A few questions from a newbie

[jcdf]

Hello I am new here. I have never played Fantasy Grounds II or anything exactly like it. I have dabbled a bit with Dungeons and Dragons and played RPG games like ‘Baldur’s Gate’ and ‘Icewind Dale’ that use an engine that is based a bit around it. I have heard the benefit of a game like this is that it is controlled by a human Gamemaster and so is not restricted by the boundaries of computational logic like the before mentioned games. This removes limits on the choices you can make and renders the game world with potentially limitless choice or as limitless as the imaginings of the Gamemaster.

I have downloaded the demo. There are three versions of Fantasy Grounds II. ‘Fantasy Grounds II Lite’, ‘Fantasy Grounds II Full’ and ‘Fantasy Grounds II Ultimate’. I am thinking perhaps of buying one.

Fantasy Grounds II Lite allows you to join and play existing games as a character hosted by others but you cannot host a game yourself or be the Gamemaster or create campaigns of your own.

I have some questions.
The other two allow you to run games as the Gamemaster and create additional rulesets and modifications. Is this the same as new Campaigns?
What is the difference between running games as the Gamemaster and Hosting games?
What is the difference between registered and unregistered players?
What does create additional rulesets and modifications mean, is it like creating your own game?
What is the difference between ‘Fantasy Grounds II Full License’ and ‘Fantasy Grounds II Ultimate License’ besides the price?:confused:

[Darkfaith]

The other two allow you to run games as the Gamemaster and create additional rulesets and modifications. Is this the same as new Campaigns?

Making a new Campaign allows you to host a game. Rulesets determine how the program rules behave in the campaign, and modifications change the basic behavior of the program.


What is the difference between running games as the Gamemaster and Hosting games?

They are the same thing in FGII. The gamemaster is the one that hosts, meaning that the other players connect to their client either through the internet or a home lan.


What is the difference between registered and unregistered players?

Registered players have one of the three available licenses, and can connect to a host with either a Full or Ultimate license (Lite licenses cannot host/GM). Unregistered players can only connect to a host with an Ultimate license.


What does create additional rulesets and modifications mean, is it like creating your own game?

Rulesets are the game rules that you play under, for instance Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulu or Vampire: the Masquerade. Each game is played differently, and using different rulesets helps FGII adapt to the varying game rules. There are a number of free community rulesets available. Creating a new ruleset or modification is usually a huge undertaking, but you can find many of the popular ones have already been made by others.


What is the difference between ‘Fantasy Grounds II Full License’ and ‘Fantasy Grounds II Ultimate License’ besides the price?:confused:

A Full license can only host/GM for clients that have a license of some sort themselves (Lite, Full or Ultimate), but no unlicensed ones. An Ultimate license can host/GM for an unlimited number of licensed and unlicensed clients.

Hope this helps!

[jcdf]

I think I see now. If I and my four friends wanted to play Fantasy Grounds II.

One of us could buy an Ultimate License and the other four just do without a License.

Or one of us could buy a Full License and the other four buy a lite License.

Both of these would enable us to do the same thing. But both would also restrict us by forcing the same person to always be the Gamemaster and preventing the other four from creating their own material. In order for all of us to do both of these things we would all have to get a Full License.

Where would I find these free community rulesets available?

Thanks a lot Darkfaith. :)

[Leonal]

The rulesets can be found here https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki/index.php/Category:Rulesets with links to both the free and commercial ones.

When our group of five bought our licenses, there wasn't a lite to full upgrade available like there is now. So we just bought full licenses for everyone, since we knew atleast two of us would be GMing and it would be possible for the others to do so too. (though they haven't so far in the past 2 years..)

If some in your group are more likely to GM than others I'd recommend getting full licenses for those, and lite ones for the rest, since they can upgrade later (though at a slightly higher total price) should they want to GM.

[jcdf]

Thanks for the link Leonal.

I am unfamiliar with most of these rulesets. Are there any that you would personally recommend as being particularly good?

[Leonal]

Having played rather few types of role-playing games I can't speak for many of them. (I began with BG and IWD too^^)
We've been playing d&d 3.5 since it was released, but have migrated to Paizo's Pathfinder when it continued and improved (imo) the tradition and 3.5 feel. They both fit well for high fantasy games with as much or little role-playing and combat as you like, and have a rather big selection of published source material/settings and adventures available.

For both of these I recommend the d20_JPG ruleset listed under 3.5E Though an official Pathfinder ruleset might be released, it has yet to be confirmed with details still being worked out AFAIK.

You might also want to check out d&d 4e. The FG ruleset is great with many features (many of those are also on the 3.5 version) and there are tools available so you can import data from books or an active DDI account easily.

I'm sure others here can talk more about the other rpgs and their corresponding rulesets.

[jcdf]

How do you add different rulesets to Fantasy Grounds II's? Or do you have to, just to connect as a player to a game using a specific ruleset?

[Doswelk]

The demo version will only use the ruleset it comes with...

The Full/Ultimate has a rulesets folder you would unzip the ruleset zip file into that and then create a new campaign selecting that ruleset.

The Lite version as it can only connect would connect to a Full/Ultimate version and download an encrypted version of the ruleset for them to use.

[jcdf]

Thank you for clarifying this point Doswelk.