steam or fantasy grounds

[Dr horrible]

hello i was thinking of buying fantasy grounds and later getting the rule sets for some of the games available but i dont know how steam and fantasy grounds worked together or if they were interchangeable like if i buy fantasy ground in steam could i download it from this site instead of through steam(i hate the steam load up when starting programs makes me feel like its running while the game or program are) and if i got the game here or on steam would that limit where i would buy the add ons to the site i got fantasy grounds from?

[Zacchaeus]

Hi Dr Horrible and welcome to FG and to the community.

If you are running a Mac then you can only download modules (like rulesets, adventures, PHB etc) via the FG website but you can download and install the client from Steam.

If you are running a PC then you can buy from the FG site or from Steam. All you need to do is register your license with Steam whenever you want to add the software to Steam. However if you don't like Steam then you don't need to bother with it at all and buy everything from the FG store. Or you can mix and match, whatever takes your fancy. It's probably better for your sanity to stick to one or the other but it doesn't really matter.

[Trenloe]

What Zacchaeus says.

The Steam installation of FG is actually just a stub that starts the exact same installation of FG thT you'd download from this site. It's exactly the same system.

[Myrdin Potter]

What Steam does a little better is store the master license keys in Steam. When you switch to a new PC it is there when installing or running the program. Otherwise, you end up running steam and FG and each take some resources.

Although they can adjust for this issue manually, if you are buying a lot of the 5e DLC and you want to easily take advantage of the "complete the bundle pricing" it Ks best to stick to one or another.

In theory, buying off the website gives more money to the owners kf FG as well.

[Trenloe]

Otherwise, you end up running steam and FG and each take some resources.
Not sure what you mean by this. Can you explain please?

[Myrdin Potter]

Typically you have the Steam client running and launch FG from the Steam interface if you are a Steam user. That means the master Steam client and the FG program are both in memory at the same time. You can run FG directly even after installing via Steam, of course, but most Steam users I know use Steam to actually launch their games to play.

[Trenloe]

Typically you have the Steam client running and launch FG from the Steam interface if you are a Steam user. That means the master Steam client and the FG program are both in memory at the same time. You can run FG directly even after installing via Steam, of course, but most Steam users I know use Steam to actually launch their games to play.
OK, thanks for clarifying - the wording confused me, it sounds like you're saying that if you don't use Steam ("otherwise") you'll have Steam and FG running and this was confusing me. :/

[Dr horrible]

thank you all for answering my questions it helped a lot!