Getting started, need help!

[AsheRayne]

I'm sorry for this post, as I'm certain it's been asked before. But I'm brand new to VTT gaming and I want to get started with the most ease possible.

I'm looking into purchasing but I'm SUPER confused. I'm interested in hosting a D&D game for friends. So - what it's looking like is that:
1) I need to purchase the 149 dollars license myself, OR everyone has to buy the 39 dollar license. That's just for the FG license itself. So it'd probably be better to just buy the 149 license and let my friends connect to that with a free one?
2) On top of that, I'd have to purchase the game module - D&D Lost Mine of Phandelver (19 dollars). Now does that have everything I AND my players would need (if I purhcased the 149 dollar license) OR would I also have to buy the Complete Core Monster Pack and Complete Core Class Pack.
3) If I do have to purchase all three of those above, would then my players need to purchase all three parts as well (Lost Mine, Class Pack, and Monster pack), or would my purchase suffice.

It's just super confusing. I love the idea but I don't know how much I and others would need to purchase. I'd like to be able to host it with a minimal amount purchased by others, so I don't want to "overbuy" either. Thanks!

[Nylanfs]

If you are just starting out we don't want you to have buyers remorse at any point. What I would to is sign up for a month of the subscription for Ultimate ($10USD), the Basic Rules Pack $4, and get the LMoP module for $20USD. Then you and your friends can try it out for only $34 the first month. Then if everyone likes it either buy the $149 Ultimate, have everyone buy a license (there is a buy 3 get 4 license pack in steam), or have everyone chip in some cash for you to get the Ultimate License and the Complete packs (which you will probably want at some point because entering everything in by hand is a pain.

[dulux-oz]

I'll see if I can answer this - you and your group have three options:


The GM purchase the Ultimate License ($149) and the Players connect to him with the Free/Demo version of FG.
The GM subscribe to the Ultimate License ($10/month) and the Players connect to him with the Free/Demo version of FG.
Everyone purchase the Full License ($40) and anyone can GM. Keep an eye out: they often have buy 3 get 4 deals on Steam and possibly the FG Store.


That's it! There's nothing else you HAVE to purchase.

However (you knew there was a however, didn't you) - However, you would need to manually enter all of the Monsters, Treasure, Adventure info, etc into FG yourself. By purchasing the items you listed you simply save time and effort because someone else has done all the work.

If you do purchase the extras only the GM needs to purchase them - the Players will be able to use the relevant "stuff" while they are connected to the GM's copy of FG. If the Players wanted to use (for eg) the Complete Core Class info when they WEREN'T connected to the GM they'd have to purchase their own copies.

The Complete Classes has all of the relevant Class info already entered which means that its simply a matter of dragging and dropping the info from the Module to a PC's Sheet. Without the Module the Players would have to enter their PC's details manually.

I believe (& someone can correct me if I'm wrong) that the Lost Mine has everything need to play it (the Monsters, Treasure, etc).

I think that answers your questions - I hope so, anyway.

On a related note: I highly recommend you and your Players check out the excellent Tutorial Videos available on the FG Wiki - Damned's are good, as are Xorns, and people seem to like mine as well (the links to mine are in my sig as well). The way FG works is that most of the core functionality used by most of the RPGs is found in the CoreRPG Ruleset, so start with those Videos as they'll teach you the basics of the program and stand you in good stead for playing ANY of the RPGs available on FG.

Oh, and have fun!

Cheers

[damned]

$10 sub for a month means you can all play.
$20 Lost Mines of Phandelver gives you a fully prepped Adventure to work thru and help you all on your learning curve.
$3 Basic Rules - will restrict you to 4 classes - but keep your spending down to.

So thats $33 and you can get going quickly.

When your ready - drop the $100 for the Core Books and decide on a License model for the base app.

And dont be afraid to ask the players to chip in and defray your costs. You do all the work and spend all the money.

[AsheRayne]

$10 sub for a month means you can all play.
$20 Lost Mines of Phandelver gives you a fully prepped Adventure to work thru and help you all on your learning curve.
$3 Basic Rules - will restrict you to 4 classes - but keep your spending down to.




Thank you everyone for your help! One last question - The "Basic Rules", I thought the Ultimate pack had all the rule sets. I think that's a confusing point for me. Where is the 3 dollar basic rule pack? Or if I get the complete class pack does that negate needing the Basic rules?

[damned]

Basic Rules contains everything from teh Basic PDF released by Wizards plus a few extras.
Everything except the NPCs are included in the Core Classes.

All licenses have all core rulesets - but they dont have the source books.

[Dracones]

Thank you everyone for your help! One last question - The "Basic Rules", I thought the Ultimate pack had all the rule sets. I think that's a confusing point for me.

Don't worry, it is confusing :)

The core Fantasy Grounds software comes with the mechanics and automation to play 5th edition D&D. It knows how to do dice rolls, saving throws, armor class and so on. That part of 5th edition D&D(the concepts of the game) is sort of free, open and out there. But the classes, feats, spells, backgrounds, races and so on for 5th edition are all copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast. So the core Fantasy Grounds application can't just give that content away for free, because they don't own it.

That's where the Basic D&D vs core class/monster packs comes into play. It adds in the content on top of the core 5E rules.

So when you buy an ultimate Fantasy Grounds license you're paying Smiteworks for the software and they put in there everything they legally can. For example all the Pathfinder spells, monsters, classes and so on are in there for free in the included Pathfinder ruleset because Pathfinder community licensing allows them to do this. But for games like Savage Worlds and 5th edition D&D they have to license all that material from the official companies so as customers we end up buying the packs to play those games.

Essentially:

Core Fantasy Grounds app: Has in the mechanics and all the fancy automation to play 5E, but no classes, races, feats, spells, etc because that's all copyrighted.

Basic D&D: This has in it the 4 core classes, some off the spells, feats, backgrounds and even a good selection of monsters. This pack emulates the free D&D PDFs you can download from the Wizards of the Coast website.

Core class pack/monster pack: These are basically the full Players Handbook and Monster Manual books for D&D. These have all the full content and if you own these, you don't need the Basic D&D pack.

[AsheRayne]

Don't worry, it is confusing :)

The core Fantasy Grounds software comes with the mechanics and automation to play 5th edition D&D. It knows how to do dice rolls, saving throws, armor class and so on. That part of 5th edition D&D(the concepts of the game) is sort of free, open and out there. But the classes, feats, spells, backgrounds, races and so on for 5th edition are all copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast. So the core Fantasy Grounds application can't just give that content away for free, because they don't own it.

That's where the Basic D&D vs core class/monster packs comes into play. It adds in the content on top of the core 5E rules.

So when you buy an ultimate Fantasy Grounds license you're paying Smiteworks for the software and they put in there everything they legally can. For example all the Pathfinder spells, monsters, classes and so on are in there for free in the included Pathfinder ruleset because Pathfinder community licensing allows them to do this. But for games like Savage Worlds and 5th edition D&D they have to license all that material from the official companies so as customers we end up buying the packs to play those games.

Essentially:

Core Fantasy Grounds app: Has in the mechanics and all the fancy automation to play 5E, but no classes, races, feats, spells, etc because that's all copyrighted.

Basic D&D: This has in it the 4 core classes, some off the spells, feats, backgrounds and even a good selection of monsters. This pack emulates the free D&D PDFs you can download from the Wizards of the Coast website.

Core class pack/monster pack: These are basically the full Players Handbook and Monster Manual books for D&D. These have all the full content and if you own these, you don't need the Basic D&D pack.

This sums it up perfectly, thank you!

[Griogre]

Just to see if I can also help clear things up further. I think part of your confusion is just what FG is. It's Virtual Table Top software. It give you a platform to play *any* RPG over the Internet. It has a typed chat, a no frills battlemap with a black marker. It has basic letter tokens you can place on the battlemap and move around and everyone connected can see and move the tokens. There are prettier tokens that come with FG as well. There are dice that are rolled by throwing them inside the chat window that are seen by other players and the GM. The GM can throw dice and set them to be hidden from the players (though they see shadows in the chat window which simulates the throwing of dice behind a screen) or the GM can throw his dice out in the open.

There is also a basic generic character sheet, like a piece of paper, that is saved for each player and the GM can view as well. So the basic software is very much like the table a bunch of friends would sit at to play a face to face game if they left all their rule books and character sheets at home. The friends could still play if they knew the rules because all they really need are the dice, the battlemap, and they could jot their characters down on a piece of scratch paper.

However with Fantasy Grounds you are playing over the Internet. You can have the actual rule book in your lap or a PDF open on your computer as well to get the things - rules, that the core Fantasy Grounds doesn't supply.

So the license to FG is the basic tools to play any RPG. However the FG virtual tabletop can be greatly customized from this simple core of features. This customization is called a ruleset. Rulesets usually add a specific character sheet for the game supported with the actual stats, skills, etc. Because this is not a paper character sheet, the digital character sheet allows you to make skill, attack, and damage rolls by just double clicking hotspots on the character sheet. FG comes with a built in ruleset for 5E (and other games as well) that has all this functionality. What all this does *not* have is the actual game rules data and monsters.

This is why people will tell you that all you need to play a game over the Internet *is* just the Fantasy Grounds software. And that is a no frills option.

The last layer of customization for FG are game rule library modules. This is what allows you to drag and drop a background onto the character sheet from the library module to the character sheet and for 5E most of the details of that background will be filled out automatically on the character sheet. The same for race and class. Every time you level you drop the class you are leveling in to get the class abilities for that level in that class. You can drag and drop spells onto the character sheet the same way. This is what the licensed modules from WotC gives you - drag and drop functionally for the player's characters and the ability to drag and drop monsters from the Monster Manual or Basic Rules into your own adventure modules for the DM.

In addition to the game rule library modules there are individual adventure modules like the Starter Set module that includes an adventure (Lost Mines of Phandelver) and some pre-gen characters. The adventure has all the monsters included so you don't need a monster manual as other have already mentioned.

Others have already mentioned some good ways to try out 5E on FG. I will simply add that the Basic Pack at $3 is a very good deal for trying things out with the classes, races and monsters from the Basic Rules PDF.