A few questions before I purchase Fantasy Grounds

[Habanero]

I am looking at Fantasy Grounds as the platform to play D&D and other RPG's with my friends. I have a few questions before I ask all my friends to pull the trigger on this platform.

1. In looking at the D&D DM guide, Monster manual, and Core class pack, it says that by purchasing the digital copies within the platform, it will add links in the game which makes information easily available. Is this only necessary for the DM, or do all players need to purchase these products if they want accessibility to the information these products provide?

2. Can you trade these purchased products within the game system? For example, if our group bought one copy of the DM resources, could we trade them and have different people fulfill the role of DM?

3. Is it possible to purchase the digital copies elsewhere at a reduced price, then import them into the platform?

[JohnD]

1. DM can share the modules with players when they are connected to him.

2. No.

3. Technically yes but IMO it would take a lot of work/time.

Strictly speaking you don't need to have the modules but they do make everything easier. There are also the SRD modules that contain a sub set of the information.

[Answulf]

I think the most important thing to realize is that you don't need any of the books to play 5E. It comes with very functional SRD books built-in, the extra books just have more bells and whistles.

1.) Only the DM needs them - he activates them in Fantasy Grounds and all his players can use them while playing on his server.
2.) No.
3.) There is a 5E parse tool that will let you manually create the books in your library if the SRDs aren't cutting it and you don't want to buy all the official books.

I would recommend just starting off playing without any of the books. They make a GMs life easier, but are by no means requirements. The best advice I read was that you will know when you need to buy them. I think an Ultimate License would be a better purchase for the money - then, all players play for free. Just start with the 30-day trial ultimate license and no books. You will be giving FG all your money soon afterwards. :)

[NotRussellCrowe]

Hi, Habanero. Welcome!

1 - Yes, only the DM needs to provide these and can share the Core Class Pack with all their players. However, the SRD and basic rules come free with either the standard or ultimate license of Fantasy Grounds so you don't need to purchase it but if you do get the Players Handbook it opens up all classes, spells, and races, whereas the SRD and Basic Rules are more limited in races, classes, and spells. You as the DM have to be online and open up your game to you friends so they can connect and read the manuals and create their characters.

2 - You cannot trade. You can make them available to be read by your players while they are connected to you as the DM but you cannot trade modules around with players.

3 - You can certainly purchase PDFs elsewhere and then manually enter in all the information. Or if you have the printed Players Handbook, DMG, or MM you can enter in all the information into Fantasy Grounds ahead of time (or during game time) and if you follow the syntax rules you can get the automation functionality.

Happy gaming!

[damned]

Hey Habanero - this is a worthwhile post to read: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?32987-What-do-I-need-to-play-5e

[JohnD]

Point - I don't think you can buy PDFs of 5e PHB, DMG, MM as of this time.

[Habanero]

Excellent responses. Thanks for the clarification for sure!

[Talyn]

To expand slightly since everyone was giving 5E answers :) the GM is the only one who needs the ruleset also. If the GM owns Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu or any of the other premium rulesets, none of the players need to. It's all automatically shared to the players as they connect to your server.

For 5E, as John mentioned above, currently Wizards of the Coast does not produce PDFs for 5E material other than the free basic rules, etc. Third party products do exist and you can possibly get them on sale at DTRPG or whatever.

One thing I'll mention to that effect is that nearly all of the content you see on the Fantasy Grounds store was created by hand, usually by one of the users here on the forums, who took the time to convert a PDF sourcebook or adventure scenario word for word, recreate the items and NPCs and the battlemaps and encounters for Fantasy Grounds. Wizards or the other publishers don't do this for us. So buying here on FG gives not only the publisher and SmiteWorks some money but a few cents go to the user who did the work as well. (As far as I know, that's how it works anyway?)

[Habanero]

One more quick question.
Is there a difference between buying the Windows version of Fantasy Grounds vs. the Steam version?

[Zacchaeus]

One more quick question.
Is there a difference between buying the Windows version of Fantasy Grounds vs. the Steam version?

None; unless you are using a mac. If you are then whilst the client will run on a mac you need to get any dlc from the Smiteworks store.

Otherwise the only difference is that if you are buying direct from Smiteworks they get to keep a little more of the sale price over what they get from a Steam purchase.

[JohnD]

Personally I would buy here - more $ goes to keeping this great medium going.

[Habanero]

I pulled the trigger on Fantasy Grounds, obtained some additional content, and am now learning how to manage the system. I am impressed with the "drag and drop" mechanism in regards to monsters, NPC's, and characters. I really like the combat manager, as it calculates everything for you (I played D&D like 30 years ago, but havent played at all since). Cant wait to actually roll a character and play an adventure.

[JohnD]

Good choice. When you have questions, make use of the forums - there's always someone who can answer and point you in the right direction.

[dulux-oz]

To help with learning the system, if you haven't done so already, let me encourage you to take a look at some of the great Tutorial Videos available on the Fantasy Grounds Wiki (and on YouTube). Damn's are good, as are Xorn's, and people seem to like mine as well (mine are also available from the links in my sig, below).

Start with the ones on the CoreRPG, because the CoreRPG forms the foundation of just about all the RPGs we play with Fantasy Grounds - so by learning how to use FG with the CoreRPG you'll learn about 80% of what you'll need to know to play any RPG with Fantasy Grounds. Once you've gone through the CoreRPG Videos you can then go on to Videos about your chosen RPG.

When you get familiar with the basic Fantasy Grounds product the next step is to check out some of the Extensions (Plug-Ins) for FG, such as the DOE Sound, Locations, Weather and Organisations Extensions (to name a but a few).

And keep on asking questions - we're a pretty friendly lot here, and we love answering questions.

Cheers

[Habanero]

To help with learning the system, if you haven't done so already, let me encourage you to take a look at some of the great Tutorial Videos available on the Fantasy Grounds Wiki (and on YouTube). Damn's are good, as are Xorn's, and people seem to like mine as well (mine are also available from the links in my sig, below).

Start with the ones on the CoreRPG, because the CoreRPG forms the foundation of just about all the RPGs we play with Fantasy Grounds - so by learning how to use FG with the CoreRPG you'll learn about 80% of what you'll need to know to play any RPG with Fantasy Grounds. Once you've gone through the CoreRPG Videos you can then go on to Videos about your chosen RPG.

When you get familiar with the basic Fantasy Grounds product the next step is to check out some of the Extensions (Plug-Ins) for FG, such as the DOE Sound, Locations, Weather and Organisations Extensions (to name a but a few).

And keep on asking questions - we're a pretty friendly lot here, and we love answering questions.

Cheers

I appreciate the supportive community. People have been terrific so far.
I have messed with the system a little, and then watched the first video on how to navigate the CoreRPG system, which was extremely helpful. I am going to watch the rest of them over the next week or so, and I should be in great shape to manage the interface. I am glad people have created resources like this, and have shared them with the community.