Thinking about getting FG for face to face Pathfinder campaign

[Falantrius]

I've been GMing since the 1980s - and my games are very story based - players almost never die - the game is run for players to have fun like a cinematic experience.

There are a couple things I have noticed in FG that may meet my needs for our game group of gray beards but I wanted to ask some questions to both make sure it meets my needs AND that I am getting the right thing to do that. While there is a lot of content and videos out there - which is a good thing - a new investor like myself is overwhelmed with the sea of information in both forums and online.

My questions:
We run exclusively pathfinder - and our current game has oracles, ninja, samurai, etc. - however, the demo doesn't include any of the classes - so I wanted to ask what Pathfinder Books are available for the Library.
Advanced Players Guide?
Ultimate Magic?
Ultimate Combat?
Bestiary 2+?
Advanced Class Guide?
Ultimate Equipment?
Advanced Race Guide?
etc.
I want to make sure that all the spells, classes, traits, equipment, etc. that we are using - will be available for the campaign we are running.
Can you provide the list of what is available?


I plan to use this strictly for tabletop gaming - players don't have computers - a couple use their Iphones to look up spells and such but in general - all characters are printed on the table, dice are rolled and classic mats are on table with minis. There are some key things I want to replace - that I do by hand:

1) The Combat Tracking - to keep track of spells that the players cast on themselves. I need to do this fast so I don't have to pause the game all the time to make updates. Drag and drop spells cast on players and having the effects updated for the characters is key. Especially to let me know when a spell has expired. How easy would it be for me to do this as the GM with the tracker?

1.a) Characters during combat get their initiatives updated or reset all the time - how easy is it to move where they are in the initiative? Can you just drag and drop them? or is it a matter of just changing the Init value for the character?

1.b) If a character casts something that effects multiple players - how does the GM make that happen? For example, a Bard Song granting +2 to Attack and Damage is in play - yet this adjustment needs to show under Effects for all characters?

1.c) I am using the demo and when I hover over the icons in the Combat Tracker - it doesn't show anything - after I add a character to it - hover over shows Targets, Offense, Defense, Space & Reach, Effects - why doesn't these pop ups show in the header? This was really confusing when I first started playing with it as they did nothing to show how to use it.

1.d) Pre combat, players cast a lot of spells on their characters before walking into combat - since the players are all at table with no PCs and want to cast several spells like Communal, Resist Fire, Bears Strength, Freedom of Movement, Haste, etc. As the GM, how easy will it be fore me to do this with FG? Do I just have to walk around the table - click the box in Combat Tracker for a character - go to the ACTION tab - and Drag the BOX to the Character in the Combat Tracker? I tried that but nothing happened? I expected the effect like HASTE - to show up under EFFECTS but it didn't.

2) I have some NPCs that have been with the party the entire campaign. Other players run them just like characters - the key difference is that I sometimes pop in to say something as the NPC and I level and purchase all items for them. I want these NPCs to show up in the combat tracker and in the party sheet - so I created them as characters and added them. However, I want a way to "mark" them as NPCs and didn't see a way to do this. How is that done in FG?

3) I tried to pull the Combat Tracker to a Large Horizontal Monitor I have for the players on the wall (Dual Screen) - usually used to show Maps, etc. But it wouldn't drag outside the confines of the FG window. How can I "undock" the window to place it on the other screen? Does FG support that?

4) When creating a character, I opened the Library and selected BASIC RULEs then CLASSES and tried dropping BARD onto the character in CHARACTER SELECTION, into the box where is said CLASSES under the MAIN TAB, etc but couldn't get drag and drop to fill in. Does that work? It seemed to work for adding SPELLS and WEAPONS under ACTIONS and for FEATS under abilities. I wanted to drop the CLASS onto it - and based on the LEVEL of the character - have it show SPECIAL ABILITIES, Weapon and Armor Proficiencies. I even clicked the BOX by Special Abilities and hoped it would let me search but when I clicked the BOX it brought up what looked like a search but didn't. IS drag and drop CLASS and RACE something I can do to create characters in FG? If so, how - if not, are you going to add it?

5) The Character Sheet is great and would replace what I do in Excel each week and would auto update each time the characters are updated. However, when I started creating character sheets (no I don't want to buy another product like Hero labs to create characters and import them - I want to do everything in FG) - I couldn't find ways to maintain the details for characters. While I like the Summary of the Character Sheet - I'd like a detailed / expanded version as well. For example. In the Character sheet it shows a Stat a Bonus and Dmg - truly all you need to play. However, I want to expand that to show: Initial Stat (15) Change per Race (+2) Advancement (+1) Bonus (+2) - advancement mostly being 0 except for those stats updated for stat increases due to leveling - and Bonus for magic items like Belt of Giant Strength or other. This is also true with AC Magic Bonuses, Saves and other areas like Skills. If a character has a Base Save for the Class of 8 and they just list +9 for Misc in FG. I want to know where that +9 came from. Does FG have any way to show the EXPANDED Character Sheet so its easier to update when Magic Items are changed and characters level? You have a MINI - how about a DETAIL screen?

6) I already read that you don't have a way to print out the characters in FG - you have to use another app to load the XML and print it - why isn't that integrated into the program? I'd like players to update their characters and print them back out and it looks like that not so easy to do in FG? Currently players just have a Adobe Template that they fill in - so all sheets are the same. But I have to keep re updating them by hand in FG - a real pain. If the players had a way to update to the next level and they could just email me the update - and I load it in FG that would be easier. Some players update their own characters and mail them to me - others sit with me and I update it locally. How can I make this work with FG?

7) How well does FG work for face to face gaming? Is there something else it does that I should know about?

8) For doing what I want to do, which License do I need to buy? I want all the pathfinder content and a tool I can use to manage combat and character sheet updates. I also want to be able to create custom monsters or use some directly from the Bestiary and add them into the combat tracker. I want to create key NPCs and drop them into the Combat Tracker or into the PARTY SHEET if necessary.

Looks like a lot of good work - eventually Id like to get to VTT/projecting maps on the table and the like - but that's bigger budget.

[Nylanfs]

Pathfinder: I believe this thread will answer your question.

4) This is only supported for the 5e modules at the moment, for another solution see answer to #5 below

5) FG has a Import function from PCGen (which is free) so the players simply maintain their characters in PCGen and send you the xml file when they update them.

6) Again PCGen will solve this.

[Falantrius]

Pathfinder: I believe this thread will answer your question.

4) This is only supported for the 5e modules at the moment, for another solution see answer to #5 below

5) FG has a Import function from PCGen (which is free) so the players simply maintain their characters in PCGen and send you the xml file when they update them.

6) Again PCGen will solve this.

Thanks Paul - Installing it now - too bad it requires me to install Java first. I'll take a look. What it sounds like you are saying is that FG is not good for creating characters - which is too bad. Drag and drop onto the sheet is excellent - just need to be able to drag and drop CLASS and RACE for SPECIAL ABILITIES, Weapon and Armor Proficiencies.

I still have these open questions:

My questions:
We run exclusively pathfinder - and our current game has oracles, ninja, samurai, etc. - however, the demo doesn't include any of the classes - so I wanted to ask what Pathfinder Books are available for the Library.
Can you provide the list of what is available?
Falantrius> I'll look at this thread https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ist-of-Modules


I plan to use this strictly for tabletop gaming - players don't have computers - a couple use their Iphones to look up spells and such but in general - all characters are printed on the table, dice are rolled and classic mats are on table with minis. There are some key things I want to replace - that I do by hand:

1) The Combat Tracking - to keep track of spells that the players cast on themselves. I need to do this fast so I don't have to pause the game all the time to make updates. Drag and drop spells cast on players and having the effects updated for the characters is key. Especially to let me know when a spell has expired. How easy would it be for me to do this as the GM with the tracker?

1.a) Characters during combat get their initiatives updated or reset all the time - how easy is it to move where they are in the initiative? Can you just drag and drop them? or is it a matter of just changing the Init value for the character?

1.b) If a character casts something that effects multiple players - how does the GM make that happen? For example, a Bard Song granting +2 to Attack and Damage is in play - yet this adjustment needs to show under Effects for all characters?

1.c) I am using the demo and when I hover over the icons in the Combat Tracker - it doesn't show anything - after I add a character to it - hover over shows Targets, Offense, Defense, Space & Reach, Effects - why doesn't these pop ups show in the header? This was really confusing when I first started playing with it as they did nothing to show how to use it.

1.d) Pre combat, players cast a lot of spells on their characters before walking into combat - since the players are all at table with no PCs and want to cast several spells like Communal, Resist Fire, Bears Strength, Freedom of Movement, Haste, etc. As the GM, how easy will it be fore me to do this with FG? Do I just have to walk around the table - click the box in Combat Tracker for a character - go to the ACTION tab - and Drag the BOX to the Character in the Combat Tracker? I tried that but nothing happened? I expected the effect like HASTE - to show up under EFFECTS but it didn't.

2) I have some NPCs that have been with the party the entire campaign. Other players run them just like characters - the key difference is that I sometimes pop in to say something as the NPC and I level and purchase all items for them. I want these NPCs to show up in the combat tracker and in the party sheet - so I created them as characters and added them. However, I want a way to "mark" them as NPCs and didn't see a way to do this. How is that done in FG?

3) I tried to pull the Combat Tracker to a Large Horizontal Monitor I have for the players on the wall (Dual Screen) - usually used to show Maps, etc. But it wouldn't drag outside the confines of the FG window. How can I "undock" the window to place it on the other screen? Does FG support that?

7) How well does FG work for face to face gaming? Is there something else it does that I should know about?

8) For doing what I want to do, which License do I need to buy? I want all the pathfinder content and a tool I can use to manage combat and character sheet updates. I also want to be able to create custom monsters or use some directly from the Bestiary and add them into the combat tracker. I want to create key NPCs and drop them into the Combat Tracker or into the PARTY SHEET if necessary.

[Falantrius]

Pathfinder: I believe this thread will answer your question.

4) This is only supported for the 5e modules at the moment, for another solution see answer to #5 below

5) FG has a Import function from PCGen (which is free) so the players simply maintain their characters in PCGen and send you the xml file when they update them.

6) Again PCGen will solve this.

Installed PCGen. Thanks for the pointer. Loaded Pathfinder RPG for Players, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Equipment and Ultimate Magic and tried to create one of our player characters.
So far, its been pretty buggy. I am stuck at Oracle level 1 creation as its asking me to select 2 Traits - but the traits list is empty. Maybe I need to load something to show traits - but its unclear.
I do like how it tells you want you need to do per level. I keep playing with it.

[Falantrius]

Thanks Paul... PCGEN seems to be buggy in my first use. For some reason, the trait list is completely empty. I like how it shows what needs to be done for the character but sometimes I select something and nothing happens. I'll keep playing with it. Do wish FG would just integrate it into the product.

My questions that remain:

I plan to use this strictly for tabletop gaming - players don't have computers - a couple use their Iphones to look up spells and such but in general - all characters are printed on the table, dice are rolled and classic mats are on table with minis. There are some key things I want to replace - that I do by hand:

1) The Combat Tracking - to keep track of spells that the players cast on themselves. I need to do this fast so I don't have to pause the game all the time to make updates. Drag and drop spells cast on players and having the effects updated for the characters is key. Especially to let me know when a spell has expired. How easy would it be for me to do this as the GM with the tracker?

1.a) Characters during combat get their initiatives updated or reset all the time - how easy is it to move where they are in the initiative? Can you just drag and drop them? or is it a matter of just changing the Init value for the character?

1.b) If a character casts something that effects multiple players - how does the GM make that happen? For example, a Bard Song granting +2 to Attack and Damage is in play - yet this adjustment needs to show under Effects for all characters?

1.c) I am using the demo and when I hover over the icons in the Combat Tracker - it doesn't show anything - after I add a character to it - hover over shows Targets, Offense, Defense, Space & Reach, Effects - why doesn't these pop ups show in the header? This was really confusing when I first started playing with it as they did nothing to show how to use it.

1.d) Pre combat, players cast a lot of spells on their characters before walking into combat - since the players are all at table with no PCs and want to cast several spells like Communal, Resist Fire, Bears Strength, Freedom of Movement, Haste, etc. As the GM, how easy will it be fore me to do this with FG? Do I just have to walk around the table - click the box in Combat Tracker for a character - go to the ACTION tab - and Drag the BOX to the Character in the Combat Tracker? I tried that but nothing happened? I expected the effect like HASTE - to show up under EFFECTS but it didn't.

2) I have some NPCs that have been with the party the entire campaign. Other players run them just like characters - the key difference is that I sometimes pop in to say something as the NPC and I level and purchase all items for them. I want these NPCs to show up in the combat tracker and in the party sheet - so I created them as characters and added them. However, I want a way to "mark" them as NPCs and didn't see a way to do this. How is that done in FG?

3) I tried to pull the Combat Tracker to a Large Horizontal Monitor I have for the players on the wall (Dual Screen) - usually used to show Maps, etc. But it wouldn't drag outside the confines of the FG window. How can I "undock" the window to place it on the other screen? Does FG support that?

7) How well does FG work for face to face gaming? Is there something else it does that I should know about?

8) For doing what I want to do, which License do I need to buy? I want all the pathfinder content and a tool I can use to manage combat and character sheet updates. I also want to be able to create custom monsters or use some directly from the Bestiary and add them into the combat tracker. I want to create key NPCs and drop them into the Combat Tracker or into the PARTY SHEET if necessary.

[Nylanfs]

The only "Thing that needs to be Done" that looks like it doesn't do anything is the language section and it makes the box above it blink a little, but it's not obvious.

You also have to have a race and class assigned for it to properly work.

[jshauber]

Hopefully this will help...

1) I would suggest that you as GM have at least a basic character sheet for each player so that you can access it as needed.

1a) You can manually enter INIT values on the combat tracker, it also accepts decimal points so you can have 19.2, 19.1 19 etc. as people interrupt and take wait actions. You can also set the tracker to roll new INITs each turn automatically if you play that way.

1b) You can drag/drop the effect to each character that is being affected. This goes back to having a character sheet for each character or just have one sheet with a ton of effects created on it that you can drag from. Alternately, you can type each effect on the combat tracker for each character i.e. Bard Song;ATK:2, DMG:2 you can then also fill in the duration so that it counts down automatically.

1c) if you click the icon it opens the entry on the combat tracker for you. Also, when an entry is the active player/NPC it will open the attacks for you to roll from. I think this is what you are talking about, if not please give more detail.

1d) Refer to 1b) for having effects set up to drag/drop or set up the effect to apply to all targets and ensure that the character is targeting all friendlies when you click the effect and it should apply to all with syntax and duration.

2) you can change the NPCs to yellow. If you look the PCs are green and monsters are red. By clicking the face you can make them friend/neutral/enemy. I suggest you make them neutral for ease of recognition.

3) you can't take anything out of FG, what you can do is drag FG across both screens. Just right click on background and change from window mode. This allows you to drag FG across multiple screens (which every GM LOVES). You then put the tracker on the screen the party sees and gives you more real estate for other stuff on your screen.

7) I have used it for Face to Face games and it works well. IF you have a paid version and at least one other player has it and can connect to you to run some player stuff it makes things a lot easier. Let them have the casters with effects that they can drag/drop or do targeting before applying effects. This will make your life much easier and also gives them a chance to learn what FG can do as they play around with it a bit.

8) You will want a Full License at least. This will allow one demo user to connect to you (as referenced in 7). If you will have more than either they need a lite license or you can upgrade to Ultimate and host as many free (demo) players as you want. You will want to go to https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ist-of-Modules to get modules that the community has loving created for all to use that contain LOADS of stuff and also https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...-of-Extensions for helpful extensions to make life easier.

I suggest making use of the encounter feature to have encounters created before hand so that with a click you can add them to combat tracker and map to speed things up. There are many things to learn in FG and the learning curve can be daunting, but once you "get it" you will wonder how you lived without it for so long. I do everything in FG now even if for face to face since it makes organizing and running a game so much easier.

I hope that cleared up some things for you.

[Falantrius]

Paul
It tells me to add 2 traits for the character - when I click there it goes to the tab with the traits but the left hand window where a list of Traits should be to select SHOULD be - is empty. So there are no Traits to Select. How do I get it to populate the TRAIT list?

[Falantrius]

1) I would suggest that you as GM have at least a basic character sheet for each player so that you can access it as needed.
> Falantrius - I am trying to US PCGEN to create characters so the players can use that and EMAIL me the XML file to load into FG. I'm hoping to get this working but I'm working on getting the RIGHT pathfinder info so the characters can be created.

1a) You can manually enter INIT values on the combat tracker, it also accepts decimal points so you can have 19.2, 19.1 19 etc. as people interrupt and take wait actions. You can also set the tracker to roll new INITs each turn automatically if you play that way.
> Falantrius - As I thought, you just enter a new number - didn't know it supported decimals though

1b) You can drag/drop the effect to each character that is being affected. This goes back to having a character sheet for each character or just have one sheet with a ton of effects created on it that you can drag from. Alternately, you can type each effect on the combat tracker for each character i.e. Bard Song;ATK:2, DMG:2 you can then also fill in the duration so that it counts down automatically.
> Falantrius - I was trying to drag a spell like "Barkskin" or "Haste" from the spell list to the character and it wasn't doing anything. If I drag something from the EFFECTS window - that works. But when I drop a spell on the character its not doing anything. Am I doing something wrong? Does the spell have to have something set to make this work?

1c) if you click the icon it opens the entry on the combat tracker for you. Also, when an entry is the active player/NPC it will open the attacks for you to roll from. I think this is what you are talking about, if not please give more detail.
>Falantrius - What I am saying is that if you open the combat tracker and hover over the header items like HP - it says "Hit Points" in the popup but the items in the header from "Target" to "Effect" don't pop up the text in the header when you hover over them - once you load a character, the pop ups work but only on each character. Looks like a bug to me....or just not implemented there.

2) you can change the NPCs to yellow. If you look the PCs are green and monsters are red. By clicking the face you can make them friend/neutral/enemy. I suggest you make them neutral for ease of recognition.
> Falantrius - Ah! ok I thought there might be something in the CHARACTER that I can set like under NAME put NPC or something. Color coding will work.

3) you can't take anything out of FG, what you can do is drag FG across both screens. Just right click on background and change from window mode. This allows you to drag FG across multiple screens (which every GM LOVES). You then put the tracker on the screen the party sees and gives you more real estate for other stuff on your screen.
> Falantrius - Yah tried this - didn't work so well. If it was horizontal - that would work but my second monitor is VERTICAL 54" Wide Screen so when you drag across both screens its on the bottom half and the resolution is wrong for the monitor. I wanted to "Undock" the Combat Tracker and take it over to the other monitor and maximize it at the top but doesn't seem "built" to do that. I think I am going to have to run the client on the same PC and put it on the VERTICAL monitor - haven't tried that but online forums seem to say that will work.

7) I have used it for Face to Face games and it works well. IF you have a paid version and at least one other player has it and can connect to you to run some player stuff it makes things a lot easier. Let them have the casters with effects that they can drag/drop or do targeting before applying effects. This will make your life much easier and also gives them a chance to learn what FG can do as they play around with it a bit.
> Falantrius - I'll try that

8) You will want a Full License at least. This will allow one demo user to connect to you (as referenced in 7). If you will have more than either they need a lite license or you can upgrade to Ultimate and host as many free (demo) players as you want. You will want to go to https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums...ist-of-Modules to get modules that the community has loving created for all to use that contain LOADS of stuff and also https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums...-of-Extensions for helpful extensions to make life easier.

I suggest making use of the encounter feature to have encounters created before hand so that with a click you can add them to combat tracker and map to speed things up. There are many things to learn in FG and the learning curve can be daunting, but once you "get it" you will wonder how you lived without it for so long. I do everything in FG now even if for face to face since it makes organizing and running a game so much easier.
> Falantrius - I don't know where the ENCOUNTER feature is - but sounds like it will help a lot. I've been looking through the modules to try to figure out which ones I need to get to minimize duplication for Pathfinder AND so I can tell which ones the Players will need (so I can put them on a drive share for them to copy).
Thanks for your help.

[Nylanfs]

Look in the lower left it might not have switched to the right pool.