Need help with effects the complete.. all of them

[fredgar4]

Hello community,

I just recently (this week) picked up this program in an attempt to bring together my friends from over 20-30 years ago to play some D&D even though we are spread far out. I have been watching a lot of videos and I have most of character creation down (the basics without having to create new powers) and even managed to piece together a trial combat to see how that works out. So far I have ran into a few problems. One has to deal with my friends not seeing tokens (which was fixed after I reset my computer... I will let that go for right now). The main one is we have a fairly diverse group and there are mechanics of the game I am just not familiar with and to be honest I am not the most computer savvy person. Most of the talking points dont make a lot of sense to me because you all seem to have a fairly high understanding of programming. So my question for now is...

I see there are multiple "Effects The Complete <enter class name>" semi tutorials and they seem like they would be helpful, if I was on the same level of understanding as most of you are. There is a downloadable XML file with 20th level characters. And I have seen videos of those already in game, but I have no idea how to get them in the game. I downloaded some, opened the program files and copied those in the character file.. Nothing. in the 5e file in characters.. Nothing. I have No idea what I am suppose to do with those xml files. If i just try to open the files, Iexplore opens them and I just see program language that I dont understand.

I figure if i can get them in the program and open them up then I could probably copy and paste those abilities onto my friend's characters, but I just dont know how to get them in. Any help for a noob, who is not a programmer? please?

[mlesnews]

While one can certainly learn how to manually create effects, Rob2e has done coding for most if not all of the game. There is a LOT of work to be done creating all of the coding. Fortunately, for a nominal fee, Rob2e has done all of the work for us. Also all of the classes at Fantasy Grounds College are free, coding effects is one of many that they teach. Permanent link to this discord server: https://discord.gg/Ew6nYyw

FG Review: Rob2e 5E Spell Effects Coding Module

If you would like to see what are some good examples of pre-generated characters of low to middle level:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...yer-characters
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...Guild-Offering
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/231...antasy-Grounds

[LordEntrails]

Those Complete packages are character sheets. Goto the PC/Character list/window and click the pencil Edit icon. From there you can import (blue arrow?) the files that you downloaded. You will then have those characters sheets. You can then look at them for how the abilities and all that are coded.

As mentioned, you can also get Rob's Effects packages if you don't want to learn how to code them.

Also, Zacchaeus has put together some videos recently on how to make effects, see; https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...-Videos-for-5E

[damned]

Welcome fredgar4

After you import the characters you will have a sample 20th level character.
You can open this character up and drag the appropriate effects for your new characters onto their sheets.

However Id like to suggest that you dont even look at effects until you are comfortable with the other aspects of the platform.
Everything that the effects do can be manually done with the Modifiers window.

The most important thing to learn is combat.
Make sure all PCs and NPCs are added first to the Combat Tracker and from there to the Map.
All enemy tokens in the map and on the combat tracker are invisible by default on their addition.
You can make them all visible or one by one.

Learn how targeting works.
Learn how to apply attacks and damage on the map, via targeting and on the combat tracker.

Once you have Characters and Combat worked out you will know when you are ready to use effects.
Maybe your players will know when they are ready and they will take the time to learn how to play their characters too.

[fredgar4]

Thank you very much everyone for the responses and great information! There are many learning points for me to take in and I am learning them slowly.

"Those Complete packages are character sheets. Goto the PC/Character list/window and click the pencil Edit icon. From there you can import (blue arrow?) the files that you downloaded. You will then have those characters sheets. You can then look at them for how the abilities and all that are coded."

This is the first part that I couldnt figure out. Thank you LordEntrails. This should at least be able to get us going and allow me time to start fiddling with the self coding stuff.

As Mr. Damned as has stated, I have been trying to work with the combat system. I have done some practice ones where I joined my own game and set up a simple self made encounter. It took a little bit, but I was finally able to get encounters to work with tokens, work on targeting and multi-targeting as well as working with the masking feature. Then I had one of my friends do it with me and ran into some problems at the beginning. He would only see red squares and not tokens. After various internet searches, we tried clearing player cache. I even did it on my side, but then he could no longer connect to my game. Completely rebooting my computer seemed to work /shrug. So I will just nod and smile to the computer gods. After that he was able to interact with the tokens (targeting and dropping attacks) as well as actually see them.

I think it was just enough to get us the bare bones, but I found out that some key class features didnt automatically work. So.. I dont always know what is suppose to work and what we are suppose to just adjust on the go. I.e. fighting styles, barbarian rages and such. Some of those abilities come with the class in game, i.e. Healing surge and I could just drag over and it worked. Others.. not so much. That is when I came across those Complete Characters and I wanted to use those, but just couldnt figure out how to actually open them in game!

Thank you very much I really appreciate it. I am gonna try it now!

[Trenloe]

However Id like to suggest that you dont even look at effects until you are comfortable with the other aspects of the platform.
Everything that the effects do can be manually done with the Modifiers window.

This. Do this!

I don't think many of us die-hard FG users played our first few games with all of the automation. There's just too much to learn and your game suffers, the GM feels there is too much prep, the players get frustrated.

Get the basic there first - stats, attacks, references, etc.. But then just play the game - get used to the interface, sharing records and images/maps, the basics of the combat tracker. Play as if you were all sat around a table (this is a "Virtual" table top after all) and do things manually - roll the dice, then say what the total would actually be if you forgot to add a modifier before rolling, then compare with the target number. Just like you would when playing face-to-face. Then, over time, as you learn the app you can add in more automation - if that's what you want.

After all, the majority of us use Fantasy Grounds to play RPGs with our friends - start playing, don't try to use everything in FG all at once. Your group play style will then evolve over time and you can decide what automation to use and what not to use.

And remember, FG facilitates your RPG play - don't think of it like a computer game that has limits and does everything for you - it won't. It doesn't automate every single little thing - that would be impossible. You, and to a lesser extent, the players will need to know something of the RPG system you're playing.