Use FG as an aid for DM IRL?

[Jonnie Cache]

I am looking for a way to better organize my games as a DM. I want to make it easier to track stats, battles, effects, etc. But, I want to continue to have real games around a real table. We have 5 players in my group and we really enjoy the face-to-face thing. I want them to be able to roll the dice. I just want some software to help me organize and track.

Can FG do this?

[pacio49]

Technically it -can-. You could just use the Combat Tracker without a battle map to track effects, initiative order, hit points, etc. But you'd need to have a version of each PC done up and maintained in FG, as well as setting up the module. I've seen posts from others who use FG in this way, hopefully one of them will chime in here with tips and tricks for making it go faster.

It just seems to me that you'd lose out on any efficiency gained having FG track things by all of the manual effort of entering things in FG to make sure it tracks. The advantage to using FG as a Virtual Tabletop comes from the fact that as each PC makes their attack and damage rolls, the Combat Tracker is automatically resolving things for everyone.

Would you have each of the PCs working off of a laptop or other computer but still be sitting around the table? FG could be used as the main 'engine' of the game that way, you would just play without a battle map in the system and you could use the chat and whispers as ways for players and the GM to communicate privately.

I guess the real answer is "It depends on how you want to use it."

[pacio49]

And welcome to the forum boards! There's a great supportive community here so please keep asking questions and checking back.

[Nylanfs]

You mean something like this?

https://imgur.com/gallery/FJN4B

[Zacchaeus]

I am looking for a way to better organize my games as a DM. I want to make it easier to track stats, battles, effects, etc. But, I want to continue to have real games around a real table. We have 5 players in my group and we really enjoy the face-to-face thing. I want them to be able to roll the dice. I just want some software to help me organize and track.

Can FG do this?

As pacio49 says - sort of

Take a typical combat encounter with 4 PCs and 4 Orcs. You would have to have a PC sheet for each PC. Next you place all the PCs and NPCs on the Combat Tracker and get initiative rolls. You can get FG to roll initiative for the players and the NPCs but if you want the PCs to roll then you'll have to manually enter the initiative into the CT for each PC.

When it comes to the first PC attack you are going to have to relate which Orc the PC is attacking to the information on the screen. The PC then rolls and you would have to decide as normal whether it hits just like around the table. If it hits the PC rolls damage and you'll then have to enter the wounds into the NPC manually and you have to remember which Orc is which. Next up is an Orc and you will have to work out which one is attacking, roll to hit and manually enter any damage into the PC sheet.

You begin to see the pattern here.

FG can track things very well like how many rounds something is poisoned for and stuff like that but you would forever be having to relate what is on the screen to what is happening around the table and vice versa and it may well end up slowing you down. If you use miniatures it might be easier but not a lot I fear.

[Trenloe]

Lots of GMs on these boards use FG for face-to-face games. How far you go depends on what you're using FG for. If you're using it for initiative tracking and ease of NPC management, then you won't need full PC records in FG - just basic placeholders. Then you'll use it like you would normally - make an NPC roll and say "Gandalf, does a 15 hit your AC?" and the players would roll attacks and say "Gandalf rolls a melee attack of 18 vs the orc - is that a hit?" and the GM would check the AC of the orc and if it's a hit the player rolls damage and the GM applies that damage to the orc.

This approach will allow for a lot of campaign data tracking, NPC abilities, spells, rolls, etc. but not much automation in terms of hit/miss, auto saves, etc.. If you want to include more automation then you'd need a bit more PC info and would need to track modifiers more closely. You could still have the players roll attacks and damage, but would need to use base 0 attack/damage entries and enter the amount the player rolled into the modifier window before triggering those attacks using standard FG targeting, and FG could then report hit/miss, auto track damage, etc..

[Jonnie Cache]

you mean something like this?

https://imgur.com/gallery/fjn4b

very cool!

[Jonnie Cache]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It sounds like this just may be one of those things that I have to try to see if it would fit in with our group. It could work, but it might be more trouble than its worth. Fair to say?

[Griogre]

Fair to say. You will probably get more out of this if you are also using FG as a virtual battlemap instead of an initiative tracker. Try the demo just be aware that nothing saves in the demo.

[Skellan]

I use FG for my Pathfinder home game. I sometimes have a tv laid flat for the map and place minis on it. (much better than my drawing) I find the combat tracker is really useful and also helps to keep track of effects on the npcs. My players love doing nasty things to the baddies.

I'd agree you would best experiment to see what suits you best :)

[damned]

Fair to say. You will probably get more out of this if you are also using FG as a virtual battlemap instead of an initiative tracker. Try the demo just be aware that nothing saves in the demo.

go the $4 sub and get the first two months for $4 and D&D basic thrown in too :)

[ddavison]

I use it for all my campaigns that I run face-to-face. I like using the combat tracker (like Trenloe mentioned) and still having my players roll their dice. I have FG roll the attacks for the NPCs. It is still nicer to have the entire stats of the NPCs visible as I work through the tracker and the full NPC sheet available with a click. If they are a spellcaster, those are all linked as well and run much faster than looking up the spell in the book. I also heavily use the campaign management functionality to build an outline of the adventure with relevant stuff linked and indexed. Before a session, I also generally drag a few key items to a hotkey bar slot for that session.

For D&D games:
The other things that help speed up gameplay are the partysheet and the XP and treasure handling. If you build your encounters or treasures in FG or use a predone adventure, you can just drag these to the party sheet and award out coinage there. Once people choose an item, you can either transfer it within FG to keep a record of that or you can just remove it from the Party Inventory. That way, when Bob the campaign secretary misses a session because he's sick, you don't lose your party inventory. It's also faster than having to have someone write everything done after each combat.

For experience and quests, this is similar. The encounters automatically determine the total XP and will do the division for you so you don't have to do that in your head or whip out a calculator. If you keep this up to date, then you'll also have an idea of everyone's relative XP Levels and how close they are to leveling.

If you have a second monitor or display hooked up, you can also use it to show maps and handouts, but that may be overkill for what you need at first.