Question for the DMs out there

[grimm182]

I have been working on a conversion of a warhammer module.

What tips and tricks have you seen or created that helped streamlined the adventure for you. Im not reffering to specific rulesets but the tools/data/layout/formatting that made DMing smoother for you.

As an example i split up my story chapters in smaller chunks so it might be easier to judge session breaks...i could see how others might want less with the chapters having more info in it (all from one click)

[richvalle]

I put practicly nothing into FG before hand. If I have a chance and I KNOW the party will be fighting some NPC's I'll enter them in but nothing else (other then maps).

Any text they need I read to them over skype. If a fight happens with a critter I didn't expect I just put the to hit +'s into hot keys and manually roll the dice.

I keep the module I'm running in front of me and just referance as we go.

rv

[Griogre]

Sometimes like rv, I will just put in the map and personalities. I also use voice which allows you to get away with this easier. I only put in personalities to make loading the combat tracker easier and I only use the combat tracker because of some of its monster management features: the abilitiy to make drag and drop attacks from the tracker and saves. Thus, when I say I put in personalities and it is not in the d20 SRD and I am in a hurry I only put in the attack rolls, AC, saves and reach. If I have more time I will put in Feats, CR, skills, SQ and SAs in about that order.

If I am going to do things more elaborately using map pins is the way to go. I usually go this route if I think I am going to use the adventure more than once or I have the PDF of the adventure so I can cut and paste it in.

Map pins are shortcuts on the map to book entries. When I do a full blown adventure with text I make a pin for each area description and on each area description I do the "Read Aloud" text, DM including treasure info and links to the monsters. This means I can run the whole adventure off the map by clicking the pin to open the storybook entry to an area and clicking the area links to open monsters and treasure or maps or whatever. Doing it this way means you never need to open the personality, item, or storybooks. On a large adventure you will find the hardest thing to do sometimes is just *finding* the entries in the storybook.

I have a great deal of Rappan Athuk Reloaded input this way. It is a truely massive dungeon that I have in serveral modules which I would open and close as needed.

[Astinus]

I haven't been DMing with FG2 for very long, and when I first started I was putting all sorts of stuff in, with pins and so on. But then I found I didn't use much of it. And I thought, forget it.

Like the others, now I just enter basic NPC info (for the combat tracker), maps and images. I'm DMing Pathfinder, which has so much great artwork. The players love it.

But that's why FG2 is so good. It's like DMing around a table. And you can get away with very little prep and still have a smooth game.

[joshuha]

I also do little prep except import images and stat up some NPCs. However, besides BBEG type guys I find Savage Worlds so quick to stat up NPCs I do it as I am introducing the PCs to the NPC. Since I am playing Ptolus I just convert the d20 stuff in my head and am able to give them a good approximation with little effort.

That not to say I don't make good use of modules for reference information or when I want to drag an already stat'd NPC in, if the information is available I will defintely use it but like in real life I am on-the-fly type of GM.

I have started getting better at even put images in on the fly but it still take a good 30 seconds or so. But I have the Ptous PDF handy (along with the beautiful book) and with the snapshot tool I am learning to quickly get to the image and even us mspaint to save it to PNG to import in.

[Xorn]

I converted Sunless Citadel completely into a module. Completely. Even have a thumbnail of the cover in the module window. It was very handy--but I was able to cut-n-paste the text in with a text reader after I scanned the module. It was fun, but I don't know that I would do it again; I mostly did it just to see just what I could do with FG2.

My structure was pretty simple: I put in every map and image I would use, added a personality for all the creatures they would encounter, added all the magic items and notes they would find, then added all the tokens I would need.

After that I started building the story entries, with the first entry called, "(Adventure) The Sunless Citadel" which was literally the table of contents, with link boxes to every story entry in a logical order. Every numbered entry got put in (and if a number was used for more than one room, then 13.1, 13.2, 13.3 etc) and a map pin put on the dungeon maps.

So the players enter room 15 (where they meet Meepo and find out about the dragon wyrmling the goblins stole) and as I DM I just click the map pin, and it pulls up that entry. The story text is there to drag in place, Meepo's stats are right there to drag into the combat tracker--it's very handy. I probably spent most of two nights putting all those entries in--the rest was very fast. But now I have a reusable module.

But I've found the story entries are the easiest thing to skip--you need your maps & images, and your tokens. The rest you can really do on the fly. Myself I have found I actually really enjoy creating modules, though. The current adventure I'm running--Wrath of the Dragonborn--is a 4th-level adventure centering around kobolds, which is turning out very well so far. When I finish the module, I plan to share it freely.

[grimm182]

Good stuff so far, i guess i need to learn how to use the map pins and the link boxes next! :) hopefully this is already on the forum somewhere as i dont off hand remember reading it anywhere.

[Griogre]

Using pins is in the user guide. But it is easy. First you need to tell your map image to show pins. To that right click on the map select Layers then Enable Shortcuts. You will have to do this every time you open a map because FG does not remember this setting (however once you do have pins on the map you can just hold down the Ctrl key to make them display). Next to make the pin just drag and drop an entry on the map. IE for a Story Book entry open the storybook and drag and drop the brown square next to the name on to the map. A red pin should appear. That's it. Just keep dragging out the pins where you want them. You can do this out of any book.

Warning: There is a bug with pins that will cause FG to crash on exit. The program assumes the pin entries are unique, if they are not the program will crash on exit. In plain English, make one one pin per book entry to avoid this. Many module use the same entry for empty rooms, FG can't do that. In a case like that just make storybook entries for each empty room.

To make a link box in an entry make sure you are in edit mode then right click and select Paragraph Types then Link. An empty box should appear at the start of the line. Then type in a description for the link. Next drag and drop the brown square next to any entry into the empty box. If you do it right the empty square will turn brown.

[grimm182]

thanks for the detailed walkthru!

[NineShadowEyes]

I have been working on a conversion of a warhammer module.


You're gonna share that, right? :rv:

[grimm182]

well games workshop is very protective of their IP, so this mod will initially only be shared with others that i know own a legal copy...this wont affect players...just DMs.

Anyone else have any insight on sharing of copyrighted material converted to FG? (not in relation to rulesets)

Till then im brainstorming on how to make this more available to the community :)

The adventure will be in beta for another week or so....:)

[grimm182]

Just so everyone knows i havent dissapeared, i ran the 1st group thru it last night and found one bad entry, im thinking we have 2 more (1 if we get quicker) weeks before i release this...so thanks to everyone who offered help in this thread. :)