Creating Pre-Gen PCs

[afd1366]

Hello all,

I'm a little confused about the correct method of creating pregenerated characters for my players. We are all new to FG, so we're in the experimental/learning phase of its use. I, as GM, have the full license and my players all have lite licenses.

I'm sitting here with my PC up and running the full license and my son's laptop up and running the lite license. As an experiment, I've created two pregens on his laptop in local mode and then logged him on to my campaign. He selected one of the PCs and it assigned him as the owner of both (because they originated from his laptop).

Now, the questions I have are as follows:

Should another player log-on to my campaign and select the second pregen PC (now a server PC), will he/she then be assigned as its owner?

Secondly, how is data transferred between the server PC which cannot be edited and the local mode PC which can?

Alternatively, if there is a easier way for me to create pregens from my full license I haven't figured it out.

The user guide's a little sparse on the matter, so any help here would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Doug

[Griogre]

Welcome to FG, Doug.

There are several ways to make pregens. Normally the DM would want to make them on the server.

In answer to your questions:


Should another player log-on to my campaign and select the second pregen PC (now a server PC), will he/she then be assigned as its owner? 1) No one logging into the server will see the two character's made on the laptop because characters are assigned to user ID's. In this case the user ID of the laptop. 2) However, all you need to do to make these character's available to other players is to start the server with the characters, open the character selection screen and right click on each character and select clear owner which will make the characters available to anyone logging into the server.


Secondly, how is data transferred between the server PC which cannot be edited and the local mode PC which can?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. Both server and local character's are editable. Local characters transfer to the server when the player connects to the server and selects a local character. If a player connects to the server and selects the server character he uses the server characters. Normally players should use the server character because that is the one that is updated while playing the game. The local character is never updated - it is a one way transfer. If you have a player who keeps selecting a local character instead of the server character you will end up with a bunch of different versions of the character on the server because local characters are not allowed to overwrite server character so it just makes another copy on the server. This can be confusing to the player and anoy the DM. :p

Here is how I would create pregens. I would make them on the server. The problem with making them on the server is the pregens will not have portaits. However doing them this way will not leave a bunch of local characters around to confuse your son. Next to put on the portraits, I would start a second instance of FG on your server computer and log into the server useing the local IP and a different user name and then from the second instance select the portraits.

The only differance between making the pregens local and on the server is you need to free the local characters and you can put a portrait on the local when you make it. You should also probably delete the locals after you transfer them to the server to keep the player from selecting the wrong character.

[Xorn]

You can also go to the campaign folder and into the portrait directory and paste in your portrait file. It needs to have the exact name of the character, with no extension. You'll see other characters with portraits for an example.

(This is more useful when you want to say... change one of your player's portrait to a dog turd for a big laugh as the game starts. Helpful if that player is always late.)

[Insanity]

I was reading through this as I had similar questions. To make I understand the answers, and to ask new questions, I would like to ask a few myself.

1) On my computer, which would running as the Gamemaster, if I create pregens under my Local Characters, these cannot be selected by connecting players, correct?

2) Again on my computer, running as the Gamemaster, if I create pregens under the Campaign section, these can always be selected by connecting players, correct?

3) If I wish to run a series of adventures, by creating new campaigns for each "chapter", can characters create for a previous campaign be transferred to another campaign? I assume the db.xml file can be copied, and the characters moved, correct?

[Griogre]

I was reading through this as I had similar questions. To make I understand the answers, and to ask new questions, I would like to ask a few myself.

1) On my computer, which would running as the Gamemaster, if I create pregens under my Local Characters, these cannot be selected by connecting players, correct? Correct.


2) Again on my computer, running as the Gamemaster, if I create pregens under the Campaign section, these can always be selected by connecting players, correct? Correct until someone selects them then they own them until you free them again.


3) If I wish to run a series of adventures, by creating new campaigns for each "chapter", can characters create for a previous campaign be transferred to another campaign? I assume the db.xml file can be copied, and the characters moved, correct? Correct, but you don't want to do it this way. What you want to do is just have the Pregens in a campaign and then create modules you bring into the campaign while you are running them. When you finish the module, you unselected and bring in the next module. The characters stay in the same place.

[Insanity]

Just discovered the /export command, this clears up a lot of my wondering. Never saw that command detailed in a manual.

[DarkStar]

A question - how would you reuse pregens in FG? I want to run the same scenario for 2 or 3 groups. Surely people will get hurt :P etc. and character stats will be modified during the game, then I want to run the same adventure for different people but using the same characters with fresh stats - how would you do this?

[Jingo]

I don't know if this is the best way, but here's how I've done it. In your campaigns directory, you can make copies of your the campaign you have set up and rename it for each group that will be running your adventure.

[DarkStar]

I think about copying the part of db.xml which holds player characters, but I haven't touched campaign files in at least two years and don't know what has changed in FG2.

[Xorn]

In the Application Data Folder (shortcut in your start menu for FG2) go into Campaigns and just copy the whole folder for the campaign you want backups of.

[DarkStar]

Well, I was looking for something... er... more sophisticated, you know - the proper way. ;) But this would work, sure. I haven't thought of the simplest solution, thanks.