Placement of official pregen content from the encounter to the map

[Habanero]

I ran my first DM experience last night. We started the Queen of the Dragon Horde, and the players approached the first city from the northeast corner of the map. You are suppose to give the players a specific mission first, but that location was pinned at the southern entrance. I moved the pin from the original location to a new location where the characters were currently standing. When I clicked on the down arrow to send the encounter to the map, it added the NPCs to the original location. It was kind of cumbersome moving all 13 tokens to the new location.

Is it possible to change where the NPCs are populated on the map so I don't have to manually move them all across a big map?

The game session went really well, and we can't wait to continue the campaign.

[Zacchaeus]

You would have to reset the position of the tokens in the encounter. You will notice that each NPC has a tick in the encounter. If you click on the tick it will change to a token. You can now drag those tokens onto the map to reset their position. you can close the encounter and when you need it in game FG will remember the new position.

In adventures such as HotDQ encounters are all pre positioned for you. If for whatever reason you are not following the story as per the adventure you’ll need to change such encounters to suit your needs as part of your preparation.

[Habanero]

Thanks for the response.

So if I want to run a pre-programmed encounter, I would manually drag the NPC icons from the encounter window to the places on the map where I want them, instead of clicking the down arrow to auto populate. Should I first drag them to the combat tracker, then to the map?

I would like to run the campaign as described in the prepared adventure, however, I wasnt sure how to handle the adventurers entering the map at the NE corner, and how to get them to the South entrance where that first mandatory encounter is scheduled to occur. Should I kind of force them there, or should I be flexible and adjust the location when it really doesnt matter? There are other "random encounters" that I think I can use your method for sure, and there are some encounters that happen at very specific places, like the Sallyport, but for those, I can have NPC's specifically reference those locations if they want to do those missions.

Feels like a few more sessions, and I should really have a handle on Fantasy Grounds as an interface, BattleBards for audio, D&D 5e rules, managing all of the 20 windows I have on my screen, and giving life to the NPC's and regions of the Sword Coast. Its a lot to manage, but if I can make it all run smoothly, I hope to provide an amazing and immersive play experience for my participants.

[Zacchaeus]

If you want to change the position that NPCs appear then you will have to redo the encounter as I described above. You don’t drag them to the CT but directly to the map, and then close the encounter. The tokens will be removed from the map but when you use the encounter and click the placement arrow they will be placed on the CT and the map.

This is your game and your players so you can do what you want. But, yes, the written adventures assume a certain path generally and if you want to make things easy then yes railroad them into it. I am not at my computer so I can’t look up the map you are talking about but if you were following the adventure as written then the party should have approached from the right direction.

Random encounters will almost certainly not have their tokens placed anywhere on any map. They are random after all. When you use a random encounter you will need to place the encounter on the CT and then drag the NPCs from the CT onto the map - assuming there even is a map for the random encounter.

[Bidmaron]

Zacchaeus I thought it was a no-no to drag tokens from an encounter to a map. You have to drag them from the CT or targeting and effects won't work?

[Zacchaeus]

When you are creating an encounter you drag from the encounter to the map and then close the encounter. When you then click the placement arrow the tokens are placed on the CT and the map all linked up.

You are correct that if you were adding some NPCs during a game which were not in a predefined encounter you would first place them on the CT and thence onto the map.

[Bidmaron]

Well, live and learn, I guess. Didn't know you could do that once they were placed the first time.

[Andraax]

If you're going to move a bunch of tokens, you can select all of them, and drag them as a group. Also, you can drag the little red "head" from the bottom of the CT to the map and all foes will be moved to near where you dropped the head (this works for the green and yellow heads as well, moving those groups as one).

[Bidmaron]

Thanks for more, Andraax. Do the players drop in party marching order?

[Andraax]

No.