Looking to buy FG, have Questions!

[Arangarx]

I have also posted this in the 4E section, but thought this might be a better place for it.

First of all, a great big thanks to anyone for their help. I'm currently trying to find answers to these on my own and will continue to do so, but in the meantime any answers would be greatly appreciated. Links to answers are also awesome :)

Background on our group: We are a small group of 1 GM and 3-4 players (usually 3). We play DnD 4E every week and have a DDI subscription. We are currently looking for a solution that will allow us to play DnD 4e face to face but with a virtual table top (so I can do all the setup before hand and we can just play when we sit to play). We have already developed our own web application for managing encounters but if possible would like one app that can do it all.

For all questions I'd like to know if either: A) Can the product do this out of the box or with an existing mod/plug-in, etc. B) If not, can we make the product do this without a ridiculous amount of effort. We are willing to do some programming/rule-set creation if it will require less work than us programming the software ourselves.

1) Can FG track an entire 4E encounter with all necessary mechanics. Status effects, buffs, damage over time, power regeneration, whose turn is it, delayed characters, etc.

2) Is/can this encounter tracking be integrated directly with playing on the maps, i.e does it already or can it track things like zones (and their effects on characters), range, line of sight, fog of war, etc.

3) Using the parser to pull in DDI information (and apparently there are programs to grab characters as well?), is it possible in conjunction with 1 and 2 to actually even use or track powers in FG, i.e. has the ability been used, making sure it's used properly, etc?

4) Using a combination of DDI and the parser is it possible to also track monsters and their abilities, regens, resistances, powers etc? This is effectively something I meant under 1 and 2 as well, but would like to clarify as its own question.

5) How many licenses do we need to have one GM and one computer/monitor for all the players (not everyone has laptops so we wish to share one screen for all of them).

Basically, with the what there is currently combined with some effort on our own can we run an entire gaming session out of this software.

I will post more questions if I can think of them, and again a great big thanks for any help!

[Fot5]

The product comes with the 4e ruleset (i.e., it is configured to compute a lot of the information for you, like attack rolls, saves, etc.). However, there is not a lot of 4e content readily available due to the GSL. If you have a DDI subscription, you can essentially download and convert all of the compendium information into FGII modules using the parser. That means that your players will be able to drag-and-drop powers onto their character sheets, and you as the GM will be able to pull up creatures and drop them into the combat tracker. However, as far as canned adventures go, there are very few commercially available modules. That said, there are tools (available by DrZeuss, I believe) that can make pulling the text and other data out of published WOTC modules (e.g., Scales of War) a pretty simple process.

1) Can FG track an entire 4E encounter with all necessary mechanics? Yes, for the most part. FG will apply a large number of conditions automatically when PCs or GMs roll (e.g., granting combat advantage, prone, etc.). There are a few that the GM will need to remind PCs to apply (e.g., I don't think that the ruleset recognizes "charging" as an effect yet).

2) Is/can this encounter tracking be integrated directly with playing on the maps, i.e does it already or can it track things like zones (and their effects on characters), range, line of sight, fog of war, etc.? PCs and the GM can drop attack and damage rolls and effects onto tokens on the map, and, if they are linked to the combat tracker, everything will update correctly. Masking (fog of war) hides NPC tokens that are on the map areas that have not been uncovered. Zones and auras are not handled by FG yet.

3) Using the parser to pull in DDI information (and apparently there are programs to grab characters as well?), is it possible in conjunction with 1 and 2 to actually even use or track powers in FG, i.e. has the ability been used, making sure it's used properly, etc? Yes, encounter and daily powers and action points can be checked off as used and will automatically reset when the PCs take the appropriate rest. Similarly, the PC character sheet tracks how many healing surges have been used and applies the healing surge value to the current HPs when a healing surge is used.

4) Using a combination of DDI and the parser is it possible to also track monsters and their abilities, regens, resistances, powers etc? This is effectively something I meant under 1 and 2 as well, but would like to clarify as its own question. All of the monsters and their powers can be downloaded from the compendium with the parser, and they open inside of FG as the equivalent of a NPC's character sheet. All of the powers and effect can be dropped onto PCs in the combat tracker or on the map and they apply correctly. Regens and resists also work correctly and automatically.

5) How many licenses do we need to have one GM and one computer/monitor for all the players (not everyone has laptops so we wish to share one screen for all of them). There are two ways to handle this. The GM could purchase an ultimate license and have as many non-registered (free) versions attack at one time as he/she likes. Alternatively, the GM could purchase a full license, and the PCs could purchase lite licenses. So, you'd need 1 ultimate (about $150) or 1 full and X lite licenses (about $40 + $25*X).

[Arangarx]

Thanks for the reply, Fot5 :)