Quick question on licences / Steam Buy

[Anthony_Stone]

Hi guys! Recently discovered your software and became hooked however I have a few questions in regards to the licences and or overall group play and how it works. For example on Steam you guys offer a 4 pack which can be used to share with friends to play. My question is what licence does that include? I've read that the Ultimate licence is what's needed for the GM to allow multiple players in one session (at least that's how I interpreted it).

So my question is what would the overall cost for new players to play? What licences would be preferred for GM/players? And if I were to purchase the Ultimate licence (Which DnD books come with that licence also?) and have other players join my session, could the other players see my library?

Sorry if these sounds like stupid questions, just curious if the investment is worth it. Hope to hear from someone soon. Thanks!

[Trenloe]

The 4 licence pack on Steam is 4 x full licences. A full licence is a GM licence that requires each player connecting to also have at least a full licence (or the now unavailable lite licence, or the ultimate licence). So, 4 x full licences allows each licence holder to be a GM and each licence holder to also join that GMs game as a player. No limit to the number of full/ultimate licences that can connect to a game ran by a GM with a full licence.

EDIT: The ultimate licence allows anyone to connect to a game ran by the GM with an ultimate licence. It doesn't give you any additional products. It allows players with a free licence to connect to your game - the cost is therefore 100% on the GM who bought the ultimate licence. It's a good buy if you will be the only GM in your group, or you will be multiple games with a different group of players. Note: you can't transfer an ultimate licence to another user.

[JohnD]

Welcome. It is well worth it if you like the hobby.

[damned]

Full allows you to be a player or a GM. As the GM all your players must also have a license of some sort (Lite, Full, Ultimate).
Ultimate allows you to be a player or a GM. As the GM your license covers everyone - players with Licenses (Lite, Full, Ultimate) or without (Demo).

Otherwise both Licenses have all the same versions.

Neither comes with any D&D 5e Source books. They both come with full game mechanics for 5e/4e/3.5e/Pathfinder/Numenera and some SRD material for 3.5e/Pathfinder.
You can input your own data as needed from your physical books or you can buy licensed D&D material from as little as $3 ranging up to $50/book for the PHB and MM (and soon the DMG).

[Nylanfs]

Also note that IF you have already gotten (or registered a key) FG through Steam, you will NOT get four license with the steam four pack because it will attempt to register one key with your acct and it already has one IRC. I remember Doug talking about that somewhere either on the steam forums or here.

And the license's (Trenloe note the correct spelling. :) ) are JUST for the program with some included rulesets and OGL data 35e/Pathfinder, Numera, FATE some others I'm forgetting about. For D&D 5e the mechanics are built in, but unless you want to type the class and monster data and such in, or use some of the text to FG data parsers you will want to buy the Complete D&D packs.

[Trenloe]

And the license's (Trenloe note the correct spelling. :) )
Sorry, I speak (and write) English, not American. ;)

[damned]

Also note that IF you have already gotten (or registered a key) FG through Steam, you will NOT get four license with the steam four pack because it will attempt to register one key with your acct and it already has one IRC. I remember Doug talking about that somewhere either on the steam forums or here.

Steam wont allow you to purchase he four pack if you already have a license key.

[Thete]

Steam wont allow you to purchase he four pack if you already have a license key.

Nt even as a gift?

[Loucifer]

Nt even as a gift?

Nope. Steam is odd like that.

[damned]

Nt even as a gift?

Its a Steam thing....

[Anthony_Stone]

I only downloaded the demo off Steam. Not sure if that counts as a registered key or not. I was contemplating on purchasing the Ultimate licence and thus far the responses seem to tilt me in that direction even more. I'd like to cover the bases for the players as it does seem rather unnecessary to have them get a licence if in fact the Ultimate covers everyone. Aside from the Character Class Pack are their any other recommended essential core books or add ons?

[Nylanfs]

No it doesn't (or at least it shouldn't). One thing to consider is this, if you think any of your players might "seriously" consider being a DM at some point then you might want to talk everyone into getting the $39 license that way the "new" DM doesn't have to get the Ultimate to keep playing (or everyone that wants to play in the new game has to buy at that point.

[Anthony_Stone]

I was informed in a previous post the ultimate covers all the players despite not having a licence. Also assumed this covered the library as long as it was in shared view.

[Nylanfs]

Module sharing is part of all currently purchasable licenses, but here's the distinction. Lets say you have 6 players, which means that it could cost $273USD for everyone to have a full license. So you ad the GM decide to splurge for the Ultimate license to save them some cash (the players may or may not contribute). This saves the group as a whole $123, which is good.

But what if player #3 (or any others) really, REALLY likes FG and starts thinking about wanting to run his own game. Now he HAS to have the Ultimate license if he wants to have the friends he has been playing with to play in his campaign.

[Anthony_Stone]

Yea that's fine. If they were to decide that that's on them at this point. My goal was to invest in the Ultimate and have other players grab the lite version to give this a shot at an actual experience vs experimenting with the demo which I can only do so much. Can't really save characters as well as start a campaign either.

[JohnD]

Lite no longer is being sold. Do you mean Demo/Free?

[Anthony_Stone]

Yea sure. If all the players got the free version with me owning the Ultimate, everyone would be able to play and connect? Also I'll be able to share the library which I purchased?

[Nylanfs]

Yes.

[damned]

Hey Anthony_Stone - I think Nylanfs initial reply might have confused you as he was addressing one part of your question - is Ultimate the right license for you. It didnt address the module sharing which looks like it confused you.

Anytime a player connects to a GM game that can access whatever the GM shares to them including module content. Some module content is not designed to be shared as it is GM only such as Monsters :)
For the license - there are lots of right answers to that one!
As an Ultimate license holder all your players connect for free. Good until you want to swap GMs. But now with Subscritions - the new GM can simply subscribe at $10/month. They will need to buy their own content though.