Between Session Player Access to Character Info

[warderbrad]

Hello,
I am looking for advice or input on how to best make it possible for the players of my campaign to access their character info between sessions. I would rather not have FG running all the time but it seems that outside of manually saving the characters after each session and then reimporting them should any changes happen is the only other option. I am hoping that the combined knowledge of the group here will have other options that are more user friendly.

Thanks

[Zacchaeus]

There isn't a way for your players to access characters when FG isn't running. You can, as you have noted export the character and send it to them and then reimport back. However the question really is what could the characters be doing between sessions where it's necessary for the players to access them?

[warderbrad]

I am looking at running a semi political game with lots of out of session play between the players and such. Also as a player I am in a game where the DM gives the XP in an email in the middle of the week between sessions and I have no way to record or level up my character before the session and then it takes a little bit of time from the session. I was looking for a way to improve that.

[Zacchaeus]

If you go into manage characters (rather than create or join campaign) when you start FG then you should be able to see any characters that you have played. But you can't modify them as far as I know. Also of course if you created them using the PHB or other sources provided by the DM any links won't work.

[warderbrad]

I tried to pull up my character that I am playing to at least plan out my level up. The character was not in the list. What is the best way to make a suggestion for an improvement or something to the developers of FG?
What would be nice would be to have an option (even a subscription based one) to house the campaign on a server which stays on all the time and then the players can connect to it without the DM having to start up their FG. What would be even better is if the DM just connected to it to run the game too.
If FG didn't want to house it at least making a system that would work that way so that you could get your own hosting option would be nice.

[Zacchaeus]

Cast your vote (https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=40890) here. Not sure if that is what you really want but you can do a further search yourself or add the idea that you want.

[warderbrad]

I think that idea is basically on the same lines of what I am thinking. I would love to know what the devs think about the idea and how important such a thing would be to them. I see it is "under consideration" but that doesn't say much. Obviously they can't say too much but still it would be nice to get some idea of if they think it is a good idea or what.

[Trenloe]

As Zacchaeus mentions, use Manage Characters. You will need to run this on this same computer you used as a player for the campaign you want to access as FG caches the data it's used locally. When you go to the Manage Characters screen, you will see a list of campaign data you have available locally in the "Campaigns" section. Highlight one of these and press start. When the campaign loads up you should see the character/s you controlled during the last session in the "Characters" window.

These are read only. If you want to edit them you'll need to export the character and then load it back in Manage Characters (but selecting the ruleset not a campaign) or start your own campaign and import the character there. The advantage of using Manage Characters when editing the character, rather than a campaign, is that the character is available to select (as a local character) when you join a game, you don't need to export the character XML and send to the GM.

[Trenloe]

More info in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBKnA4EiuQI

[Diceman]

Hello,
I am looking for advice or input on how to best make it possible for the players of my campaign to access their character info between sessions. I would rather not have FG running all the time but it seems that outside of manually saving the characters after each session and then reimporting them should any changes happen is the only other option. I am hoping that the combined knowledge of the group here will have other options that are more user friendly.

Thanks

My understanding and experience with FG is that you can only access characters that players create with their own license of FG. It will be in their manage characters section of the interface within the campaign the player used to create the character in before exporting it to the campaign run by their game master.The game master would have to export the character back into the players campaign between sessions. For players who do not have a license and are playing in a game where the GM has an ultimate license, they can only access their characters while they are logged into the GM's campaign (provided the GM has his FG turned on and the campaign running.) So if you want your players to be able to access their characters between sessions they all need their own FG license and the relevant libraries if they want to level their character, update their inventory etc. In the case of 5E they can get by with the standard SRD and a monthly license at $3.99 a month.

[Trenloe]

@Diceman - that's not strictly correct.

To summarise for people reading this thread:

Players without a license can use manage characters and they can: create a new PC, import a PC from XML (and then edit it) or manage an existing one by selecting the RPG ruleset they wish to use from the "Rulesets" list, not the "Campaigns" list.

They can access a PC they've used in a game by selecting that game from the "Campaigns" list in Manage Characters. This is a read-only copy and can be exported/re-imported to allow editing as I mention in post #8 above. The characters that are accessible within the Campaigns section of manage characters are the PCs that the player controlled in the last session. It isn't limited to just the ones they created themselves.

To give a bit of background on the two options in Manage Characters:

1) Selecting a game you've previously played from the "Campaigns" list accesses the player cache data that was downloaded and used when you last played that game. This is a set of read-only data that was used by you during that game and is stored locally on this specific computer in the <FG App Data>\cache\<campaign name> directory. It will contain any characters that the player controlled (took ownership of) when they exited the game. If they used other characters during the game, but released then before exiting, these will not be available as they would have been cleared from the cache data. All of this data is read-only (as you're not connected to the GM) so if you want to edit the PC, you have to export them as XML and load them in the "Rulesets" section of Manage Characters.

2) The "Rulesets" section allows you to load up Manage Characters for a specific ruleset that you have installed on your computer. You will have access to any library modules you own as long as you have at least a full license/subscription for most recent modules - like all of the commercial 5E ones. You can create a new character, edit a previous character, import a character from XML (perhaps previously exported from the campaigns portion of Manage Characters) and then edit it, export to XML, etc.. These PCs are stored locally on this specific computer in the <FG App Data>\characters \<rulesetname>.xml file.

When a player joins the GMs game again they have the option to add any of the PCs they have created/edited in the "Rulesets" portion of Manage Characters (if the ruleset of the game they have joined matches the ruleset they used to create/edit the character). They can upload the PC through the "Character Selection" window and clicking the blue up-arrow button to show the "Import Local Character" screen and see all of the PCs in that ruleset's local character store (the ruleset Manage Characters data). Selecting a PC in the "Import Local Character" screen will upload that data to the GM and put that PC in the GMs campaign data for future use by anyone. If you're uploading a copy of a previously played and edited PC it['s a good idea to change the name slightly as the old PC will still be in the GMs database and it might be difficult to determine which PC is which. The GM can clear out the old PC once the player import is successful.