Fantasy Grounds.. Missed out..

[ShotGun Jolly]

I have got to say, I was a little surprised that the Conan Kickstarter announced they were going to be officially supported by Roll20 in their kickstarter today.
Being a fan of Fantasy Grounds, and not Roll 20, I feel kinda robbed.


What a golden opportunity missed.. How could they not choose this platform? For some reason I want to blame WoTC.. lol.


Anyone else feel kinda saddened by this? Just me venting a little. :confused:

[kylania]

Because "support for Roll20" is "We have a picture you can probably use as a map" I guess? Maybe some dice rules and a character sheet template? Does "support" include all the automation and content you get with Fantasy Grounds?

To be honest I haven't used roll20 since I got Fantasy Grounds, so I'm not sure if they've improved what you get with it, but it was little more than a dynamically lit character sheet before. Looking at roll20 it seems there are "adventures" for it, but everything is hidden behind subscriptions and paywalls, so screw that.

[Ken L]

They're a software-as-a-service model. Not a fan of r20, but they have their strengths.

Their pro-model is becoming a joke though. They recently added one click script imports. Whose scripts? Community vetted ones. Yea, I'd gladly sub again to pay to develop my own features, then see them promote it as features you get by subscribing to pro. Would pay another 300 to build r20 features again /sarcasm

[Skellan]

This is a shame but I will most likely just run it with savage worlds anyway

[Mask_of_winter]

This is a shame but I will most likely just run it with savage worlds anyway
Same here. I'll use Beasts & Barbarians for the setting rules and the material from the KS as the Gazetteer.

[ddavison]

We have exchanged some emails back and forth with Modiphius, but it is still exploratory. We would need to have a solid developer on hand that we could trust to deliver on it. For that reason, I would almost rather have something in hand and then offer for sale then to promise it and have a bunch of Kickstarter backers waiting impatiently for us to deliver -- especially considering that we would probably need the book to be nearly done before we even started on the conversion. We currently have two Kickstarters that are still waiting to deliver. One of these had a community developer who is now unable to finish it and the other hasn't reached the stage where the PDF is ready, but that will land relatively soon. That means that we have a lot of work hitting us very soon that we need to take over and deliver on. We just have to be careful not to over commit and under-deliver.

[ShotGun Jolly]

We have exchanged some emails back and forth with Modiphius, but it is still exploratory. We would need to have a solid developer on hand that we could trust to deliver on it. For that reason, I would almost rather have something in hand and then offer for sale then to promise it and have a bunch of Kickstarter backers waiting impatiently for us to deliver -- especially considering that we would probably need the book to be nearly done before we even started on the conversion. We currently have two Kickstarters that are still waiting to deliver. One of these had a community developer who is now unable to finish it and the other hasn't reached the stage where the PDF is ready, but that will land relatively soon. That means that we have a lot of work hitting us very soon that we need to take over and deliver on. We just have to be careful not to over commit and under-deliver.

All of that I understand, a buisseness is a buisseness after all. And you need to make the best moves you can for it.

I am just griping as I am a much bigger fan of FG then of R20. The key point which I noted on the kickstarter is that regardless of what platform they choose, is that they did indeed choose a VTT. And the more RPG compaines that support VTT the better and is a win in my books.

I already made a theme for Conan with CoreRPG, and with a little bit more love and care towards the CoreRPG ruleset with official updates/Extensions, any game that comes out then Smiteworks/Fantasy Grounds can handle it, even if its just FBC (Fan Based Creations). But that is a topic for another thread.

[Thane]

I am thinking Primeval Thule won't be ready for tomorrow's session... :)

[JohnD]

It's probably easier to "support" Roll20 when all they have to do is give them map files, whereas here, there's actual work to be done to make a polished product.

[ddavison]

I will be personally picking up and finishing the conversion of Primeval Thule and I will start posting more frequent updates on the progress. I expect I can finish it in 2 weeks at the most.

[Thane]

I love you... Are you taken?

[ddavison]

Lol.

[Szabtom]

Wow these forums, eheh :D

[ddaley]

Yay. I backed Primeval Thule for the FG package. It'll be a while before we are ready to run it though... just started Out of the Abyss.

[Wazoodust]

Been waiting on Thule, finished up LMoP a bit sooner thatn I thought we would, so just been running some one offs until Thule is out, seems like it will be a really interesting setting and fun

[ShotGun Jolly]

Just so everyone is aware.. if not already.

Conan 2d20 RPG (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modiphius/robert-e-howards-conan-roleplaying-game/posts/1524324)
Successfully raised £436,755 with 4,352 backers!!

[jshauber]

We have exchanged some emails back and forth with Modiphius, but it is still exploratory. We would need to have a solid developer on hand that we could trust to deliver on it. For that reason, I would almost rather have something in hand and then offer for sale then to promise it and have a bunch of Kickstarter backers waiting impatiently for us to deliver -- especially considering that we would probably need the book to be nearly done before we even started on the conversion. We currently have two Kickstarters that are still waiting to deliver. One of these had a community developer who is now unable to finish it and the other hasn't reached the stage where the PDF is ready, but that will land relatively soon. That means that we have a lot of work hitting us very soon that we need to take over and deliver on. We just have to be careful not to over commit and under-deliver.

When I saw the first post in the thread that was my initial reaction...Only so many FG community devs to go around and I know you guys have already committed to other stuff. <slowly drums fingers waiting for Thule> LOL

[timdog88]

Once Thule is done, wil the books and adventures be available for purchase in the store, or is it only for backers of the kickstarter?

[ddaley]

I am just guessing, but I would be quite surprised if the Thule material wasn't for sale to everyone. The kickstarter backers have already paid for the material.

BTW, as part of the kickstarter, there were two parts to the FG content: The setting and then adventures.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sasquatchgamestudio/primeval-thule-5e/description


Once Thule is done, wil the books and adventures be available for purchase in the store, or is it only for backers of the kickstarter?

[ddavison]

They will be available for purchase outside of the Kickstarter as they are released. I'm currently working on finishing up the main book.

[CryAxe]

I know that D&D/Pathfinder account for a huge portion of the RPG market, but the hobby has grown and diversified so much over the last ten years. It seems like SmiteWorks would benefit greatly in future user growth by creating an array of popular rule systems. It seems that any spare time that the FG team has, away from running and updating FG, is spent making another D&D/Pathfinder supplement. It kind of leaves anyone that doesn't like d20 completely reliant on the community for anything beyond the basic CoreRPG functionality.
:cry:

I'm excited about Modiphius' new system. I'll have to try to make it work with CoreRPG, which will be difficult because of the heavy use of various types of tokens within the system.

Make no mistake, SmiteWorks does great work and I appreciate the platform. I just wish I could use some of the awesome tools and automation that I imagine d20 users might take for granted.

[Mortar]

Not sure how big the SmiteWorks organization itself is, seems like about a handful at most. My perception is that the vast majority of the rulesets/modules, etc are actually done by the community...albeit a good portion of that is contracted by SmiteWorks.

[Trenloe]

@CryAxe - To be honest SmiteWorks have added a lot of automation for just the D&D 5E ruleset (but based off the ability to create the material due to the 5E license from WotC) not everything d20. Pathfinder doesn't get any more automation than other mainstream rulesets - and I'm not aware of SmiteWorks releasing any Pathfinder supplements that are developed in-house, it's all through 3PPs (third party publishers) and community members. Then you've got Savage Worlds that gets a lot of love, RoleMaster, Call of Cthulhu, Castles & Crusades, etc.. It's not just d20 *or* CoreRPG, there is a lot of RPG diversity with the commercial rulesets. Having said that, when you see the level of sales that the 5E license brings in you can't blame SmiteWorks for concentrating a lot of their in house development on that. Not to mention, of course, the great work the TASAgent and Zacchaeus put in - and they're "just" community members... (no offence guys).

Plus, although you don't see it, a lot of the in-house SmiteWorks development is going on the conversion of FG to the Unity platform - which will benefit all FG RPGers, not just the ones rolling d20s! :)

[Trenloe]

And SmiteWorks are expanding: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?30474-Now-Hiring-Production-Coordinator No mention of d20/5E in the job description at all!

SmiteWorks are a small company and they rely on people outside the company to develop the majority of the commercial offerings. There are lots and lots of commercial agreements in place, it just needs willing developers to pick up the work! See here for a small example of development opportunities: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?11156-Want-to-produce-official-FG-products-adventures-rulesets

[damned]

If you look at the stats there are about 8000 (number plucked out of my rear end) rpgs out there but in every large player base over 70% of games are D&D5e, PF, D&D3.5e and D&D4e. It just is. If you add in AD&D and BECMI and the next 10 highest played games you have another 20% of the market. That leaves near enough to 8000 rpgs making up less than 10% of the games being played... Sad as it is for everyone else the commercial reality is... make stuff for D&D!

I too would love to see more games out there too but it is a slow process. And complicated games take complicated coding so are even less likely to get a lot of love...

[ddavison]

It's a delicate balance on where we spend the time. D&D 5E definitely takes up a fair bit of time, followed by general updates to CoreRPG that flows into D&D, PFRPG, Call of Cthulhu and will eventually flow into Savage Worlds. As others have stated, we contract out most of the work to community developers and then we often partner with another community developer to assist with QA. Just managing the various projects in work by the community, along with customer support takes up a big chunk of my time. John (Moon Wizard) works on the core code and the Unity port and Carl is focused 100% on the Unity port. We are looking to hire someone to help with the Production schedule, so this will free up a lot of my time.

The biggest problem is that new D&D or PF modules are easier to produce now because the ruleset is already built. Building a new ruleset plus new modules is significantly more complex and time consuming and when you get done, you find that you've spent way more time and earn way less money for your efforts. Not enough people buy the other stuff.

[callahan09]

I'm excited for Thule stuff to be available in the store. I wasn't a Kickstarter backer, but it looks really neat and I'd like to give it a try someday.