Looking to join FG, but questions..

[^^Truth]

Hello!

I'm looking to join FG, dragging my group from OpenRPG along with me. Quite an old group, myself and the other DM have been playing RPGs since 1988, the other two current members have been playing with us since about 2001 or so.

We have a forums, if anyone is interested in viewing them, regardless, I have a couple of questions if whomever wouldn't mind answering them.

1. How is the community here on FG? Is it easy to find say, new groups or additional members? Is the community (judging by post count) as strong as it appears to be?

2. The chat window being the most important thing in FG is an issue. Can the font be changed, font size increased (or decreased) and chat window made larger or even moved?

(it appeared to me/us that the chat window was totally fixed, which appears to be a huge oversight, as it's the most important thing for an online RPG, in my opinion).

3. What rulesets do the standard full/lite program purchase include? I am assuming D&D 3.5 minimum?

4. I saw a Shadowrun 4E on the wikia site, which is excellent, if anyone has used this, is it complete? Also, is there a Shadowrun 3E ruleset out there?

5. We regularly look for recruiting new people (on a trial basis) if anyone has done this, what's are the "pick up" players like? In OpenRPG, no offence, 95% of the player base was well below par or had serious dedication issues.

Regardless, we're a GMT group (3/England, 1/Canada), and if we do join will likely be looking for 1-2 good players to add into the mix, preferrably with a willing to DM (but not necessary).

Anyway, thanks for reading.

- Baatorian

https://baatorian.highbb.com/index.htm (our forums if interested).

[Griogre]

1. How is the community here on FG? Is it easy to find say, new groups or additional members? Is the community (judging by post count) as strong as it appears to be?
Personally, I used post count myself when I was looking around at different VTT communities as well and number of unique posters. The best way to see if people would be interested in the type of game you run would be to look at the Guild Hall message board and go back a few weeks to see what type of games were offered and what the response was.


2. The chat window being the most important thing in FG is an issue. Can the font be changed, font size increased (or decreased) and chat window made larger or even moved?

(it appeared to me/us that the chat window was totally fixed, which appears to be a huge oversight, as it's the most important thing for an online RPG, in my opinion).
I might agree with you, if I used only typed chat. However, I also use voice chat for OOC and rules conversation as well as narration. I do use typed chat for “in character” interactions. I have played in typed only games and the chat window was fine.

As you noticed most of the aspects of the chat window is fixed. The designers use different colors for OOC, in character, story, emotes & and action, whispers ect. They apparently thought it was more important to have all of the same type of communication to be the same color than to allow the GM/Players to change it.

I suspect in the future you will be able to change the size of the chat window as it is a widely requested feature but I certainly can't recommend you buy any piece of software on theoretical future features.


3. What rulesets do the standard full/lite program purchase include? I am assuming D&D 3.5 minimum?

The foundatation ruleset with the 3.5 extension comes with FG. It's not that functional, however the older d20 ruleset is still available in the download section which is totally functional. The fan made d20_JPG is probably the best 3.5 ruleset for D&D 3.5. There are also some commercial and free rulesets available, included Savage Worlds, 4E, The Newer Vampire, GURPS, Ars Magica, ect. There is also a simple generic rulset which allows you to play many other games. The important thing about FG is you don't really need a specific ruleset to play a game it just makes it easier if you have one.


4. I saw a Shadowrun 4E on the wikia site, which is excellent, if anyone has used this, is it complete? Also, is there a Shadowrun 3E ruleset out there?
I haven't ever used it. Most of the available rulesets that can be distributed are listed at the Wiki.


5. We regularly look for recruiting new people (on a trial basis) if anyone has done this, what's are the "pick up" players like? In OpenRPG, no offence, 95% of the player base was well below par or had serious dedication issues.
The anonymous nature of the Internet means some will just vanish over time, not only players but occasionally DMs. The offset of that is the Internet has a wide base of players. I haven't ever had a hard time filling openings but I usually run pretty mainstream games. The real question is there a big enough pool of the type of players that will enjoy you style of game and stick around? I think going through a few weeks worth of posts in the Guild Hall will help answer you questions as well as trying out the demo.

I also believe that making players purchase the software like FG does means the FG player is a more dedicated, but some violently disagree with me.

[Oberoten]

Welcome aboard.

I run a Wiki for FG over at https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki

Check under Rulesets on the sidebar for a list of rulesets. To host you need the full-version and any ruleset that you install will hence also be supported for whomever with a light version connects to you.

The chat-window is (for now) fixed, you can change font-size etc, but not while sitting at the table, only through changing the code under the hood. This is in the pipeline to be changed though (I think? )

.... and Grigore beat me to it.

[Lithl]

As you noticed most of the aspects of the chat window is fixed. The designers use different colors for OOC, in character, story, emotes & and action, whispers ect. They apparently thought it was more important to have all of the same type of communication to be the same color than to allow the GM/Players to change it.It is entirely possible to change the ruleset such that the chat font/colors can be modified:
https://sites.google.com/site/fgexalted/Screenshots/v3-0-Screens/v3-8-Screens/screenshot0001.png

That's some text entered into my Exalted ruleset with the /hr command (The text is actually "test test test")

Now, it would require waaaay too much space to allow players to pick text color/size/style like they pick their dice color. (You need an XML definition for each font color and a font file for each size/style) But giving the players some options is not beyond reason, especially when it comes to colors. (Colors only need a few lines of XML, while size and style requires whole new fonts)

[^^Truth]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I think right now, the main issue (with at least one of our players, I am a bit concerned) is the font size, being able to increase it will be a major bonus. I really cannot believe the option for changing font size/colour/type in the chat window isn't in the program, it seems such an obvious include.

I might look into redownloading the demo and looking for the fontsize options to see how easy it will be to change.

Am I right (from reading Lithl's post) to assume that to have a larger font would require a new font entirely? Also that if say I change the chat box fontsize on my end, only my fontsize will be different the the other players (to me) will still have the normal small font?

The above could be an issue.

[Griogre]

Yes, you would need a new font. The font is changed in the ruleset. This changes it for eveyone, normally. But if you are going to change your ruleset you could use a /slash handler or some other thing.

The demo can't be modded, so I'm afraid you won't be able to change the fonts in it.

[^^Truth]

Right, okay... so can you just change it to say, tahoma and increase the fontsize whilst at it?

[Sorontar]

Right, okay... so can you just change it to say, tahoma and increase the fontsize whilst at it?

You'd end up creating a font and putting it in your fonts folder using the Font Generator ( found HERE (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/modguide/resources.xcp) )and then linking that font to whichever bit in the xml you need to.

[Griogre]

You'll find some fonts look better than others at different sizes, so you may have to use trial and error a bit to find one that looks good at the size you want.

[Foen]

The reason you need a new font for each size is that the fonts are stored as bitmaps and not TrueType (or equivalent). The utility which creates the bitmaps does a better job on some fonts than on others, and the bitmaps don't behave like normal fonts (so there is no kerning, for example).

Trial and error is the best way to check out new fonts.

Welcome to the FG community!

Foen

[^^Truth]

Oh okay. A font generator. How neat. Okay, that should be easy as pie to change over, no problem. Still, would be nice to have it as a standard option. Kinda weird them going for the bitmap, still.

Thanks ya'll for your help. I have 3/4 round to purchase, to be honest, I think I have 4/4, one person is just a moaner. I'm hoping to finish it all up and get FG running this week. Going to be restarting an old campaign soon, I ran it in OpenRPG, about 64 session in total (about 8 hours a session). Took about a year and a half with small breaks.

Lost all my notes, NPCs, storyline, magic items. How fun. I figured that shouldn't be as bad with FG, since campaigns are saved independantly. Oh well.

Now, I'm looking through the reference documents from the link that Sorontar provided and I'm wondering a couple of things here.

Would it be possible to change the chat window to act like a normal window. I.E. adding the ability to drag to enlarge/shrink, having drag positioning and possibly adding a minimise function? If not, is it possible to just increase the size of the chat window itself?

I guess I'm asking if it's fixed and not editible.

I'm looking https://www.fantasygrounds.com/refdoc/windowclass.xcp and wondering if the chat window follows the same code/rules? If it does, then setting a dynamic option should sort this out right away.

[Tenian]

You can't alter the chat window's size. It is a "special" window due to the fact you can drop dice on it. Rumor has it Smiteworks may be making this possible in future releases but as of now, it's locked.

Also some fonts do not convert to bitmap well. Particularly smaller scale fonts, they end up looking blocky.