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rsearing
June 7th, 2021, 04:38
I am not only new to Fantasy Grounds, but to virtual table tops to begin with. Please go easy on an old guy. I'm nearly 50 with 9 kids and got into D&D to bond with my older boys (used to play AD&D in the late 80's).

I've been trying to find some good video tutorials (and there's SO many out there) to help me with one specific goal - I bought this because I stink at map making and painting minis and just wanted to run this on my laptop with an external monitor hooked up and turned around facing players at my kitchen table (my kids). I'm not interested in online play at this time.

I'm also only interested in loading D&D 5e Mods (I bought HotDQ and RoT) to start with. I've played around a little and was able to create a campaign and load HotDQ - but I was unable to find out where to load a map (I saw an older video about enabling DM tools - but it wasnt matching what I had on my screen)...so I'm really not here to bug anyone for answers or instructions on how to load up a campaign with an example on, say, starting up a first encounter - but rather if someone could point me to a video(s) that walk me through it I'd love to research it on my own and come back with questions. Could someone please point me in the right direction on a *good* instruction set (not so much how to create my own content - really only interested on:

1) How to load up a module I bought (I think I did this on my own but was lost in the weeds)
2) Load up a map
3) Load up the encounter related to it

I do have one general question - I own all the core books and MANY of the adventure books (own the Tyranny of Dragons combined book) so it does hurt to have to buy them again digitally - but I was wondering what the benefit of purchasing digital copies of the core books in the store was (if any) if I own the books? (I assume all the related material to the adventure comes with it (ie monster stats, item descriptions, etc).

Apologies for the newb questions. I would be willing to pay someone for a little 1x1 time via discord or your favorite chat program - that could spend maybe 30 minutes...45 minutes to be patient and walk me through most of this (I am an IT guy - so not completely ignorant - just ignorate to VTT). If you'd be interested in helping this way - please PM or email me..otherwise some links to some videos on module campaign loading (for a newb) would be much appreciated.

Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,
Rob
(A dad wanting to bond with his kids)
[email protected]

damned
June 7th, 2021, 12:03
Welcome rsearing

You can totally use FGU to play at the table
You can use FGU to build maps
But its really designed to help you run a good online game

What you will want to do in your case is

Connect a second screen to your computer and put it where your players can see it - but also it will help if you can see it to
Load FGU up and create a new campaign (next time choose load) and choose cloud
Load a second instance of FGU (right click FGU in the task bar) and choose Join Game and connect to YOUR game
Place the second instance on the second screen

On your GM instance choose Library >> Modules >> find Lost Mine of Phandelver and click Load
Close the Data Module Activation window

You will now see LMoP on the left and when clicking it you will see items like Reference Manual, Story, Images etc
Reference Manual is the FGU equivalent of the book
Story is almost the same but broken down into small sections, one room, one scene etc
Use either of these to work your way through the story line, there will be links to maps at the right time, links to the fights, there will be shortcuts to share the descriptive scenes etc

It sounds like you ought to pop into the Fantasy Grounds College Discord server and have a chat there

Have fun!

Zacchaeus
June 7th, 2021, 12:53
Here's a link to the FG College and I'd echo what @damned says about visiting them. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?40020-Join-Fantasy-Grounds-College-Learn-Fantasy-Grounds-learn-D-amp-D-and-then-play!

Here's a link to a bunch of videos as well - specifically for 5e mostly https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27296-Guides-videos-and-other-helpful-information

Video Five here will help you get started on how to run an adventure module https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?55797-How-do-I-in-Unity&p=492112#post492112