One Ultimate account, rotate multiple GMs?

[Magnimost]

Me and my gaming buddies have spread around the world, and have been looking at this for a while in interest for our PnP fix.

One thing we haven't found an answer or a solution to is how to manage multiple GMs? I understand that If I buy an Ultimate account, I can have my friends play my CoC campaigns without paying extra. Is it possible and allowed to transfer the GM baton on a gaming night to a friend who GMs our AD&D campaign, or another one who GMs Star Wars?

Essentially, almost anyone in our group of seven may be a GM, but also a player. To be clear, we would only have one GM hosting a single game at any given time.

Can this be done?

[Mask_of_winter]

Yeah this was just answered: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27359-Question-about-Ultimate-License-and-gamemasters
Basically, the host is the GM. If you want to rotate everybody needs at least a Full license. Or you guys can take turn with an Ultimate Subscription ($10/month).

[Magnimost]

Main attraction of the Ultimate license is that it has to be bought only once, and no other licenses need to be bought.

But if I understand you and the linked thread correctly, we would need everyone to buy a license, plus one Ultimate license to rotate around. With a seven-player group that comes to 149 + 6 x 39 = 383 USD, which is prohibitive.

[ianmward]

If everyone buys a full license, there is no need for an ultimate license. The full license allows you to GM or be a player.

The Ultimate license allows players without a license to join in your game when you GM. This is the best option if you are always the GM and/or if you run games with many different new playes.

You should never need to be passing around a license, and it is not allowed.

[Mask_of_winter]

No, just 6 X 39. Or Someone gets a Ultimate subscription for one month, cancels at the end of the month, next GM picks up his subscription, etc.

[Magnimost]

Ok, got it, so Ultimate license doesn't benefit in this case, and it's Full license for everyone. Not too bad of a solution.

[ddavison]

A Full license would be nice in that situation because while one GM is busy running their game, the other GM(s) could be using the full software to prep their games in advance. Alternately, you could rotate an Ultimate subscription and cancel when you are done running. The other GM could pick up just a $4/mo standard sub to use for prep if they need more time to prep and then cancel and replace it with an Ultimate sub when they are finally ready to run again. You get 30-days free with your first sub, and this also applies for each person (as defined by Paypal account.)

[damned]

A couple more things to consider:

On Steam you can buy a 4pack of Fulls for the price of 3.
The Ultimate Sub is probbaly the cheapest option for regularly rotating GMs.
DLC is also tied to your Account.
If you buy CoC you can GM CoC but another licensed player without CoC could not.
The base includes Basic DnD 5e and also DnD 3.5 and Pathfinder.
There are rulesets (without content) for 4e, Trail Of Cthulhu, Star Wars and many others too that the alternating GMs could run without additional cost.
Rulesets like Savage Worlds and Castles & Crusades with content are very good value.

[Magnimost]

Inability to rotate games as GM is fine: I'm the CoC GM, another friend is the SW GM, etc.

I take it that the CoC ruleset has to be only bought once, and everyone connecting to a Full or Ultimate account who owns the ruleset will be able to also play it.

[Mask_of_winter]

Only the GM/Host needs to have the ruleset, module, map pack, token, etc. When a player connects to you, he'll gain access to the material you have if you've given them permission. This privilege is lost if the player enters manage mode

[Magnimost]

Only the GM/Host needs to have the ruleset, module, map pack, token, etc. When a player connects to you, he'll gain access to the material you have if you've given them permission. This privilege is lost if the player enters manage mode

Thanks for confirming! The licensing is quite complicated, appreciate all the help in this thread.

[CactusFantastico]

Sorry for Necro-ing an old thread, but the problem I am having with this is when you include the books. OK so everyone gets a standard license, fine. Now, our next GM buys the essential bundle to host everyone with the rules included. Cool, we can split that cost among the group. Now when we finish that campaign and someone else wants to be the GM for the next campaign, we have to re-buy ALL the books again for the GM's account? That's even more cost prohibitive than owning the actual books that you could pass around. So basically whenever someone wants to GM, its 175 dollars(essential bundle).

Is there a way that someone can host and as long as the owner of the books is in the game, we can all still share his books? Or is our 8 person group going to have to buy 56 books(8x7books) for a grand total of $1400? Seems legit.

[Moon Wizard]

No, our license agreement is for one person per account. We don't have a mechanism for people to share books with the GM, and thus with other players.

Closing this thread, since it's 3 years old.

Regards,
JPG