Looking to buy... but I have a few questions.

[MarcJWaters]

Firstly, and most importantly, does this program facilitate games that are not in their library? IE... If I wanted to play Legend of the Five Rings, does it allow for dice rolls and such of that nature and for the GM to load his own player aids?

Secondly, how active is the dev team in aquiriing new liscenses and/or programming new modules? Fiasco, Dresden Files, etc.. all look they should have places here.

Honestly, I just do not want to invest my money into a program that is at a stopping point. If the current system that is in place is just a springboard, I am all about this. But if this is going to be it for a while, then I think I am going to pass for now.

[dr_venture]

FG does have a generic ruleset which can be used for running somewhat generic games (can't remember the name - someone will post it). This basically facilitates a digital version of face to face games, where the GM still handles all of the game mechanics him/herself.

FG definitely has an active dev team and user community. I think the reason many games have not been properly converted to FG is due to licensing issues.

[Delondil]

I actually wondered this myself. I've had FG a long time now, years, but I rarely used it because I was limited to whatever there were rulesets for. It seems that short of being a programmer, creating your own is a real challenge. I don't have the hours a night spend rewriting any entire ruleset for a game session. For example, I see no Storyteller System games ( White Wolf - i.e. Vampire the Masquerade/Requiem, Werewolf, etc ), etc.

[dr_venture]

The real "razzmatazz" features in FG, such as automatic calculations, combat tracker features, etc., comes from the functionality coded into its rulesets. For official rulesets, this usually requires a contract between the publisher and Smiteworks to distribute game material and perform calculations (or something like that). Depending on the publisher, this can be a daunting process.

Having the features inside of the ruleset is a double-edged sword for Smiteworks: it means that great functionality can be added to rulesets that is customized for specific game system. That's super important for a system like Rolemaster which has it's own quirky way of doing things. The big downside is that with functionality embedded in individual rulesets, it limits the ability for Smiteworks to add universal functionality into the core program without breaking the individual rulesets. As time goes by and the really active communities here add more and more features into the rulesets themselves, those rulesets get better and better to play, but the problem of adding core program features gets gets more complicated. The Smiteworks guys are well aware of the situation and are working on how to best optimize the situation for everyone going forward.

I only mention this as a bit of background to explain why developing, and just as importantly, maintaining rulesets can be an issue. With great power (the ability to customize rulesets) comes great responsibility (the ruleset must be maintained as the core program is updated). Couple this need for maintenance with the fact that there isn't much money to make doing this work, while the amount of updating work can be fairly sizable. The majority of people (if not all of them) are doing this work primarily because they love gaming, rather than for profit.

So there's my personal uptake on why there are many game systems that aren't, and likely won't ever be developed into full rulesets. That said, with the generic ruleset, at the very least you can replicate a face to face game over the Net, which is cool. There is talk about adding more generic features as time goes by. In the meantime, with the generic ruleset (somebody, please post the name/link to it) you can track character sheet basics, chat, share text and image documents, use tokens on a battlemat, share die rolls, use the macro slots at the bottom of the page, capture and share the chat log, etc. Not too bad, eh?

[Griogre]

You can download the generic ruleset from the FG Wiki here: https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki/index.php/Generic

[dr_venture]

Oh, it actually is called the generic ruleset - just thought that was a 'generic' term, so to speak. Thanks much G!

[Blahness98]

I think there is a generic story teller rule set on the wiki as well. If not, there might be one on the boards here someplace.

[dr_venture]

Hey Blah, I can make a guess, but I must admit I don't know for sure what a "story teller" game/ruleset is. Is it a game that is primarily based on telling a story on a cooperative setting, as opposed to die rolling, random encounters, etc.? Thanks, bud.

[Moon Wizard]

Regarding story teller rulesets, I see that there is a "World of Darkness" ruleset and a "Foen's New World of Darkness" ruleset on the FG wiki (https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki/index.php/Category:Rulesets). Also, there is a Dresden Files ruleset as well.

All rulesets listed on the wiki are community creations.

Regards,
JPG

[damned]

in terms of loading aids - you can load image files, maps and tokens for use in your games. you can cut and paste text into a module for later use/reuse in your game.
if you cant find the ruleset you are after, find one with a reasonably similar character sheet and use fg to track character stats, roll dice and share images/content.

[Griogre]

I had some time so time so I did a YouTube video of the Generic Ruleset's Character sheet and how to make hotkeys for die rolls. Make sure you go full screen to see better. https://youtu.be/J3bFIsLULh8

If I get some more time I'll do a GM one for images and battlemaps.

[kairos]

I had some time so time so I did a YouTube video of the Generic Ruleset's Character sheet and how to make hotkeys for die rolls. Make sure you go full screen to see better. https://youtu.be/J3bFIsLULh8

If I get some more time I'll do a GM one for images and battlemaps.

Brilliant. This should go on the site. ;)

What screencast software did you use to do this?

[Griogre]

I'm glad you liked it. :) I used an old version I have of Camtasia Studio 6. I think they are up to 8 now. It's not free, but but good at what it does. I usually use other tools but I seldom have to show something as big as the FG desktop.