Generic Client/Server Question about Modules

[Mytherus]

Odd title I know, didn't quite know how to summarize this.

I have quite a lot of purchases in my FGU account, plus additional stuff bought from DM's Guild over the past few years.

As a base I always load all my Rob2e modules for the coding, I load the DMG, the PHB, the MM and then I load the relevant book for the adventure -- ie. right now I'm playing Rime of the Frostmaiden so that is loaded.

Everything load is a strain on memory and if you want to get real nerdy -- CPU cycles. So I get it load only what you need...which finally brings me to the point of this post...

Is it needed for me to load all the character source material books (ie. Tasha's, Xan's, "Theros", Volo's, etc.) for every session even after my player's made their characters (that's the prime reason I load those books -- so players can use the character options from them).?

Also, Is there any point -- as a player to load ANYTHING (module or extension wise)? My thought here is it not akin to a client server relationship (the DM being the server) -- isn't everyone only using what the DM has shared or loaded?

I will confess I think I know the answers to all this, but this is more or less to verify what I believe to be true is in fact...true.

lol.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Thanks.

[Sulimo]

As GM/DM, you don't need to load the books for your players to create characters, they just have to be shared, i.e. the green check mark. They can load the modules themselves to create their characters.

As GM/DM, it is best to only load the GM modules that you need, and leave the Player modules unloaded.

[LordEntrails]

Don't load the player modules unless you are creating or editing characters, then unload them when done.
Rob2e's effects coding don't all need to be loaded. Again, all the players one's are only needed when adding the effects to the character sheets or pulling them off the lists etc.

Players should load the player modules they are using. This might be the PHB (or others) for items, such as when you go shopping for equipment. And it's simple for them to keep the modules loaded they they built their character with. i.e. the PHB and one or two other modules plus the relevant Rob2e module for their class and/or spells (but again, these don't need to stay loaded once the effects are copied to the character sheet).

As DM I rarely have the DMG loaded when running purchased DLC. Everything needed is already included. I do load it when creating custom content. Same thing for the MM, if you don't need to go off-script/adventure, then you won't need it. But I often have a few monster products loaded since my players go off script a lot and it makes it easier for me to throw together an encounter.

[Griogre]

The exception for player modules is you if you constantly find yourself looking at something, IE I use the PH appendix on conditions often so I leave that one loaded as I have hotkeyed them.

On the DM side, when I played 4E - my monster module had 5,000 monsters. 5E isn't as bad right now, but still has more than a 1,000 monsters. No adventure uses more than a tiny fraction of those. You can follow the official module format and copy all the NPCs into your personal adventures so you only need the adventure open and close your monster manuals. Note it's not the actual monsters that take up much memory - its the monster images.

Edit Ninjad by Lord Entrails

[Mytherus]

Thanks for the fast feedback, I'm making changes now to my campaign.

[Neovirtus]

Lots of good feedback here, and things I myself should do differently. One thing I will disagree on is not loading the PHB as DM. All the Spells are contained in the PHB, XGtE, and TCoE. All spells used by monsters will be from the PHB, so most of the time you can get away with just that one, but if your players have access to the two newer supplements I would find that I needed them as a reference.

[Trenloe]

For PCs, when a record is added to their character sheet, a copy is made in that characters sheet. So, if you complete your character in theory you won't need to have the sources used open to be able to play with your character.

The exceptions to this depend on the ruleset. For D&D 5e race, background, character class and skill description aren't copied to the character sheet - these are linked to the original source. So you'll need to open the relevant source if you want to review data in those records, and if you want to level up - as this relies on the class record being available to the FG code. FG will prompt you to open a module if you click on a link that isn't currently available.