Virtual roleplaying part 4 - module configuration, walls

Let's install and activate a module to fix your map, just in case. Assuming you're still in Foundry, hit ESC (top left of your keyboard) and Return to Setup. This should take you to the familiar Setup screen. Select the Add-on Modules tab, and then click Install Module.

We're going to install the GridScaler module. Copy its manifest URL (which is probably here), paste it into the form and hit Install.

[Note: there is a native grid alignment tool coming in Foundry 0.5.3, but in the short term, GridScaler is what you need - besides. it's good practice at installing a module!]

Now go back to the Game Worlds tab, launch your World and go to the settings tab on the far right.

Hit Manage modules.

You will be presented with the Module Management dialog, which has a list of all the modules you have installed (currently exactly one!): make sure the checkbox on Grid Scale Menu (yes, the module name changes for some reason) is selected, and then hit Save Module Settings at the bottom of the window.


Your game world will reload.

Now go back to the Settings menu, and select Configure Settings, and then Module settings.

In this case there are no settings for your module, but in others there may be, so it's always worth doing this when you add a new module.

I always find when I add new modules it can be less than obvious where the features have been added: in this case its easy: look on the button menu on the left, and you'll see a new icon - a spanner. The module actually has copious documentation on how to adjust your grid, so I'm just going to point you there if you need it rather than make this post even longer!

Ok. Now your grid is properly lined up, let's draw some walls!

Back to the left hand button menu, and select the temple icon. You'll notice that the second column changes to a new set, which are, from top to bottom:

• Draw Walls (selected by default)
• Invisible Walls
• Terrain Walls
• Ethereal Walls
• Draw Doors
• Secret Doors
• Clone Walls
• Clear Walls

Drawing walls is easy: left click and hold at the start, drag to where you want and let go, there's a wall. If you change your mind in the middle, right click before you finish and the wall will go away.

Now, this is all very well, but it creates a whole bunch of individual lines - what if you want them joined up? Easy. Left click and to start, then hold down Command (on a Mac, Control on anything else). Let go where you want the end point to be, do not let go of Command, click again, drag again, let go again, repeat. For the last point, let go of Command before you let go. 

Presto. If it all goes horribly wrong you can delete individual walls by double-clicking on and end point then hitting the Delete key, or the whole lot with the Clear Walls button.

Notice that I've added a point at every doorway. If you don't want the chore of drawing doors separately using the Draw Doors tool, you can turn the section of wall across the doorway into a door, by double-clicking on it.

This will bring up the Wall Configuration dialog: change Is Door? to Door, click Update Wall, and away you go. The piece of wall will change to blue, and now it's a door (which means when you go to the normal map view, you can click on it to open and close it).

Of course, if you've imported a big map from Dungeondraft, this is a LOT of clicking. There's a module that will help you. Clear the walls you've drawn so far, and using the instructions above, go and install DungeonDraft Importer (I'll wait).

Ok? Done that? Good. Now, once you've enabled the module. go to the Scenes tab on the right, right click on your scene, and select DungeonDraft Import. Note at this point it is very important your map image is imported at the right size.

Now you need to find your .dungeondraft_map file, and open it in a text editor. Copy the entire contents of the file, and paste it in the very minimal dialog box that appears in Foundry, and hit Confirm.

Et voilà, as they say in France. Complete with the doors correctly imported as doors (and yes, I forgot the secret door by the altar!)

Not that it hasn't imported the cave walls - this is currently a known limitation, so you will have to draw those by hand. It would also import any light sources you had in your map, but we'll get to that in another post!

Virtual roleplaying part 3 - maps and scenes

I'm guessing you're now all keen, and want to run a scenario on the VTT you just created. Ok. You're going to need a map.

This is not the series for discussing where to get maps, but I'n going to add a review of Dungeondraft (Wonderdraft's underground (and overground) cousin) later, and for now I'll be creating a map in Dungeondraft for the world of Testlandia.

Cue sounds of drawing, and, no more than 15 mins later (yes, Dungeondraft is that easy to use!), we have us a temple. (If you want to play with my map for now, the Dungeondraft map is here and the export is here.)

I've saved that, as well as exported it as a 128 pixels per square PNG (Dungeondraft's Export's Optimal Halved setting). I've also made a note of its physical dimensions, because that's going to make the next stage a boatload easier.

Back to FoundryVTT - sign in and launch your world, then sign in as Gamemaster. In order to allow players to wander over our map, we need to create a Scene. For this. go to the Scene tab (third from the left, top right) and then hit Create Scene.

You'll get the New Scene properties dialog. Fill in the important bits (circled in the image below) - most important, do fill in the size and the grid size in pixels to match your exported map PNG. You may also want to scroll down to the bottom and fill in the Navigation Name, which is the name your players will see it by, if the actual name is somehow spoilerific.

Then, you need to tell it where to find your map. Click on the icon all the way to the right of Background Image.

This file picker dialog is constrained to your FoundryVTT directories (this is deliberate, as it may be running on a hosted server,, and possibly as the system user, and for security reasons (trust me, I'm a professional) you really aren't allowed to go digging above that in the system areas!). Hit User Data, and navigate to the scenes directory of your world, which will look something like the image on the right. Note there are no files in that directory at present.

Now hit the Choose File button, and use your

computer's file dialog to find your map PNG file and upload it.

Presto, your map export will appear in the folder, and you can select it and hit Select File.

Now scroll down and hit Save Changes at the very bottom of your New Scene dialog.

If all goes well, you will have a map as the background to your scene, and, moreover, the grid on the map itself will exactly line up with the FoundryVTT grid. If it didn't, you have almost certainly got the dimensions and/or the grid size in pixels wrong. But don't worry, there's more than one way of fixing that - for now, click on the scene name top right and fix those numbers.

So there's your map. You can zoom with the mouse wheel, and pan around using Shift with the right mouse button. Not much, but it's a start.

For the next post, we're going draw some walls and install a couple of modules - one to help you if your map is misaligned with Foundry's grid. and one to save you some time if you're importing from Dungeondraft. Both these will also teach us some handy things (that I had to learn the hard way) about enabling and configuring modules.