Why I bought EC - FoundryVTT + PDF2Foundry


Pathfinder Second Edition General Discussion


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Hey Paizo Execs,

I wanted to let you know the following. User @Fryguy on Discord (FoundryVTT) has created a module for the virtual tabletop Foundry. This module allows you to import (ONLY LEGAL VERIFIED & WATERMARKED PDFS!) of Paizo campaigns into Foundry, and automatically sets up the maps, notes and even images for you. It's super cool.

Two things, I want this but better. So hurry up with cooperation on Foundry. Second, please contact @FryGuy#3851 on discord. Right now, he buys all your books to make a module that facilitates playing on a tabletop for so many people. He's a direct cause for sales for you guys, my case being anecdotal but clear. I'd have run a homebrew if I would have had to do all the importing manually/myself. This puts delays in his import work. I'd like to at least provide the idea that you guys give him the material for free so he can do the import work. The guy deserves that much at least!

Anyway, once FryGuy finished import work on Strength of Thousands, I'll be eagerly purchasing that too.

Much love,

A fan


I've generally picked up the APs from my local shop as needed in the past (meaning I've skipped far more than I've bought), but PDF to foundry is literally THE reason why I'm currently subbed to the APs. Being able to get the physical and the pdfs at the same time is too good to pass up, even with the shipping. I may not ever run FotRP, but if the need arises, I know I'm ready!


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I would be happy to have official content and to pay for it. But PDF to foundry is WAY too barebones and roughshod an implementation for me to pay for.

Even the dynamic lighting walls are filled with issues.

And then there is the question of whether he can provide npcs, items and such that the hard working ruleset contributors make and sell products.

I appreciate the work done on PDF to foundry, but it isn't anywhere near polished enough for sale.


The Gleeful Grognard wrote:

I would be happy to have official content and to pay for it. But PDF to foundry is WAY too barebones and roughshod an implementation for me to pay for.

Even the dynamic lighting walls are filled with issues.

And then there is the question of whether he can provide npcs, items and such that the hard working ruleset contributors make and sell products.

I appreciate the work done on PDF to foundry, but it isn't anywhere near polished enough for sale.

PDF2Foundry is free. The only thing you have to pay for is the PDF you buy from Paizo.

NPCs, Items and the like are usually handled by the guys behind the system implementation, not by this module's dev.


KyoYagami068 wrote:

PDF2Foundry is free. The only thing you have to pay for is the PDF you buy from Paizo.

NPCs, Items and the like are usually handled by the guys behind the system implementation, not by this module's dev.

Well aware, I use it. I am addressing the "I want this but better" comment and the "source of revenue" comment.

Verdant Wheel

I dont want to be bold in my statement but I think foundry saved PF2. I love Paizo and I love PF2 but the system sometimes becomes a bit complex . But with the automation that foundry provides everything works perfect (multiple enemies with different conditions for example). I trully think that paizo should invest on a partnerrship with the foundry people and mod community.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
kayman wrote:
I dont want to be bold in my statement but I think foundry saved PF2. I love Paizo and I love PF2 but the system sometimes becomes a bit complex . But with the automation that foundry provides everything works perfect (multiple enemies with different conditions for example). I trully think that paizo should invest on a partnerrship with the foundry people and mod community.

I've been experimenting with Foundry and have found the controls to be rather clunky. That and the frequent updates that break the tools I use has given me pause when considering bringing my groups over from Roll20.

For example, why are selecting and targeting two different tools? In my tests I often find I'm applying those same automatic conditions to the wrong characters. It's frustrating in how much clicking I have to do to get any one thing to work, as opposed to Roll20, which can have one click macros to apply conditions, create visual spell effects, or make a secret check.

In Foundry, every single roll requires that I go through like 3 dialogs. It bogs things down and can get confusing. Yeah, it's automated, but it hardly strikes me as streamlined.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Now that is amusing.


You can have macros that do the same as Roll20 in foundry.

You just don't HAVE to. You can also just drag and drop condition from the actions, feats or spells that generate them.

Cast fear, take frightened box, drag and drop it on top of applied tokens.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I can't even collapse many of the menus in the sidebar. I'm forced to scroll past a bunch of libraries I rarely use.

Foundry has a TON of goodies, and the community support is BEYOND AMAZONG, but it needs help in the UI department.

Among many other issues, everything is SO small. Makes it hard to read on some screens.

Verdant Wheel

Ravingdork wrote:

I can't even collapse many of the menus in the sidebar. I'm forced to scroll past a bunch of libraries I rarely use.

Foundry has a TON of goodies, and the community support is BEYOND AMAZONG, but it needs help in the UI department.

Among many other issues, everything is SO small. Makes it hard to read on some screens.

Fair criticism .. But things are improving fast.


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Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.

I get what you're saying though, the UI is not SUPER intuitive and you have to really hunt down some of the solutions that are in there !

As an example: I know there's an option to allow players to loot dead tokens.... I just don't know how to activate it O_O

Defs a bunch of programmers without any marketing peeps :P


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Ravingdork wrote:
kayman wrote:
I dont want to be bold in my statement but I think foundry saved PF2. I love Paizo and I love PF2 but the system sometimes becomes a bit complex . But with the automation that foundry provides everything works perfect (multiple enemies with different conditions for example). I trully think that paizo should invest on a partnerrship with the foundry people and mod community.

I've been experimenting with Foundry and have found the controls to be rather clunky. That and the frequent updates that break the tools I use has given me pause when considering bringing my groups over from Roll20.

For example, why are selecting and targeting two different tools? In my tests I often find I'm applying those same automatic conditions to the wrong characters. It's frustrating in how much clicking I have to do to get any one thing to work, as opposed to Roll20, which can have one click macros to apply conditions, create visual spell effects, or make a secret check.

In Foundry, every single roll requires that I go through like 3 dialogs. It bogs things down and can get confusing. Yeah, it's automated, but it hardly strikes me as streamlined.

You can do a secret roll with CTRL + Left Click. The 3 dialogs per roll can be turned off in PF2e player settings - you can use it when you want with Shift + Left Click. Token Action HUD Module is very helpful because it puts all of a tokens actions into a movable hotbar/menu.

I don't think it's a module (I could be wrong) but when you have an enemy selected, right below the add to combat button is a status effects button, you click that and it gives you the option to add any status effect, multiples of a status effect, or if you choose something like grabbed or unconscious it adds all the related effects automatically.

Do you have TidyUI module? That might help with the scrolling but I'm having a hard time picturing your issue because all my stuff collapses into folders. I also have all my loot, monsters, npcs, and frequently used effects already added to my game. That way I don't need to go looking for those things very often.

Having select and target separate makes sense for me. I want to select my character who's going to do something and target the enemy. When this gets confusing for me is having to use Target rather than Select for rolling Saving Throws.

What updates are breaking your tools? I haven't run into this issue except when 0.8.6 launched in May but that was well advertised ahead of time and recommended everyone hold off on updating until module creators caught up. Update 0.9 might go towards helping you with this since it will allow compatibility with an entire version rather than individual updates. So, compatibility with 0.9 rather than 0.9.1 or 0.9.2 for example. If you want more info check here and here.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Ravingdork wrote:
In Foundry, every single roll requires that I go through like 3 dialogs. It bogs things down and can get confusing. Yeah, it's automated, but it hardly strikes me as streamlined.

Yeah, there's a setting under "PF2e Player Settings" for "Show Roll Dialogues" that removes all of that unless you want to see it for a particular roll. There's also CTRL+click on a roll to do a secret check that can be used by either the GM or the players.


There's also Token Action HUD module that gives you a HUD that lists everything the selected token can do.

There's an option in settings to make tokens lootable I believe, as well as to make it so you just have to click anywhere to deselect.

I've found some modules can be a bit awkward but I don't think I've had any trouble with baseline functionality. Just need to play with the settings a bit.

Grand Archive

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Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
AlastarOG wrote:

Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.

I get what you're saying though, the UI is not SUPER intuitive and you have to really hunt down some of the solutions that are in there !

As an example: I know there's an option to allow players to loot dead tokens.... I just don't know how to activate it O_O

Defs a bunch of programmers without any marketing peeps :P

Speaking from memory right now, but in the system options, there should be an "automation" button. The loot NPC when dead/defeated option should be there.

The Discord server, specifically the Pf2e channel is VERY GOOD at helping people. (I'm there when I have time, but most of the people working on the system almost look like they live there.) :3


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Guntermench wrote:

There's also Token Action HUD module that gives you a HUD that lists everything the selected token can do.

There's an option in settings to make tokens lootable I believe, as well as to make it so you just have to click anywhere to deselect.

I've found some modules can be a bit awkward but I don't think I've had any trouble with baseline functionality. Just need to play with the settings a bit.

For lootable tokens - go into Configure Settings -> Manage Automation -> check 'NPCs are Lootable.' In that same location you can set up effects to auto-expire. We haven't used the latter because I'm not sure how to get it to interact with things like Lingering Composition.

Envoy's Alliance

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
AlastarOG wrote:

Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.

I get what you're saying though, the UI is not SUPER intuitive and you have to really hunt down some of the solutions that are in there !

As an example: I know there's an option to allow players to loot dead tokens.... I just don't know how to activate it O_O

Defs a bunch of programmers without any marketing peeps :P

A more apt analogy is "a bunch of volunteers". Please remember that all of this is done by random people, not a company, who are unpaid and unsupported by Paizo for the community. Plus we are working on the UI/UX side of things, but if there is a professional willing to donate their time and help to redesign things please feel free to step forward (although likely this isn't the purview of a marketer so much as a UI/UX or accessibility designer). We used to have things like folders for the compendia (and the code for it still exists) but it wasn't natively supported by core Foundry, so the PF2e system developers can only do so much. The code we relied on to make that happen isn't compatible with 0.8 and this many compendia isn't an issue for any non-Paizo system, so it isn't a priority for Foundry itself to fix. The last major revision to the Foundry core (going to 0.8.x) meant rewriting 60% of the PF2e system code - 40,000 lines - to be compatible.

But for the $0 that you pay for the PF2e on Foundry and the $0 that you pay for the PDF importer on Foundry and the fact that hopping on the discord will likely give you the answer to any question within minutes, well, you're more than getting your moneys worth :)


TJSM wrote:
AlastarOG wrote:

Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.

I get what you're saying though, the UI is not SUPER intuitive and you have to really hunt down some of the solutions that are in there !

As an example: I know there's an option to allow players to loot dead tokens.... I just don't know how to activate it O_O

Defs a bunch of programmers without any marketing peeps :P

A more apt analogy is "a bunch of volunteers". Please remember that all of this is done by random people, not a company, who are unpaid and unsupported by Paizo for the community. Plus we are working on the UI/UX side of things, but if there is a professional willing to donate their time and help to redesign things please feel free to step forward (although likely this isn't the purview of a marketer so much as a UI/UX or accessibility designer). We used to have things like folders for the compendia (and the code for it still exists) but it wasn't natively supported by core Foundry, so the PF2e system developers can only do so much. The code we relied on to make that happen isn't compatible with 0.8 and this many compendia isn't an issue for any non-Paizo system, so it isn't a priority for Foundry itself to fix. The last major revision to the Foundry core (going to 0.8.x) meant rewriting 60% of the PF2e system code - 40,000 lines - to be compatible.

But for the $0 that you pay for the PF2e on Foundry and the $0 that you pay for the PDF importer on Foundry and the fact that hopping on the discord will likely give you the answer to any question within minutes, well, you're more than getting your moneys worth :)

I entirely agree! ANd the work the people at FOundry in the pf2e community do is incredible! I sometimes post my very basic macros in there for reference (in-our-hands on discord).

My comment was more of a : the info IS hard to get, but that's ok, this ain't a paid product, it's a work of love.

I'm sorry if it came across as a critique because I have nothing but awe for what's being done right now.


AlastarOG wrote:

You can have macros that do the same as Roll20 in foundry.

You just don't HAVE to. You can also just drag and drop condition from the actions, feats or spells that generate them.

Cast fear, take frightened box, drag and drop it on top of applied tokens.

Can you also make automatic hp/status adjustements?

For example, targeting the enemy and pressing "power attack" button.
The computer rolls hit, compare to the enemy AC, if it hits it rolls damage, it then removes the HP from the target ( reducing the damage because of passive stuff like armor specialization ).

Also considering stuff like flat footed ( because of positioning ).

or something like dropping a fireball which automatically rolls all saves and modifies all hp pools ( also considering perks like evasion, improved evasion, and so on ).

I am trying to find something to drastically speed up combats.


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Pathfinder 2e Quick Rolls I think can do this if you set it up to. I also think there's an option to do it in the base system as well, but I haven't really looked. Both of these would require the target(s) to be targeted.

I don't think it automatically rolls asaves for things in an area, but I believe you can select multiple actors and hit the save button for all of them at once.

There's also a module now for 2e Persistent Damage.


Guntermench wrote:

Pathfinder 2e Quick Rolls I think can do this if you set it up to. I also think there's an option to do it in the base system as well, but I haven't really looked. Both of these would require the target(s) to be targeted.

I don't think it automatically rolls asaves for things in an area, but I believe you can select multiple actors and hit the save button for all of them at once.

There's also a module now for 2e Persistent Damage.

That's wonderful.

Last thing.
We are currently playing irl with a wall projector screen.

Our current master is using 2 roll20 accounts to deal with it.
The GM account is on the monitor, while the player account ( which is given control of all characters, to move them ) is projected on the screen.

Would be possible to do something like this. with just 1 pc and 2 screens, with foundry?


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HumbleGamer wrote:
Guntermench wrote:

Pathfinder 2e Quick Rolls I think can do this if you set it up to. I also think there's an option to do it in the base system as well, but I haven't really looked. Both of these would require the target(s) to be targeted.

I don't think it automatically rolls asaves for things in an area, but I believe you can select multiple actors and hit the save button for all of them at once.

There's also a module now for 2e Persistent Damage.

That's wonderful.

Last thing.
We are currently playing irl with a wall projector screen.

Our current master is using 2 roll20 accounts to deal with it.
The GM account is on the monitor, while the player account ( which is given control of all characters, to move them ) is projected on the screen.

Would be possible to do something like this. with just 1 pc and 2 screens, with foundry?

yes definitely.

Very easily too.


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HumbleGamer wrote:
Guntermench wrote:

Pathfinder 2e Quick Rolls I think can do this if you set it up to. I also think there's an option to do it in the base system as well, but I haven't really looked. Both of these would require the target(s) to be targeted.

I don't think it automatically rolls asaves for things in an area, but I believe you can select multiple actors and hit the save button for all of them at once.

There's also a module now for 2e Persistent Damage.

That's wonderful.

Last thing.
We are currently playing irl with a wall projector screen.

Our current master is using 2 roll20 accounts to deal with it.
The GM account is on the monitor, while the player account ( which is given control of all characters, to move them ) is projected on the screen.

Would be possible to do something like this. with just 1 pc and 2 screens, with foundry?

Sure. Just give the second player ownership of all the PCs and have it sign in to a separate browser tab. Hell you could pass around a tablet and run it that way if you have the right modules.

I had something else I was going to add but then I had a call for work and now I don't remember and am sad.


Ravingdork wrote:
In Foundry, every single roll requires that I go through like 3 dialogs

You can hold shift when you click and it'll skip at least one of the dialogs you are referring to, or you could even click the settings cog on said dialog box and change it so the default is to skip it and then shift-click will bring up the dialog for when you want to add a situational modifier.


The Gleeful Grognard wrote:
KyoYagami068 wrote:

PDF2Foundry is free. The only thing you have to pay for is the PDF you buy from Paizo.

NPCs, Items and the like are usually handled by the guys behind the system implementation, not by this module's dev.
Well aware, I use it. I am addressing the "I want this but better" comment and the "source of revenue" comment.

To clarify

I want this but better:

- I would like Paizo to do what FryGuy does, make modules or at least give the PF2e team on Foundry the tools to make fully fledged modules and sell them on Foundry! Pre-packaged and ready to go, obviously on an at-sale quality level.

Direct cause for sales:

- What I meant by this is that I, and plenty others I know bought the books rather than say do a homebrew specifically because FryGuy made his module. I think it's thus good business, fair and simple good graces for Paizo to hopefully consider giving FryGuy some form of compensation or thanks! :)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
AlastarOG wrote:
Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.

What browser? I thought it ran in a desktop program.

nephandys wrote:
What updates are breaking your tools? I haven't run into this issue except when 0.8.6 launched in May but that was well advertised ahead of time and recommended everyone hold off on updating until module creators caught up.

And where was it so advertised? I never saw it.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Ravingdork wrote:
AlastarOG wrote:
Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.

What browser? I thought it ran in a desktop program.

nephandys wrote:
What updates are breaking your tools? I haven't run into this issue except when 0.8.6 launched in May but that was well advertised ahead of time and recommended everyone hold off on updating until module creators caught up.
And where was it so advertised? I never saw it.

Foundry website, subreddit, discord, etc. I think there were even warnings in the app update section. Basically, every place where there are patch notes or development updates. If you don't already frequent any of those locations they're definitely worth checking out. You'll be able to stay abreast of the latest info and know about changes like that. The development process is very open.

There was a list of systems and modules that were compliant/non-compliant with that version that was updated as things changed. There was a module for it too, but not sure if it's current since I never used it.

0.8 was pretty intense because it required a full reinstall for some and if you see the response above 40,000 lines of code to be rewritten for the PF2E module.


Ravingdork wrote:
AlastarOG wrote:
Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.
What browser? I thought it ran in a desktop program.

It's hosted somewhere, either self hosted or using a cloud service, and if you're playing on the host you can access it via the client. Everyone else accesses it via a browser.

I personally have an AWS free server set up, so my players and I access it via browser. I used to self host it but my internet is awful. For how HumbleGamer seems to be set up it would work well to self host it and have a browser up on the projector.

The way the licensing works is basically per client. You only need to pay once, then everyone else accesses via a browser so they don't need to pay.


TheJokerPlays wrote:
I want this but better

I'm curious what people want out of a digital conversion. What would make it "better"? What would be worth paying for?

I feel like with a computer powering the whole thing, there's definitely potential for "better", but what's the definition of "better" in this case?


I've been meaning to try this out with the Extinction curse AP I got through the latest Humble Bundle.

Very interested and Foundry is absolutely amazing for PF2E.


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trik wrote:
TheJokerPlays wrote:
I want this but better

I'm curious what people want out of a digital conversion. What would make it "better"? What would be worth paying for?

I feel like with a computer powering the whole thing, there's definitely potential for "better", but what's the definition of "better" in this case?

For me it was really handy as a new GM using roll20 to get the tokens and items set up with a purchased adventure book. I guess for me it sounds like maps, handouts, and images are already in. Tokens and items would be the next big things for me.

Haven't played around with this yet though so maybe I have it wrong.


Ravingdork wrote:
AlastarOG wrote:
Writing can be made bigger with zoom setting on browser, Collapsable folders have been made for most of the compendiums.
What browser? I thought it ran in a desktop program.

You obviously never gave FoundryVTT an honest shot. You use the program on the computer to set up the world that you would like to show your players. The program is a server. It serves the game up in a website that your players log in to.. using their favorite web browser. You can also share browser tabs to a TV or monitor, and use that to play local VTT games.

Ravingdork wrote:
nephandys wrote:
What updates are breaking your tools? I haven't run into this issue except when 0.8.6 launched in May but that was well advertised ahead of time and recommended everyone hold off on updating until module creators caught up.
And where was it so advertised? I never saw it.

This is why I'm replying here today. The latest system update, v12, was specifically updated to warn people that their mods and tools are not compatible with the next major update to FoundryVTT yet. That doesn't sound like much, but when you figure it is sifting through piles of 3rd party mods, macros, systems, worlds and homebrew.. it gets pretty complex, pretty quick. ..and now, it does it all, automatically.

Again, this feature is being INTRODUCED in FoundryVTT v12. If you have v11, you can go and look at your mods and see if they are updated for v12 in FoundryVTT, but v11 will NOT automatically warn you!

This issue has plagued FoundryVTT since v2. This is a server, not a video game. You don't automatically update it to get the new missions and machine guns the instant the system is updated. You WAIT to update it until all of the third party developers that produce mods that you need to run your world for your players, are also updated. Every major update, the FoundryVTT core devs introduce one major feature. This one helps to stop people who don't understand how a server works from updating too soon and breaking their game world.

You're welcome. <sunglasses>


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Why have you waken me? It has been three years.
And I'm sure Ravingdork has sorted Foundry out after all this time.

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