Noob Questions You've All Heard Many Times Before....

[Michael Hopcroft]

But not from me.

I just downloaded the demo version from the SmiteWorks website. I have no idea which version it is. I also don't know whether there is any support, fan or otherwise, for the games I want to play. I want to play or GM at FGCon, but I'm wondering how I'll do it.

So I'm wondering several things.

1. How does an FG GM create content, and ask about existing content that does not require him to reinvent the wheel?
2. Are there good reasons for an Ultimate license being sufficiently better for a GM? And if, is it possible to "upgrade" a licents so that if you have one level of license and want to move up, you get some sort of discount on the expended license?
3. How do you tell whether a ruleset or campaign file works with your edition before you make the purchase? I imagine some rulesets get obsolete after a while.
4. Is there a polite way to inquire whether a ruleset is available for your game of choice in the wider community. For example, the page shows a ruleset for Strands of Fate but not Fate Core or Spirit of the Century. and I see GURPS but not the Hero System.
5. Once one does become a GM, is there a place to advertise for players?
6. How does one do live audio chat during a game -- people talking using their webcams or microphones?

Very old questions to everyone except me. I'm too old to be this new at something....

[JohnD]

But not from me.

I just downloaded the demo version from the SmiteWorks website. I have no idea which version it is. I also don't know whether there is any support, fan or otherwise, for the games I want to play. I want to play or GM at FGCon, but I'm wondering how I'll do it.

So I'm wondering several things.

1. How does an FG GM create content, and ask about existing content that does not require him to reinvent the wheel?
2. Are there good reasons for an Ultimate license being sufficiently better for a GM? And if, is it possible to "upgrade" a licents so that if you have one level of license and want to move up, you get some sort of discount on the expended license?
3. How do you tell whether a ruleset or campaign file works with your edition before you make the purchase? I imagine some rulesets get obsolete after a while.
4. Is there a polite way to inquire whether a ruleset is available for your game of choice in the wider community. For example, the page shows a ruleset for Strands of Fate but not Fate Core or Spirit of the Century. and I see GURPS but not the Hero System.
5. Once one does become a GM, is there a place to advertise for players?
6. How does one do live audio chat during a game -- people talking using their webcams or microphones?

Very old questions to everyone except me. I'm too old to be this new at something....

Hi and welcome! :) You're on your way to what should be a great VTT gaming experience IMO.

There are modules in the Store you can buy if you want a particular adventure that's already been entered into FG and packaged. Otherwise, you have to work at entering sufficient information to run your game as a GM. There are community produced tutorial videos you can access here, and on YouTube by searching for Fantasy Grounds. If you plan on running a game using voice communication (i.e. Skype, TeamSpeak) you will save a lot of time here because there's less IMO that you need to enter as you'll just be describing it verbally.

The Ultimate license means anyone can connect to a game you GM - the player(s) don't need to have paid for their own FG license. While I have an Ultimate license myself, IMO experience has shown me that this is a double edged sword in that a "free" player has a higher propensity to treat you, your game and your efforts as transient entertainment. Might just be my experience has soured me. You have to ask yourself if someone else being able to play in your game without having paid their own money to buy a Lite version of FG is worth the price differential between a Full and an Ultimate license to you.

If you buy an "official" ruleset from the FG Store, it should work with the current v3.0.2 of Fantasy Grounds. If you want to use a community sourced ruleset, well that's hit and miss - depends on whether that ruleset has a champion that's active, maintaining it. If you don't see a particular ruleset, just ask... no harm in asking as far as I can see. If there isn't one, perhaps someone is thinking about working on it, or might be working on an alpha version.

These message boards are a good spot to find players - just look in the relevant sections! You become a DM by having an adventure prepared and having at least a Full license. If you are new to DMing in FG, be honest with your victims... er... players ( ;) ) and let them know you have a learning curve - if you're lucky you'll get a player or two who are old veterans of using FG as a DM and they'll speed up your learning process quite a lot, even if they ultimately only stick around for a game or two.

For voice chat most people I think use either the community TeamSpeak server, or Skype or some other solution (i.e. Mumble). Yes you need a microphone for this.

Feel free to ask anything else that comes to mind.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Hi and welcome! :) You're on your way to what should be a great VTT gaming experience IMO.

Thanks. I'm here by way of BRP Central. My main experience has been with Roll20 and Hangouts, and not much of that. It's times like this I wish I was born ten to twenty years later than I actually was.


There are modules in the Store you can buy if you want a particular adventure that's already been entered into FG and packaged. Otherwise, you have to work at entering sufficient information to run your game as a GM. There are community produced tutorial videos you can access here, and on YouTube by searching for Fantasy Grounds. If you plan on running a game using voice communication (i.e. Skype, TeamSpeak) you will save a lot of time here because there's less IMO that you need to enter as you'll just be describing it verbally.

I don't anticipate spending hundreds of dollars on official adventures. My goal is to have something that will roll dice and track character status -- making it easier, for example, for pl;ayers to track their damage, fatigue, magic point expenditure, etc. I doubt I'd be using the top-down displays of the "battlefield" very much. I want to be able to do things like maintain the Fate Point economy in a Fate Core session.


The Ultimate license means anyone can connect to a game you GM - the player(s) don't need to have paid for their own FG license. While I have an Ultimate license myself, IMO experience has shown me that this is a double edged sword in that a "free" player has a higher propensity to treat you, your game and your efforts as transient entertainment. Might just be my experience has soured me. You have to ask yourself if someone else being able to play in your game without having paid their own money to buy a Lite version of FG is worth the price differential between a Full and an Ultimate license to you.

Finances dictate that Full is the most I can afford right now. The question is whether I will find myself in a position to want the upgrade. Clearly I would want some experience before I go into a game that's open to all and sundry! (Either that or have it be at FG Con.)


If you buy an "official" ruleset from the FG Store, it should work with the current v3.0.2 of Fantasy Grounds. If you want to use a community sourced ruleset, well that's hit and miss - depends on whether that ruleset has a champion that's active, maintaining it. If you don't see a particular ruleset, just ask... no harm in asking as far as I can see. If there isn't one, perhaps someone is thinking about working on it, or might be working on an alpha version.

I don't that anyone's done Hero System/Champions -- I didn't see in the Community Rulesets page so I presume nobody has offered one. That has some interesting dice mechanics that people might not be quite sure about. I'm pretty sure nobody would be interested in making a ruleset for a clearly defunct game like Big Eyes Small Mouth (BESM). And while there seems to be an interest right now in all things Fate I don't see Fate Core.

I haven't really explored my Demo copy yet (and thus don't even know how to import a ruleset (or whether I even can in the demo). I'd like to give it a try with one of the community sets, even though a lot of them are not currently maintained (I don't think -- and even some paid rulesets like BRP have not been updated in a while and might not be compatible with 3.0).


These message boards are a good spot to find players - just look in the relevant sections! You become a DM by having an adventure prepared and having at least a Full license. If you are new to DMing in FG, be honest with your victims... er... players ( ;) ) and let them know you have a learning curve - if you're lucky you'll get a player or two who are old veterans of using FG as a DM and they'll speed up your learning process quite a lot, even if they ultimately only stick around for a game or two.

Thanks for the tip!


For voice chat most people I think use either the community TeamSpeak server, or Skype or some other solution (i.e. Mumble). Yes you need a microphone for this.

I imagine voice chat without a microphone would be difficult -- even if you're running The Many Fantastic Adventures of Marcel Marceau....


Feel free to ask anything else that comes to mind.

Thank you. It should be an interesting experience figuring out how to do this.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Well, now I own the Full version. Not the Ultimate, at least not yet, but it did enable me to download a few of the community rulesets.

Now to learn what I'm doing.

I haven't picked up any of the paid rulesets yet. And I found out right away that FG won't do your GURPS math for you. Which is fine -- I have another chargen program for GURPS and FG is a playing aid after all.

Now I'm looking at the BRP ruleset and wondering what all is in it for the $28 price. I know some of that is going to Chaosium for the license. But what all comes in the wrapper?

[dulux-oz]

Hi Michael,

Let me second JohnD in welcoming you to FG. You should have a ton of fun, even if BESM hasn't been done as a Ruleset yet (Gawd, I loved playing that one when it first came out :D ).

Some people can find the learning curve to be a bit steep - I know I did - so after I got started I put together some up-to-date Tutorial Videos which people seem to like - yes my friends, its another one of my absolutely shameless self-plugs :p

I'm still producing them for the new v3.0.2 system, as the new version's only been out a month or so. But as I was reading your first post I was mentally ticking off the questions that I'd covered in the first set of Videos.

Anyway, have a look-see - if you find them useful, great. if you think their rubbish, that's OK too. The link's in my Sig.

And again, welcome.

Cheers

[JohnD]

If you are planning on a chat based game, you can still do that... it probably requires more advance work building your adventure though - if you have a paragraph of description to share with your players, you want to simply drag/drop into the chat window instead of spending three minutes typing it all out.

Good thing is that there are players who specifically look for chat based games. From personal experience, I ran many campaigns in Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 for years that were all chat based. They are fun but the slower pace isn't for everyone.

Full is IMO the version you want. If I had it to do over again, I would have saved myself the extra $115 or so I paid for the Ultimate and just bought the Full. YMMV and all that.

Best advice is this; stick with it, understand there is a learning curve like with anything worthwhile in life. Don't be afraid to ask questions when you feel you need a nudge in the right direction... someone will be glad to help.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Some people can find the learning curve to be a bit steep - I know I did - so after I got started I put together some up-to-date Tutorial Videos which people seem to like - yes my friends, its another one of my absolutely shameless self-plugs :p

I'm still producing them for the new v3.0.2 system, as the new version's only been out a month or so. But as I was reading your first post I was mentally ticking off the questions that I'd covered in the first set of Videos.

Like I said -- old questions.

One quick and semi-obvious question: if you are running a GURPS game as the GM, do all the players need to have the GURPS ruleset on their systems for things like storing their characters? Or is there a work-around (this gets more significant once we get into paid systems).

BESM has been out of print for more than half a decade. But I imagine there might still be folks out there who want to play it. OOP doesn't neccesaril;y mean "dead game", does it?

I have some of the opposite problems as well; there are games I'd really like to run that are so new that nobody's even thought of doing a ruleset yet. In fact, one is a demo of a game that won't be released until the end of 2014.

And one of the things I am most interested in is trying to get Fate Core or Fate Accelerated to work online. I am relatively isolated these days and don't get to do a lot of live play, which is why I am investing in a VTT in the first place. The Fate Point Economy in Fate Core/Fate Accelerated might pose programming challenges. Players spend and receive Fate Points all the time in those games and need to track how many they have (to see what they can spend).

The newest game, a comedy romp called Costume Fairly Adventures, uses a different sort of economy. When players roll badly they gain magic points to do things with, but the GM gains Trouble Dice which he can use to throw revolting developments at the PCs.

So my hope is that I can learn at least something about running games in FG, and adapting the system to the games I run, by the time FG Con 4 rolls around.

[dulux-oz]

Michael => No, the only thing the Players need is the FG Software with (in your case with your Full Licence) a Lite, Full or Ultimate Licence. The Ruleset, etc, will be downloaded to them from your system when they connect to your copy of FG - again, a question answered in the Vids ;)

Cheers

[Tiqon]

Thanks. I'm here by way of BRP Central. My main experience has been with Roll20 and Hangouts, and not much of that. It's times like this I wish I was born ten to twenty years later than I actually was.


I want to say welcome too :). Don't let your age get to you here. Without any evidence what so ever, I belive the average age must like 35-45 on this forum. Like I said I have no evidence, just a huch from what I have read so far ;). Lots of us are roleplayers back from the 80'ies. You will fit right in I think ;).

Regarding Hero system, Blackfoot is working on that https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20112-Champions-HERO-System-Ruleset-FG-3-0&highlight=hero+system.

[JohnD]

Tiqon is right I think. I'm 44 and started in 1979... have been gaming ever since.

[damned]

agreed - i would put the average in that 35-45 age.
watch dulux's videos - please!
try and get in on a game as a player - lurk around these forums and advertise your availability.
update your profile with your location (it helps with working out timezones and stuff) and post what sorts of games you are interested in.

content creation is not too hard.
you can create just the combatants and a map or two or you can create room descriptions and chat content and items and all sorts of other goodness - if you have time and desire - or you can wing it a little.
strongly suggest you use voice - it is so much faster

ruleset creation... hot topic being debated right now.
its not a trivial task and requires some solid programming ability. why? mostly because this platform supports so much automation the coding gets quite complex.
at its most basic - you can use the CoreRPG (included) ruleset to track character sheets/stats and use the dice roller and share some images to enable you to play any game you like - just without the automation.
there is a member here who is working on a ruleset builder - it will likely be funded via kickstarter and the scope of its capabilities is not yet made available - but this has much promise.

GURPs? i believe one mr steve jackson is deadset against any form of automation... thus GURPs will never match PathFinder or some of the other rulesets for automation and ease of use...

the best supported and developed rulesets (in no particular order) are:

pathfinder
d&d 3.5
d&d 4.0
savage worlds
castles & crusades
rolemaster
mutants & masterminds

some others that are being actively supported and developed just now include:

star wars edge of the empire
warhammer + some of its variants
fighting fantasy
champions

this is probably not a complete list...

[JohnD]

Michael I have a regular game scheduled for this Saturday starting at 8 PM Central. It's still not confirmed - waiting for a few more of the players to indicate they are available - but if you'd like to observe a game, maybe play a NPC accompanying the regular group, you're welcome. We usually end around 11 - 11:30 PM Central time. PM me for details if interested. We do use TeamSpeak though, not sure if that's a big issue.

[dulux-oz]

watch dulux's videos - please!


You know that won't stop me.

NOTHING CAN STOP ME!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[wbcreighton]

BTW if you haven't tackled it yet, one thing that sometimes trips up GMs is setting up Port Forwarding.

You don't need to do it if you are playing in someone else's game, but if you are GMing you need to set it up. Depending on your computer and router setup and past experience, it can be a bit of a pain. Once setup you don't need to worry about it.

Make sure you tackle it before you even announce plans to host a game. Nothing is more frustrating than players telling you they can't connect to your session.

There are plenty of people here who can help you if you run into problems.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Michael I have a regular game scheduled for this Saturday starting at 8 PM Central. It's still not confirmed - waiting for a few more of the players to indicate they are available - but if you'd like to observe a game, maybe play a NPC accompanying the regular group, you're welcome. We usually end around 11 - 11:30 PM Central time. PM me for details if interested. We do use TeamSpeak though, not sure if that's a big issue.

Given that this is one of the first times I've heard of TeamSpeak, it would be hard to say how I feel about it.

I'm on the west coast (Oregon) -- so I'm in Pacific time.


BTW if you haven't tackled it yet, one thing that sometimes trips up GMs is setting up Port Forwarding.

You don't need to do it if you are playing in someone else's game, but if you are GMing you need to set it up. Depending on your computer and router setup and past experience, it can be a bit of a pain. Once setup you don't need to worry about it.

Make sure you tackle it before you even announce plans to host a game. Nothing is more frustrating than players telling you they can't connect to your session.

There are plenty of people here who can help you if you run into problems.

I play sports simulation games, where I frequently have to serve as the host for a game while my opponent logs in as a client. I am familiar with the hideous woes associated with Port Forwarding if your firewall won't behave. I think Microsoft and computer makers hold a grudge against players who do their own hosting as opposed to going through more expensive sorts of servers.

Don't worry -- I'm a long way from GMing and might not even try until FG Con.

[Trenloe]

Don't worry -- I'm a long way from GMing and might not even try until FG Con.
That's great that you're willing to possibly GM a game at FG Con. I'd recommend that you don't leave your first time GMing on Fantasy Grounds until a convention with time slot pressures and possibly players completely new to Fantasy Grounds.