Need advice on this product

[Shinshi]

First of all sorry if this is not the place the post this, but i figured this is where 5E players and users are.

I am a veteran DM with a group of dedicated group (20+ years rpg-ing). Due to real life interfering with preparation I am searching for an easy way to run encounters (especially the combat variant)
The product from fantasygrounds seems what I need but there are some things that I cannot find on the forums or in the description of the product itself.

Can someone tell me how the below things are implemented or point me to where the information is?

1) In combat I use a lot of line of sight, high ground and cover situations.
How is this implemented? Can you for example assign a wall as cover and when a player moves to it, the player gets cover bonus? Or do I need to assign the bonus manually once the player has moved?
Can I create a 3d map by assigning the guard tower to be higher ground or do I manually assign bonuses to the players in the guard tower?

2) I tend to play with natural darkness a lot (ambush a campfire sight in dead of night for example). How is light implemented?
Can I assign a radius on the light source and keep the remaining "dark"? can I assign dark vision to a player so the player sees everything in the radius but not outside of it? (similar, torch-barer not seeing beyond the dim light radius)

3)How is difficult terrain handled?
Is it a static tile with a penalty on the movement or is it again a manual set penalty?

Thanks up front for answering.

Just a bit more context:
We play with a party of 5 all at my place and I intend to use the big screen to visualize the encounter(s). This to replace the many hours I spend creating the actual battlemap for use on the table. I am thus searching for something that makes life as DM much, much easier.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi Sinshi welcome to the community.

All of the things you mention above are not implemented automatically in the 5e ruleset (or indeed if FG - yet).

For cover bonuses there are buttons which will give the player the benefit of cover. Line of sight you can draw a line on the map to determine that. High ground is a bit more difficult but since there are no bonuses for high ground in the 5e ruleset this isn't a huge issue except when you want to decide if someone is in range or not. There is a fog of war but that is simply a method of uncovering an area of the map that the PCs have explored. It isn't dynamic lighting. Difficult terrain is also handled manually since there is no way to tell FG that the ground is difficult.

However when Unity comes along who know?

[LordEntrails]

Hey Shinsi, As Mr Z says, none of those things are automated in FG. But, I don't think you will find the manual methods at all difficult or time consuming to use. For reference, my primary group generally plays two ways; one with me as DM using FG in a 5E game, and the other with a different DM using Skype/Discord and 3.5E. Combats in FG take about 1/3 of the time that they do without it. Mostly because of the automation of the Combat Tracker, some due to the rule systems, and some due to the different DMs.

When it comes to the maps, they are simple images, their is no computer recognition of any type of elevation, terrain,obstacles, etc. Just like if you were playing on a battlemap at home. But, the DM and the players can all quickly draw lines from one place to the next to measure distances and determine line of sight. A lot like using a ruler or laser at the table.

The fog of war / mask that FG does is a manual thing by the DM. Again, I don't find it hard or time consuming to use. Some tricks and habits make it easy. But it is all or none.

Mr. Z also hints at FGU, which has been in development for several years and tens of thousands of hours are invested in it. It promises to be pretty awesome, BUT, don't by FG for what we might get in Unity, buy it, or consider it, for what it does today.

On a closing note, I'll add when I bought FG it was for 3 reasons; 1) Ease of DM prep, 2) Official 5E content, 3) the friendly, active and helpful community here.

Let us know if we can help with anything.

[damned]

Adding to the gentlepeoples above comments...

1. Fantasy Grounds has no map making abilities - you use externally prepared maps (or DLC maps).
2. Fantasy Grounds has no concept of 3d
3. Fantasy Grounds has no dynamic LoS or FoW

Now the better news

4. Adding situational modifiers/bonuses is very easy - either using modifiers (affect the next roll only) or Effects (apply to specific conditions) you can make the math extremely easy (ok so it does ALL the math for you)
5. Fantasy Grounds is great for using a big screen to do the gaming on

And the highly likely...

6. At some point (probably next year) the new Engine will be ready and it will (most likely) do - in game 2d map building
7. Dynamic Line of Sight
8. Dynamic Fog of War
9. Dynamic Range of Sight

And the less well known...

10. Fantasy Grounds have acquired the talents and assets of one Carl Pinder who was very much working on 3d RPG environments and will possibly have in game 3d map building
11. Dynamic support for 3d line of sight, lighting etc

And the completely unknown

12. Will it support intelligent application of modifiers for 3d terrain?

--

You can download a Demo copy and give it a whirl. Dont expect to be able to use the software without doing some learning first though. Good luck!

[Shinshi]

thanks you three for the responses
The answers provided, give me a bit more insight to what fantasy grounds does and doesn't.

Will read up on unity link after this post (thanks for the pointer)

After considerations I have one more question. If I decide to get fantasy grounds, what is the better pick standard or ultimate? As it stands, its for use on the bigscreen and players at the same table, what would be the benefit for ultimate over standard?

[Zacchaeus]

For what you want to do there would be no benefit in an Ultimate license. The only thing which an Ultimate license gives you is that an unlimited number of demo users can join your game. From what you are saying no users at all will join your game; so there would be no reason to go Ultimate.

[LordEntrails]

The standard license will be fine. What you will do is to start and load your campaign as the GM. Then you start a second instance of FG (not a second install!) and use Join Game with an address of 'localhost'. The second instance of FG you move to your TV/second monitor for the players to see. You'll probably want to run this community extension; https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...-To-Face-games