Questions about Deadlands Reloaded

[RudyBoe]

Hi guys

With all the corona madness I decided setting up some online games, and me and some friends got FG on steam. I decided to go for Savage worlds with the Deadlands Expansion, because it sounded like a lot of fun. The entire setup has proven really tough though. Is it me? I don’t really know where to start...so I’ll just fire some questions:

1. What’s with the different savage world versions? On steam I got savage worlds deluxe. Now I hear I should have gotten SWADE? Is this correct? I assume Steam has the latest version?
2. Since there are next to no tokens coming with the game, I got creative and made a load of them in PS (I mastered that so I’m not a complete idiot) and imported them, but I cannot find out how let the players use them for their characters: I can attribute one of my tokens in the combat tracker, but my players cannot see them, even though I have set them to shared, and a small face icon appears on the token bag.
3. When learning, I put 2 characters and a few npc in the combat tracker. I then pull them onto some map. My npcs can attack. However, I cannot make the characters attack from the combat tracker? Why not?
4. Combat tracker, npcs using power: How do I use this? It seems there is no automation going on? For example the “armor” power; my shaman has it -Armor(10)- and I can pull it on a friendly or himself (from the combat tracker to the map) which generates a dice roll but that’s it. The effect i.e. [Toughness +2] is not registered on the npc in the tracker. Am I supposed to change this by hand/ If so, how? There is no extra mini box to enter the effect, and if I just change the toughness value how can I keep track / revert? Drag and drop from the box on the left turns the power roll into an attack: a sword appears and the game rolls an attack.

I am gonna start with these, the entire experience has proven really difficult, and I am just trying to get to grips with the basics here. Also, there is next to nothing to be found on the specific Deadlands setting.

Last question, is there a way to export the manuals out of the game so I can read them on my ipad and not only in game?

Thanks in advance for any assistance to this newbie.

[Doswelk]

I've sent you a PM, if you want a Discord chat (with screen share) I can go through it all..

[Talyn]

1. What’s with the different savage world versions? On steam I got savage worlds deluxe. Now I hear I should have gotten SWADE? Is this correct? I assume Steam has the latest version?

Savage Worlds Deluxe (SWD) was first released in 2011, and the vast majority of DLC here on Fantasy Grounds is for that edition.
Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) is the brand-new edition of the game, just released last year.

@Ikael is the Ruleset Developer for Savage Worlds and he made sure both SWD and SWADE rulesets shared a common data structure, and he had all of us DLC Developers adjust everything to match so that all DLC will load and work just fine into both rulesets. From a computer-technical standpoint, the only issue you may come across is the rare occasion you come across something from SWD that Pinnacle removed for SWADE (a couple edges, hindrances, that type of thing) so clicking those links will give you an error.

2. Since there are next to no tokens coming with the game, I got creative and made a load of them in PS (I mastered that so I’m not a complete idiot) and imported them, but I cannot find out how let the players use them for their characters: I can attribute one of my tokens in the combat tracker, but my players cannot see them, even though I have set them to shared, and a small face icon appears on the token bag.

In Fantasy Grounds, the intention is that the GM will set tokens. Players can set a portrait and that is typically copied over to the token as well, but the GM can override it. The usual advice is to not use that shared tokens folder. It's a legacy artefact from the previous company who ran Fantasy Grounds and has the negative effect of loading (and sharing) all tokens in there and keeping them in memory the whole time whether they're being used or not. Best thing to do is create a token module then load it, assign tokens, then unload the token module. Token links are specially designed to still pull the graphic even though the module itself is not loaded, that way the entire module of graphics is not taking up memory.

3. When learning, I put 2 characters and a few npc in the combat tracker. I then pull them onto some map. My npcs can attack. However, I cannot make the characters attack from the combat tracker? Why not?

The intention is that GMs will play from the Combat Tracker, while players will play from their character sheets. Players rarely need the CT for very much and should be mostly using their character sheets just like they would at a table. For the GM, though, the CT has all the data you'd need from the NPCs and so forth.

Last question, is there a way to export the manuals out of the game so I can read them on my ipad and not only in game?

No, the "books" in Fantasy Grounds are from an XML database and rendered in special windows only from within the client, which does not run on iOS.

[RudyBoe]

snip

Thanks a lot for that info, really cleared up a lot! No more shared token bags.

[wyndhydra]

Last question, is there a way to export the manuals out of the game so I can read them on my ipad and not only in game?

FWIW,
Pinnacle has the Dead lands Marshall and Players handbook currently for free during this whole COVID-19 thing, so you might be able to get them there, if that is what you were hoping to read about offline.

[Talyn]

True! Here's the direct link to the Helpin' Hands Bundle from the Pinnacle Store -- DLR Marshall and Players Handbook's totally FREE.

[RudyBoe]

Excellent, thanks for the help guys, We're up and running just fine now. Great community!