looking to start a MgT2e campaign and I am fed up with roll 20. I purchased many of the rules for MgT2e already. I am considering buying into the FGU Ultimate, but I want to know if I can use those PDFs I already have, or if I will need to repurchase them through Fantasy Grounds. So I guess I have two questions.

1. Is it possible to use the PDFs purchased from Mongoose in FGU, or will I need to re-repurchase them?
2. Do the apps and links in the conversation above help me get address this issue?

My apologies if the questions are off topic.

David

Talyn
July 2nd, 2021, 21:02
1. Is it possible to use the PDFs purchased from Mongoose in FGU, or will I need to re-repurchase them?
2. Do the apps and links in the conversation above help me get address this issue?

Fantasy Grounds does not use PDFs whatsoever, other than as documentation. To play Traveller 2E in Fantasy Grounds you'd need a Fantasy Grounds license (Standard minimum to GM; your players would also need their own Standard licenses; or Ultimate to allow you to GM a full table of free/demo players) and the retail Traveller 2E ruleset. From there you can freely enter the data you actually need yourself in the GUI, it's not all that difficult but it's time-consuming if you need a LOT of data to even begin your campaign. The DLC you can purchase is not a PDF (nor does it come with one) it's every bit of data and text contained in the PDF (or source manuscript, depending which the publisher provided to the developer) adapted to Fantasy Grounds data records and is ready for play. There is also a reference manual that is more or less is the FG equivalent to a PDF in terms of having "a book to read" (though if you also already own the official PDF anyway, sometimes I find it nice to have the PDF up too and swap back and forth depending what I'm reading).

You don't "need" to purchase any DLC other than the ruleset itself (which does come with the Core Rulebook anyway) if you're ok with entering the data yourself.

DHRo1970
July 3rd, 2021, 03:53
So I feel a weird combination of ridiculous, enlightened and humbled simultaneously.

Thank you very much for that break down of what the content is. This makes much more sense.

kronovan
July 5th, 2021, 22:10
I am trying to follow the instructions on a 5E vid but sadly the presenter is doing things only using the 5E system and I am trying to do Traveller so the buttonology is different. For example there is no Images AND MAPs button on the right only Images. But...buried In the library there is one named Images and Maps. I open it up and follow his instructions to drag and drop my map image...no joy. I repeated his steps over again and looked at the accompanying PDF for clarity. Again, no luck and the PDF too is all 5E focused, so the instructions do not jive with Traveller and I am getting nowhere except frustrated. If this is not going to work for Traveller I have to find another platform.

I can sympathize with someone new to Fantasy Ground Unity, because IMO Smiteworks is poor at documentation and it's much more difficult to learn than it should be because of it. Unfortunately out of the gate you're run smack into an area where the newer FGU differs significantly from the previous FG Classic edition. It's very possible the videos and PDF you viewed and read are for the older edition. Something new in FGU is the [Assets] button, but to use it to its fullest, you really need to know how to navigate your FGU Data folder on you computer. You can find the location of that by clicking [Settings] > [Advanced] from the FG launcher and noting/recording what's listed in the Data Directory text box.
Once you know how to access that, it'll be a snap to import any of you own maps or other images.

In Windows explorer browse into your \Data\Campaign folder to get familiar with where any new FG campaigns you create are stored.
Within each campaign folder is an \images folder and that's where you copy any JPG or PNG graphic files (i.e. maps) for your campaign.
Within FGU, the moment any file is present in that folder,\ a 'Campaign' icon becomes available under [Assets] > [Images] for that specific campaign.
If you double-click that 'Campaign' icon, all the graphic files you copied into the \images folder will be displayed.
If you want to make any of your graphic files available to your campaign as images, just double-click them and then click the [Create Image Record] button.
That image will now be listed in the Images window which is accessible by clicking the [Images] button on the right-hand pallet.

NOTE: There's a shortcut [Create from Campaign Assets] button at the top of the Images windows, which will auto-import all of the graphic files in your campaign's \images folder as images. I recommend folks that are new to the system to do it via the Assets button though, as it help to build familiarity with the User Interface.

DHRo1970
July 6th, 2021, 02:52
I found the Fantasy Grounds College GM 101 and 102 youtube videos really helpful.

Big thanks to GMrex (?) for putting those out there. Haven't bought it yet, but that is just a function of the pocketbook and making sure my usual suspects have the computing power to run it. (They have some dodgy old machines.)

GregRex
July 7th, 2021, 15:10
@DHRo1970 I'm glad you found them useful! I have been talking with MBM on creating some video "How to" shorts which take 1-2 mins to describe how to do something specific like Task Chains, SCT, PC Spacecraft Records, etc. Now that v1.2.4 is now live I think it's time to start making that a reality.

DHRo1970
July 7th, 2021, 15:46
That is an excellent idea...I know that I would find them useful.

Serg Barbeau
July 9th, 2021, 06:24
Hi. A very convenient wiki on unity with videos and detailed step-by-step instructions.
https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996640166/Working+with+Images+as+the+GM