Face to Face gaming table, subscription/purchase questions

[Groundsel]

Hey guys, I've been researching options for bringing digital tools into face to face gaming, hoping you could clear up some confusion. I've looked at other threads, but some are outdated while others have answers that didn't quite clear up my questions.

First, I see some other threads about building a table, using a TV or overhead projector to display the gaming surface and I wanted to share our project in case it could be useful. We are in planning stages to build one largely based on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spdescYFqIE but with a few changes (hopefully improvements). One of the changes we're looking at would be a rear projector underneath the table (which will largely be in a permanent location) shining up through the bottom of the table. Using a piece of plexiglass with rear projection screening material on top should be able to solve a couple of annoyances. With a TV, especially if you use plexiglass on top as a screen protector, there is a gap between the actual picture and the playing piece. Looking directly above it is fine, but from a seated position the pieces look offset from the square they are in. Since we would have the projection material on TOP of the plexiglass, this would remove that gap. I've talked with the distributor of the screening material and described what we planned, and he didn't think that the material would suffer much physical damage, even with dice, wooden blocks, miniatures, etc being used. The rear projector will also eliminate the shadows cast by a players hand when moving pieces (not sure how annoying that would be in actual play, truthfully). As we start actual construction I'll be happy to share how the table goes as we build and then use it, if anyone is interested.

Now, the part I need help with. Looking into FG as well as other VTT options. I know the major drawback to FG is price, and I also quickly realize how defensive this community gets every time someone mentions it. But honestly - it is very much a cause for concern when the total price on Steam is $1,892.27. So I want to see if I have the price breakdown of what WE need for our games correct. We are planning to run 5E, and the premade adventure "Princes of the Apocalypse" strictly in Face to Face gaming - no remote access at all.

FG Basic Purchase $40
FG 5E PHB $50
FG 5E DMG $50
FG 5E MM $50
FG PotA $35

Total: $225

Is this all that is required for a game, or am I missing out on anything? For example, I see that there is a separate purchase options for classes (for instance, Bard for $6). Also, does this include artwork, lore, etc on some sort of digital format that can be printed out, such as PDF, or is it just data to plug into the program? For tokens, would I (the DM) need to purchase them on my account, or would the players be able to purchase their own and then I can insert them into the program? If I lose access to the program, is the source material usable still?

Thanks for the help, and happy gaming :)

[Nylanfs]

If you just want to dip your toes get a $10 Ultimate subscription for a month or two (Note: the sub does NOT stack towards a future purchase), and get the PotA $35 (or do everything by reading the adventure like you would around a table and save that price. Then use the included SRD or Basic Rules to handle all the combat.

Also Welcome to the FG community and forums!

[Varsuuk]

My initial outlay was very similar.

I started with the Ultimate Edition because I was hoping to rekindle the magic and reach out to some who haven't played in ages. Didn't want to ask them to foot $40 just to see if they would like to continue.

I think you can delay getting DMG easily and use the SRD for the most part. Even if you want items not in SRD, you can enter them yourself. These modules are all about time saving, ease and being more polished :) but you can do without if need.

Definitely get MM. If you can swing it, start with Lost Mine of Phandalin (assuming you haven't already played it) - I got it and it's a nice adventure and well put together to ease you into this.

With the ultimate license, your friends could use laptops with demo FG app without issue. Heck, if not enough laptops, you could share one with multiple client connections to the. GM server for map movement etc - although I can see danger with all that shuffling...

In the end getting Ultimate will cost me more, but that is because I will be co-DMing and have to buy 3 license for my home. I toyed with buying 4 regulars instead in their "pack" offer because that's how many we need now - my wife, son and decades long old co-DM friend. The trade off to me was get 4 and we are all set to continue if it is liked by all and my friend can DM with his full license whenever he wishes. Or... Go ultimate, allowing me to try to convince many others vs just him but since I'd need to buy 2 more licenses to cover my son and wife for the times he DMs, it ends up "wasting" $80-90 but hey, if it takes off, it's money well "wasted" ;p. (Yes, I know there are ways around the DM thing - he was my Best Man, godfather to son etc, but I prefer the up and up - I'm a dev myself.)

[Trenloe]

Heck, if not enough laptops, you could share one with multiple client connections to the. GM server for map movement etc - although I can see danger with all that shuffling...
Note - do not use multiple client connections (player instances of FG) on the same computer. They will all be trying to update the same player campaign cache locally and issues could arise. FG is designed to allow a maximum of one player instance and one GM instance to run on the same computer at the same time.

However, to do what Varsuuk mentions, you could have one player instance on a laptop, with all of the PCs selected - then pass the laptop around and the player controls their own PC before passing the laptop to another player to control their PC, etc.. It'll work fine. No need for multiple player instances/client connections.

[Trenloe]

But honestly - it is very much a cause for concern when the total price on Steam is $1,892.27.
This shouldn't be a cause for concern, it's a very positive aspect of Fantasy Grounds. Yes, that is a lot of money, but it covers over 170 separate products for many RPG system (5E, Pathfinder, 3.5E, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, RoleMaster, Castles & Crusades, Mutants and Masterminds, etc.). If you walked into a gaming store you wouldn't work out how much it costs you to buy one of every game in the store, and think that gaming is way too expensive if you couldn't buy every single item there. So why do the same when looking at the Fantasy Grounds DLC/store? The fact that there are over 170 products available to purchase for a wide range of RPG systems is a positive thing, not a cause for concern.

[Groundsel]

What are the improvements that you are hoping to achieve please?


Cosmetically, I love his cupholders built into the table, but I think that dice tray needs a similar insert - the cutouts he did were noticeably sloppy, and that would be something that bugged me over time. Also, the price difference between two 2x2's vs one 4x4 for the legs is just a couple bucks - I think it'd look better with 4x4's.

For the display, I think he's asking for trouble with the way he has the TV set up. I would want some sort of seal between the table and the TV. Everybody SAYS they won't spill their drink... lol So if I had a liner of some sort - rubber, foam, silicon, etc then that could keep liquids from getting down into the TV itself. If the TV was set just a little bit lower, a 1/4" piece of plexiglass making a sealed window above the TV would be great. We could even use it with dry-erase markers like we did before digital tools(toys). The drawbacks to this approach would be making the gap between piece and picture even larger, as well as closing off a direction for airflow for the TV. It would be something we would have to address, I think.

For player space, there are two things we know we'd want to change right away. His design has 4" of space on the "rail" surrounding the vault of the table, and a good portion of that is taken up by the dice tray and cupholder. If we increased that to 12-14", pushed the dice tray to the corner and the cupholder above/behind the tray, that would open up the center section to be a usable writing space, or place to have an open rulebook instead of on someone's lap. Speaking of rulebooks, the shelf he has wouldn't be suitable for them if we used a projector (already is pretty low for convenience, really). Having the wider rails gives us a lot of "dead" space that we could now use for shelves/cubbies for people to use for laptops, rulebooks, notepads, misc.




My initial outlay was very similar.

I started with the Ultimate Edition because I was hoping to rekindle the magic and reach out to some who haven't played in ages. Didn't want to ask them to foot $40 just to see if they would like to continue.

With the ultimate license, your friends could use laptops with demo FG app without issue. Heck, if not enough laptops, you could share one with multiple client connections to the. GM server for map movement etc - although I can see danger with all that shuffling...


Well, none of the players actually has a laptop, we all use desktop PCs. If I'm reading correctly, I can use the standard license to open a DM access-level instace on my PC, as well as a Client (player) access-level instance. On my PC, I can then make the dungeons, characters, and monsters, as well as control them. The Player instance can be used strictly for displaying the map (with DM-level information hidden), the tokens (which I can control from my instance), the digital dice rolls, and various spell effects. If that's correct, each player will have a physical miniature (because really - these are awesome) and physical dice. Their character will all have in-game tokens, but I'll be able to move them underneath wherever they place their miniatures. In fact, does FG have an option to make PCs invisible to players on the map? I thought of that as I'm typing, but that would make it even more seemless from their POV. Character sheets will be deadtree + digital backup on my machine.




I think you can delay getting DMG easily and use the SRD for the most part. Even if you want items not in SRD, you can enter them yourself. These modules are all about time saving, ease and being more polished :) but you can do without if need.

Definitely get MM. If you can swing it, start with Lost Mine of Phandalin (assuming you haven't already played it) - I got it and it's a nice adventure and well put together to ease you into this.


I have a physical DMG 4E guide which doesn't apply to 5E rules, but the advice/techniques should be applicable no matter what game/edition I'm playing. Does the SRD go into detail on rules, or is it just backend code to make the program work? I LOVE that FG gives us the option to customize pretty much anything, gives a lot more freedom to the players to think up unique gameplay elements, and the DM a lot more power to make those elements work. Yeah - if for no other reason, having the flexibility the MM would give me makes it a priority purchase. None of us have played any 5E at all, in fact we're just starting to look into the changes from 3.5 and 4E. Is LMoP a better way to ease both players and myself into 5E than starting directly with PotA?



This shouldn't be a cause for concern, it's a very positive aspect of Fantasy Grounds. Yes, that is a lot of money, but it covers over 170 separate products for many RPG system (5E, Pathfinder, 3.5E, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, RoleMaster, Castles & Crusades, Mutants and Masterminds, etc.). If you walked into a gaming store you wouldn't work out how much it costs you to buy one of every game in the store, and think that gaming is way too expensive if you couldn't buy every single item there. So why do the same when looking at the Fantasy Grounds DLC/store? The fact that there are over 170 products available to purchase for a wide range of RPG systems is a positive thing, not a cause for concern.


The variety of options is a VERY good thing, don't get me wrong. But, the presentation is BAD. To give an example, here is how I learned of FG. I went to dungeonsanddragons.com and started browsing through the official website. "Oooh digital tools? Wonder what's in here. Officially licensed VTT? I don't have to sit and PROGRAM like I do in Roll20? Let's check that out. Oh, so I need to buy the program, and then buy a bunch of stuff to play the program? Hmmm... how much for everything? TWO GRAND?!" Most of the people I know paid less for their computer than it would cost to get everything. I've paid less for a CAR. BTW - the price for "everything" on steam is now $1,927.26 --- it's gone up $35 since I wrote my original post this morning.

Now, some/most of this could be cleared up with some better organization on the Steam site. For starters, all DLC is thrown into a clump. There is no separation by game, or even by alphabetical order. Whether that is Steam or SmiteWorks fault is irrelevant to the fact that it is an issue for end users. Right now there is a Steam Sale for "Fantasy Grounds D&D Complete Bundle", for $322.37. "Buy this bundle to save 25% off all 13 items!" .... but counting, there are more than 60 D&D items in the DLC menu. That's a pretty large red flag.

The in store analogy almost works, except for the digital vs physical aspect. I expect to pay for a book or a miniature. I expect to pay for the labor needed to code software. That's fair. But, there is so much on the purchasing end that gives me a very uneasy feeling. 170+ items tells me that I've got a lot of options available, as well as warns me that partway through a session we might need to buy another DLC item. Class additions, for example. "This Product is included in the D&D Complete Class Pack." is part of the mouseover text for the individual Class Packs ( Barbarian, Bard, etc) ... but there is no "Complete Class Pack" in the DLC list, there is a "Complete CORE Class Pack." A small difference, but it was enough to foil my first instinct - hit "CTRL F" so I could price out the character pack.

It's a combination of these big and little things that add up to make purchasing FG concerning. Especially when Amazon rulebook prices are half the cost. Well, $27 instead of $50. And worse, unscrupulous people can easily find PDF versions of every published book for free. But that's why I'm here, to find out what I need to buy to legally play and enjoy the game. Had I not been the type of person to take time to spend hours researching purchases, I would have bought a $40 game (or worse, $150 game - since it was the "Ultimate" version, but doesn't seem to actually give me any functionality other than letting players connect to me for free), and then been really pissed that I had to then either spend an extra $100-200 or days programming just to play it.




Also Welcome to the FG community and forums!



Thanks! I'm really happy to have found this place :)

[Trenloe]

But, there is so much on the purchasing end that gives me a very uneasy feeling. 170+ items tells me that I've got a lot of options available, as well as warns me that partway through a session we might need to buy another DLC item.
I still don't understand how having lots of options makes you feel uneasy. Unless you're a RGP shopaholic and can't help yourself? ;) Nothing will stop you playing once you have the base FG license/s you require for your group - you can continue playing no matter what, you will never have to stop playing and have to buy DLC to be able to continue.

I take it you're familiar with the RPGs out there in the gaming industry? There are lots and lots of different systems, many with multiple expansions. Do you need all of the different RPG products to play? Definitely not. Just get the products you need for the specific RPG system you play - even for a specific system you don't need to buy everything. With 5E, for example, you can play face-to-face without any purchase at all, just download the 5E Basic Rules or use the SRD. You don't *need* the PHB to play, but it's nice to have as it has more rules, more class options, more spells, etc. but you don't *need* it. It's similar with Fantasy Grounds, once your group has the required base license you can play 5E without any additional purchases - you don't *need* them. There is nothing stopping you from playing with the base data - but you'll be limited to using the Basic Rules or SRD library data that is built in, and/or manually entering other information into the FG interface. So, the PHB is a nice to have (it'll save you from entering data manually and gives you more options than the base libraries) but it isn't a requirement to play, same with the MM, DMG and all of the other purchasable content.

As in face-to-face RPGs, your group decides how they run the game. RPGs are about a group sharing their gaming experience and the endless possibilities of the human mind - they aren't computer ran MMOs with fixed rules and limitations. Fantasy Grounds is a product that allows you to play the endless possibilities of RPGs over the Internet - it is not a MMO that restricts you in your gaming and most certainly does not have in app purchases that are required to play or needed for play progression. You make the decisions what's used/needed in your game, just like you do when playing RPGs face-to-face, nothing's changed.

There is nothing that will force you to buy anything once you have the base FG license/s your group needs. It's entirely up to you if you purchase anything else. The fact that there is over 170 different items for you to choose from is great, you have the freedom to make your own choices as to what you game with - no need to feel uneasy or concerned that you have a wide range of choices. You don't need to purchase any of it to be able to play. Sure, a lot of it will make your gaming run smoother/faster - but it's your choice if you want to purchase a product, nothing is forced on you.

[Groundsel]

I still don't understand how having lots of options makes you feel uneasy. Unless you're a RGP shopaholic and can't help yourself? ;)


That's true for ALL of my hobbies! lol

But, reading through past posts both here and elsewhere, it's obvious that neither public's perception of the FG pricing models nor community's reaction to that perception will/have change(d) over the years. But that wasn't my intent with the post.

So I'm reading the requirements for the PotA adventure module, and it looks like it includes the NPC data that is being used in the adventure already but does require "The 5E Ruleset and one of the following modules: D&D Basic Rules, D&D Complete Core Class Pack or D&D Character Customization Pack." I found both of the Class Packs, and I believe that the 5E Ruleset is part of the core FG program, correct? Also, the data included in the Basic Rules ("and Theme" is added to the purchase title, assuming this is the correct item) is a sampling of the data inside of the "Complete Core Class Pack", correct?

So what I would be looking at purchasing would be:

FG (Basic/Normal License) $40
FG 5E PHB Module (Core Class Pack?) $50
FG PotA Module $35

Later I should get the Complete Core Monster Pack, and sometime after that the Complete Dungeon Master's Guide.

A few more questions, if someone wouldn't mind
- What is / is not usable on the program if a subscription runs out. Can the person still use it to create characters, draw maps, etc, as long as it isn't connecting to other clients? Or is it effectively dead?
- If it is dead, can the purchased modules still be accessed or are they dead as well?
- Do these modules / main program come with the full version or the official books? Or should we get at least a "table copy" of those to use as needed?
- I understand there is an upcoming overhaul on the system to move to the Unity platform. Do we know if the modules for sale right now are usable by the new platform?

Thanks for the help guys, it's really appreciated :)

-EDIT-
I wasn't allowed to include the URLs for the steam items in this post, hopefully there is no confusion on which products I was referring to here.

[damned]

Hey Groundsel.

When 5e came out in an effort to reduce the price SmiteWorks and the Wizards agreed to break the PHB and MM into smaller chunks as an option to buying the Complete versions. It was a good idea - but I think has created soooo much confusion... anyways - its done and its out there. If you buy the Complete Core Classes you have all the PHB content. If you buy Complete Monsters you get all the MM content. And its all in FG format ready to play etc. You dont need any of the class or race backs etc.

The DLC issue will keep coming up for ever - and over time that figure will climb every higher! I dont believe that Steam gives publishers the granularity that is required to simplify this - and some simplification would be good. Even on this sites store which SmiteWorks do own they have a confusing 5e Compatible and D&D Fifth Edition categories which is something imposed on them by specific publishers... So yeah... it is confusing and that probably wont change much... :(

You need: Basic License + Adventure and if you want to give your players all the flexibility they will prolly want - the PHB. Dont spend anymore until you need it and you love it.

[Varsuuk]

About to go to sleep, so will try to cover a few of these as I can (being aware that I have barely any experience in 5e, one night.

I cannot fairly compare PotA to LMoP (cos it IS all about abbrevs) because I haven't truly examined PotA just in case I play before I run it. Phandelver I nearly didn't buy, got PotA with initial Core Class Module (Yup, even the thumbnail has PHB pic, that's the one you want) because assumed from a video and description as a "starter adventure" that it was somewhere between a ghoul pulling a party member into a hole in a wall and less than a Homlett-ian romp.

In fact, it takes place in Daggerford (with old time npcs in some cases) and has great maps and overall theme to start. Also short enough that you can feel a nice arc in not too many sessions.

I like it so much, I didn't run it!
... I am instead converting DDEX1-1 and running those missions to get my 5e and FG feet wet before I bog down a well paced adventure with, umm how do we do X again?

Yes, I'd say the minimum is License/PHB/Module (for me, you only NEED the base license to DM, but PHB & mm make life that much sweeter) is the basic or ultimate license (if you intend on having users see map on your laptop then you'd want a second account (tricky may need to create multiple SW "customers"?)

Basic will do if you will just use it for displaying things on your contraption :) but if you buy the Ultimate upgrade later (yes, you can start regular than go ultimate by paying roughly diff later) then you have the option for occasional remote plays or having little mini adventures outside regular nights.

I expect you are asking about monthly subscription, no idea, I'd assume it goes back to "demo" version after. The peeps here will know. But the license you listed is "forever" at 39.99, or less if buy like all of it for like in $200s


There will be a free to nominal upgrade if I understood correctly at point unity comes out. As long as modules do "convert", then I wouldn't mind paying a much more substantial upgrade price. There are threads on PRELIMINARY pricing thoughts but not sure they covered compatibility. Heck, they may not even know at this stage.

The books do seem to come with full versions of the books (at least looking at PHB and a little of DMG) but I'd not want that for "easy reading" there's no issue using it, don't get me wrong, but I'd prefer it if they were in PDFs but WotC doesn't sell that. I bought the 3 core books from Amazon the. Digital ones so to speak from Smite and got SCA only in FG format since figured I'd be rereading that less, prefer to spend it on FG. So, I'd keep a dead tree version of PHB around, not sure DMG has anything I'd need to have a printed book for (but then, as said still starting)

[Varsuuk]

Good news is that DD (my initials too... My mommy didn't raise no "Varsuuk") is posted a helpful message on suspended subscription accounts so looks like since the "stuff" is saved locally, that you will still have old campaign etc. but of course, still recommend the straight up single license at least :)

Edit: oops forgot the link: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?23510-A-note-to-subscribers-with-suspended-accounts

[Groundsel]

The table is (almost) done! It took a lot more work, and a bit more money, than we had expected. We ended up using a TV instead of a projector, simply because of the amount of time that would be required - not to mention the added risk of screw ups. There are a couple of things we plan to do within the next few weeks: some trim around the bottom edge of the vault and covering the seam between the TV and the vault floor, the cover over the top of the vault, and we'll be putting the shelf in underneath, since that space is now freed up. We had our first gaming session yesterday, and it went fairly well. Using FG in this setup was almost painless, the few issues we still have should be ironed out simply by using the software more. Here are some pics:
14277 View from the player station opposite of the GM.

14278 Closeup of the GM's station to show cubbies. The two cords are the HDMI and AC Power for the TV. I'll be securing them both to the bottom of the table to clean it up a bit, I haven't decided if I'll use wiremold, or just a few romex fasteners directly.

14279 GM station with laptop in use. I tested with both my laptop and my PC. Other than the substantial difference in hardware capability, both worked just fine. If this were a table dedicated to only D&D, I would try to rework the GM station so that it was even with the bottom of the cubbies, as well as having a pass-through opening for cable management. As a side benefit, the TV's audio worked with the HDMI hookup, so no need to have speakers on top of the table. Planning on getting Syrinscape installed before our next session, think it'll be a nice addition to the fun :)

14280 Scene from an adventure showing how well the FG map accommodates using miniatures. I have each NPC's and player's token active on the map. When I have a miniature in use, I'll make the tokens invisible. That's one thing that slowed our play down a bit, having them move then waiting while I moved their token. If they can't see it, they won't feel like they need to wait.

14281 Dice tray in use. We tried fitting two dice trays on each side, but they are using the left over pieces of the vault floor to make their floor, and that extra depth meant it would take up too much space if we put them over the cubbies. There wasn't enough room to easily put them next to the cup holders because of the frame of the table. And if we built two right next to each other, if we were even a little bit off on the measurements or alignment, it would REALLY be noticeable. But, they are big enough for two players to each have their dice set in the same tray.

The project ended up costing about $600, though some of that was in tools or in materials that we only used part of. We spent three Saturdays on construction, and one just drawing it out and our main Home Depot shopping trip. Before the last Saturday, I spent an evening or two during the week doing prep work - mostly sanding. After the last Saturday, I spent one night putting on the pre-stain, the next night doing the stain, then the next three nights putting on the polyurethane. On Friday, we did all of the electrical, installed the floors to the cubbies and dice trays, and then did initial setup with the laptop. You know... to make sure everything actually worked! haha

We're toying with the idea of making/selling these, but for now we plan to use this prototype for a while to have some fun! We'll keep a note of things we like/dislike, and perhaps go from there. I've never built anything from wood, and he's never done anything on this scale. Was a great experience :)

[Nylanfs]

It looks like you might be adding a cover to make it flush when not in gaming mode? I would add a thin foam rubber gasket around the edges to prevent any potential spills from leaking into the recessed area to damage the tv.

[callahan09]

The table is (almost) done! It took a lot more work, and a bit more money, than we had expected. We ended up using a TV instead of a projector, simply because of the amount of time that would be required - not to mention the added risk of screw ups. There are a couple of things we plan to do within the next few weeks: some trim around the bottom edge of the vault and covering the seam between the TV and the vault floor, the cover over the top of the vault, and we'll be putting the shelf in underneath, since that space is now freed up. We had our first gaming session yesterday, and it went fairly well. Using FG in this setup was almost painless, the few issues we still have should be ironed out simply by using the software more. Here are some pics:
14277 View from the player station opposite of the GM.

14278 Closeup of the GM's station to show cubbies. The two cords are the HDMI and AC Power for the TV. I'll be securing them both to the bottom of the table to clean it up a bit, I haven't decided if I'll use wiremold, or just a few romex fasteners directly.

14279 GM station with laptop in use. I tested with both my laptop and my PC. Other than the substantial difference in hardware capability, both worked just fine. If this were a table dedicated to only D&D, I would try to rework the GM station so that it was even with the bottom of the cubbies, as well as having a pass-through opening for cable management. As a side benefit, the TV's audio worked with the HDMI hookup, so no need to have speakers on top of the table. Planning on getting Syrinscape installed before our next session, think it'll be a nice addition to the fun :)

14280 Scene from an adventure showing how well the FG map accommodates using miniatures. I have each NPC's and player's token active on the map. When I have a miniature in use, I'll make the tokens invisible. That's one thing that slowed our play down a bit, having them move then waiting while I moved their token. If they can't see it, they won't feel like they need to wait.

14281 Dice tray in use. We tried fitting two dice trays on each side, but they are using the left over pieces of the vault floor to make their floor, and that extra depth meant it would take up too much space if we put them over the cubbies. There wasn't enough room to easily put them next to the cup holders because of the frame of the table. And if we built two right next to each other, if we were even a little bit off on the measurements or alignment, it would REALLY be noticeable. But, they are big enough for two players to each have their dice set in the same tray.

The project ended up costing about $600, though some of that was in tools or in materials that we only used part of. We spent three Saturdays on construction, and one just drawing it out and our main Home Depot shopping trip. Before the last Saturday, I spent an evening or two during the week doing prep work - mostly sanding. After the last Saturday, I spent one night putting on the pre-stain, the next night doing the stain, then the next three nights putting on the polyurethane. On Friday, we did all of the electrical, installed the floors to the cubbies and dice trays, and then did initial setup with the laptop. You know... to make sure everything actually worked! haha

We're toying with the idea of making/selling these, but for now we plan to use this prototype for a while to have some fun! We'll keep a note of things we like/dislike, and perhaps go from there. I've never built anything from wood, and he's never done anything on this scale. Was a great experience :)

This is absolutely awesome! Someday I dream of making something like this. I'm living in an apartment right now so I don't have anywhere to put any woodworking tools or anything, so it'll have to wait some time I guess.

[GarthGiantbane]

Wow, very nice setup. What size TV is that in the table? Did you have problems getting the resolution set to match both the tokens and the mini's?

If I was running a live game I'd attempt something like this.

Well done!

[ddavison]

That looks fantastic. Great work.

With regards to PC's using minis instead of tokens, you can also just "not place" the tokens on the map for the PCs. You can still use enemy tokens if you want. Just use them in the combat tracker instead. If you still want to automate attacks against the PCs, you can drag and drop attacks and damage to them in the CT window directly.

[Groundsel]

Thanks guys :D

Nylanfs - definitely going to want to put something on the cover board. Might just be weather striping around each side, the kind you put on doors. I don't think we'd need anything more substantial. A secondary benefit to this would be some noise deadening when we let the board drop into place... would sound more "finished product" I think.

GarthGiantbane - It is a 40" TV. The vault section is about 4' x 4', so there is a good amount of space all the way around the TV for dice rolling and whatnot. As for resolution, I didn't change it from whatever the computer defaulted it to. With that amount of available real estate for FG to use, and the only windows up being the chat and the map windows, all I had to do was stretch the map across most of the screen and then zoom in/out until it was a good size for the minis. We've only played on two maps so far, both of which were large enough that the entire map did not fit on the screen. But I can drag the map's focus around, so even as they move deeper into the map it can stay centered on the action.

ddavison - Perfect! Thanks for the tip