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What is difficult about it?
Copying the maps from the PDFs. Aligning the grid. Drawing walls. Finding the enemy stat blocks and placing their tokens. Having the enemy tokens not look like the creatures they represent - so changing those if necessary to keep players from getting confused.
Maps - Use TokenTool it will easily let you extract all the maps and images. Yeah you're still going to have to align and draw walls. That's very basic GM prep though.
Stat blocks - are ALL available for free in the Compendium. Every single one of them. They won't all have images, but again, easy to use token tool for that.
Paizo isn't a tech company, they don't have the people on staff that would be able to update the Fryguy module, there's a reason Fryguy hasn't done so, it's a lot of work that he wasn't getting paid for.
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That's very basic GM prep though.
I mean sort of. IF you're doing anything on your own, it's pretty basic and standard, but it's also a significant amount of extra overhead for someone used to using converters or premium modules. It's completely reasonable for that to seem daunting or frustrating or not worth the effort considering.
That said, rolling back to v9 seems like the solution here.
I apologize if this is the wrong forum to share these frustrations. I know that Paizo is not to blame for my situation, but I'm hoping some others on here have solutions (or can at least allow me the space to vent as a GM).
I've been running PF2 regularly on Foundry VTT. I'm currently nearing the final chapter of Book 1 of Quest for the Frozen Flame. It was during last night's session that I discovered the PDF to Foundry importer is no longer supported for the current version (10) of Foundry. The upgrade happened automatically to all of my games on Foundry, so I can no longer use the feature to upload PDFs. Once the players get to the end of Book 1, that's it. Either the campaign ends or I begin the arduous process of adding every map, trying to get walls and dynamic lighting working correctly, trying to align the grid so it doesn't look like sloppy trash, hoping to find the right opponents in the bestiary (which no longer has the imported artwork so they are generic, goofy silhouettes that kills the mood).
Hi Harles. I am in the same boat as you, but the workaround is simple.
Go to Foundry and download version 9 and installUse the PDF to Foundry in the version 9 for your PDF
From there import it into the Forge and convert.
The Forge isn't connected to the version 9 on your PC.
I did this with the Strength of Thousands AP and it worked fine.
Good luck!
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My biggest frustration about Foundry is also its greatest strength: it is an opensourced product pushed by smart, tech savvy fans. That's why we get the best automation, the constant addition of new functions, and great modules like Fry Guy's. It is also why we wind up in lurch when Fry Guy very reasonably decides to stop working on his module. It is also why the work arounds for installing old versions feel daunting and frustrating to the layman that relies on Foundry to make it easy.
I suspect it is also why I'm seeing the premium Foundry APs struggle to run without freezing or buffering on my mediocre laptop. The people making foundry are techy programmers who probably have good machines they use to build and test Foundry. Meanwhile, my newest computer is a Lenovo yoga that I inherited pre-pandemic several years ago. My machine just isn't what the coders are building for. So in paying to elevate my gaming experience I have grounded it to a halt. And I can't go back to free content without dealing with work arounds like this, which are frustrating.
I'm not saying I or Harles are owed anything here. But I also can't blame Harles for asking.
This is the way. I plan to do this to everything I've recently purchased and store it until I need it. I personally wish he (the pdftofoundry dev) would make it v10 compatible, but I understand why he isn't.My biggest frustration about Foundry is also its greatest strength: it is an opensourced product pushed by smart, tech savvy fans. That's why we get the best automation, the constant addition of new functions, and great modules like Fry Guy's. It is also why we wind up in lurch when Fry Guy very reasonably decides to stop working on his module. It is also why the work arounds for installing old versions feel daunting and frustrating to the layman that relies on Foundry to make it easy.
I suspect it is also why I'm seeing the premium Foundry APs struggle to run without freezing or buffering on my mediocre laptop. The people making foundry are techy programmers who probably have good machines they use to build and test Foundry. Meanwhile, my newest computer is a Lenovo yoga that I inherited pre-pandemic several years ago. My machine just isn't what the coders are building for. So in paying to elevate my gaming experience I have grounded it to a halt. And I can't go back to free content without dealing with work arounds like this, which are frustrating.
I'm not saying I or Harles are owed anything here. But I also can't blame Harles for asking.
In case you didn't scroll up and see this answer, I'll post it here:
Since I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, PDF to Foundry is getting a v10 update so the old content will be importable. I suggest checking out the Foundry Discord server, very responsive peeps with tons of info.
So it WILL be updated to V10, we just gotta wait a little bit 'til it happens. :V
"Patience, my ass! I'm gonna kill something!" --- A. Vulture
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Given that Foundry V10 was released in August, what was the delay in updating until now when Forge (not associated with Foundry) I guess forced this update on you?
And I'll be honest, I'm no where near one of the central volunteer devs on the PF2e system module, but I have put some time in to helping with some data entry and automation work, and damn does it not feel great to see someone be like "One of the highest tiers in system-specific automation, particularly for the price point, and all the general work volunteers have put into supporting PF2e on Foundry is cool, but without a pre-built map for my specific campaign, I think we'll see Pathfinder 2's usefulness in Foundry drop". Pretty disheartening.
Not like they're not putting out paid official content too. :/
Like, you can ask for help for your needs without dumping on all the work that *has* been done.
EDIT: And it's really, really not "potentially with little effort". FryGuy worked so hard and so constantly to update it while it was active that I'm surprised he didn't burn himself out to a fine charcoal, and V10 was a lot of changes for everyone.
EDIT2: Like, why did I spend days of my free time to make sure the entire Crown of the Kobold King compendium was up and ready to go by the release date of the book (I have the subscription, thus got it a little earlier), if someone's gonna be like, "Yeah, but you didn't make a pre-built map for it for free too, so the entire system is worthless"?
I use Fantasy Grounds Unity.
Pretty much every adventure path comes out within a few days to a couple weeks of Paizo's release. There's a discount on it equal to the cost of the PDF. Tons and tons and tons of content for it.
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I use Fantasy Grounds Unity.
Pretty much every adventure path comes out within a few days to a couple weeks of Paizo's release. There's a discount on it equal to the cost of the PDF. Tons and tons and tons of content for it.
Content that you have to buy piecemeal in a way you don't have to with Foundry. All the rules are in Foundry for every new book, usually within days as well, and it's all free. And sure the APs come out pretty on time, but it took FG months to get both Secrets of Magic and Guns & Gears added to the platform. I know of at least one group that switched to Foundry because of that massive delay in core rules being added.
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Given that Foundry V10 was released in August, what was the delay in updating until now when Forge (not associated with Foundry) I guess forced this update on you?
And I'll be honest, I'm no where near one of the central volunteer devs on the PF2e system module, but I have put some time in to helping with some data entry and automation work, and damn does it not feel great to see someone be like "One of the highest tiers in system-specific automation, particularly for the price point, and all the general work volunteers have put into supporting PF2e on Foundry is cool, but without a pre-built map for my specific campaign, I think we'll see Pathfinder 2's usefulness in Foundry drop". Pretty disheartening.
Not like they're not putting out paid official content too. :/
Like, you can ask for help for your needs without dumping on all the work that *has* been done.
EDIT: And it's really, really not "potentially with little effort". FryGuy worked so hard and so constantly to update it while it was active that I'm surprised he didn't burn himself out to a fine charcoal, and V10 was a lot of changes for everyone.
EDIT2: Like, why did I spend days of my free time to make sure the entire Crown of the Kobold King compendium was up and ready to go by the release date of the book (I have the subscription, thus got it a little earlier), if someone's gonna be like, "Yeah, but you didn't make a pre-built map for it for free too, so the entire system is worthless"?
I hope my post read with a different tone. *I* at least appreciate the work y'all put in.
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Somehow I managed to get through all three books without an official plugin in 3 months. Curious!
I'm confused about the initial post because I know for a fact Books 1 and 2 of Frozen Flame have fan-made map modules available on Foundry.
And I'll be honest, I'm no where near one of the central volunteer devs on the PF2e system module, but I have put some time in to helping with some data entry and automation work, and damn does it not feel great to see someone be like "One of the highest tiers in system-specific automation, particularly for the price point, and all the general work volunteers have put into supporting PF2e on Foundry is cool, but without a pre-built map for my specific campaign, I think we'll see Pathfinder 2's usefulness in Foundry drop". Pretty disheartening.
Yeah, it was a pretty rude post and stank of entitlement.
Even if PF2e did not have a bunch of volunteer support, I'm importing all the Blood Lord maps and walling them by hand and it doesn't take that long. Maybe 1-2 hours max for the entire book. If you're frustrated by that then you clearly are a very important person whose time is much too valuable to be spent playing tabletop games.
Once the players get to the end of Book 1, that's it. Either the campaign ends or I begin the arduous process of adding every map, trying to get walls and dynamic lighting working correctly, trying to align the grid so it doesn't look like sloppy trash, hoping to find the right opponents in the bestiary (which no longer has the imported artwork so they are generic, goofy silhouettes that kills the mood).
You do know that because it's a hexcrawl, most encounters in FF are unmapped anyways, meaning you'll have to have a hand-created one on hand no matter what?
Doing the bestiary is a bit of a chore, though I have my import time down to 1.5-2 minutes total from saving the PNG's from Archives of Nethys to importing them. Part of why is because I have the Local\FoundryVTT\Data folder bookmarked to my favorites in file explorer because everything beneath AppData is invisible by default and unsearchable. Then I just save every PNG to that \Data folder with a good organizational filename system.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that while I appreciate you're willing to grease Paizo's palm in this matter, they've been pretty clear they're not going to go back and add prior stuff to Foundry. So either you stop complaining and start working, or stop playing entirely to spite the volunteers. Your choice.
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"Patience, my ass! I'm gonna kill something!" --- A. VultureThe young 'uns probably don't remember that poster, Ed.
Blacklight, wasn't it?
Yep. :-)
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Harles never mentioned needing free stuff as far as I can see. Why are they entitled? It seems the core issue is backward compatibility and content support.
While it may be easy for some to build up maps and games from scratch, I find that argument flawed. It's not so easy for everyone.
Finally, VTT technology has come a long way in the last couple of years; perhaps a large part of the audience now expects some degree of automation and import as a baseline rather than as a premium feature.
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They also explicitly compare it to a paid tool they were looking at on roll20 but decided not to use because of feature not cost; they also mention looking for an official (e.g.paid) download and not finding one available. Nowhere in their post do they mention cost as a constraint. From this, it seems reasonable to infer they are willing and able to pay for and/or suppot software.
Yes, the deprecated importer they were using happened to be free but it was a (and is) a critical dependency for many GMs. Seems fair to check in.
Several people here are reading the he OP’s post in a very uncharitable, and inaccurate light.
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As an alternative, Harles suggests that instead of it being free, that 'someone' develop those tools and charge for them.
"I would purchase this product if someone made it" does not seem like entitlement. I wish more people had this attitude!
GM life probably IS more difficult for people left in the lurch between compatible versions. Luckily some people here offered a solution… albeit a temporary one.
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Language is interesting. Used to be when you were entitled to something, you had a right to get it. Now when you're "entitled" you think you have a right to get it, but you're wrong. Weird.
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Language is interesting. Used to be when you were entitled to something, you had a right to get it. Now when you're "entitled" you think you have a right to get it, but you're wrong. Weird.
It's almost like the meaning of words can change with context.
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I'm importing all the Blood Lord maps and walling them by hand and it doesn't take that long. Maybe 1-2 hours max for the entire book.
May I direct you to the DF architect and Monk's Wall Enhancement modules, you should be able to get maps walled up a lot faster than 1-2 hours using both modules.
Monks I mainly use for the feature that lets you drag two wall points at once if they are connected. DF architect however does a huge amount of heavy lifting.
Currently I am running Abomination Vaults module on Foundry. In fact, it's been such a delight and so well set up I'm running two groups concurrently! Iirc, Outlaws of Alkenstar and Blood Lords are also available for Foundry, and Kingmaker will be as well.
While I'd love for them to go back and add official modules for earlier 2e adventures, I know it's far more likely if we do get more for Foundry, it will be future products instead of going back to Frozen Flame or Strength of Thousands, etc.
I know Gatewalkers is not out yet, but I can hope they will continue putting out modules for Foundry (not to understate the great work that currently stands with PDF to Foundry).
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You just changed my life. When I have to wall manually the holding control thing was super painful
Hotkeys for wall types, joining gaps, holding alt to snap to the closest wall point, right click twice to change wall direction, show walls on all layers (amazing for setting up masking layers for perfect vision)
And so much more, fantastic modules.
I think there is a misunderstanding that Paizo converts things to VTT form. They do not. They have deals with VTTs to let them convert and sell APs, etc. (With apologies if I'm mistaken.)
In general, that's what you want: specialists doing their specialty. The downside is that more Paizo stuff only gets converted as long as more Paizo stuff is more profitable than alternatives. (Too much Paizo stuff too fast, and it probably starts competing with itself.)
What you're asking for would probably make things worse, unfortunately. The skills needed for "writing a good tabletop RPG and ongoing material for it" doesn't have much overlap with the skills needed for "writing and maintaining something like a PDF converter". The more code-oriented folks at Paizo have their hands full with the site, which still has a significant backlog. The fan doing it for free is... well, free. Hiring a programmer to do that work for a free tool? That gets kinda pricey.
In general, the answer to "Could Paizo do [thing that isn't writing for one of their games]?" is usually "Not very well; they're in the business of writing for their games."
No judgement on asking, just some thoughts on why this probably won't happen that way.