Ultimate or Standard?

[Grayhart]

Bought my 1st module and I'm excited to get started. That said before I get started I have to decide which plan is right for me. However the Ultimate and the standard look the same to me. Am I missing something? Also I am going to spend the one time charge unless someone offers me a reason not to. Thanks in advance.

Scott

[dulux-oz]

Hi Scott, and Welcome to the Community,

The only different between the Ultimate and the Full (or as you call it "Standard") is that with the Ultimate your players only need the Demo version (or better) to connect to you as the GM and play, while with the Full your players will also need a Full version (or better).

Let me also recommend this: 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, DOE: Locations, DOE: Weather and DOE: 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

[damned]

As a player you will only ever need the Standard/Full license.
As a GM you can totally use the same license and all your players will need their own license (ideal scenario).
This way others can take turns GMing too.
If you have a bunch of tight players or you like to introduce new players then an Ultimate is good - as your players will play for free. This license is not transferable though so if you swap GM roles around stick with Standards (or everyone can get Ultimate!).

Buying outright is definitely cheaper over time.
Note there will be *some* upgrade cost when Unity is released (sometime next year). The cost will (likely) start at $5 to upgrade your Standard and $15 for your Ultimate but it is likely to be a Pay What you Want with those being the minimums. Paying more will help the devs keep on developing. None of this has been finalised as yet...
On a subscription there would be no upgrade charge. You would just get the upgrade as part of your subscription.
FG receives 4-6 version upgrades every year. The Unity one is a massive upgrade and its the first time that an upgrade charge will have been levied. This is a very well supported and actively developed platform and well worth the cost. At least thats my opinion!




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[lostsanityreturned]

Bought my 1st module and I'm excited to get started. That said before I get started I have to decide which plan is right for me. However the Ultimate and the standard look the same to me. Am I missing something? Also I am going to spend the one time charge unless someone offers me a reason not to. Thanks in advance.

Scott

As has been said above Ultimate allows you to host games for people who have not bought fantasy grounds.

It depends on how well you know your players and how confident you are in their desire to pay for their own copy. Personally I host games for 3 groups at the moment and getting all three groups of 5-6 players to pay as well as any new players I interact with in the future seemed to be a hassle.

Goodluck, Fantasy Grounds is a solid program and the most enjoyable program to run D&D style games through atm. I used roll20 for years but a server client architecture, the story panel and combat tracker just cannot be beat.

[Nylanfs]

Also note that in Steam you can get a 4 license pack (if you don't already have a Steam FG key).

[JohnD]

Stick with Standard IMO. If you're DMing you won't have a hard time finding players and in my experience they're more reliable with skin in the game.

Plus you can spend the balance on content if you really have the money to spend.

[Talyn]

Agree with the above. You didn't specify if you were playing or GMing but since you bought a module let's assume you're GMing. So you'll already be spending more as you have to own the adventures and campaigns and the sourcebooks. Players technically don't have to own the sourcebooks as you can share the PHB and they can login to your server and maintain their characters that way, if that's the agreement you come to.

As I've said in multiple threads, it's 2016. If you want to play [insert multiplayer game here] then you and all your friends have to buy a copy (I'm intentionally ignoring the Free2Play model here). Generally, in tabletop RPGs if a player likes a given game, he probably buys his own copy of a PHB. So I don't think it's asking too much for the players to buy their own standard license for Fantasy Grounds. It goes on sale for $30-ish every two months-ish anyway.

I haven't tested this, so anyone who has can feel free to correct me, but I've heard the Standard license will allow one Demo license player to connect? Whereas the Ultimate allows the full table to be Demo licenses. But again, if everyone has "skin in the game," as @JohnD said, ideally the whole table should have their own Standard licenses.

[Trenloe]

I haven't tested this, so anyone who has can feel free to correct me, but I've heard the Standard license will allow one Demo license player to connect?
Yes it does, but this is purely for one-player demo mode. You can't have any other players connected - just the one demo player. If another demo tries to connect it will be blocked, if a paid license tries to connect the campaign with switch out of demo mode and kick the previously connected single demo license.

[Grayhart]

WoW!! Less than 24 hours and this is the response I get. Thanks for all the advice.

Ultimate it is. And not because I disagree with those that stated Full is a better choice. In truth I'll pay that because of all the responses. I have been on plenty of forums and the response time just isn't this quick. No matter the view point everyone seems to love the product. Something that loved deserves to be supported.

I'll watch some of the videos above and when I'm more educated I'm sure I'll have more questions.

Thanks Again, Scott

[damned]

Hey Scott - lots of good people here - and while we might be die hard fans we will also give you honest feedback too!

[dulux-oz]

Hey Scott - lots of good people here - and while we might be die hard fans we will also give you honest feedback too!

That's true - I mean, for example, damned is a PITA sometimes.

But I'm a PITA all the time! :p

See - that's how honest we are.

[Grayhart]

I'm old and square and I'm a bit ashamed I had to "Urban Dictionary" "PITA"

If you're not PITA some of the times how can people truly enjoy you the other times?

All joking aside thanks guys/gals