Thinking about the best purchase for my situation. Help?

[Ruirik]

Hello all, I have a question that I hope some of you can weigh in on. I have been DMing for over 30 years, and am moving from PA to CA. But I don't want to leave my long time gaming group! There are 6 or so players on average, and many of us have been gaming together for over 20 years! In any event, I have played with the demo version, and think Fantasy Grounds will do the trick, especially since I like to add custom rulesets and hybrid bits and pieces.

I know I need the full or ultimate version, but I am little sketchy on what would be best for me. Also, I wouldn't mind having the ability to Dm on both my laptop and PC (although I would prefer my bigger PC screen for this, sometimes I may be mobile on gaming nights and need my laptop). Should I buy 2 full licenses for each computer or the ultimate? If I buy ultimate, do my players need to still buy the lite versions?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[cpbs]

If you buy the ultimate they just can download the demo/lite(no key required) version and connect to yours for free. If you get the full they will need a lite or full version to connect to you. So it just depends on how much you want to manage. As well you can have unlimited amount of people connect to your ultimate licence.

[Leonal]

For Ultimate your players need the "Unregistered" version. This means they download the regular Fantasy Grounds download, but check the "Unregistered" box when installing.

[Ruirik]

I was hoping that was what the ultimate version would be. Probably using the Ultimate would be good then, since it would be the close to the same cost when one adds up all the players costs, and as the occasional player (especially a new player who just wants to try it out) comes and goes, then I could add them without extra cost to the group.

[RKBrumbelow]

Ruirik, if you are going to be the Only GM AND if you are going to have at least 6 players (not at one time just in your group) then Ultimate is the way to go. However if you have 4 players then it is cheaper to buy 5 fulls and you have the flexibility that anyone can GM. (6 Fulls costs less than 1 Ultimate because of the volume Discount)

1x Ultimate = 149.96
5x Full = 145.82
1x Full + 9x lite = 147.72

Then if any of the players decides to GM they just have to pay for the upgrade to a full license as opposed to an outright full license.

Let it be understood that I do own an ultimate license, but my friends are starting to want to GM so now they have to buy licenses that cost $40 instead of 20 and everyone else will have to buy light licenses thus negating my investment int he ultimate for that group.

My feeling is that unless you are going to be demoing the program to undecided players, at a convention or your local store then the Ultimate license is not for you.

Also if you have a 2nd laptop, the you could put a lite license on it for said occasional player, and when they decide to become a regular player they could buy either one of your as yet unused Light licenses (not the one on the laptop) or purchase their own.

[Ruirik]

RKB, that's a very good point. At least half of my players are DM's also, but they usually DM in other campaigns. So that may be useful to them also, especially if they like the FGII themselves. It actually would work pretty well. Nowadays, I carry my campaigns on my laptop because it is so much easier to reference. Also, it would be nice to use because we have to set up and tear down our miniatures each time we game. That takes quite some time to do! Thanks to all of you for taking the time to give your opinions. It will really help when I bring it up tonight at my game.

[Andugus]

White Haired Man has provided the community with a free adventure module titled Well Met in Kith'takharos. It will automatically be available to you with an Ultimate or Full License of Fantasy Grounds II. You may find looking through it handy to give you an idea of what an adventure module looks like.

I look forward to hearing about your groups adventures through Fantasy Grounds.

[Ruirik]

I just wanted to thanks everyone for their input. Our gaming group had a good discussion, and we tried out the demos together on our laptops. It was pretty quickly agreed that for us buying all Full Licenses was the way to go. Half of the group are DM's, one or two may DM in the future, and some of us just like to go under the hood and tweak rules (Tweaking in XML for "the fun of it?" you say. Yes, Know, it's a sickness ;-) ).

[RKBrumbelow]

Just make sure you buy them all in 1 purchase to get the discount.

[Ruirik]

Yep, that's what we did. :-)

[Tisben]

Hi all,

This discussion answered some of my questions. (Thanks)

If I wanted to buy a few lite and a few fulls could I control the licenses?

For example: If I provided a player with a lite license and they left the game group, could I stop them from having access through that license and then provide that license to my new gamer?

Tis

[Leonal]

Hi,
Licenses are not transferable as far as I know.
If only you will be GMing, and have players come and go, I'd recommend that you get the Ultimate license.

[RKBrumbelow]

Leonal is correct, Once the license is installed it becomes non transferable. I am not certain if I agree with his conclusion though. You will need to determine how often you will lose players and how many GMs you will have.

I really do believe that Ultimate licenses should be for people who are regularly giving demos, or are the only person who will be GMing in a group.

As I posted earlier:
1x Ultimate = 149.96
5x Full = 145.82
1x Full + 9x lite = 147.72

But look at this scenario as well (which just happened to one of my groups) with 5 people. 1 GM & 4 Players

I own an ultimate license - 149.96
Bubba decides to GM - That means 1 full for Bubba + 3 lite licenses - $90.25
Now our total investment (not counting rulesets accessories etc) is $240.21
Next Jeff and Matt decide they both would like to GM so thats another $19.99 x 2 = 39.98
---------------------------

Grand total: 280.19

For $9.33 more We could have purchased a Full license for each us AND 9 light licenses for people who just showed up from time to time.

Thats right 5 fulls and 9 lights for a total of 14 seats for the price of 1 ultimate 3 Full and 1 light.

So now you may ask why did BKB buy an ultimate then? Because I was the one who was willing to experiment and I wanted anyone to be able to play regardless of their own financial situation. This way I could make a single purchase and if the others did not like it I was the only one out the money.

[Leonal]

Indeed, that is true, and is also why my group bought 4 full licenses when we started (there was no Ultimate nor license upgrades at the time).

At the moment I have one players who no longer plays, whom I previously gave a full license. We did get good use of it though, so I don't consider the money lost.

To rephrase my previous post, I'd only get an Ultimate if I wanted host demo games or recruit players who didn't have a license (for whichever reason).

[damned]

i bought an ultimate license because i was desperate to play and i wannted to make it as easy as possible for me to find or start my own game...

[Ruirik]

That's what I was going to do, buy the ultimate if no one else wanted to invest the money. But it was pretty much agreed, since we have a large amount of DM's and veteran gamers that we'd be better off. I also went a little hog wild and bought myself a some token packs and the arcana evolved rule sets. This will probably go well with another software I bought way back - Dundjinni. I didn't use that software because the cost of printing is so costly. This way I can just post them inside the software. I also have a lot of OOne stuff also. So gaming life should look pretty good from now on.

[RKBrumbelow]

With regards to high cost of printing: Colour laser printers have really dropped in price over the last few years. I have a Samsung CLP series which prints cardstock quite well and I bought a 3x5 3mm poly sheet we lay over tiles after they are set up.

[Ruirik]

I can see that. But all the printouts in the world won't help when I am gaming in San Jose and my gaming group is still in Western PA. I think Fantasy Grounds, along with Skype should help us still stay connected on Saturday nights though. :-)

[RKBrumbelow]

You could try google+ instead of Skype. I have had 5 people all video chatting or audio chatting at one time.

Note: I am not a fan of Skype's new owner or what they have already begun to do with it.

[Ruirik]

I'll keep that in mind. I haven't used either before, it's just the one I heard of.

[Tisben]

Thanks everybody for your input. You have given me lots to consider.

Take care,

Tis

[Ruirik]

Yeah, they all helped a lot. I think I may just like it here :-)

[dr_venture]

Yep, the FG community is very good. I have had nothing but good experiences here on the boards. Lots of very patient and friendly folks to help kinda nudge you (or give massive shoves if that's what you're looking for) in the right direction. There was definitely a little bit of a learning curve for me in FG - the UI is a little odd in places, but it's easy to get used to. Now, if I were running a pen & paper game, I'd still use FG for all of the game mechanics.

And welcome (at some point) to CA! Land of... I don't know, everything and nothing at all, maybe? ;)

[RKBrumbelow]

Yep, the FG community is very good. I have had nothing but good experiences here on the boards.

That is just because you don't have to deal with me :o

[Ruirik]

Thanks for the welcome. We are coming to San Jose with high hopes that it will become a place we can settle down in and make a decent living.

[damned]

That is just because you don't have to deal with me :o

ha - ive never dealt with you rkb but ive read some of your posts and sometimes you DO sound prickly.... :)

[RKBrumbelow]

ha - ive never dealt with you rkb but ive read some of your posts and sometimes you DO sound prickly.... :)

Damned, the term is Gruffy.
I am direct, honest, devoted and genuine. Unfortunately, I never had enough DP for ranks in tact and social skills. People rightly call me an arse, but I am an arse who will bend over backwards to help if you need it. I could blame my brain tumour, thyroid tumour, ptsd, aspergers or any of the rest, but it is all part of me.

[damned]

i've been thinking long and hard on the meaning of DP and I even hit google up for it and you dont want to know some of the things it came back with...

[RKBrumbelow]

i've been thinking long and hard on the meaning of DP and I even hit google up for it and you dont want to know some of the things it came back with...

Context is King Damned, DP is Development points (I am first and foremost a Rolemaster player with regards to PnP-RPG) Development Points are used to buy and advance skills. No desire at all for what you likely found on the internet.

[damned]

i was searching for context but wasnt quite close enough. somewhere (i just went looking for them but they werent in the 3 most likely places) im sure i do have 3 ### law books... but ive never played - or sadly even read them. i grabbed them off ebay sometime ago but thats as far as i got.

[RKBrumbelow]

i was searching for context but wasnt quite close enough. somewhere (i just went looking for them but they werent in the 3 most likely places) im sure i do have 3 ### law books... but ive never played - or sadly even read them. i grabbed them off ebay sometime ago but thats as far as i got.

If its the RM2nd books know that they were originally developed as an addition for other games so they are easily adaptable to whatever your ruleset of the month is.

[Ruirik]

Rolemaster is fun. Lots of technical stuff packed in those tiny books! I used to like its sister product, MERP. Liz Danforth's line art in those books was very elegant, and the covers for Angus McBride were great too. BTW, I do sometimes judge books by their covers. I'm an artsy kinda dude, what can I say?