Potential Buyer Questions

[Alyais]

Greetings,

Since I moved from Michigan my D&D group and I have been using Neverwinter Nights for our monday night games. I myself am very skilled with C++ so it was easy for me to DM and create this environment for our gaming sessions. This is a lot of work and doesn't give us the tabletop experience, however.

I have some questions and couldn't find any company contact information on your website so I am posting them here. Thank you for helping me get these answers as my group of six and I are hoping to use Fantasy Grounds for our group.

1. Does fantasy grounds two support the use of multiple game-masters?

2. How often is fantasy grounds updated and how often are new features added?

3. Can more source material be added? I have noticed in the demo the Monster Manual, Spells, and Classes from the PHB OGL D&D sourcebooks. What about suppliments, can these be added by users?

4. Fantasy Grounds 'the demo' has excellent maps. I am assuming however that fantasy grounds does not come with software that can be used to create such excellent maps? Is this true? The maps in the demo were of excellent quality.

5. Are characters saved "server side"? In other words are players only able to access their characters when logged in to my server?

6. Can players edit their stat sheets without GM knowledge?

Thank you for your time in answering these questions!
-Joe Landolfi

[Griogre]

Greetings,

Since I moved from Michigan my D&D group and I have been using Neverwinter Nights for our monday night games. I myself am very skilled with C++ so it was easy for me to DM and create this environment for our gaming sessions. This is a lot of work and doesn't give us the tabletop experience, however.

I have some questions and couldn't find any company contact information on your website so I am posting them here. Thank you for helping me get these answers as my group of six and I are hoping to use Fantasy Grounds for our group.

1. Does fantasy grounds two support the use of multiple game-masters?No it does not. There is only one host and there is not a remote server. That said, depending on exactly what you have the other DM doing the fact he is not a host may not effect what he does much.


2. How often is fantasy grounds updated and how often are new features added? FG is largely mature and FG2 was a big update. There are still bugs out there but they tend to be the make a lot of fixes all in one big patch type developers rather than dribble them out.


3. Can more source material be added? I have noticed in the demo the Monster Manual, Spells, and Classes from the PHB OGL D&D sourcebooks. What about suppliments, can these be added by users? Yes. All the "library book" modules are in xml and exposed. However, it may or may not be worth your time to input the data because there is little need if you or your players actually have the books. On the other hand it can be very useful to input some commonly used information.


4. Fantasy Grounds 'the demo' has excellent maps. I am assuming however that fantasy grounds does not come with software that can be used to create such excellent maps? Is this true? The maps in the demo were of excellent quality.The maps in the demo can't be created by FG. However, FG does come with a battlemap. You can create a blank map with a grid on it like a battle map on the fly and draw on it with a simple pen tool. To add a color map or any other image all you need to do is drop a graphic into a folder and the map will become available to the DM to share. You can also draw on images and mask and unmask them. There are many good map making programs out there, many free.

One of the biggest trade offs in running a FG game is how big and detailed do you want your maps to be? This has a direct effect on file size needed to be transferred to the players. FG does cache maps and other info on the players machines but most non business "up connections" are pretty poor.


5. Are characters saved "server side"? In other words are players only able to access their characters when logged in to my server?
With the default d20 set characters may make "local" characters. When they connect to the server the local characters are transfered over and become server characters. Once a character is on the server it may only be accessed by the player when on the server. The next time a player logs in he will see both a server and local character. Should he pick the local character again it will make a second copy on the server but not affect the other character. This is a fairly common mistake by new players. You can tell if a player is doing this by looking to see if there are multiple server characters with the same name.

Characters however are not "Vaulted" like NWN. The character sheets are more like pieces of paper and are not really secure in any way. Just like in a real face to face game you really could not stop someone from writing whatever he wanted on a character sheet if they did when you were not looking.

6. Can players edit their stat sheets without GM knowledge?
See the answer above, but only while on the server. Frankly if I thought someone was cheating like that I would just kick them out of the group. There are always more players than DMs and there is no reason to put up with a player like that.

Thank you for your time in answering these questions!
-Joe Landolfi
No problem. To get a better perspective on what the player can or can not do - I believe you can still connect to yourself with the new demo. To do so first start the host, then start a second instance of FG and change the user name on the client. Have the client connect to your local IP address and you will be able to play around with both a host and client to see how they work. Just remember in the demo you can't save anything so I wouldn't do a lot of data entry.

Just in case you are wondering, I think you have found the right piece of software for simulating a face to face RPG game over the Internet. FG at its most basic is a die roller, battle map with movable tokens, and chat program that can distribute text and graphics from the host to the clients and update them in real time. It is a game table simulator and does a really good job of getting that face to face feel.

[Alyais]

Thanks Griogre for your help. I have a few more questions since I've begun playing around with Fantasy Grounds. I basically have to make sure my players will understand the program we'll be using as some are a bit less computer literate than most and in order to do that I have to understand some things. Anyone can feel free to help with these questions as they're not directed at Griogre. Thank you!

1. When I have a player target a monster a black circle appears, not a colored circle like on the examples in the guide. Why is this?

2. In the guide I am having trouble finding help on combat. I do notice that allied squares are "green" while enemy squares are "red". In the player screen on my demo the enemies are indeed red but I, and my allies, are not green. Why is this?

3. I am assuming that fantasy grounds requires a lot of input on the part of the players (which makes it more tabletop and less video game). I am also assuming damage dealt to a player is told to them and they THEY apply it to their stat sheet? I have dragged damage onto a character profile and noticed they do not take direct damage. When a player updates their own HP however, this does show.

4. In this screenshot (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/images/screenshots/fg2-screenshot-03.jpg) on the official fantasy grounds webpage you can see their hotkey (this looks like DM mode) is filled with things such as "flanking" and "aid another". How are such hotkeys done and do they only appear when utilizing those monsters?

5. In the same link as the question above you can see various miniatures on the combat screen and various portraits of players. The portraits however, are different than the miniatures. This seems relatively easy, use a token stored on the players side to represent his character. How does his custom token icon get shared with the rest of us? For that matter how do custom portraits get shared?

6. In the link on my fourth question I noticed very elegantly made maps. The nice fellow who replied before said many programs exist to make your own maps. Can someone list some of these quality programs? Are they extra cost in addition to Fantasy Grounds or are they free? Does fantasy grounds provide any discounts/free software for image making and mapmaking in addition to the standard fantasy grounds package?

Thank you for your time. My demo testing is working great and my group has voted to switch from NWN to Fantasy Grounds once I have ironed out the kinks. They'res about six of us total so we can't wait to play!

[Alyais]

Oopps! The link I mentioned is: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/images/screenshots/fg2-screenshot-03.jpg

[Griogre]

Thanks Griogre for your help. I have a few more questions since I've begun playing around with Fantasy Grounds. I basically have to make sure my players will understand the program we'll be using as some are a bit less computer literate than most and in order to do that I have to understand some things. Anyone can feel free to help with these questions as they're not directed at Griogre. Thank you!
No problem, I'm the guy who's around late.


1. When I have a player target a monster a black circle appears, not a colored circle like on the examples in the guide. Why is this?
The targeting circle is the same color as a player's dice color. As you didn't set the die color it defaults to black. One of the first things you want your players to do is set their dice to different distinctive colors because it's not only the targeting circle it sets the pointer colors too. You set dice colors with a by pressing the "Colors" button at the top right of the FG desktop.


2. In the guide I am having trouble finding help on combat. I do notice that allied squares are "green" while enemy squares are "red". In the player screen on my demo the enemies are indeed red but I, and my allies, are not green. Why is this?The colors of monsters are usually set in the monster data. For allies you set the colors in the combat tracker by drag and dropping the color on the bottom to whoever you want to set the color for. I actually don't usually find this feature very useful because players usually know who is on their side and who isn't.


3. I am assuming that fantasy grounds requires a lot of input on the part of the players (which makes it more tabletop and less video game). I am also assuming damage dealt to a player is told to them and they THEY apply it to their stat sheet? I have dragged damage onto a character profile and noticed they do not take direct damage. When a player updates their own HP however, this does show.The most input players will do is fill out their character sheet and hotkeys. Different DM's do damage differently. You can let the players deal with their damage or the DM can do it. I'm not sure what you mean by "a character profile." The eaziest way for the DM to do damage to do drag and drop wounds onto characters or monster's on the combat tracker. If you have the player's do it then most of the time they drag and drop to their hp mini sheet. Typically, the more experienced your players are the less they will have their character sheets open. If you use mini sheets and hot keys there is little reason to open your character sheet. After a while the only time that happens is when you have characters using a skill they aren't trained in or seldom used - like sense motives from a fighter or move silently.


4. In this screenshot (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/images/screenshots/fg2-screenshot-03.jpg) on the official fantasy grounds webpage you can see their hotkey (this looks like DM mode) is filled with things such as "flanking" and "aid another". How are such hotkeys done and do they only appear when utilizing those monsters?You, or your players can make any hot keys you want. There are several ways to make them. Most players will hot key their attacks, damage, spot, listen and initiative. DM's hot key whatever seems useful at the time. I did a whole thead on bonus mods, but it is worth your time to read up what they have in the docs on them. Loosely speaking there are two typical types of numeric hot keys: those what gives mods to a die roll and those that roll the dice. The thread on setting up bonuses is here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7050


5. In the same link as the question above you can see various miniatures on the combat screen and various portraits of players. The portraits however, are different than the miniatures. This seems relatively easy, use a token stored on the players side to represent his character. How does his custom token icon get shared with the rest of us? For that matter how do custom portraits get shared?Portraits are the one piece of data actually stored on the player's computer. They are shared out to the host who distributes them which is why if a player first sets or changes a portarit there may be some lag before the other players see them. Tokens are kept in the token box they come from the host computer's token folders. You can add them much like maps by just dropping the images into either a shared or host (only) folder. In FG2 there really is not that much need for the shared tokens anymore. You can link a token with a player that is different from his portrait token. You do that on the combat tracker. From the tracker you can see it wasn't done.


6. In the link on my fourth question I noticed very elegantly made maps. The nice fellow who replied before said many programs exist to make your own maps. Can someone list some of these quality programs? Are they extra cost in addition to Fantasy Grounds or are they free? Does fantasy grounds provide any discounts/free software for image making and mapmaking in addition to the standard fantasy grounds package?

There are lots and lots of map making programs. Do a search on the forums for mapping programs. I would like to point out you are pretty familar with a map making program - NWN. There is no reason you could not take screen shots of maps directly overhead or in the editor. There are also tons of free maps available on the internet. WotC has their map a week archive that has hundreds of maps by itself. There is a free tile mapper on the WotC site also. It's hard to recommend a map program because a lot of it depends on just how much you work you want to put into making a map. One free mapper is Dungeon Forge.

[Griogre]

By the way here is a thread with links talking about some map making programs: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5887

[spookygoose]

I thought Id add my question here rather than add another thread.

When adding rulesystems to FG (savage worlds) is it just the GM who has to purchase them or does each player have to as well?

[Sorontar]

I thought Id add my question here rather than add another thread.

When adding rulesystems to FG (savage worlds) is it just the GM who has to purchase them or does each player have to as well?

Just the DM.

[Oberoten]

Only the GM will need to actually buy the ruleset, but only those whom have bought it retains the full use of it and can access all books.

[spookygoose]

thanks all :)

[Alyais]

Thanks again for all the help. You have been a great aid in my quest to figure out how this all works. I do have a few more so if you'll indulge me I will appreciate it.

1. I noticed another fellow ask about custom rulesets. Are custom rulesets makeable by individuals? IE; Could I add 'house rules' by making custom rulesets from existing ones?

2. Custom rulesets are made by the fantasy grounds company and are not part of the package I am to assume?

3. What exactly is inside of a custom ruleset. Differing graphics as well?

4. Can character sheets be shared? IE; If I make a character can I send the file (I'm assuming it is XML) to another player? This would be beneficial for having cohorts and/or player played NPC's. How is this accomplished?

[Andugus]

Greetings,
1. Does fantasy grounds two support the use of multiple game-masters?


There is no "official" way to have a 2nd or 3rd game master. However, I have found the multiple GM's can work together in Fantasy Grounds. While only one GM will have access to the back end data live, the data can be shared before hand through the use of modules or sending your campaign to other GMs. This way they can look on at the material same as you can, they just can't directly manipulate the data. The 2nd GM could log in ahead of time and if they release their only character they will essentially be invisible to the other players unless they talk. So, I could log in as GM2 and release my character. If I talk, it will be seen as coming from GM2 (could be any name you want).

A second way to have a 2nd GM help is with observations and whipping up material on the fly as things develop. Use of whispers or ventrilo can give a live connection between the two gm's. So long as it remains private they are good. Imagine the PC's taking a weird turn in your adventure and you need a group of NPCs on the fly. The 2nd GM could provide details such that the 1st GM can continue with running the game and not have to stop. Same goes for quick and dirty maps (shared via instant messenger or email), ideas, rule look ups, etc.



3. Can more source material be added? I have noticed in the demo the Monster Manual, Spells, and Classes from the PHB OGL D&D sourcebooks. What about suppliments, can these be added by users?


In addition to being able to add your own additional material you can find companies that produce adventures that are simply inserted as a module into your campaign. These modules are static and do not change though anything you write into your campaign will stay.

This is the best VT out there in regards to recreating the tabletop feel. After a few minutes of play it really does feel like you are gaming. If you have any other questions feel free to send me a private message.

[Alyais]

Thanks a lot! I will likely send you a PM as you've asked! Any answers for my most recent of questions?

[joshuha]

Thanks again for all the help. You have been a great aid in my quest to figure out how this all works. I do have a few more so if you'll indulge me I will appreciate it.

1. I noticed another fellow ask about custom rulesets. Are custom rulesets makeable by individuals? IE; Could I add 'house rules' by making custom rulesets from existing ones?

2. Custom rulesets are made by the fantasy grounds company and are not part of the package I am to assume?

3. What exactly is inside of a custom ruleset. Differing graphics as well?

4. Can character sheets be shared? IE; If I make a character can I send the file (I'm assuming it is XML) to another player? This would be beneficial for having cohorts and/or player played NPC's. How is this accomplished?


Yes custom rulesets can be added by individuals. As far as making a custom module for house rules it is not too bad and there are a few threads here that can help you out with that.
Note sure what you are asking here. Smiteworks doesn't currently do any custom rulesets. There are other companies that do produce rulesets, modules, and other resources for Fantasy Grounds.
A custom ruleset can completely change the interface as well as affect a lot of the logic through scripting. Modules usually contain information and generally can be broken down into library modules (your books and rules and similiar info) or Adventure modules (compilations of maps, descriptions, NPCs, etc.)
Well a player can control multiple character sheets. If the ruleset supprots it you can give access to NPCs to players as well.

[Alyais]

Yes custom rulesets can be added by individuals. As far as making a custom module for house rules it is not too bad and there are a few threads here that can help you out with that.
Note sure what you are asking here. Smiteworks doesn't currently do any custom rulesets. There are other companies that do produce rulesets, modules, and other resources for Fantasy Grounds.
A custom ruleset can completely change the interface as well as affect a lot of the logic through scripting. Modules usually contain information and generally can be broken down into library modules (your books and rules and similiar info) or Adventure modules (compilations of maps, descriptions, NPCs, etc.)
Well a player can control multiple character sheets. If the ruleset supprots it you can give access to NPCs to players as well.


To explain a bit better...

2. Custom rulesets and additional rulebooks from the SRD and D20 are not standard andd o not come wioth the purchase of fantasy grounds. These are additional purchases from other companys. Correct?

3. So to actual play with my players after I purchase fantasy grounds I must make a "module" in order for them to play as well? I cannot simply upload maps on the fly and play with the standard resources?

4. The question here was really about: if I make a character sheet on MY computer can I e-mail it to another player. Lets say I want to make everyones starting characters for instance. Can I make these characters and share/email them to others?

[joshuha]

To explain a bit better...

2. Custom rulesets and additional rulebooks from the SRD and D20 are not standard andd o not come wioth the purchase of fantasy grounds. These are additional purchases from other companys. Correct?

3. So to actual play with my players after I purchase fantasy grounds I must make a "module" in order for them to play as well? I cannot simply upload maps on the fly and play with the standard resources?

4. The question here was really about: if I make a character sheet on MY computer can I e-mail it to another player. Lets say I want to make everyones starting characters for instance. Can I make these characters and share/email them to others?

2. Fantasy Grounds does come with some basic SRD information (like Monsters, some basic rules, etc) but everything else you need to provide or get from other sources. Thats not saying any of these are required. I play Earthdawn with just a custom sheet I made and all my players have the books in their laps.

3. Sorry, the adventure modules were for prepackaging adventures. You can drop images in on the fly and create story entries and NPCs on the fly as well.

4. As the GM you can create characters on your machine and the players can select them when they log into your campaign.

[Andugus]

To explain a bit better...
2. Custom rulesets and additional rulebooks from the SRD and D20 are not standard andd o not come wioth the purchase of fantasy grounds. These are additional purchases from other companys. Correct?


That is correct. Here is a link (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/community/affiliates.xcp) to affiliates recognized by Fantasy Grounds. Digital Adventures has developed several rulesets to date with more in the works.



3. So to actual play with my players after I purchase fantasy grounds I must make a "module" in order for them to play as well? I cannot simply upload maps on the fly and play with the standard resources?


You do not have to create a module in advance. You should load in your maps ahead of time but if you don't have time you could rely on the in game drawing tools to share a map that allows others to draw on it. This area can be given a grid size you choose. This feature supports tokens and masking.

If you have time to input text you can do it easily with cut and paste directly from word or pdf. If you are a capable typist even this becomes trivial though it may help to have your "boxed" text prepared in advance to keep game moving along.



4. The question here was really about: if I make a character sheet on MY computer can I e-mail it to another player. Lets say I want to make everyones starting characters for instance. Can I make these characters and share/email them to others?


Someone else may know a way to snip the xml code needed to do what you are asking. For my part, PCGen is the tool I use to create characters for D&D rules. I can export my data and share it via email or IM.

[Griogre]

4. Can character sheets be shared? IE; If I make a character can I send the file (I'm assuming it is XML) to another player? This would be beneficial for having cohorts and/or player played NPC's. How is this accomplished?
Normally you would not need to send this to anyone if you were hosting. That's because if you did send them the XML they would just turn around and update it to the server anyway. Unless I am missing something you would normally just make the character on the server and tell them to log in and use it and save the hassel of sending the XML around.

As Josh mentioned, players can have multiple characters. Character's are normally tied to a player ID and player's only see their ID's characters. However, the host can clear ownership so anyone can login and use a character. In fact when I have a player who can't make it, I normally clear the owner and have another player open the character even if I (the DM) am going to run the character.

In FG there is a big distinction between characters using a character sheet and those using the personality (monster) sheets. Without altering the ruleset, players can't see personalities.

[Alyais]

Hey there and thanks for the help everybody! I do still feel my fourth question is incomplete though so I'll try and give a better example. I'll better explain my exact situation.

My campaign group is coming from Neverwinter Nights and for lack of a better explanation only I will have access to their NWN character sheets. I need to transfer what information I can from their NWN character sheets to a Fantasy Grounds character sheet. I must do this, my players cannot.

So my plan is to make the character sheets using my copy of fantasy grounds and then give them to the players they belong to. Player A will receive stat sheet A and so on. Is there a server vault with each players character sheet stored in it on FG where I can simply drop this custom charactersheet into?

I need to know if it is possible for one player/dm to make a character sheet and then share it with someone else so they may use that character.

Does that clarify? Any help is appreciated. This question is probably one of the more important ones.

[Andugus]

Your situation is not clear to me at all. Once you create a character it can be released so another player may log into your hosted game and select that character. There is no export command for a copy to go to the player. If a player needs to see his character you just host a session and player logs in to work on it.

As Joshuha mentioned the characters can be created by players without connecting. The first time they connect the character is copied to the host and becomes a server character. From this point on the player must be logged in to see or make changes to the character. No changes are recorded or sent to player machine.

[Oberoten]

Hey there and thanks for the help everybody! I do still feel my fourth question is incomplete though so I'll try and give a better example. I'll better explain my exact situation.

My campaign group is coming from Neverwinter Nights and for lack of a better explanation only I will have access to their NWN character sheets. I need to transfer what information I can from their NWN character sheets to a Fantasy Grounds character sheet. I must do this, my players cannot.

So my plan is to make the character sheets using my copy of fantasy grounds and then give them to the players they belong to. Player A will receive stat sheet A and so on. Is there a server vault with each players character sheet stored in it on FG where I can simply drop this custom charactersheet into?

I need to know if it is possible for one player/dm to make a character sheet and then share it with someone else so they may use that character.

Does that clarify? Any help is appreciated. This question is probably one of the more important ones.

The character sheets are stored on the host (your) computer with a named player associated, but it is possible to clear the associated name hence freeing the character up for others to use.

In practice this means that :
Yes, you can as a GM input a character and have the players use it when they connect. All changes to the character during the game will be saved on your computer as a SERVER character.

It is possible even for a player to create a local character and then have it transfered to the server, it then becomes saved at the host with the players associated name. (Once again, the GM can clear the owner so another player can use the charactersheet with that character on)

[Griogre]

So basically once you get the characters onto the FG server and tell you player's to log in an claim them. In a sense the characters on the FG server are like server vault characters in NWN but that is not a perfect analogy.

[Alyais]

Thanks for all the help! We bought six player copies and a full copy last night and tested it out. It works perfectly and I ran a sample module to associate my players with the system. I do have a few errors and questions I want to ask you all about.

1. This morning when I opened FG it asked me to create a new campaign, despite the fact that I had already created a campaign last night. The campaign folder still exists and when I named the new campaign the name of the old one my custom dungeons did appear. However, I cannot view the characters my players made last night. Why is this?

2. Can you turn a personality into a playable PC character by dragging personalities somewhere? This would allow my DM assistant to play more than one NPC.

3. One of my players experienced a bug where suddenly he could no longer type, we no longer saw his die rolls, we didn't even see his chat bubble. We couldn't see anything he was doing and he couldn't see us. This sounds like a disconnection to me but when he did exit the program his character remained and he couldn't log back in. Ideas?

[Alyais]

4. In addition: I've noticed FG has a lot of cool things I wish I had during NORMAL tabletop but I am noticing one missing feature. Is there no way in the client to calculate/distribute EXP based on a challenge rating encounter?

[Griogre]

1) Once you start a full version, after clicking Host a Game as a Gamemaster, on the next window that pop's up is a button "Load Campaign" Press that and select the campaign with the characters in it.

I would suggest you keep only your PC's and any party NPCs in your main campaign and use adventure modules for the rest of the information. You make an adventure module by starting a new campaign then exporting it as a module, then pulling the module into the main campaign by activating it. The advantage of doing it this way is when you finish an adventure, you just un-activate the module and the adventure no longer clutters your campaign, but if you do want it back you just have to activate it again.

2) No the personality can't be transformed into a PC style charactersheet. You might want to view the personalities as an alternative character sheet. They can be used that way and drag and dropped on the combat tracker. For you situation, you might want to consider modifying your ruleset to make the personalities shareable so you could share them with your co DM. As far as I know this is still a very simple thing to do (it was in FG1), but I am not an expert in FG2 ruleset changes.

3) It was probably was a disconnect where the server hadn't realized it. It can take up to about a minute before the server "gives up" and times out. During this time period the server won't let the player log back in because it thinks the player is still connected. In the full version the host should see a <Player Name> disconnected if the server thinks the player left. You can go back to the chatlog on the server and see if there was a disconnect message.

Another thing that could have happened is the player got a dice stuck in his input line at the bottom of the chat window. If a player (or DM) is in the middle of typing something and makes a die roll, because the input line has focus the die roll gets stuck in the input line. You can actually see a little die there when this happens. Until that die is "freed" you can't type or throw dice. You can free the die by deleting the text all around the die on the input line and hitting return. Sometimes hitting return will free it also, but clearing out all text around the die icon on the line and hitting return has always worked for me. If you have a player get too frustrated with it just tell him to exit out and come back in.

4) FG conforms to the OGL (open game license) and uses the SRD. The OGL forbids certain types of automatic calculations and the XP tables are not in the SRD. So because of legal reasons FG can't do that calculation.

However once you do the calculation, you can easily distribute it. Just type /die <XP Amount> and it will create a "number bubble" in chat the players can drag and drop onto their XP total. Personally, I normally calculate XP between sessions rather than spend the time while playing. It depends on how you have people level.

[Alyais]

Hey, Thanks! We're scheduled to do our first mini session tonight to prepare for the campaign and I have a few more questions from the group.

1. When a player makes waypoints but decides he doesn't want to go that direction, how can he delete his waypoints and start over? How can the DM? I know I can approve them but basically how does one not approve it? How does the player undo his path?

2. Someone mentioned adventure modules. Awesome! How do I do it? The guide seems lacking in that area.

[Andugus]

This link will get you started on module exporting (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8201&highlight=export+module).

I am also involved in the creation of commercial adventure modules. If you would like to see a completed adventure module as an example we have one available for sale at www.whitehairedman.com (https://www.whitehairedman.com).

[Griogre]

Hey, Thanks! We're scheduled to do our first mini session tonight to prepare for the campaign and I have a few more questions from the group.

1. When a player makes waypoints but decides he doesn't want to go that direction, how can he delete his waypoints and start over? How can the DM? I know I can approve them but basically how does one not approve it? How does the player undo his path?The player can just "wiggle" is token a bit (what he is really doing is drawing a tiny line which replaces his other path). If the DM wants to clear a path just move the token and put it back or where you want it. If you don't want to approve you can either clear it per the prior sentence or just leave it. When the player makes a new path the old one will go away.


2. Someone mentioned adventure modules. Awesome! How do I do it? The guide seems lacking in that area.
Adventure modules are very simple to make. Here's a step by step:

1) Start a new campaign with the adventure modules name - let’s call this one ModTest.

2) When the campaign loads click the story book, select the new tab at the bottom and type ModTest Story Title for the Title and Body for the body. Close the story entry.

3) Let's add a monster. It's a new campaign so no library book modules are activated. Click the Modules Button in the top right. In the Module Activation pop up double click on the greenish d20 Monster book icon to open it. Close the module activation window. Click on the Library book, click on d20 Monsters. The right pane should fill with monsters. Click on the Personalities book. Drag and drop the Aboleth from the library listing to the Personality list pop up. It should appear in the personality listing. Click on the Aboleth entry and when it pops up the Aboleth personality click on the name which will put a cursor there. Add ModTest after Abolith so you get "Aboleth ModTest".

4) Module time. Close the library window and personality and personality listing windows. On the chat entry line below the chat area, type /export

This will pop the Module Export Window. Fill in the Name: Amazing Test Module. Fill in the File name: ModTest. You can put in your name for Author. Skip the Index Group, Merge IDs, and Thumbnail for now. You will rarely if ever use Index Group and Merge IDs. Thumbnails expects a relative path from FG data app folder to the thumbnail image.

In the middle section of the Module Export Window click the circles next to Story, Images & Maps, Personalities and Items. When you do so the rest of the line appears with the "H" bubble checked and that's fine. Then right click in the middle of the middle pane and select export. You should get a message in the chat window saying something about the module being exported successfully.

Close out FG. Restart FG but this time start in what ever you use as your main campaign. Click the module button in the top right and you should see Amazing Test Module among the library books (I cleverly picked a name that should make it towards the top – you can scroll the list with a mouse wheel). Activate the module by double clicking the blank space on the left where the thumbnail would be and the book should open.

Open up the story book and personality lists and find the module entries. :)

It is very important to understand that you can't permanently add or change module entries except in the module campaign. IE if you open up the Aboleth and delete the ModTest part of its name. It seems gone, but un-activate and reactivate the Amazing Test Module and the ModTest will be back in it’s name. The only way to change things permanently in a module is to reload the campaign you made the module in and re-export it. However, changes are remembered in the current campaign until you un-activate a module.

Created module are in the modules folder in data apps. If you wanted to add maps to the adventure module, add them to the module campaign's image folder before you export.

[Alyais]

Nice! Thanks a lot guys! Now when I load adventure modules does this allow all PC's to access this reference material?

[Alyais]

Awesome guide by the way. One question: The adventure information doesn't show up as a book in the library? How is that accomplished?

[Valarian]

The library modules are a little different, and you need to know some basic XML to these. The best place to start is to have a look at one of the d20 library modules as an example.

1. Copy the file and rename it to .zip rather than .mod
2. Open the zip archive ... there'll be three files. An image (the cover), a definition.xml and another XML file (e.g. client.xml, common.xml, db.xml).

There's more info here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6446) on the types of modules

[EDIT]
When I say basic XML, it really is basic knowledge that's required. All XML really is, is text with some funny formatting stuff wrapped around it. The important thin to remember is that the formatting stuff is in the <> brackets, and that any formatting tag that has a start <tag> has to have an end </tag>. Some start and end on the same line: <tag />

The rest is filling.

[Griogre]

Now when I load adventure modules does this allow all PC's to access this reference material?
No, adventure modules are like a Dungeon Crawl Classic Module, Sunless Citadel, or Shackled City adventure modules. They are build assuming you don't want your players to see the monster's, encounters and DM map information - IE they are all the things usually behind "the DM's screen" in a face to face game.

As Valarian mentioned library book modules are different. They are like the splat books, PH, DMG, MM and other referance materials that are in the books littering the typical face to face game table and floor. Some of the stuff you might want the players to see like a splat book and PH. Some you may not want the players to open like a monster or setting book and some you might only want to lend to a player only while he is over at your house.

[Alyais]

Threaaaad Necromancy! Ughhhh! </zombienoise>

Here's another question. I'm considering purchasing:
https://www.digitaladventures.net/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=74

For my crew. Do only I need to purchase this or does my entire group need to in order to use it?

[Griogre]

The CSRD was originally developed for FG1 and upgraded to FG2. Unlike a lot of the newer Digital Adventures products, everyone who wishes to use this needs to get a copy of this. Whether someone gets it or doesn't get it will have no effect on anyone else in the group though. Clients will only be able to use the five "blue" books though. People with a full version will be able to use the "green" books when they host.

[Dragonstar]

I'll add my two cents' worth here on using NWN for map graphics. Our DM has used NWN to set up interior shots and it has worked very well for him. He's used to building in NWN1 so that was easier than figuring out another mapping program. He has also used the NWN2 toolset for some rather striking maps.

[balth]

So what I don't get is how, after I activate the module by opening the pages in the module section; how to get it to load the maps and NPCs from the module.

Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks!

[Foen]

If you are running the Lite version, you won't be able to access maps and NPCs.

If you are running the Full version, they are in the normal "Maps & Images" and "Personalities" lists which you can open from the icons on the right hand side of the desktop. You will have to switch tabs within those lists (the tabs are along the bottom of the lists) as module content is displayed separately from campaign content.

Hope that helps

Stuart

[balth]

aha!

I'll try this out right now, thanks!