Strongly considering purchasing Fantasy Grounds, have a couple questions :)

[obinice]

Hey folks!

I'm strongly considering using Fantasy Grounds on Steam for Pathfinder but I have some questions. I've looked at YouTube play/tutorial videos and posts and such including some of the official ones, but they don't always specifically answer what I need to know before laying down so much money with 100% clarity, so I'm going to throw my questions out here and see how it goes! :)

My friends and I are new to Pathfinder and the tabletop experience. We've played DnD based video games like Neverwinter Nights for years, so we're familiar with the basic player/user focused stuff, and we've played through the Pathfinder Beginner Box without much difficulty, it was a blast! We're wanting to start a real adventure and have settled on Rise of the Runelords Anniversary.

That's great, but as a new GM with no wealth of knowledge to draw upon from their brain on how A, B or C should exactly work given situation D, E or F, I need some training wheels! I looked around and found Fantasy Grounds. The idea of having the game engine handle all the nitty gritty details while we're still learning everything is extremely appealing. Otherwise, we're bound to make a multitude of mistakes, not to mention the huge amount of down time scouring through rulebooks trying to figure out what we can and can't do in any given situation. And 90% not playing, 5% being confused and 5% actual gameplay doesn't sound much fun at all. In comes Fantasy Grounds, I hope.

That leads me to my first few questions:

1. If I grab the "Fantasy Grounds Ultimate License", there will be no restrictions to any of the players with the Free Demo that connect to me, right? They'll have access to the content that I have purchased on my end whilst they're in a session with me? So, with that licence, if I grab the RotR adventure we'll be able to play with no restrictions?

2. Let's say I've got the ultimate licence, and I then buy the "Fantasy Grounds - Pathfinder RPG - Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition (PFRPG)" DLC. The DLC doesn't say that it requires any other DLC, so is this all I need to purchase to have the full experience? I'm confused, because many of the videos and things I've read assume you have other DLC like "Fantasy Grounds - Pathfinder RPG - Core Rules Pack (PFRPG)" or "Fantasy Grounds - Pathfinder RPG - Advanced Player's Guide (PFRPG)". I'm aware that these are real books/PDFs that are separately available for purchase, but I'd like to know more about how important they are to the game engine. If it's simply a digital copy of a book that we can view within Fantasy Grounds, that's great but maybe not worth the pricetags. If however they somehow add to the engine's ability to handle things for us, that's another matter!

3. Leading on from my previous question, what benefit does buying extra DLC like "Fantasy Grounds - Pathfinder RPG - Core Rules Pack (PFRPG)" or "Fantasy Grounds - Pathfinder RPG - Bestiary 1 Pack (PFRPG)" have on top of purchasing the main campaign DLC, which I'd have thought would contain everything required to play through that story, but I could be mistaken?

Moving on from my confusion on how exactly all those DLC modules tie in and are reliant on each other, a couple of questions about the engine itself....

4. From what I can see, the engine makes character creation and play much easier by automating dice rolls, and knowing all the rules of the world to be able to apply them to, say, restrict the players from doing things they shouldn't be able. Is this true, or is the engine much dumber than it appears, and the weight of knowing the many intricacies of the game still falls on the GM's shoulders? Basically, I don't want us to have to look through books to find out what we can and can't do at any given moment, or mess up how one action may actually play out because we forgot to take some other thing into account, etc. While we're learning these things for ourselves we want to have the engine handle 90% of that stuff, basically. We're capable of reading through things if necessary and will be doing plenty of that when we have questions and want to look deeper, but for the most part we'd rather learn as we go through seeing how the engine handles things, seeing what it makes available to us, etc.

5. Is it possible to conveniently enter your own physical dice rolls, and have the engine continue the rest of its calculations from that point? We do enjoy the tabletop experience and while using Fantasy Grounds gives a lot of that up, it would be nice to at least still be able to roll some dice! :D

6. One of the reasons I began seeking out software to help handle our game is that I don't have the best memory in the world, and just reading the first Chapter I see so many characters with intricate interactions, locations, secrets, etc. That's a lot to not only make note of, but keep track of how these things change over time, how much the players are aware of, etc. How much of this is handled by the engine (through the GM's direction of course)? For example, can the players search the NPC database for NPCs they've already encountered, look back over what they've discussed/heard previously, see details that the GM makes visible, etc? How much information on the locations, lore, etc are contextually available to the players/GM to search through? Basically, does the game engine help manage that huge amount of information sorting and availability, or is it down to the GM to figure out some sort of Excel spreadsheet and tear their hair out? Haha.

Thanks in advance for the help in clearing this stuff up. Normally I'd just grab the thing and figure it out as I go, but for the huge amount of money this will cost us I want to be 100% certain it will do everything we need it to do before we lay down any cash!

[Mavrik6666]

Hi Obinice.... welcome to the forum, and hopefully FG

I'll start off by saying I only play 5e, so I will leave the Pathfinder DLC questions to someone else.. but...

1. Yes - if you have ultimate licence your players can join you with only the demo, and you can make content, source material and rules stuff available to them when you are in session, you can choose what items they have access to.

4. The FG program automates lots of stuff, combat tracking, dice rolling, gives access to rules etc.. but it doesn't do it all , out of the 'box' so to speak there are spells, feats, items, combat.. but often it gives you written descriptions of things, that either you have to create effects for these things, or still add in manual options. It automates a lot.. and if I had to hazard a guess, I would say 75% out of the box, with another 20 being manual edits, or forum additions / self edits

5. Yes . you can allow players to make their own dice roll, with a setting, a handy popup window appears and asks you to enter your roll. And this is a per player setting, so some might want the auto roll, some can have the manual roll

6. I find it great for organisation, as a DM, I would be honest and say less so for players, its like a character sheet, and players can add notes etc, and make notes... but as a DM there are modules and extensions (I would recommend DOE - Location Extensions) that allow the DM to record building's towns, locations, portals etc, add maps, notes, NPC etc.

It is still a learning curve, and even after 18 months I'm finding new features, way of working, community extensions, modules and content to use, adapt and make my game better.. but I really enjoy using it, find creation, at table play, and encounter building, side treks and the occasional impromptu rumble easy to do. I like the fact I can end a session I can award XP, and come back to my game next week and have the initiative, HP and tracker exactly where I left it.

Mav

[Moon Wizard]

Welcome to the forums. Let me add to Mavrik's answer.

2/3. The Rise of the Runelords adventure comes with everything you need to play the adventure, once you have your player characters entered. The Core Rules and APG packs are relevant if you want to build PCs using the drag and drop options instead of just entering the data directly. You can also import PCs from Hero Lab or PCGen, if you already have one of those products. Additionally, you can also use the packs as references during your game sessions.

6. Any records available on the GM side can be shared with the players, whether from the campaign or DLC packs. As long as the records are shared, those records are available for the players to review whenever they are connected to your game session. This includes maps/handouts, NPCs, story records, etc.

Regards,
JPG

[chillybilly]

I've been playing RPGs for nearly 4 decades, both tabletop and on a computer. This is simply the best money I have ever spent. The greatest thing about it is it keeps me connected to my friends no matter where they live. I get to "see" my best friends from high school each week as we log into our weekly session of what ever ruleset we're currently playing. Even my wife has taken to FG and is a consistent player. Unless you decide to stop gaming, I really don't think you'll be disappointed purchasing this.

[LordEntrails]

...
That's great, but as a new GM with no wealth of knowledge to draw upon from their brain on how A, B or C should exactly work given situation D, E or F, I need some training wheels! I looked around and found Fantasy Grounds. The idea of having the game engine handle all the nitty gritty details while we're still learning everything is extremely appealing. Otherwise, we're bound to make a multitude of mistakes, not to mention the huge amount of down time scouring through rulebooks trying to figure out what we can and can't do in any given situation. And 90% not playing, 5% being confused and 5% actual gameplay doesn't sound much fun at all. In comes Fantasy Grounds, I hope....
One thing I will add, is to try and make sure your expectations are set correctly. FG does not turn PF (or D&D or anything else) into a video game that handles all of the rules.

It handles the book keeping, and with PF and 5E it handles a lot of the automation of combat and record keeping. But FG won't know if someone has cover, what attack modifiers to apply or if a rule applies. You and your players will have to know the rules, at least as much of them as you want to use. If you ran through the Beginner Box, you can use those same level of rules and style. Then as you go, you can start adding in new rules and/or rule options as you want. Remember, no one learns everything the first time, and the biggest goal is not if you follow and account for every rule, but if you are having fun.

FG will help with that.

And as always, let us know if you have other questions.

[obinice]

Thanks for the clarification folks, really very helpful! Pretty sure I know what I'm going to spend my birthday Steam gift vouchers on now ;) And thanks LordEntrails for making that clear, it's something I was particularly fuzzy on. As you suggest, we'll build on our knowledge as we go and overall remember it's all about having fun :)

By the way, weird side note, Mavrik6666 you're from Manchester too? What are the odds! Oh, and I have that Magical Trevor t-shirt. It doesn't fit me now because I bought it 13 years ago, I should uh...see if they still make those. Will you be the one person I've ever met that thinks it's cool that I've got the signed Wobbl and Bob DVD? I tell the ladies and they're all like....what? Who are you get out of my house

[Bidmaron]

One of the best things you can do is go into the game calendar and find someone who will let you observe during a game session. Videos are great, but I don't think you can beat watching an experienced GM run his game. Take notes to ask him after the end because you won't want to disrupt his game with questions real time

[JohnD]

Welcome. I ran campaigns in NWN for 12 years. That said, Fantasy Grounds is the best gaming purchase I've ever made. Don't worry about the learning curve... you'll expand your repertoire as you go continuously; ask questions if you have them.

[Willot]

how A, B or C should exactly work given situation D, E or F
If you dont know wing it. Do be too tied to the rules.

Just remember
(DC= Difficult Class)

DC 5 = Very easy task
DC 10 = easy task
DC 15 = average difficulty
DC 20 = difficult task
DC 25 = very difficult task
DC 30 = extremely difficult task
DC 35+ = ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!

If your not sure of the DC to use for a task IE climbing, Swiming ETC It means your undecided therefore your in the middle somewhere 15-20 DC.

As your characters go up in level you might be tempted to increase the DC as the higher level characters are doing things to easily. They ARE suppose to
find it easier as there are higher level characters. If you climb a 10ft rope with a DC10 then climb the same rope 3 months later when your 4 levels higher
doesnt make the rope DC 15.

The new challenges will come from new higher level spells cast by them and against them, more deadly diseases-poisons and crafting. But a 10ft rope will always be 10ft rope (assuming a goblin didnt grease it up!)


In the situation where two players have to say jump a 10 foot chasm. There are specific rules in the core book for this BUT we're trying to keep the action flowing (maybe there are being chased?)
SO we are gonna Wing it!!!!!!

Lets say the DC is 15

The first uninjured Player Makes it with a roll of 14 plus thier Acrobatics skill of +3
The second player has a sprained ankle so while they have the same DC of 15 that player attracts a -5 to thier roll. This is where Bonus and Penelties to the rolls come into it

Ususally (where guesstimating) no more than -5 to +5 NEVER more than -10 to +10

Just some general guidelines I use.

ANother IDea is find a reference GM chart online (PDF) and put it in your Images so you can players can access it in the game on the fly.
I infact made a GM reference Chart (GM screen) and made it the desktop backround so it wasd always there! (but thats the advanced class)

Love & Kisses Willot!

[Darker_Homes]

Just wanted to throw this in there, the Ultimate licence comes with some rule-packs etc, so you might not need to buy the core rulebooks separately.

From the website:
Included Rulesets: D&D 3.5E, D&D 4E, D&D 5E and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Library modules with D&D 3.5E open gaming content typically found in the SRD. *
Library modules with D&D fifth edition open gaming content found in the SRD 5.
Library modules with Pathfinder RPG open gaming content typically found in the PFSRD. *

I play 5e and I personally bought the core rulebooks (despite having physical copies) because it makes life a little bit easier, but it's not necessary. Your best bet would be to buy the ultimate licence and see how it goes, but if you find that you aren't enjoying having to use the internet for info, then get the handbooks. Expensive, but in my opinion worth every penny.

[ddavison]

The biggest thing with starting out as a new group on RPGs is that you will absolutely, without a doubt end up playing some rules incorrectly or completely forget other rules. The main thing is consistency and agreement among the group. As long as everyone is having fun, that is the most important part. If you rediscover a rule you'd forgotten about, discuss it with the group and you'll either determine that applying that rule appropriately will improve the enjoyment of the game or will lessen the enjoyment of the game. Decide collectively whether or not to add it back in and move forward from there. Fantasy Grounds helps with much of this but the same thing applies for FG. You don't have to have everything fully automated or set up for automation. When in doubt, just roll the dice and apply things the way you think it should be with your group. Everything can be done or undone as needed.

[Callum]

There is a lot of detail, especially in the Adventure Paths, but bear in mind that you don't need to have all that information at your fingertips all the time. The players are generally going to be making their way through the story in a fairly linear fashon, so just focus on understanding the next bit that they're going to do. You may not get through a lot in a session, especially the first few times you play, which is helpful, in a way! Also, don't be afraid to say to the players "Just give me a few minutes before we carry on", so you can feel comfortable with what you're doing.

[Mavrik6666]

Thanks for the clarification folks, really very helpful! Pretty sure I know what I'm going to spend my birthday Steam gift vouchers on now ;) And thanks LordEntrails for making that clear, it's something I was particularly fuzzy on. As you suggest, we'll build on our knowledge as we go and overall remember it's all about having fun :)

By the way, weird side note, Mavrik6666 you're from Manchester too? What are the odds! Oh, and I have that Magical Trevor t-shirt. It doesn't fit me now because I bought it 13 years ago, I should uh...see if they still make those. Will you be the one person I've ever met that thinks it's cool that I've got the signed Wobbl and Bob DVD? I tell the ladies and they're all like....what? Who are you get out of my house

Ladies - don't know what they are missing :) - wobbl and bob takes me back too :)