Why is the Fantasy Grounds version of the Sword Coast Advenventurers Guide terrible?

[Thundryn]

I'm going to start running Out of the Abyss for my players soon, and one of the players wants to play a swashbuckler rogue, and one wants to play a deep gnome, so I was eagerly awaiting the SCAG (a book I already own) to go on sale on Steam so I could automate the character creation process for them.

So today I excitedly purchased the module, only to find out that none of the links for archetypes or new character race selections like duergar or deep gnomes (as well as the new backgrounds for the Sword Coast) were automated nor were drag and drop links available for any of the new abilities of any of the new archetypes....just pictures and a scan of the book so my players can read it. Half of my players already have the book, and the others don't care.

The DMs Guild version of the Unearthed Arcana, which is free, has drag and drop links, but something I paid almost $30 for doesn't? You might respond...just manually enter the information. I actually entered all of the backgrounds manually over a month ago and decided it was sufficiently time consuming enough that I'd rather just buy a module that I thought would completely automate the process during character creation. Of course now I know I was completely wrong.

In the last 3 months, I've spent over $300 to buy an ultimate license and other adventures and core rule books, and I've been mostly satisfied with my purchases. However this purchase of the SCAG has left me angry. There is 0 reason to buy this module for people who have the book, unless you just want to share more images with your players.

[Nylanfs]

I think there is a player's module of the SCAG that has what you are looking for, but since I don't own it I could be wrong.

Edit: Since they didn't want to have the DM share the whole thing they made a smaller player only module that is included.

[LordEntrails]

Hey Thundryn,

As a fellow user, I'm surprised by what you are reporting. Have you shared the Player Module with your players and they have tried dragging and dropping from there? How about from the DM version?

I'm sure if there is a way to get the functionality you are expecting, someone will jump in here soon and let you know.

In the meantime, I really wouldn't stress. My experience with SmiteWorks is that they absolutely excel at customer service. If the module ends up not being what you expect, and SW is unable to update it to meet your schedule, you can reach out to them at [email protected], explain your situation and ask if they would be willing to refund your purchase.

[Trenloe]

Err... OK.

I take it you have been looking in the "D&D Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - Campaign Guide" rather than the "D&D Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - Player's Guide"? The Player's guide does have drag/drop links etc..

[Nylanfs]

HAHAHA, I beat both Trenloe & Lord Entrails!!!!!

[Trenloe]

HAHAHA, I beat both Trenloe & Lord Entrails!!!!!
Only because you weren't doing research to see if things did actually work, or not - and so give an accurate answer. You guessed right! ;)

[Nylanfs]

Right is right. ;P

[Trenloe]

Right is right. ;P
Yes, right (once in a while) is still right (once in a while).

And, ooohhhh, you're SO setting yourself up... Don't let it go to your head.

[Thundryn]

Err... OK.

I take it you have been looking in the "D&D Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - Campaign Guide" rather than the "D&D Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - Player's Guide"? The Player's guide does have drag/drop links etc..

This is probably the problem (I'll check when I get home), but the further question is why are there two different modules then with redundant information? The players handbook module has the reference part and the players links in the same module. Why divide up the SCAG into two different ones that share information? Why have two standards for officially licensed products?

I had a similar problem with the side quests in The Lost Mines of Phandelver after I bought it. The links to the side quests in the story pane was blank, so I had to find them in the quest panel. Out of the Abyss however has all side quests linkable from the story directly. Why two standards? I expected a possibly less streamlined user experience with the non official mods, but to have such differing experiences with the officially licensed mods is frustrating.

[Wookiee420]

there are two different sections of one single module so that you can have your DM information kept away from your players information so they dont know your secrets, and so that there are less load times, and less bandwidth requirements. i have Lost Mines nothing is blank. Also after looking at the screen shots of the SCAG everything should be there for you that you are looking for.

Again, it would be a shame if you shared everything that is in the books and your players read everything and now know what to do and where to go.

[Trenloe]

It's not two standards. The LMoP quest issue is a bug with the module - it's been listed as such in the bug report thread and will be fixed. When fixed, you'll have the same experience, which was the plan from the start with that modules, but gremlins got in the works.

It's standard practice to have a player and a GM/Campaign module for a product if there is different material, hence why SCAG has two modules. You don't want to share everything with players all at once via a module, especially when there are a lot of images/maps as these are all,loaded into memory not the player side and can cause memory issues. Hence why there is a campaign guide module, separate to the player guide, to keep resource use down and to allow,the GM to share individual pieces of info/maps and images as needed.

It is clearly listed in the product description that there are two modules.

Other products do the same - Princes of the Apocalypse has two modules, for example.

The experiences are the same throughout the other official 5e modules - player character specific info in separate player specific modules.

[LordEntrails]

SCAG and Volos both have two modules (and probably others). This is because if there were only one module, then you would have to share the entire book with the players. And that would not be desirable for many DMs, including myself.

For instance, with Volos I would want them to have the player info, but certainly not all the NPC stats. Similar with SCAG, you want them to have the racial info, but not everything else. Then, even if you wanted to share all sorts of DM info with your players, or you didnt care if they knew it, their is an architecture difference between the host and client versions of FG. The client version (i.e. players) has issues handling lots of data that the host (DM) version doesn't.

[Zacchaeus]

The players module is specially prepared for use with Fantasy Grounds giving you and your players the ability to use the full functionality of the software. There is no redundant information. The guide gives the players all the information they need. If it had not been prepared there would be no way to allow players to access the full functionality without also sharing with them the DM only information.

I am aware of the problem with the links to quests in Lost Mines and I'll get a fix for that out as soon as possible. It isn't two standards it is a bug.

[Thundryn]

I apologize for the venom I displayed in my previous posts. I was looking forward to this module to enhance the game I'll be running for my friends soon, and I excitedly bought it after waking up this morning, played with it for 15 minutes before going to work and thought it was broken. Then I stewed over it for a bit and decided to complain about it. Thank you all for patiently explaining to me what the problem was and why things are the way they are. This is my first experience with a non-core, non-adventure module. I now know what to expect in the future.

[L. R. Ballard]

I apologize for the venom I displayed in my previous posts. I was looking forward to this module to enhance the game I'll be running for my friends soon, and I excitedly bought it after waking up this morning, played with it for 15 minutes before going to work and thought it was broken. Then I stewed over it for a bit and decided to complain about it. Thank you all for patiently explaining to me what the problem was and why things are the way they are. This is my first experience with a non-core, non-adventure module. I now know what to expect in the future.

Now that you've offered your apology to the staff, let me thank you for inadvertently bringing to my attention that SCAG was on sale on Steam.

I'd been waiting for SCAG to go on sale and didn't know that it was or that the Steam products sometimes sell for lower prices. Now SCAG is part of my collection, with all the drag-and-drop goodies in the player's guide (I didn't know about the two separate modules either.)!