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View Full Version : What else is needed



Goose
August 23rd, 2005, 23:53
Ive been debating buying this program but im curious as to what other programs I need to buy to get this working as well as it should be. Things such as imaging programs for the maps/tokens things of that nature.

If anybody has any idea what im talking about and would like to chime in i would greatly appreciate it. Mainly i just want to know if i have to buy a bunch of other programs on top of this one in order to play/DM effectively.

kalmarjan
August 24th, 2005, 00:06
Well, GIMP is free...... For imaging and creation.
Another real goodie is CC2, and Dundjinni. Both are excellent map making programs. Do a google search, and you will be sure to find links to their sites.

For campaign creation, there are several tools already made, just look in the armory.

For character creation, ETOOLs from CMP is pretty hard to beat, and with the RPToolkit coming soon, this should be really special.
Hope this helps!

Norbius
August 24th, 2005, 00:35
you can use aurora the Neverwinter if you have it, i use it, cool screen in 3D and you can create your own world. 8)

Crusader
August 24th, 2005, 09:18
Well, you don't have to buy anything else. Sure, there are a few number of programs that makes life easier, but you don't have to buy them to play your games with FantasyGrounds. What you would use at your real-life gaming table you can use in FG. If you want to draw a quick sketch showing the terrain, the layout of the inn etc. you can do it in FantasyGrounds - sure, it might not look pretty (depending on your skill drawing with a mouse - mine is awful) but it works.

If you want to prepare pretty battlemaps, then there's actually a few options that are free - Dungeonforge, Dungeoncrafter, MapX (on which I fear development has halted - sadly!) or Autorealm are some alternatives. As for '3D-views' (or rather a 2D-image of it) you might already have some tools that you didn't think of, as Norbius pointed out. I've read of someone else who used the editor in Warcraft III for this purpose.

And you can show pretty pictures as well - there's tons of it on the net. With only minimal effort I have found hundreds of images that I will use every now and then to show my players how their surroundings look.

Snikle
August 24th, 2005, 16:37
I would have to agree with Crusader, really you do not have to have anything else to use this program other than what you might use in a RL game. There are tons of maps and portraits around that you can use already, and the token pool is growing. If you are like me and like to fine tune FG to match your campaign world exactly (custom token, portraits, and maps) then a good image editor is needed, I use Fireworks, but I know of many who use Gimp and love it.
One thing I would add is that this program is amazing in its ability to plan your adventure. Last two days I have been working on my first adventure for FG and I started by opening the story editor and doing up a nice outline. Then I went in and started detailing each entry in my outline, adding personalities, and then doing quick mock-ups of the maps I will make later in Fireworks. I am more of a 'wing-it' style DM (hey it works for me) and I was amazed at how easy it was to go in and plan out my next adventure, I would say in about 2 hours I had a decently mapped out adventure, including story-lines (with descriptions, NPC speeches, etc), encounters (adding monster to fight is damn easy! I will do it all the time, players will 'love' this new program!), personalities, and rough maps.
All in all, an invaluable tool for any DM. You'd be a fool to game with anything else.

Norbius
August 24th, 2005, 23:37
i use mapx too, but not enough for me, because low furniture on it. :(
If u know, where i can find more stuff for Mapx, tell me :wink: