Question about new character creation from a newbie

[callahan09]

Hello everyone,

Hopefully I'm asking this in the right place :)

I'm brand new to both D&D 5e and Fantasy Grounds. I'd like to start playing and Fantasy Grounds looked like a really cool piece of software that help me get into it (especially since I don't have any local friends who are interested in playing with me at this time). I've downloaded the demo software and played around with the tutorial a little bit, but my questions on the character creation process weren't really fulfilled, and I'm not sure if I just didn't understand something, or if my expectations were out of line, or if the demo version itself just doesn't have the functionality I was looking for.

I was kind of hoping/assuming that Fantasy Grounds would automate a lot of the process of playing the game, or at least creating a new character. When I went into the creation screen on a new character, I knew from reading one of the in-program tutorials that I was supposed to roll for setting my skills (strength, intelligence, wisdom, etc). But I couldn't really find a way to do this in an automated fashion, or even in a way that guided me through the process. Am I supposed to just know the rules on character creation and go through the process manually? Or did I just not understand how to get the game to guide me through the process? Or is it just something that isn't available in the demo version?

I was kind of expecting to be able to have the game inform/guide me to rolling the correct dice, and then automatically filling in the skill value based on the result. Instead, I had to go to the WotC website and look at the Basic Rules PDF and figure out which dice I was supposed to use, and then roll them in-game and figure out what score that corresponds to, and basically manually read & follow the rules as defined in the Basic Rules PDF with no guidance at all, and the program didn't seem to enforce the rules, so if I had wanted to I could have created a character with thousands of points in each stat, etc. and the software doesn't seem like it was going to complain about that sort of thing or inform me that my character isn't in line with expectations for a level 1 character?

Basically, my question comes down to this: how much of a guided process towards playing the game & creating characters, how much automated enforcement of the rules (or perhaps warnings of rules that are being circumvented?) can I expect when using this to play the game? Does this change depending on which downloadable content I own (D&D player's guides, monster manual, DM guide, basic rules DLC, modules, etc?)

Thanks for any help in helping me to understand what this software is capable of and what to expect from the full version!

[Zacchaeus]

Hi callahan09, welcome to Fantasy Grounds and to the Community.

First I think you need to understand that the Character Creator in Fantasy Grounds isn't fully automatic. Some things are and some aren't. I think your first step might be to have a look here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Character_Sheet) where there's a step by step guide to creating a character. Once you've followed that through you should have a good idea of what is automated and what isn't. If you prefer a video tutorial see here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nurEMR4JJeU&index=4&list=PL3h0dIaiayC_AW7djpTlriZEtg2WBCCvp).

Before you create a character you will need to open up the basic rules which come free with the software. To do that click on the large Library button in the right hand side of the screen and then click on 'modules'. This will open up a list of the modules that you have installed. Find the one that says 'DD Basic Rules - Player' and double click on it to open it up. Close the data module activation window and in the left hand side of your library you should see the basic rules icon. Click on it to get the menu. This will allow you to browse the rules and use the drag/drop facility to create a basic character.

Be aware that with the Demo version of the software you have limited options for saving and using this character.

You are correct in that you can create a character which isn't 'legal' and there is nothing within Fantasy Grounds which prevents that. This is deliberate so that players can make a character however they want.

As for dice rolls you don't need to make any if you use the standard method of allocating scores.

Once you've had a go at that and if you have further questions do post them here.

[fishlos]

how about this 5E_Character_Sheet (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Character_Sheet)

[callahan09]

Hi callahan09, welcome to Fantasy Grounds and to the Community.
...

Thank you very much for your fast and detailed response. This cleared up a lot of the questions I had about the software. My initial assumptions about how the software would automate the process of playing & setting up the game were probably a little on the lofty side, and I can certainly understand why a little more manual prep and knowledge of the systems (willingness to look things up) would be necessary. It's more like playing with the books but in a digital online environment instead of in a physical tabletop setting. Which is pretty neat! Not fully what I was thinking it was for some reason, but I appreciate it for what it seems to be now that I'm aware.

I'll continue to play with it and come back here if I have some more questions.

Edit: Actually, I did think of another question... The tutorials and everything I've seen online here recommend setting the ability scores first, but the basic rules document says to select a race & class before setting the ability scores. Why is there a difference between how the basic rules recommend doing it and how the Fantasy Grounds character creator should be done?

[Zacchaeus]

This is becasue there is a certain amount of automation. For example when you drag your race in any increases to ability scores are automatically added in. If you set your abilities before you do so then you end with the correct ability scores. If you drag race in first and then do ability scores you'll need to do some arithmetic. Not a big deal but it does prevent potential errors.

Also you should have an idea of what race and class you want anyway; so you've probably mentally selected your race and class even if you haven't told FG that's what you want. Generally you'll want to allocate ability scores once you know what your class is going to be which is why the rules suggest that method. For example if you want to play a fighter there's no point giving him a huge Wisdom score.

[Nylanfs]

Alternately you can look at HeroLab or PCGen (https://pcgen.org) to help you step through the creation process.

[callahan09]

Thanks again for the answers. Very helpful!