Prospective buyer with questions

[Marquis de Carabas]

So, I came across this program today, it looks fairly good.
I come from an online D&D group, we've been RPing for over 5 years together, spread across North America. I was considering getting my friends each a copy of the Lite version for Christmas, which may really boost our games (we normally play over AIM). Now, I have some questions.
1) This question's actually been answered already. I was going to ask if an upgrade option were available, but I see the topic that covers it already and that you're taking steps to do that. Whoo! (Really important, since one of my friends also DMs, but I'm not sure if he'd want to use this program as a DM).
2) I connect on a network, which often times prevents people from connecting to me via IP address, most any game that connects that way fails. Does the same thing happen with this? Has anyone else had the same problem and fixed it?
3) Is it easy to integrate new rules? My homebrew campaigns use material scattered across various D&D books as well as custom material, and I'm hoping it will be easy to add new classes/Prestige Classes/feats, etc.
Apologies if the questions have been asked before, I didn't take much time to search the forum.

[Snikle]

2) If you use the server alias selection when you are setting up your game, it should not be an issue. If you are behind a firewall (ie a router or the like) you may need to do wrestle some port forwarding or similiar to get others to connect to you. I believe with the demo version you can try it out(someone correct me if I am wrong).

3) Everything is customizable, I wont say it is easy since I do not know xml, but I am sure if you had a need to do so, you could easily add new stuff in, in fact many already have made new rulesets around here, a search of the forum for ruleset should provide links.

As a user myself, I was worried it would not be worth it when I was thinking of purchasing this. However after about 2 months now (a game every other week), I can say without hesitation, this is one of the best pruchases I have EVERmade for my games. I highly recomend it, and will never game with anything else again.

[gurney9999]

Just wanted to stop by and say welcome. Snikle covered what can be said on those two questions. You can also stop by (see links below) if you like and check out some of the tutorials we've created to help new/prospective users learn how to use the app.

Have fun, and game on!

[Delondil]

I've been watching it myself and reading the threads here on the boards, debating whether or not to buy it ( and thus force the players to invest too ) . I'm currently using GRIP, which I like mainly for the ability to use a file server to send items, pictures, and sounds to players.

On the boards so far , I saw a few references to sound not being available, which is fine. But I'm curious if anyone knows whether or not the ability to send WAV, MP3, etc. or image files to the client , is even on the drawing board for this product?

[LordTomar]

I've been watching it myself and reading the threads here on the boards, debating whether or not to buy it ( and thus force the players to invest too ) . I'm currently using GRIP, which I like mainly for the ability to use a file server to send items, pictures, and sounds to players.

On the boards so far , I saw a few references to sound not being available, which is fine. But I'm curious if anyone knows whether or not the ability to send WAV, MP3, etc. or image files to the client , is even on the drawing board for this product?

The DM of one of my games decided to experiment wiht sound durring the last session and we used TeamSpeak with the players mikes turned off and just the DM playing sound. Though he didnt have many sound effects set up.. it was a nice little touch.

[Delondil]

Hmm.

I tried this once, I think with Roger Wilco? Whatever it was called. Unfortuantely, the huge sound files that were created - for example is a musical score was played - choked the other peoples computer. I guess it was coverting it to wav files or something? Not sure. I haven't experimented with TeamSpeak but I suspect its the same thing right?

[LordTomar]

Hmm.

I tried this once, I think with Roger Wilco? Whatever it was called. Unfortuantely, the huge sound files that were created - for example is a musical score was played - choked the other peoples computer. I guess it was coverting it to wav files or something? Not sure. I haven't experimented with TeamSpeak but I suspect its the same thing right?

He played sound files ranging from mouse farts to music scores... I didnt have any problems with it, and noone else did eather, or at least they didnt say they did. The sound files werent the best quality, but we were normaly able to know what it was. Also TS uses servers, and I think the DM was using a dedicated server just for the sound, so that might have helped with bandwithe problems also.

[Faldran]

He played sound files ranging from mouse farts to music scores... I didnt have any problems with it, and noone else did eather, or at least they didnt say they did. The sound files werent the best quality, but we were normaly able to know what it was. Also TS uses servers, and I think the DM was using a dedicated server just for the sound, so that might have helped with bandwithe problems also.

Well actually a bit more than that.. since FG likes to rule everything on the one computer, I actually had teamspeak and the player ( mp3's and wav's and ranged from 2 seconds to over 8 minutes samples ) playing on the laptop.. and also the teamspeak server, was actually located on a dedicated server, just had the client on my laptop and client on my main computer to hear how it all sounded as it was going on. ( had a loop from headphone jack into the mic so not to pick up any other sounds )

At least that kept FG pretty stable on my end... Found many times, running other things with FG not always end with good results if you are the DM.

We will hopefully test this a bit more next session with a few more sounds and see how it goes.

[Delondil]

Ok, having now had the chance to actually use this program, I have to say I'm divided.

My very first impression of this system is that it's geared toward war gaming more than role playing. Only because there is a heavy slant toward maps, combat, and tokens which take up most of the window space. Almost as a secondary consideration is the chat, which is locked in place with a small font.

I think if nothing else, a tremendous help would be a right-click menu option to quickly increase chat fonts; and the ability to stretch that window and move it around like you can with the map windows.

[Crusader]

Well, you could change the size of both the font and the chat-window by changing the code (and generating a new font).

[Spyke]

The size of the chat window is a common concern. It's currently fixed as the program needs to know the exact size to replicate the players' dice rolls on all machines correctly. However, the developers have indicated that they're looking at a resizable chat window in this thread:

https://forums.fantasygrounds.com/viewtopic.php?t=1058

I don't agree that the software is slanted towards war-gaming. The image windows don't have to be used for battle maps, and even then you can use tokens on a map for things other than combat. We've had some great role-playing sessions without a single turn of combat using the program.

Spyke

[Crusader]

The size of the chat window is a common concern. It's currently fixed as the program needs to know the exact size to replicate the players' dice rolls on all machines correctly.

But it could still be increased by changing the code for it, couldn't it?

[Delondil]

The size of the chat window is a common concern. It's currently fixed as the program needs to know the exact size to replicate the players' dice rolls on all machines correctly. However, the developers have indicated that they're looking at a resizable chat window in this thread:

https://forums.fantasygrounds.com/viewtopic.php?t=1058

I don't agree that the software is slanted towards war-gaming. The image windows don't have to be used for battle maps, and even then you can use tokens on a map for things other than combat. We've had some great role-playing sessions without a single turn of combat using the program.

Spyke

I might be in the minority on that perception, which is ok. It should be emphasized this was my initial, gut reaction to using the application. I'm sure I'll find other ways to use the features.

I'm happy to see the chat window is being considered. I can get away with fiddling with the program to change fonts but the inability to move that window over to where I can focus on it, bugs me.

My original post was a lot longer, but it sounded too redundant - other people already pointed out those same shortcomings so I distilled to those two impressions :-)

[LordTomar]

My very first impression of this system is that it's geared toward war gaming more than role playing. Only because there is a heavy slant toward maps, combat, and tokens which take up most of the window space. Almost as a secondary consideration is the chat, which is locked in place with a small font.

In one of the games im playing, the DM uses the ability to share pics (thats all the maps really are) to show us what the NPCs looks like. Also the same thing with certain items we have found in game.



We've had some great role-playing sessions without a single turn of combat using the program.

Spyke

Same here, one of my favorite sessions was when we had just gotten to the town we were headed too and were in the tavern, interacting/insulting the local people.

[Craw]

we were headed too and were in the tavern, interacting/insulting the local people.

Hey! I didn't know he was the dead guy's brother!

As to the bias to wargaming, nah. I got over the chat window size pretty quickly. Also the maps and pictures really enhance the roleplay feel. I'd actually like a little more control over combat. Tracking the token location on the maps would be great.