Steps to create your PFS scenario in Fantasy Grounds

[Trenloe]

The following are the usual steps that I do when I am preparing a PFS scenario to run in Fantasy Grounds. I'll try and expand on this over time - and get a document that we can edit and keep track of.

There are a few main steps:

1. Buy the scenario PDF!
2. Extract the images you want to use.
3. Parse the creature statblocks.
4. Start building your campaign.
5. Create the specific scenario story/encounter entries you will need.
6. Finishing touches.

Buy the scenario

• Buy the PFS scenario you are going to run from https://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/...ucts/scenarios This comes as a PDF and most are $3.99 each.

Please keep in mind that these scenario PDFs are copyright material - as such, it is illegal to share PDFs, and it is also illegal to share content that is not Open Game License (OGL) material (basically, everything except the statblocks is product identity and cannot be distributed in any form). Therefore, please don't distribute any story/map/image content copied into Fantasy Grounds from the PFS scenario PDF.

Extract images

• Extract the pictures and maps from the PDF. There are a number of ways to do this - I use a free application called "Nitro PDF Viewer" that has a bulk extract images functionality and it works very well - it is available here: https://www.nitroreader.com/download. I used to use "Some PDF Images Extract" but this application is no longer free.
• Sort the images you want to keep and delete the others. You will get a lot of header images that you won't need.

Parse Statblocks

• Familiarise yourself with the Pathfinder Creature Parser: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...2-Beta-Version This is your friend and allows you to get the statblocks from the PDF into Fantasy Grounds quickly and easily.
• Open your favourite text editor (I use Notepad++ - it's free and it has some nice plugins). Copy and paste all of the creature statblocks from the PDF into your text editor. Make sure you only have blank lines between individual creatures (not in the creature statblock itself) and that you add a line "XP 1" between the creature name/CR line and the next line (the creature type). *** Check that the statblock has copied OK - sometimes stray spaces appear in the headers (due to the different font used).
• Once you have copy/pasted all of the creature stats into a text file, save the file as <scenario name>.txt. Open up the Creature Parser, load the saved text file and parse. Hopefully this will complete OK - if not, check the creature statblock that failed; common errors are missing the "XP 1" line, not all of the standard headings are present (Defense, Offense, Statistics, etc.) or they haven't copied completely out of the PDF - check for spaces in headings! Also, check the readme file in the creature parser download for more info. There is also an example statblock text file in the parser download - look at this to get an idea of what your copy/paste text file should look like.
• If the parser worked you will have a <scenario name>.mod file in the same directory as the text file. Copy this into your <Fantasy Grounds Application data directory>\modules.

Start building the FG campaign

• Start Fantasy Grounds and create a new 3.5E campaign - I'll refer to the campaign name as <campaign> in the rest of this thread. When it loads up, select "PFRPG" to use the Pathfinder specific rules.
• Copy your images into the <Fantasy Grounds Application data directory>\<campaign>\images directory. These will immediately appear in the "Images & Maps" list in Fantasy Grounds.
• Open the creature statblock module you created: Go to "Library", select "Module Activation" and open the creature statblock module (the book should show that it is open). Close module activation.
• In the library you should see an entry under "PFRPG Essentials" for your creature module. Click on this and check through the creatures listed to the right.
• Keep the library window open. Go to the "NPC" list on the desktop. Then, click-and-drag each creature from the library to the NPC list. I do this because it then allows me to edit the NPC locally if I want to - add tokens, etc..
• Unload the creature module if you want - it is no longer needed as you have copied the creatures into the NPC list in the campaign.

At this point you will have a basic campaign structure - images/maps and NPCs. Now you can start building up the story entries and start to bring it all together. I will cover more on this in my next post.

EDIT: Here is a document that I wrote for AdventureAWeek.com scenario conversions - it is completely relevant to anyone doing a Fantasy Grounds scenario module. There is a lot of data towards the end of the document on creating traps.

[dberkompas]

Trenloe,

Thanks for posting this!


BoomerET

[Tiqon]

Gold man! Thanks. I have just made my FIRST the manual way, cut and paste style, it took a looong time but Im finally done.

Erhm Question: Some PDF Images Extract. Did you buy that? I tried the free one but got real mad as it only extracted for the first 4 pages. I mean its ok ofc, they have to live too, but saying its TOTALLY free and fully functional is BS and then I get girly stubborn (sorry girls, just a saying ). I will consider buying it if you say you use it and it works fine ..
I found one place where you could extract pics online, free this time, BUT that could only take max 10 MB files... to low.

[Leonal]

Some PDF Images Extract is free (correction, seems like they changed to a "free-to-try" mode) and extracts whatever page range you specify. Only problem I've had with it is having to close it and reopen between PDFs.

https://www.somepdf.com/some-pdf-image-extract.html

I don't play PFS, but nice post Trenloe.

Edit: You can also use a regular pdf reader to copy the image and then use an image editor like Paint.net to paste and save it.

[Tiqon]

Some PDF Images Extract is free (it's not for sale) and extracts whatever page range you specify. Only problem I've had with it is having to close it and reopen between PDFs.

https://www.somepdf.com/some-pdf-image-extract.html

I don't play PFS, but nice post Trenloe.

Edit: You can also use a regular pdf reader to copy the image and then use an image editor like Paint.net to paste and save it.

Its not free. I just dl'ed it again, installed and it will only extract pics from the first 5 pages. No more. It will ask you for a serial afterwards, or you can click buy and go to https://www.somepdf.com/buy.html where you can buy it for 10 dollars.

At this time I just use the cutting tool build into win7 (its fast, I know other better ones but the build in one is fast ). And it works fine. My problem is maps, as big maps is a problem getting in a good quality, or you have to zoom in and cut it down in smaller pieces. An extractor would be nice though .

[Leonal]

Its not free. I just dl'ed it again, installed and it will only extract pics from the first 5 pages. No more. It will ask you for a serial afterwards, or you can click buy and go to https://www.somepdf.com/buy.html where you can buy it for 10 dollars.

At this time I just use the cutting tool build into win7 (its fast, I know other better ones but the build in one is fast ). And it works fine. My problem is maps, as big maps is a problem getting in a good quality, or you have to zoom in and cut it down in smaller pieces. An extractor would be nice though .

Interesting, then they've changed as it used to be 100% free... my bad. I'm not going to install the new one to try.

[Tiqon]

Interesting, then they've changed as it used to be 100% free... my bad. I'm not going to install the new one to try.

NOOOOOOOO! I just KNEW it! that was the problem! . You see I looked at the page where they say it 100% free, its version 1.0. when you click "download" you go to a list af programs they offer. They are all version 2.0 and they apprently decided they wanted money for it now (hey we all gotta eat, I get it ). But still... *mumbles*.

[damned]

keep using snipping tool in that case.
you probably really DONT want too much resolution in your maps - that just means they take longer to download...

[Tiqon]

I googled "some PDF Images Extract 1.0" and finally found a link that still have the old version (even if it say 2.0 in the installer), works fine for all pages.

@Damned Yeah I guess, but I like to have the pics I work on as good a possible. I would cut it in smaller pieces from there. . Also I noticed that if I extract the maps I dont get the numbers/letters for the locations! I had manually removed them in Photshop.

[Trenloe]

For image extraction I now use the free Nitro PDF Reader that has good bulk image extraction functionality. Find it here: https://www.nitroreader.com/download