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Snafu
July 14th, 2009, 05:00
Hi all,

Looking to purchase a VTT and I had a few questions that arose out of my perceived shortcomings of the various VTT's. I've tried the demos and watched the vids of various applications. I will not be dabbling in code so I need turnkey solutions.

2nd edition AD&D'er here. Bought 3.5 last year and resurrected an old campaign. I am Dungeon Master. I plan on sticking with 3.5 as I feel there is plenty of material/improvements for the campaign. Don't want to fall for the must upgrade game of TSR and the auto makers ala Forgotten Realms or the latest Buick. It's homebrew though I bolt in any interesting modules/stories I may purchase.

The games are 2/3 role playing and 1/3 tactical/rules/"min-maxing" as I've read. Will be playing at the dining room table with a few players and laptops and may connect in one from out of state. We will import/create whatever maps we need from other apps or use minis.

This app is on my very short list to purchase. Here are the Q's.

1. I have 3.5 DM Guide, PHB, and MM. Am I good with the default ruleset as provided? I see the SRD for $6.50 but I assume that is only if I want to get fancy. (I keep items and player advancement tight.)

2. Is there an improved character/encounter generator available with any add-on, ruleset, or beta? The character generation is mightily weak in my opinion. I am looking for something along the lines of PCGen or DM Genie. This is important to satisfy my 1/3 side and my DM needs.

3. Is there an improved combat tracker available along the lines of DMGen or DM Genie that handles automatic population of Init rolls, DM targetting, temporary effects, spells, etc. This seems to me as one of the great oppurtunities for the VTT's. I mean the cool dice are nice, but really, can anyone at the table remember how long that hold person spell has been in effect?

4. The demo did not seem to properly supprt dual monitors, does the full version?

5. Do the developers ever plan on getting rid of the stupid battle axe? 2 click window closing is lame. X, top right.

Despite my complaints above I think this is a very good app put together by very thoughful people. To me it is worth twice as much if it could address my issues above.

Griogre
July 14th, 2009, 05:42
This app is on my very short list to purchase. Here are the Q's.

1. I have 3.5 DM Guide, PHB, and MM. Am I good with the default ruleset as provided? I see the SRD for $6.50 but I assume that is only if I want to get fancy. (I keep items and player advancement tight.)
Currently FG comes with the Foundation ruleset and 3.5 extention. Because of a problem with the 3.5 extention combat tracker I would not advise using this ruleset at this time. However on this website in the download section is the original d20 ruleset which is fully functional and free. Probably the best 3.5 ruleset at this time is the d20_JPG ruleset. Its a fanmade ruleset that is also free. It has the most features but does have some bugs. I'd recomend it to you. You can use FG with the books in your lap so you really don't need more that that. FG comes with some of the basic info in the SRD. This is not exactly the same as what was in those three books but it is very close. Take a look at the library modules in the Library of the demo to see what I mean.


2. Is there an improved character/encounter generator available with any add-on, ruleset, or beta? The character generation is mightily weak in my opinion. I am looking for something along the lines of PCGen or DM Genie. This is important to satisfy my 1/3 side and my DM needs.
No there really isn't for 3.5. Mostly because there are/were legal questions about automation and 3.x. When I did run 3.5 I used another app NPC designer to generate NPCs. It has a feature to export XML for NPCs to FG1 and FG2 and is now free. https://www.rpgattitude.com/


3. Is there an improved combat tracker available along the lines of DMGen or DM Genie that handles automatic population of Init rolls, DM targetting, temporary effects, spells, etc. This seems to me as one of the great oppurtunities for the VTT's. I mean the cool dice are nice, but really, can anyone at the table remember how long that hold person spell has been in effect?
The effect part of the Combat Tracker has a count down timer in both the d20 and d20_JPG rulesets.


4. The demo did not seem to properly supprt dual monitors, does the full version?
I have dual monitors. You have to work in windowed mode and drag it open to both screens.


5. Do the developers ever plan on getting rid of the stupid battle axe? 2 click window closing is lame. X, top right.

I believe the developers like their current "style" however that really is a ruleset dependant feature. The 4E Ruleset has those X's. Also you know the radial menus are right click and drag? Thus for me to close the program I right click and hold the mouse button down and drag up and a bit to the right and let go. The radial menus are very fast once you know the options.

Every VTT is different, most have some features that are better than others. You should look to find the one that matches you style the best. If you have any more questions just ask. I strongly encourage you to mess with the demo and come back with any other questions, especially since the demo still uses the d20 3.5 ruleset and you will be playing 3.5.