I'm looking for advice for running my first FG game this Friday

[The Rouse]

Hi everyone, I'm a new owner of FG and I am introducing it to my group on Friday. My players are either brand new (Friday will be our third gaming night) to DnD (but experienced MMOers) or its been several years since we have gamed. Any advice you can offer this DM on using FG would be great. I've been trying to work with it to learn how to use it, but I know I'll wish I knew some trick that isn't evident.

Also, can i create the characters on my computer and then have the pcs use them dieting the game, or do they have to create them to see them?


Thanks for the help

[JohnD]

You can create characters that they select when they connect. Welcome! I'm on a shifty tablet keyboard now, or I'd type more.

[Nylanfs]

Welcome to the community!

[Griogre]

My advice is relax and have fun! :) That's why your gaming. In some ways using FG is like DMing in that you are going to make mistakes or not know how to do something. Make a note of it an move on. Tell your players to relax, mistakes will happen but we're here to enjoy the ride.

Specifically to FG, if you are in doubt on how to do something: 1) Right click and see if there is a radial menu. 2) Try drag and dropping. 3) Roll the mouse wheel (by default you need to hold down Ctrl).

Also, before the game I would start a second instance of FG and go through the option settings. A lot of them have no visual effect to the GM but a huge effect on the information the player gets so you might take a look at what the player sees with various settings. You mentioned D&D so these are some specific settings to most D&D rulesets. The things to concentrate on are token information, combat tracker information and party sheet information.

I'd also suggest you turn on "Stop at round start". One of the great things about virtual table tops is it remembers the positions of everyone on the map. This means you can stop your game at the end of a round and pick it up next week. This is a subtle advantage because it allows you to start fights you know you won't finish before game time is over but you can still get in a round or two.

LOL, Oh, in a Dulux Oz moment I'll take this time to push my Alt Wound Colors Extension.... ;) :p

Seriously, relax and have fun. My longest running game is also on Friday nights and there is just no way we could have gotten together in a face to face game and played every Friday for years. We're too far from each other, and have to many other commitments that would make it hard to get to a face to face game.

[Danimal66]

I just ran my first game last night and I created the charatcer (well transfered from roll20) before hand. Here is what I can suggest to you as my session was a lo of fun.

1. If you haven't already, run a second instance of FG and log in as a player in local host mode. I found this very valuable so I could see what they could see.

2. Make sure you know how to use the combat tracker especially if you plan to use tokens on the map. I still don't know everything but spending some time ahead of the session helped.

3. Since the player aren't making PC and this is there first look at it. Have them all open their character sheets and walk them through each tab, show them how to roll skills and stat checks, how to roll saves, attacks etc.

4. Show them how to drag something to the macro bar, I found this very useful for perception checks. I'm constantly having them make these check so having it in the macro bar sped up play.

5. Make a note of anything you need to find out post session or things you need to learn how to make for the characters.

As has previously been said, have fun and know you're all learning. I had a problem with targeting but we worked around it and in the process figured out multiple ways to roll attacks on a target without the tokens on the map.

[Andraax]

I'm constantly having them make these check so having it in the macro bar sped up play.

In many rulesets, the GM can do a perception check for the players from the party sheet.

[Danimal66]

Thanks, I didn't know that. I know my players like to roll their virtual dice, they were upset when I had the CT roll initiatives :)

[leozelig]

You can create characters as a GM that will be available to the players when they connect. They don't need to be created by the players.

[Andraax]

We have a compromise, and it speeds up combat. I have it set to automatically roll initiative each round, but pause between rounds. This way, the players can look at their initiative and if they don't like it, they can roll their own. But I don't wait long, so it eliminates the (sometimes seemingly endless) wait for everyone to roll - they have to watch for the "next round" indicator to show up, and I give them about 10 seconds or so to decide if they want to re-roll before I start the round.

[Black Hammer]

Using a second instance of the program to see how it looks from player perspective helps a lot.

Don't make use of automating features if you're not comfortable with them. If you know how to run the game with paper and dice, there's no magical benefit to making the most of the program's automation. It only speeds things up if it works right the first time, and between a new GM and new players, things can take more tries than just dragging dice into the chatbox and figuring it out yourself.

[The Rouse]

Perfect, I can work on that before Friday night.

Thanks for the advice and warm welcome everyone! having a second instance set up so I can see what they see is a really good idea. I can set up multiple monitors to make this work.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

[damned]

As has been mentioned -

1. Learn Encounters and Combat Tracker.
2. Story entries and Map Sharing and Map Grids.
3. Keep everything else simple - dont try to get it going with all the bells and whistles straight away. It takes time.

Have fun!

[Dr. Scarabus]

Running my first game on FG in a looooong time this weekend, so I thought I'd glom on to this thread and ask a quick question:

How do I get players to roll 4d6 drop the lowest one for character creation while in the campaign? I saw the "roll" tab on the chat window with the option for that while in Manage Character mode, but didn't see any option for that while in the campaign itself. As it was, I was having players make their rolls and assign the abilities in Manage Character mode and then connect to the campaign. Is there a more elegant way of doing this?

[Trenloe]

How do I get players to roll 4d6 drop the lowest one for character creation while in the campaign? I saw the "roll" tab on the chat window with the option for that while in Manage Character mode, but didn't see any option for that while in the campaign itself. As it was, I was having players make their rolls and assign the abilities in Manage Character mode and then connect to the campaign. Is there a more elegant way of doing this?
You could use DMFimry's drop lowest extension to allow you to roll in the campaign: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?22637-DMFirmy-s-Drop-Lowest-Extension

[Dr. Scarabus]

Nice! Thanks much.

[The Rouse]

Hi everyone!

The session went well. We did have two players sharing one older laptop that couldn't handle running two instances of the software. They could not see the tokens on the map, so we might take one computer and attach it to a TV and put the combat maps up there.

The biggest thing I could not get to work was locking down the tokens to the map. The players found they could move out of turn and even move each others tokens, so I need to figure out to stop that.

One big plus is everyone like the software. Everyone helped each other navigate the software and we all could see how the game will flow faster with the software.

Overall, I'd say the night went as well as expected and things will go much better next time.

[Trenloe]

The session went well. We did have two players sharing one older laptop that couldn't handle running two instances of the software.
Don't do this on any computer - do not run two player instances of Fantasy Grounds on the same computer, they try to access/change the same campaign files and you'll get issues. The GM running one player instance in addition to the GM instance is fine, but running two player instances is not.


The biggest thing I could not get to work was locking down the tokens to the map. The players found they could move out of turn and even move each others tokens, so I need to figure out to stop that.
You need to do this once on each map where you want to lock token movement. Right-click on one token already on the map and select "Lock Tokens" (don't confuse this with "Lock Token Scale").

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Tokens#Movement

[Griogre]

Also there is no reason to run two instances for a player, just open up both PCs in one instance. :)

[The Rouse]

thanks for all of the advice. I think I did confuse the lock token scale with the lock token.

Also, I'll have them just put both characters on one instance.

thanks again everyone!