Newbie alert

[dances with sheep]

Hi, I'm brand new here. I used to play tabletop D&D (basic rules) about 20 years ago and have a burning nostalgia to play again, which led me here. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the options and products available to buy. Is there a quick start guide for someone like me who just wants to roll up a character and get into some old school D&D ?

[LordEntrails]

Welcome dances! You'll find this is a great place to get back into D&D.

There are multiple ways to start, but perhaps one of the easiest is to first decide which rules you want to play. You mentioned old school D&D, so there are a couple of options for you.

First, consider 5th Edition D&D. It has a lot of the old school feel (even though it is the newest) and it is the most popular (I think latest statistics show more than half of all games played are 5E). You can also look at some of the old school spin offs like Castle & Crusades, etc.

Once you decide what rules (game systems) you are interested in (or if you are just open to anything fun), then go check out the Game Organization (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?76-Game-Organization) forums. Also, coming up on January 7th is FGDaze, this is a one day online convention that is a great opportunity to play. Check out the thread here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?97-FGDaze). And note that check back daily as more games get posted regularly.

As for products to buy. Start with a standard license (subscription or perpetual). That will get you most of the rulesets (including 5E D&D and many others including a generic ruleset called CoreRPG). Included with the standard license are the 5E basic rules and 5E SRD.

After that, there are a couple of good posts that can tell you about the benefits of what to buy when. But a lot of that depends upon what system(s) you end up playing and if you are DMing or just playing.

For instance, if you end up playing 5E (not DMing), all you would really ever need is the PHB (called the Core Class Pack in the FG store) and the regular license.

Also for your consideration, don't buy the physical books if they are available in FG. I find that the FG versions are much better in terms of reference capability and with recent improvements in the FG interface (reference manual enhancements) reading them to learn a system is not much different than reading a PDF or printed book.

[irish_carbomb]

If your just looking to play you can look for a game that has a DM with the Ultimate license and you can play for free (Demo).
Or you can purchase the Standard License and then connect to any other Standard License or Ultimate License holder.

If you looking to DM you can get the Standard License and then any other Standard Licenses can connect to you
Or you can get the Ultimate License and anyone can connect to you (Demo/Standard/Ultimate).

If you looking to buy books or adventure modules, wait another day or two and see what the Christmas Sale prices are going to be.

It seems expensive at first, but well worth the money if you use it for any amount of time. I bought the Standard License and the Players Handbook. Then I bought the DM Guide and Monster Manual when they went on sale. Then I used the D&D Complete bundle option to purchase the remaining Books and Adventures. Then I upgraded to the Ultimate License, and will get Volo's when it goes on sale.. Now I am DM'ing an adventure, and playing in 3 others (around 16 hours a week). So as far as price goes I'm definitely getting my money's worth, but the Licensing can be kind of confusing at first, as far as what you do and don't need to play.

[Zacchaeus]

I'd add my welcome to you as well.

In addition to the links provided by LordEntrails check out the top stickied posts in each of the forums dedicated to each game system. These will lead you to a number of links to resources including many videos and other tutorials.

A very good place to start is the user manual which you can find here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/filelibrary/FantasyGroundsUserManual.pdf).

[dances with sheep]

Thanks for the welcome and sage advice :)

I'm not a DM type of guy (too much like hard work) so hopefully I can get myself up and running pretty quick. I'll scan the suggested reference material and let you know how I get on :)

[JohnD]

Dude! Welcome. You're in a good place.

[MarianDz]

Welcome "dances with sheep" you are on best place for online D&D VTT gaming :)
From my experiences it looks at the beginning as "uff, too much to learning" but if you give it try.
And see few "Dulux (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Videos)" instruct videos (see wiki for them), or another great which "dough (https://www.twitch.tv/fantasygrounds/videos/all)" produce on twitch as Fantasy grounds (dont have here links on tablet actually) or these from "rob2e (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/entry.php?219-Twitch-featured-my-channel-using-Fantasy-Grounds-and-it-was-HUGE!)" you'll find it easy and more logical :)
My FG learning and understanding basics takes approximatelly 3 months of reading FG Wiki, Forums and meaned videos, maybe because Im not from english speaking country :D

EDIT: I was adding link on Dough great videos ;o)

[Bidmaron]

As a guy who started with the Blackmoor supplement, I'd urge you to vonsider Pathfinder. It is true to the (in my opinion) best edition of d&d 3.5. And for a player it is hard to beat the Pathfinder society here. Pickup games are good

[dulux-oz]

Hi DwS, and Welcome! to the Community,

As others have mentioned, the Tutorial Videos available are a great place to start to learn Fantasy Grounds - If you haven't done so already, let me encourage you to take a look at some of them which are 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

[vodokar]

If you are interested in old school D&D, there are two rulesets currently being worked on that you should be aware of.

I am currently working on a ruleset for AD&D (the one written by E. Gary Gygax). I expect to release sometime in Jan 17. You can follow the project here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?35195-AD-amp-D-Ruleset-Progress .

A friend is currently working on Swords and Wizardry Complete, which is a clone of Original D&D as it existed just prior to the release of AD&D and Basic D&D. You can follow news regarding this ruleset here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?35420-Swords-amp-Wizardry-Ruleset-Progress . ETA for this is sometime 1st quarter 17.

There is another user that has stated that he will be working on BECMI (related to Basic D&D). No further news on this yet and no idea of ETA or if project is serious. All we know is this: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?35534-What-is-closest-to-BECMI-(basic-expert-companion-masters-immortals-or-red-blue-) .

Lastly, there are 2 current rulesets that are Old School Renaissance oriented games: Dungeon Crawl Classics https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?24890-DCC-RPG-Ruleset and Castles and Crusades https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?62-Castles-amp-Crusades.

Also, check out this project that Damned is working on: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?34860-MoreCore-Ruleset/page10 post # 98.

There is a lot of work being done right now in the old school gaming genre.