How do you guys/gals (DMs) create your home brew material?

[Mytherus]

Good evening all, for my fellow American friends I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was a good one.

I've pretty much blown all my free time over the past 4 days I've been off writing material, watching tutorial videos on FG and creating custom maps (not a program Fantasy Ground makes so I'll not include that program's name) . I feel I'm starting to get the hang of Fantasy Grounds, still questions marks for sure but its slowly coming together.

Anyway I'm interested / curious how other people that write their own campaigns for FG (of course) work? I mean not only where do you start --- do you start with making maps and then using the maps to inspire your story for each location? Do you have an overall goal for your players and then your writing flows from there?

Not just how your creative work flow is --- another question how do you ACTUALLY work? Meaning do you just type your story directly into FG? Or is everything first typed up and copy pasted or your ideas are already hand written down and you just enter into FG?

In my case I'm trying to convert a short story I've been working on and off for quite some time (over a year - I keep changing things and making edits) ... so I've been just typing up things in Word and then I figure I'll copy paste to FG as needed.

Anyway...thanks in advance..

[LordEntrails]

Well.... I've done it a few different way. I'll give you two examples of past approaches and my plans for my next.

I created my Balance Disturbed adventure in MS Word and maps in CC3+. (No problem mentioning other programs names here, even competitors. Civility is the only requirement.) Then I copy/pasted from the Word file to FG, and imported the maps, etc. This has the benefit of making a PDF really easy, but it does mean that some of the power of FG (i.e. databases) is a an afterthought (sort of). But, with a relatively linear adventure (even though it allows PCs to go off track and ideas for the DM, it does not fully detail them) writing in a linear format like a text file works well.

I created the Dungeon Level of Ultimate Undermountain in FG and CC3+. Here I started with a rough map so I knew the geography to begins with (i.e. the 2E poster map). I then used a DM overview map as the driving/central source. I sketched out ideas like power groups and such in a few temporary story entries. Then I would create story entries, pin them to the map. I used Story Templates to create each story entry, so each entry had a consistency (description, link to battle map, link to NPC encounter object, tactics description, treasure description and link to treasure parcel, then standard text with the coordinates of the location on the DM overview map), parts of the room description would use my room description tables to generate random room descriptions, which I would then use as inspiration and write an appropriate room description, determine NPC,. Then I would open the master map in CC3+, update the room to match the description, create the zoomed in battle map, export from CC3+, import to FG. Create the NPC's and encounter and place the NPCs. Create the treasure parcel and any unique items and link in the story. I also created a bunch of story entries in a different group that is GM info like plots, quests, power groups, over view info, etc.

The problem with this method is FG does not have a spell checker. It also makes a PDF a PITA to create. Now, with UM, this is almost an essential need though since their is no linearity to the adventure and it really is map driven. And plots and quests are handled pretty much separate from at least most of the rooms. And, the Dungeon level has over 500 locations, so putting them in coordinate or alphabetical order really isn't very useful either (and would be a problem if created in MS Word).

Now, how am I going to do the second (Storeroom) level of UM? Well, not sure yet. I really want to have a better spell checking method (right now I open the xml in Notepad++ and spell check there, AFTER everything is completely done.) I also want a solid PDF method, and since I'm still developing that method not sure. I know I will start with the overview map with coordinates. I might them create in Word and use Par5E (or Engineer Suite if it gets this capability in time) to convert to FG story entries. Then update the map, import the battle maps, etc. Or I might just use the FG based approach again.

One advantage of the FG map centered approach is I can easily do one or rooms at a time, while watching TV with my wife, while waiting for a plane or an appointment etc. I don't need to sit down and dedicate an hour or two, but can squeeze in 10 minutes at a time.

Also, be aware; Rob2e has a video and guide on converting text to FG. Its written for folks converting an existing product to FG so is very efficient, when the whole things is already created in one format and you just have to convert it to FG.

[Mytherus]

Thanks for the insight on your work flow. I'm also using CC3+ (I have the City Designer and Dungeon Designer modules as well) -- so I'm creating my town/city maps, as well dungeon and overland maps. I like the program it's pretty easy to learn to create basic maps that look really nice -- I just wish the quality of my maps didn't degrade so much when I save them as JPG to load into FG (in the CC3+ with the effects on they look literally 100% better). My writing tools are Word and (like you) I've used Notepad++ (I actually have used that at work too for jotting tech notes down fast). I do my main work on my gaming PC (dual screens including 34" monitor is nice for map work) but I have a laptop I use in the living room when I'm writing while watching TV.

I also have the full version of Adobe Acrobat if I need to edit /spruce up PDF files (which are my preferred (digital) method for sharing information directly with players). I provide supplemental information for my players, of course its all optional for them to read or not, but since I have always catered to beginning players --I really don't mind I. I'll give deeper backstory to a location BEFORE the next scheduled play session, sometimes I've even re-capped where we left off if there was a couple weeks since we've last played. I figured it says some time during the session if the players have such info upfront. Oh and I'm a nerd....so there's just that as well. I enjoy doing it. That's all be done with "face to face" ACTUAL table top games though....don't know how total strangers in a VTT format like FG would respond to it. I guess I'll find out.

[Trenloe]

For CC3+ maps you should be able to produce good quality outputs within the recommended FG requirements (max. 2000x2000 pixels and less than 1MB file size). A lot of people use CC3+ and produce good results for use in FG. Make sure effects are enabled when you export. What resolution are you exporting at?

[Mytherus]

Well I'll tell you what I've done -- I'm a newbie CC3+ user. Like I said the maps look really good in CC3+ with the effects on. I'm merely doing a save as "Bitmap JPG", the current map is only 800 x 600. It was my first town map I've done. I don't think I'll make them that small again though.

Should I be using another method besides just "save as" and / or another file type besides "bitmap JPEG"? I thought only JPEG will work with FG -- which is why I'm saving it that way.

[LordEntrails]

Well I'll tell you what I've done -- I'm a newbie CC3+ user. Like I said the maps look really good in CC3+ with the effects on. I'm merely doing a save as "Bitmap JPG", the current map is only 800 x 600. It was my first town map I've done. I don't think I'll make them that small again though.

Should I be using another method besides just "save as" and / or another file type besides "bitmap JPEG"? I thought only JPEG will work with FG -- which is why I'm saving it that way.

You need to go into the options and change the BMP output options. You will want to change the resolution to something higher. As mentioned earlier, you generally want to keep the resolution to lower than 2048x2048 and typically 50 pixels per 5 ft.

[iotech]

Lord Entrails advice is sound, as always, but you need not maintain 5' squares for town or overland maps of course. On overland maps (regional, national, etc.) I use a generic token to represent the party and move them myself.

[LordEntrails]

Lord Entrails advice is sound, as always, but you need not maintain 5' squares for town or overland maps of course. On overland maps (regional, national, etc.) I use a generic token to represent the party and move them myself.

What? You don't want to break your overland maps up into 200 foot squares? *G*

[Zacchaeus]

Yes the difficulty you will have with overland maps is size. When I export from CC3+ I use the export options to define the size of the map. Typically this will be 10 times the size of the original. However I only draw dungeons so my maps are a lot smaller than overland maps would usually be. In your example above you'd need to export at 8000x6000 to get the same result and clearly that's too big for FG. To keep somewhere close to FG limits you'll probably want to export at maybe 3 times the size of your map (so 2400x1800) but I don't know what kind of results you'll get. The screen shot below shows the options I choose. This map is 150x110.

[Topdecker]

My work flow is to use an editor that I prefer (Jarte is my preferred text editor since it is also helpful when converting troublesome PDFs) to get the structure of the adventure laid-out and all of the descriptive pieces authored. Organizationally, stories in FG are easier to manage if you use a numeric system (01a. Introduction, 01b. Troubles with Thieves, 01c. Bounties, 02a. Revenge of the Thieves Guild, and so on), so when you are laying it out in your editor, think about how you will organize it.

For battle maps, I use a pre-existing map from my collection, hunt one down on the web, or I author one as needed. This can consume a lot of time since it is the presentation portion of the adventure and it can be a beating when you spend 6 hours making a map that is a small part of your 4-hour mini-adventure.

Once I have all of the pieces, I start a new campaign in FG. I copy all of my maps into the images folder. Then I start the story and copy/paste in small segments. I usually try to think about how to add all the text to a map in the form of pins, so as I add each story item, I am usually dragging it out to the adventure maps. Once all of the text is entered, I go back and build the NPCs, the encounters, and the parcels and any needed items. If you have a lot of NPCs, this part can really drag down - it is all nuts and bolts and it consumes more time than the other steps.

The reason that I started a new campaign is so I can export the adventure as a module. This makes your material easily reusable and also allows you to remove it once the adventure is completed. It also helps justify the time spent on making your own maps since you are building reusable materials that you can share with another group of players.

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