No need to buy books when you have Fantasy Grounds?

[TriOpticon]

I know this is going to be ruleset dependent but I was wondering about this today.

I have the M&M 3rd edition rule set. You definitely cannot learn the game with just that ruleset. You would need to actually buy the Hero's Handbook.

But, what about other rulesets? It sounds like the Savage Worlds and D&D 5E rulesets are quite robust. I do not have them but I have the core books for each in real life.

If you were never, ever going to play face to face with other people and only use Fantasy Grounds, do you think that you still need to buy the core books if you have the rulesets? Is there enough information in the rule sets to learn how to play, create characters, etc. to be able to play/GM a session?

Just curious what others with more experience thought.

Thank you.

[ddavison]

Most of the commercial systems have all of the core books included or available for purchase within FG. I personally like to read through rules with a nice, physical hard-back.

[Nylanfs]

Well you can't carry FG with you everywhere and read it easily. Most of the books aren't setup to read easily.

[lesliev]

If you want to pay nothing, you could manage with 5E if you just use the free basic rules PDF available online and a demo license of FG, but the basic rules are quite minimal and the demo license of FG doesn't even have the SRD (which is the digital equivalent of the basic rules). Also you can't DM with the demo license.

Building characters with the demo version of FG is possible but not as convenient as when you have one of the paid versions which lets you create characters by dragging and dropping from the SRD data. So if you want to be able to DM a good option is probably to rent (or buy) the FG Ultimate license. Then you can DM and your players get access to the SRD and you could all create (basic) characters.

Buying the 3 core books in either print or as FG modules adds a whole lot of extra races, classes, backgrounds, feats, multiclassing rules, spells and awesome art.

Personally I have the 3 print books and an FG Ultimate subscription.

I don't know anything about the other game systems.

[Mask_of_winter]

The Savage Worlds library modules contain everything from the physical or pdf copy. And with the quick links, it becomes easier to reference it at times.

[tfoxsail]

Most of the commercial systems have all of the core books included or available for purchase within FG. I personally like to read through rules with a nice, physical hard-back.

That was me before I lost my reading glasses! Now I love the electronic stuff because I can make it bigger for my aging eyes! ;)

[Minty23185Fresh]

This is a tough call. It really is going to come down to personal preference. I tend to take/make a lot of notes in my prep. For Harried in Hillsfar, I purchased the FG module. But I also downloaded the .pdf. I found that making notes and highlighting in the .pdf was far more convenient than in the FG module. (I wish FG allowed highlighting, maybe it does in an extension that I'm ignorant of.) For Princes of the Apocalypse, I bought the FG module but borrowed a freind's hardback. I never write in books, so all my notes are stickies. (I hope they don't lift ink, before we finish the campaign.) Bouncing back and forth between .pdf or hardback and FG module is not as problematic as it may sound, and having the module maps is a must, for me. I've pretty much evaded a definitive answer I guess. Next campaign, I suspect I'll buy the book, scan to .pdf and import maps to FG. I'll have to add all those links to descriptions by hand (aargh!). Then there's all the npcs to deal with too. Hummm... The module's looking pretty good all of a sudden. Maybe writing a note taking extension is the way to go?

[JohnD]

If you are DMing ask your players to pitch in. $15 each from a decently sized group can defray a good portion of the costs and everyone benefits. I decided to just get FG versions of any 5e stuff I get - it's not my preferred system and I don't want to wade in too deep as a result. That said, you benefit immensely by having your hard copy at hand or a PDF open on a secondary monitor (which is how I approach all my other games).

[damned]

If you have a working familiarity with RPGs in general, or better yet, with the actual ruleset you are using then you absolutely can get away with just the FG versions. The FG versions are probably not that easy to learn a brand new system from. I think a physical or even PDF copy will read easier for that situation but as someone says above - different for everyone. I have some games on FG, and Physical and PDF. Its handy but gets expensive!

[TriOpticon]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

I tend to prefer the hardcopy but with the possibility of me moving every year and my eyes not getting younger, I've started buying just the PDFs. I do have an ultimate license as I am planning to GM once I get familiar with how FG works, how to build adventures (possibly rule sets), etc. I'd like to get to the point of having everything in an adventure inside of FG.

I currently have a single monitor setup (laptop) but am considering adding a second monitor to use for looking things up, etc.

Again, thanks.

[kylania]

Buy both, support your hobby in all the ways. :)

[Minty23185Fresh]

One other thing to consider with .pdfs, they can reside on an iPad or even a Kindle. Making them very portable. I've used my iPad with the .pdf as my "second" monitor. It's not as cumbersome as it might sound.

[TriOpticon]

Buy both, support your hobby in all the ways. :)If we broke down my non-essential expenses, my FLGS gets the majority. :) And, I do like carrying around my PDFs to read during vacations, insomnia, boredom, etc.