What is This?

[ZenMonkey]

I know this isn't a game (I'm not looking for that) and I know what a VTT (Virtual Tabletop) software is. I know about Roll20 and Foundry, ect... What I don't like about those personally is they're web based software and you can't use it offline, you have to sign in, make an account or play a monthly fee if you really want to get into it?

My question for you all, is Fantasy grounds actually software I can download and keep?,,, can I use it offline?... Can I just load it up and not have to sign into anything or pay a monthly fee?

If it's a one time buy and I can use it offline and it's not web based, I'd buy it.

If it is always online please don't try to convince me that a VTT can only be fun online. Yes I know RPGs are a DM and about 4 people, so obviously some kinda online connection would make sense, but there is a such thing is direct connections and LAN play, so we don't always need a out sourced server to log onto. I'm not here to bash the software, I think it's awesome, I just know what I'm looking for personally and if it doesn't fit that then it's a no buy for me.

[nylanfs]

FG is designed for online, LAN, or local play. :) The only time you would need a network connection is when your players are connecting at the beginning and they are checking your license. If your players bought the std license that wouldn't even need to happen.

[ClayCub]

Also, there are continual updates/fixes that occur in multiple times each week. So our game's routine, everything gets updated before we start playing. As stated, LAN is available and from there, you can work in a closed network. I hope that helps answer your initial question?

[Aussie Hope]

While the client is local and you can LAN play for Fantasy Grounds Classic using a local LAN IP you still usually need an internet connection to Authenticate the players and patch the software. I'm not sure if you can still buy classic it was officially made legacy about a month ago. There used to be something you could type into the IPSetting "Localhost" or something on a local player laptop that could get you working without internet.

Fantasy Grounds unity hosts via a cloud connection, it still has a LAN option but I'm unsure if it still supports the Local Host option that allows to your play locally without any internet connection. You can of course use FGU offline, everything downloads locally, so if you open FGU, select a Campaign you have made, and then select LAN, you can access all your downloaded Modules, Manuals, etc and read it while offiine.

As for paying for something, owning the software and never paying again, yes. If you buy an Ultimate licence for FGU, you don't have to pay any fees and all your players can connect to your games and you can share your content, manuals, etc with them for free whenever they are connected.

Usually someone from Smiteworks reads these forums every week or so, they will be able to clarify exactly what functionality you can access when using the software offline.

[ZenMonkey]

@:
nylanfs, ClayCub, Aussie Hope

Thank you all for your quick help !... Yeah this sounds like the type of VTT I've been looking for so I went to the their website and bought it. The Ultimate edition was a bit pricey for me so I went with the 39.00 version for now, but I think I'm going to upgrade sometime soon, plus it looks like I get a slight discount when I upgrade.

So two new questions lol.

1: Now that I have Fantasy Grounds Unity: Slandered Edition, can I host a campaign as a GM?... I only see a create a campaign option

2: I bought Fantasy Grounds Unity the Slandered edition (39.00 version) from the website, can I add it to my steam library, and if so, how do I do it?

[Magic Myra]

Quick answers for your quick questions:

1) Yes, but you can only run the game for players that also have the Standard license. Once you upgrade to the Ultimate license, you'll be able to create/run games for players regardless of which license they have (Free/Standard/Ultimate).

2) That one I can't really help with - but there's minimal reason to do so (unless you want your Steam friends to see when you're prepping and/or running a game). In fact, keeping everything to just the Fantasy Grounds site streamlines things a bit as it's difficult to keep track of your purchases between the two markets, and the discounts that you can get from purchasing PDFs through Paizo (for Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, or Starfinder) won't apply to purchases that you make through Steam (getting the free PDFs from Paizo, on the other hand, works regardless of which marketplace you purchase the modules from).

There's also some evidence that the particular code that Steam injects into Fantasy Grounds can cause some issues when you're trying to run a game (at a minimum, it adds a bit more overhead to the program). It's not really a big issue in my experience, but it is something you don't need to worry about if you've already purchased it directly from Smiteworks.

[nylanfs]

If you turn off the Steam overlay it helps the performance.

[ClayCub]

@ZenMonkey - Hey..It's a great community to help out!
I'm a 'wanna-be' DM..LOL but I wanted to have a digital version of everything, sick of the paperbooks taking up resources/lost/missing. It's great for the interactions/automation for what I get out of it. I have the Ultimate license, none of my gamers have to pay because they use the DEMO version of the program, I leave a computer on 24/7 for them to access their characters/reference materials and they can share all the books I have.

Ultimate = The DM has to foot the bill for program and materials. But the whole group can share it as long as the DM is on and running. (Spare laptop/Older computer - works fine).

I hope that helps some? Feel free to write directly for any questions as well.

[ZenMonkey]

@MaguisDel, yep I think I'm just going to keep it off steam lol. Sounds confusing to keep track of stuff.

@ClayCub yeah I'm a wanna be DM too lol. Once I have the chance I'm upgrading to Ultimate. Ultimate sounds like a awesome deal.

Question for you both or who ever can answer. I've messed with map tools, token tools, roll20, Battle Grounds RPG, and they all have this drag and drop feature, I just drop in a map, some minis, roll virtual dice and wala I can play any tabletop I want because I'm not tied to game mechanics or scripting. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love the fact FGU has D&D 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th!!!!, along with patfinder and a few others right out the box!.... but how do I play those out of print RPGs that gamers forgot about like the Marvel RPG from the 80s or those indie RPGs that aren't to rules heavy? I think I need to pick "Core RPG" to do that, but is it completely free hand? (meaning like drag and drop do what ever you can think of with out built in scripting limiting you like you do in maptools) or does it have its on set of rules?

Also when I'm making a campaign ( not making one really, just fooling with the system lol) why do the dice disappear under the map when I roll them lol. If I roll in the chat window they roll but if I roll some other place they just disappear under the map. Some time if roll in the chat window I see my roll result in text but other times I don't....... is that a bug or am I rolling wrong?

[Magic Myra]

I haven't tinkered around with the Core RPG ruleset, but from what I understand, that's the one that lets you just freehand everything. That said, definitely don't underestimate how much of a difference the automation that the various rulesets can make in actually running/playing a game (for example, automatically applying damage and DR when an attack hits), as well as having all of the various things that you can use in a particular system (for example, with D&D 5e, classes, races, subraces, skills, feats, monsters, etc). Just buying a particular module can save you a boatload of time, and in my experience is well worth the price - most of the time.

That said, with how they set up the maps and tokens, the map packs are a bit more borderline, and the tokens are only if you like the particular tokens. If you're not using Line of Sight, you can just import any map you already have into Fantasy Grounds and use that, and it generally doesn't take too long to set up your own Line of Sight and Lighting effects on a map to fit exactly what you want it to be - and tokens are even easier, just paste the images in the appropriate folders and you're ready to use them.

[Zacchaeus]

You can add your Fantasy Grounds key to Steam if you want. Go to your library and then select the Game drop down and then 'Activate a Product on Steam'. Add your key there and it will add FG to your Steam library. Note however that Smiteworks only send keys to Steam every six weeks or so and so you may have to wait a while before Steam will recognise your key.
CoreRPG will allow you to play games for which there isn't a ruleset. And also MoreCore will do the same but with more bells and whistles. There's also a ruleset creator available from the forums.
MoreCore https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?122-MoreCore-Rulesets
Ruleset Wizard https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?61387-Ruleset-Wizard-The-new-Ruleset-development-environment

[ZenMonkey]

MagiusDel님이 먼저 게시:

I haven't tinkered around with the Core RPG ruleset, but from what I understand, that's the one that lets you just freehand everything. That said, definitely don't underestimate how much of a difference the automation that the various rulesets can make in actually running/playing a game (for example, automatically applying damage and DR when an attack hits), as well as having all of the various things that you can use in a particular system (for example, with D&D 5e, classes, races, subraces, skills, feats, monsters, etc). Just buying a particular module can save you a boatload of time, and in my experience is well worth the price - most of the time.

That said, with how they set up the maps and tokens, the map packs are a bit more borderline, and the tokens are only if you like the particular tokens. If you're not using Line of Sight, you can just import any map you already have into Fantasy Grounds and use that, and it generally doesn't take too long to set up your own Line of Sight and Lighting effects on a map to fit exactly what you want it to be - and tokens are even easier, just paste the images in the appropriate folders and you're ready to use them.

Oh I'm sure the automation is a necessity with games like D&D, Pathfinder, and I do intend to use it for those games because I still don't completely understand D&D combat sometimes lol. I just wanted a free hand option as well for things like, house rules, playing games that use dice and maps but don't use the traditional D20 rules. Kinda like a virtual pay set I can use for paying and testing things solo before I share it or just a fun thing to do when I went to play out a scermish battle or a solo dungeon crawl. Curious question, can I mix and match already created rule sets? like take the combat of D&D and tag it on to some other game?

When You say put maps and tokens into a folder do you mean following the path to where my copy of FGU is installed on my pc and dropping images in those folders or do you mean importing from inside of FGU like I've done already? I ask because just dropping a bunch of maps and token images in a folder would be great.

[ZenMonkey]

Zacchaeus님이 먼저 게시:

You can add your Fantasy Grounds key to Steam if you want. Go to your library and then select the Game drop down and then 'Activate a Product on Steam'. Add your key there and it will add FG to your Steam library. Note however that Smiteworks only send keys to Steam every six weeks or so and so you may have to wait a while before Steam will recognise your key.
CoreRPG will allow you to play games for which there isn't a ruleset. And also MoreCore will do the same but with more bells and whistles. There's also a ruleset creator available from the forums.
MoreCore https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?122-MoreCore-Rulesets
Ruleset Wizard https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?61387-Ruleset-Wizard-The-new-Ruleset-development-environment

Thank you somuch! I checked out the links. I have morecore downloaded but not sure how to install it. is it earth at I just open and it knows what to do? or is it like a mode and I have to put it in the FGU root folder? The Wizard sounds awesome. Is it 50 dollars or free?...

So if I add my game to steam am I locked into using the steam version of FGU or can I use the current. Stall I have or are they just one in the same?

Also, where do I go to sign up with pizo?

[Magic Myra]

Short answer, yes, it's possible to mix and match - but it's definitely not easy. You'd need to create a custom ruleset for it, which... Well, it would take a large amount of time, testing, and a solid understanding of programming to get everything working properly, and is definitely not a task to be undertaken lightly.

As for the images, there are a few places you can go with it. Each campaign you create has its own images folder that you can paste images into (and can then access them through the Images button), or you can paste everything into the folder in the Fantasy Grounds folder for Images, Tokens, or Portraits. You can then access these through the Assets folder, with its own folder structure (and I would highly recommend putting in some effort to properly organize everything, especially if you have a lot of tiles or tokens to search through - there is a search function, but it only works of the token names, so having a descriptive name makes it a lot easier to find what you're looking for).

[Aussie Hope]

Suggest that if you haven't already, join the fantasy ground academy discord site, there are heaps of people there that can help https://fantasygroundscollege.net/

While you may not want to play D&D5e, I suggest you get started creating a campaign for D&D, load the SRD in the library and take it for a spin, perhaps if you want to go a step further buy the Essentials Pack with Dragon of Icespire which will give you the full FGU experience through to level 5.

Once you have a good understanding of the platform there are a heap of MoreCore Extensions that will let you play around with different Role Playing systems so you can get a hang of what else can be done with the product.

Remember with the version you have, your friends also need to pay $39 to be able to join your game, although i think (not sure if this is in Standard), if you both use the same PC you might be able to open two at the same time, it's a feature that lets the DM see what the players see when creating content.

Good Luck.

[ZenMonkey]

MagiusDel님이 먼저 게시:

Short answer, yes, it's possible to mix and match - but it's definitely not easy. You'd need to create a custom ruleset for it, which... Well, it would take a large amount of time, testing, and a solid understanding of programming to get everything working properly, and is definitely not a task to be undertaken lightly.

As for the images, there are a few places you can go with it. Each campaign you create has its own images folder that you can paste images into (and can then access them through the Images button), or you can paste everything into the folder in the Fantasy Grounds folder for Images, Tokens, or Portraits. You can then access these through the Assets folder, with its own folder structure (and I would highly recommend putting in some effort to properly organize everything, especially if you have a lot of tiles or tokens to search through - there is a search function, but it only works of the token names, so having a descriptive name makes it a lot easier to find what you're looking for).

Thanks!

Yeah creating does seem a bit involved with this program lol... that's why I prefer to just go in free hand. The automation is great and it will come in handy when I play D&D, Pathfinder, and the other already built in systems. Do you know if thier are any pre built rulesets with a modern day theme or cyberpunk?

Yeah I noticed a Campaign I was creating had its own image folder. I've used other VTT programs so I have some understanding on how to import things and create my images ect... I think the automation stuff in Fantasy Grounds is what makes it more complicated to create rulesets but that's a good thing. I'm glad I found a program that does most of the number crunching and stat keeping for me.