Considering Fantasy Grounds

[Galymyr]

Hey everyone, I'm considering using fantasy grounds to supplement the activity of my in person group and wanted to get a better feel for how it works with Pathfinder before I commit to an Ultimate license. Since it doesn't appear that Pathfinder is a supported system does that mean I'll be doing all the game actions outside of the game and simply using this as a virtual map or will this actual run Pathfinder encounters to include calculating damage and effects from things like SU/EX/SP, Spell, Combat actions, etc. I've trolled these forums a bit and it seems like there's a fair bit of user created content like the bestiary's but it's a bit overwhelming, I couldn't find a new users thread anywhere that sort of walked a new FG GM though the setup process of what modules and extensions you need to load, what you need to do on your own, and what has to be done outside of the game.

How difficult is it to add my own content from purchased Paizo modules? Can I add additional rule's to account for new Paizo books that I own that are not part of the PRD (Occult Adventures, Horror Adventures); if so do i need to be a master coder or is their an intuitive interface that helps facilitate this.

Lastly, for those of you who have also used D20Pro, why is this a superior product. I'm not interested in Roll20 because of their subscription model.

Thank you in advance for any feedback. If I go with Fantasy Grounds I'd be open to DMing some online PFS scenarios every now and again. My time available to prep is very limited at the moment as my wife and I just had our third baby but if someone was able to provide the prepared content in a module to me (after i prove ownership of course) i'd be happy to try and offer some games.

[Trenloe]

Welcome Galmyr. Firstly, Pathfinder is a supported product - there is a PFRPG ruleset that comes with Fantasy Grounds that is developed and supported by SmiteWorks. There is no license agreement with Paizo, so only OGL (Open Gaming License) material is available. But, Pathfinder has a lot of OGL material published, so there are quite a few community modules available (which it sounds like you've found).

The PFRPG ruleset is pretty well developed - including attack, damage, save, etc. automation; effects; NPCs (plus a few different NPC parsers to help get your NPCs into FG quickly), PCGen and HeroLab PC import, and lots of Pathfinder 3PP products in the store: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/?sys=9&pub=-1&typ=-1&search=&sort=1 Grab some now while they're on sale! (Keep pressing the Next Page button - the first 4 pages have Pathfinder specific products - over 60!).

The main difference between the Pathfinder ruleset and the 5E one is that full drag/drop editing/maintenance of PCs is not available (this is true for all RPG ruleset in FG, other than 5E) as FG tries not to be a character generation application (this would take hundreds of hours of coding and divert development away from core VTT functionality). But you can drag/drop items, spells, abilities/feats, etc. for reference data in character sheet and you can easily manually setup the finer details of spells and weapons to be specific to the PC abilities/feats.

It's pretty easy to input your own Paizo module. The Pathfinder creature parser will help get the NPCs/Monsters into FG: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20522-Pathfinder-Creature-Parser-V2-Beta-Version and the rest can be done to the level that you require. As you're playing in person (or if you were playing remotely with voice comms), you don't need to enter lots of data - just maps/handouts (extracted from a PDF), NPCs (use the parser or drag/drop from the bestiary modules), encounters and items (if you want to track to that level in your in person game). Some info here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?17108-Steps-to-create-your-PFS-scenario-in-Fantasy-Grounds

As far as what modules and extension you should load - that's entirely up to you. Extension you need to select before you start your campaign - I'd recommend not loading any at first until you get used to FG and then can decide if you need to load any extensions. Modules you can open and close in campaign, so as long as they are in your FG modules directory you can access them as needed in game.

[Ken L]

I've used R20, d20pro, Maptools, SkirmishVT, and am a user of FG so let me shine some perspective.

Your use-case is an in person group so the map is probably more important than the management and for that, d20pro has a strong edge on fantasy grounds as it can load larger maps with better load times compared to FantasyGrounds since they have a multi-threaded load-on-demand model where as FG freezes up for everyone until the map is pushed to all players due a single threaded architecture.

On the flipslide, FG is better for managing your campaign resources such as NPCs, encounters, and more where as d20pro has very weak convoluted tools for doing so. For an online only game, I'd use FantasyGrounds over D20pro for this reason alone as the addition of hidden dice rolls, group rolls, etc outweigh the map issues.

Regarding automated combat, d20pro and Fantasygrounds have some parity but it's weighted to FG for options and d20pro for simplicity with fewer options. Not to mention d20pro's spell system is borked compared to the more fully featured if not a bit clunky FG version.

Importing Paizo material isn't native by default, Trenloe has his creature parser which if you run windows is good, I also have a parser (see PF forum index) as it's near the top non-stickied; but these are community supported and not official.

In all seriousness, try the demo and see if you like it. FantasyGrounds has a higher learning curve, but if you put in the extra time there's fruition beyond the others you mentioned. I personally use FG / SVT for Heavy / Light RPG games, and similarly abandoned r20 for their pay to contribute and lure others model.

[Trenloe]

And if you're thinking of using a large TV as a map view for your players, this extension might help: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV-resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games

[Galymyr]

Thank you both for the excellent info! My use case isn't exactly an in person group. I'll be using this to run fully online games between our in person sessions since it's hard to get everyone together in one spot as often as we'd like. Possibly as a supplement for in person games once I get my game table with the embedded 40" LED TV built.

What about adding additional rules Paizo releases that are not part of the PRD? Is that possible?

[Trenloe]

What about adding additional rules Paizo releases that are not part of the PRD? Is that possible?
The main "customization" of the PF ruleset is via effects - modifiers that can be added to skill, attack, damage, save, etc. rolls. Info here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/3.5E_Effects

If you have some very complex rules then the chances are that you won't be able to 100% handle them with automation (FG aims to cover approx 80% of most use cases). But the system allows manual entry/actions and so you can always manually adjust the relevant stats, HP, attacks, etc. as you need to.

If you're into programming, Fantasy Grounds uses XML (for definitions) and LUA for process code, and the rulesets are all provided in this format so you can add/modify if you really want to. This is where extensions come in - these extend/modify the rulesets. But, a word of warning, doing anything complex will take a lot of development time!

The golden rule Fantasy Grounds is don't try to do everything with automation, especially when you're learning the application - you'll spend too much time entering and testing effects, etc.. Get used to the basic first (campaign management, initiative and the combat tracker, basic targeting, etc.) and then expand on that base as you play more (and understand FG's strengths and weaknesses more) and you'll soon evolve a level of automation that you and your group are comfortable with. You have control over how much automation you use - you're not forced to learn it all and use it all if you don't want/need to.

[Galymyr]

So when I'm looking up the User manual it only offers two options; one for 3.5 and one for 4.0. Is there a user manual for Pathfinder rule set? Also, it seems all Pathfinder content in FG is labeled as 3.5, Pathfinder RPG, or PFRPG. Are these three just used interchangeably or is there an active non Pathfinder 3.5 presence here in FG? If so, how do I tell the difference between pure 3.5 and Pathfinder

[Trenloe]

Pathfinder = PFRPG (the actual name of the Fantasy Grounds Pathfinder ruleset). The PFRPG ruleset is built on top of the 3.5E ruleset and uses 99% of that code. As far as the Pathfinder ruleset goes you can pretty much use 3.5E/PFRPG interchangeably in terms of the majority of the features. The differences between 3.5E and Pathfinder are coded - such as the skill differences, dying at negative CON not -10 HP, CMB/CMD, etc., etc..

There is a 3.5E (non Pathfinder) presence on FG - you'll see the occasional GM advertising for players in the LFG forum.

[dulux-oz]

Hi Galymyr, and Welcome! to the Community,

Let me add this to the already excellent advice and info provided by Trenloe - 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

[Galymyr]

Thanks dulox-oz, I'll definitely check out the videos. Does anyone know if FG ever gets lower than 25% off on Steam or is this as good as it gets?

[dulux-oz]

That's probably as good as it gets (I've never seen it at a better price) - so jump in :)