Tips and Tricks from other users of FG

[pacio49]

I wanted to see what kinds of tips and tricks we could come up with as a community to suggest as things to keep in mind for new or inexperienced users of Fantasy Ground to improve their overall experience.


I'm still generally new to FG, but I've run a couple of games in it now and my #1 tip to all new users of FG would have to be to populate your battle maps with portraits and tokens pulled ONLY from the Combat Tracker. As in, don't pull down player character tokens from their character sheets. Drag them to the Combat Tracker first, and THEN pull down the tokens from the Combat Tracker. Do the same with any NPCs/Mobs Encounters that you have. This ensures that both PCs and NPCs/Mobs can target each other for automated combat resolution. When you pull the portrait from the character sheet or the NPC sheet it breaks the link through the Combat Tracker and you can't resolve combat using the automated system.

What other tips and tricks would experienced DMs and Players alike offer up as hard-won wisdom that could save some learning curve for newer FG users?

Thanks!
:)

[xazil]

Click both mouse buttons and drag for a quick pointer to show on a map what you are talking about.

[Trenloe]

Lots of good hints and tips here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?24644-Advanced-Fantasy-Grounds-Usage-5E-Ruleset-Edition Most are relevant to all rulesets, not just 5E.

[Nickademus]

The best tip I can give anyone: Find someone very knowledgeable about FG (and willing to help) and invite them to a game. Then ask them questions about everything.

There is way too much non-intuitive or alternate ways of doing things for a single thread. (And most people won't remember half of them until the issue comes up in game.) As long as the person doesn't mind answering questions and you don't mind asking them, you will learn a LOT about FG every session. Most likely, that's how the expert whose brain you are picking learned.

[dulux-oz]

Best Tip: LEARN how to use FG, both as a Player and as the GM - (and now for the Shameless(TM) Self-Plug) Tutorial Videos are a good way to do this - damned's, Xorn's, mine, whomever's - just go to the FG Wiki (here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Videos)) and take the time to learn (you can also get to my Videos from the links in my sig, below).

Cheers

[JohnD]

The best tip I can give anyone: Find someone very knowledgeable about FG (and willing to help) and invite them to a game. Then ask them questions about everything.

There is way too much non-intuitive or alternate ways of doing things for a single thread. (And most people won't remember half of them until the issue comes up in game.) As long as the person doesn't mind answering questions and you don't mind asking them, you will learn a LOT about FG every session. Most likely, that's how the expert whose brain you are picking learned.
Pro Tip # 237

[kavaliro]

Map grid blues got you down? The problem is, grid sizes in Fantasy Grounds' grid layer must be an even number, but our friendly cartographers tend to use an odd number.

What do?

Fire up Gimp. Use Gimp's measurment tool to find the size of the grid on the map. Divide the width of the image by the grid size. Then multiply that quotient by 1 greater than or less than the grid size, depending on if you need it to be just a little bigger or just a little smaller.

E.g., my grid size is 35 px, and my image size is 1050px wide. 1050/30=30. Then: 30*36=1080px.

In my example, I just resize my map so that it is 1080px wide, retaining proportions.

Voila! No more grid blues.

[Trenloe]

You can also use this very handy grid alignment utility: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?19813-Map-Align-Utility-to-scale-and-align-map-to-grid

[Andraax]

Or use maps with no grid on them, and just use the grid options in FG...

:-D

[jajen2003]

I will throw out an offer to Volunteer my skills with Fantasy Grounds to help new Players and DMs learn Best Practices with the Software.

PM me if you want and I'll run you through how I setup games, manage assets and will answer whatever questions you may have, the best I can.

[ffujita]

Tip: When you're working on your campaign, and you don't want your players logging into your server, just un-check the "Enable Alias" radio button.

[Mask_of_winter]

Tip: When you're working on your campaign, and you don't want your players logging into your server, just un-check the "Enable Alias" radio button.
Enabling "password" works much better. Maybe my network is different but players can connect to me alias or not. In fact, they can even connect using an old alias.

[damned]

Map grid blues got you down? The problem is, grid sizes in Fantasy Grounds' grid layer must be an even number, but our friendly cartographers tend to use an odd number.

I think this might be a setting on your mouse scroll wheel - mine takes odd and even numbers just fine...?

[Trenloe]

Tip: When you're working on your campaign, and you don't want your players logging into your server, just un-check the "Enable Alias" radio button.
Disabling alias doesn't do anything if your WAN IP address hasn't changed since you last started FG, as the Fantasy Grounds server will still have your IP address/Alias stored from previously. Thus players will still be able to connect with the alias, even if you've "disabled" it. Best to quickly add a password as Mask suggests.

[Andraax]

I just turn off port forwarding on my router unless I'm hosting a game. Then I don't have to worry about anyone logging in.

[jshauber]

UM, not sure why having someone logged in while you are working would matter anyway unless you just don't want to see their portrait or having them chatting at you.

They can't see anything you are working on unless you share it with them or have it enabled for access from the library....

[Trenloe]

UM, not sure why having someone logged in while you are working would matter anyway....
You can't use /reload if someone is connected to you. Sure, you can exit (booting them out) and restart, but /reload when you're doing ruleset/extension development is much quicker.

[jshauber]

You can't use /reload if someone is connected to you. Sure, you can exit (booting them out) and restart, but /reload when you're doing ruleset/extension development is much quicker.

OK, since I don't have the skills for ruleset/extension work I didn't realize that. Good to know.

[Trenloe]

And FG also slows down quite a bit when a player connects.

[pacio49]

My biggest problem with folks trying to connect while I'm working on the adventures is that I don't build the adventures in the same "Campaign" as where I run the actual game. I build out adventure modules in their own Campaign and then export them as modules once they're done, importing the saved module into the actual game campaign instance. That way, once the adventure is well and truly over, I can simply disconnect the module and all of the clutter goes away with it, keeping the actual game always streamlined to focus on the current adventure module.

In that scenario, when someone tries to log in, they don't find their character on the server at that time and usually have a little moment of panic that's nice to avoid if possible. Thanks for the tip on setting up a password while I'm working to prevent the odd connection!

[ffujita]

Thanks for the info -- how does one add a password to a campaign? I know how to create a campaign with a password, just not how to add one to an existing campaign.

[Trenloe]

Thanks for the info -- how does one add a password to a campaign?
Add it to the "Password" field in the "Campaign Details" section of the "Load Campaign" screen.

[damned]

My biggest problem with folks trying to connect while I'm working on the adventures is that I don't build the adventures in the same "Campaign" as where I run the actual game. I build out adventure modules in their own Campaign and then export them as modules once they're done, importing the saved module into the actual game campaign instance. That way, once the adventure is well and truly over, I can simply disconnect the module and all of the clutter goes away with it, keeping the actual game always streamlined to focus on the current adventure module.

In that scenario, when someone tries to log in, they don't find their character on the server at that time and usually have a little moment of panic that's nice to avoid if possible. Thanks for the tip on setting up a password while I'm working to prevent the odd connection!

Yes I have that issue as Im usually prepping right up until the last minute!

[The Hawk and Sparrow]

I also volunteer to help folks. I've been playing since '78 and DMng on FG weekly since March of this year. I'm no Einstein, but I do have a heart for service and a fresh appreciation for learning. FG is great! PM me if you need help. Huzzah!

[kavaliro]

https://extraordinarygamers.com's teamspeak server is a good place to ask questions. Most of us are passingly familiar with several rulesets and intimately familiar with one or two. We often coach people through the initial learning curve. Generally there's a pool of people in there who are willing to help. That means you need to sign up on the website to get access to the teamspeak server, but that's a good idea anyway; we have a pretty awesome lineup on the calendar with games on most days. Usually there's only a few days each month with no scheduled activity.