Looking to buy!

[Keepsake]

Hi all,

I happened to notice this product on sale on steam and I had a couple (hopefully) basic questions about the functionality of the program before I buy. Just as a preface I am primarily interested in playing pathfinder and using this program as an adjunct to games that are already in progress on rpol.net. I'm not actually looking to replace rpol as I enjoy the long form prose type posts that a play by post medium fosters, but rather I'm primarily looking for ways to speed up combat and facilitate dungeon crawls where having an easily editable map would be invaluable.

1) Is it necessary for all players to be online at the same time, or can players log in and submit their actions at odd hours?

I realize this somewhat defeats the purported purpose of Fantasy Grounds type virtual table tops, but the players in these games are in multiple time zones and have unpredictable schedules. Bringing everyone together for semi-regular sessions would be something of a nightmare - hence why we play by post.

2) Is it possible to export character sheets into other formats such as html?

Thanks!

[dulux-oz]

Hi Keepsake,

Short answers :)

1) Yes - Players need to be online at the same time. FG is a Virtual Tabletop, not a Play-By-Mail system (although I do l like that idea) :)

2) Yes - Character Sheets are exported to an XML Format.

I'll let others elaborate.

Cheers

[Keepsake]

I guess I'd have to brush up on XML then :)

Its not quite the solution I had in mind if we all need to be logged in at the same time, but I'll see if I can sell the group on it (while the steam sale is still on!)

[Trenloe]

2) Is it possible to export character sheets into other formats such as html?
As dulux_oz mentions you can export them to XML, but not HTML. If you are good at XML Stylesheets (or you can find someone who is) you/they could write a quick stylesheet to convert the FG XML into an HTML page. This has been done for the 4E ruleset, but I'm not aware of something similar for Pathfinder.

What would you want to do with the exported character sheets?

[damned]

I reckon you could have players log in and perform/post their actions when they were available... need to test whether combat tracker allows you to act out of order...
You would need to leave server (host pc) up and running 24/7 though... You could run a VPS out there in the cloud and do this possibly? That would add to your costs though...

[Keepsake]

@Damned: In so far as costs, I assume you're referring to the requirement of having a server computer always active, and the corresponding internet bandwidth utilization? Could I run the program in the background on my main computer or does it use a lot of system memory?

@Trenloe: rpol has a character sheet tab that can be accessed from any computer or device with internet access. While I would intend to use a virtual table top during combat, I expect much of the out of combat interactions in our group would continue to be conducted in play-by-post. It would be nice to have one character sheet editing tool to keep everything up to date, and simply export the sheet to other platforms.

On a related note, how does the character editing interface stack up against something like Hero Labs?

[Keepsake]

So I swear I replied to this already but the forum seems to have eaten my post....

Thanks for the answers.

@Damned: With regard to costs I assume you mean the price of having a dedicated server computer, plus the corresponding internet bandwidth utilization? Would it be possible to run Fantasy Grounds in the background on my main computer or would that use up too much memory?

@Trenloe: RPOL has a built in character sheet tab (edited using terminology not terribly different from these forums) that can be accessed from any computer or device that is connected to the internet. While I would love to implement a virtual table top to facilitate combat I still expect much of our out of combat interactions will take place in play-by-post format. It would be nice to have one master character sheet and editor, and simply export it to other platforms. It sounds like that's possible with XML with a little finessing.

On a somewhat related note how does the character sheet editor stack up against other dedicated products like Hero Labs?

Thanks!

[Trenloe]

It would be nice to have one master character sheet and editor, and simply export it to other platforms. It sounds like that's possible with XML with a little finessing.
Possibly... it depends how much detail you want to export out of one system and into another.


On a somewhat related note how does the character sheet editor stack up against other dedicated products like Hero Labs?
I think you've used the right name there - within Fantasy Grounds it is really a character editor. You can edit all aspects of your character, drag weapons, items, spells from library modules to the character and build up all of the info that FG and the players need to run their character - but it will not do character validation like HeroLab will. e.g. HeroLab will only allow you to add a feat if you have the pre-requisites, there is nothing like that in Fantasy Grounds - if a player wants to add a feat to their PC in FG there is nothing to prevent them adding something they don't have access to.

[jshauber]

A note on Herolab...

It has a custom export of a Fantasy Grounds file that can easily be converted into an XML and then imported into FG.

I have finally gotten all my players for a long term campaign to have their characters built in Herolab, when they level up they make changes, export, send me the .hlfg file and I convert to XML and have the newly leveled character ready for them next session.

[damned]

@Damned: With regard to costs I assume you mean the price of having a dedicated server computer, plus the corresponding internet bandwidth utilization? Would it be possible to run Fantasy Grounds in the background on my main computer or would that use up too much memory?

Internet bandwidth is not going to be substantial, electricity would cost more. Its more about whethere you want to leave your computer on all the time and have FG running all the time. If you are ok with that go for it. If you are often near your computer you might see players jumping on/off and you can respond straight away and maybe even speed your game up a little :)

[Ardem]

You could (play by email) style, by leaving the server on. I normally leave my FG on for a week prior to starting a game so people can access details. There is nothing stopping you however, you would want to do combat all together else it would be very slow.