Possible new member

[Hobben]

Lots of questions. Dont worry I wont ask them all.

First, I was a Player and GM on the Virtual Table with WotC. Last month they closed the beta and I do not believe they will continue it. So I am looking for a new home. I have searched several options and FG2 seems to be in the top 4 picks so help me out please.

I have to admit at first the price seems a tad high but not if it is a one time fee I guess. We have to keep our subscriptions for WotC. We still use the Character generator and other tools. For me to bring my whole band of players to this Table That will be a challenge. Several of us GM games so everyone buying an ultimate package. Umm not likely. Opinions or suggestions?

I have read a few forum pages and I have watched all of the tutorials. Even the 4 hour one. I did not see any tutorials on making maps. Are there any?

5E is coming out Will the table be Viable with those rules?

A good product needs to be paid for or the developers will stop working on it. I appreciate this and If I make a purchase what new stuff is FG2 working on?

I was really getting into making new modules (not copied) for players to use. WotC had no way to share modules. I understand the copyright laws and stuff. I also saw some forum posts and making modules and campaigns. But I never read an ending response. Is this accepted here?

As a possible new subscriber... about how many active members currently use FG2? I dont see a ton of activity on the calendar. But Id imagine when you get with a group of Guys and gals and start playing you dont post stuff much so Im looking for a Ballpark idea. About how many active Games going on a week here?

Thats enough to start with guys. Im looking for some one to connivence me that FG2 is the way to go for my band of Misfits I've been playing with for years. Some of us are 20 year plus players but with travel and location VT is the way to go.

Hobben

[gaara6666]

mapmaking is a pretty much on your own thing there aremany programs out there...mostly pay. "gozzy" has great random generators than can generate dungeons, cities, treasures, and encounters.

if the admins dont make a 5e module. you can bet your butt someone here will do it almost immediately. 5E isnt far off since its still d20

fg2 is constantly working on new stuff. talks of kickstarted for tablet based FG but the BIG BIG thing is the admins and developers are easily contactable and they truly and sincerely add updates and content that the users..aka all of the community has asked for

module making is ok as long as you dont do it for profit

ballpark of as i know at LEAST 500

[Trenloe]

I have to admit at first the price seems a tad high but not if it is a one time fee I guess. We have to keep our subscriptions for WotC. We still use the Character generator and other tools. For me to bring my whole band of players to this Table That will be a challenge. Several of us GM games so everyone buying an ultimate package. Umm not likely. Opinions or suggestions?
If there are a few of you who will GM then your best bet is to buy all of your licenses at once and get the bundle discount - buy full licenses for those people who will/may GM and lite for those who will only play. See the store for how to get up to 60% discount by purchasing all at once.


I have read a few forum pages and I have watched all of the tutorials. Even the 4 hour one. I did not see any tutorials on making maps. Are there any?
You don't make maps in Fantasy Grounds - you use images made in other graphics/map making applications or extract them from PDF scenarios. This thread gives some ideas of what to use to make your own maps: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16971&highlight=graphics


5E is coming out Will the table be Viable with those rules?
I'm sure it will - there has been some playtesting already for 5E, some people use the 4E ruleset some use the 3.5E ruleset. From what I've seen of 5E the 3.5E ruleset can be used to get very close. So, I would imagine that 5E will be developed for Fantasy Grounds as the "D&D next" product gets towards the end of the playtest period and closer to actual release.


A good product needs to be paid for or the developers will stop working on it. I appreciate this and If I make a purchase what new stuff is FG2 working on?
There are constant developments on various rulesets - just look at the first page of the store, these have all been released in the last 2-3 months. This web page shows the wishlist for base FG functionality: https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/ People can vote on what they'd like to see next.


I was really getting into making new modules (not copied) for players to use. WotC had no way to share modules. I understand the copyright laws and stuff. I also saw some forum posts and making modules and campaigns. But I never read an ending response. Is this accepted here?
As long as you don't violate any copyright/distribution rights then you are more than welcome to post modules you create here for use by the community - this is what people frequently do.


As a possible new subscriber... about how many active members currently use FG2? I dont see a ton of activity on the calendar. But Id imagine when you get with a group of Guys and gals and start playing you dont post stuff much so Im looking for a Ballpark idea. About how many active Games going on a week here?
No idea really - as you say most people will have their set group and won't post on the calendar. Fantasy Grounds does not need a central website/server to play, so you won't see much advertisement for ongoing games. You'll see forum threads that start with DM looking for players and then go quiet once the group is formed.

We recently had a FG Virtual Con - we ran over 20 sessions in 3 days with over 100 player "seats" filled. Our publicity and calendar system wasn't as good as it could be so I'm sure we could have had more - but that gives you a little bit of an idea of the "public" FG players (people who play and run one-offs and are active in the community).

[mgholson]

If you're interested in some version of D&D you won't have a problem finding players here. There are lots of people playing other systems, but they are a little harder to find players for.

I'm certain that 5e will be supported just as PF and 4e were.

The cost of a Fantasy Grounds license is such a tremendous deal compared to a monthly subscription, I know it feels strange to actually buy something these days, but Fantasy Grounds is worth it.

[JohnD]

Take the plunge Hobben... it won't be something you'll regret. FG is excellent for running on-line games with.

[Hobben]

I goto sleep and wake up to check my post and Bamm... I have a few responses. Thats a good sign. Thank you for the replies. If in this short time so many come to give opinions then a wise many should be able to see that this FG2 is definitely worth looking into.

I checked out some of the links you guys gave. It seems that this is possibly a more creative outlet for making a campaign. If you can use so many different sites and incorporate them into FG2.

There are some things I cant see in the Tutorials so Ill try the test and check out a campaign. I know its limited from the full version but Ill have to check out a game. Ill have to experience one to goto my group with they will have questions.

[wbcreighton]

If you can convince a GM with an Ultimate license to give you a demo, or join in a Pathfinder Society game ( with a GM who has an Ultimate license ) you will get a very good idea of how it works.

If you have access to pdfs adventures, then FG2 is really a breeze to set up an adventure. I think that is why PF has gotten so popular with FG users. I subscribe to PF products so I get a "free" pdf of everything I buy. Copying and pasting the info, maps, etc is easy to do. Then with the PF parser I can extract the stat block for use in FG.

FG is now the only rpging that I do. Once a week I can GM a session for a group of friends spread out over N.America. I've actually now played more on FG than I ever did FTF.

[Griogre]

Most of the questions were already answered so I just add a few points. I believe 5E will be supported. I've personally already run several 5E playtest games with FG and it looks like to me that an amalgamation of 4E and 3.5/Pathfinder rulesets will easily support the 5E core and its optional modules. The 3.5/Pathfinder and 4E rulesets have been converging feature wise for some time and 5E might be where we have one common D&D ruleset with three different extensions, one for 3.5/Pathfinder, one for 4E and one for 5E. The 5th goal Smiteworks has for 2012 *is* to build support for 5E.

As has been pointed out, for your group it would be cheapest for all if you get the Full and Lites as a bundle because you have multiple DMs. And yes, some of your group might not be willing to use FG because it isn't free. I moved into FG from another VTT and my entire group made the jump as well, but they had grown so frustrated with the other VTT they were threatening to quit if we *didn't* change to something else. On the other hand you have a good chance everyone will make the jump into FG because they do know what a VTT and how much fun they can have playing online.

The actual size of the FG userbase is better reflected in the number of licenses sold (a bit more than 23K+ per the last Smiteworks Annual Report (https://www.smiteworks.com/press/AnnualReport2011.htm)) rather than people on the messageboards, because as you pointed out once a group gets togeather, is full, and running you often don't see anything from them again until there is some turnover in the group and they need a new player. I play/run in three groups a week with little overlap in players and of those 15 unique players only a couple have posted here in the last year. I think a good method of finding out if the game you are interested in has a number of players its to go to the Guild House Message board and go back two weeks. Take a look at each post and decide if that was a game you would have been played in. That's usually a good method, but to be fair, the FG Virual Con just ran a few weeks ago so you might want to go back say a month and then look back two weeks.

On maps you can drop any png, or jpg into your campaign and it will show up. One thing that wasn't mentioned is that there *is* a build in battlemap where you can make maps on the fly. Its not very pretty, and is very much like a plain battlemap you would use in a face to face game, but it does work and I use it quite a bit in some games.

[Hobben]

Great advice. Ill be checking out the Guild House as suggested. More than likely I'll see if I can find a game for next week. Ill check out some stuff till Monday and see if I can find a Game to test things out. its really nice so many are active on the forums. TY