Before I buy, some questions.

[DedmeetDM]

Hello everyone. I have just recently, today, found out about this interesting product. What I would like to hear is objective views on this product, what do you like or don't like?

I also have some specific questions.

1. How easy is the product to learn and use? How long does it take to get comfortable running a game with this? How long does it take to get comfortable using this as a player? Are there any bugs with the product such as crashes, data loss, etc.?

2. How long does it take to create a game? Say we game for 8 to 10 hours at a time, what kind of timeframe am I looking at for creating a game with this product?

3. How smooth does this product work for creating a game on the fly?

4. Is there a subscription fee, or is it just the initial cost to use?

Well that is all I can think of at this time. I would appreciate some good information about this product. Thanks for your time.

-DedmeetDM

[joshuha]

Hello everyone. I have just recently, today, found out about this interesting product. What I would like to hear is objective views on this product, what do you like or don't like?

I also have some specific questions.

1. How easy is the product to learn and use? How long does it take to get comfortable running a game with this? How long does it take to get comfortable using this as a player? Are there any bugs with the product such as crashes, data loss, etc.?

2. How long does it take to create a game? Say we game for 8 to 10 hours at a time, what kind of timeframe am I looking at for creating a game with this product?

3. How smooth does this product work for creating a game on the fly?

4. Is there a subscription fee, or is it just the initial cost to use?

Well that is all I can think of at this time. I would appreciate some good information about this product. Thanks for your time.

-DedmeetDM

1) Ease of use from a player points is not hard at all. From a DM point, the documentation could be better (and will be soon) but the community has created some great documents to help out. As far as bugs, as of the latest patch it has been pretty darn stable.

2) It depends on what you mean by a game. If you are talking about an 8-10 hour adventure it really depends on where you are getting your source material. Creating adventures is not too bad with the most time consuming part for me being NPC creation.

3) On the fly would work the same in real life with on caveat. You either need to be a really good free hand drawer for maps or just have lots of source material to drag and drop areas into your game.

4) No subscription fee. Note if you buy the GM license along with the players at same time you get a significant discount.

[DedmeetDM]

Hey Josh thanks for replying. To be more specific:

What I meant was creating a adventure from scratch. Starting from the ground up. Also what is source material? Are there modules that come with the product?

Also can I download modules from other people, upload them, and use them with this product? Are there any good sites to reference for quality material for this product?

I would like to hear some of your objective opinions about this product.

-DedmeetDM

[Stuart]

1) Very - after a few hours of playing around with the various tools I was running a game
2) Creation is easy - you can put text into a module via fg or xml (the latter is probably best if you have losts of cut and pasting to do depending on your xml editor. I'd agree with Joshua about NPC creation but I have a subsiduary prog to create NPC's (DM Genie) and I plug the data into fg (not the xml files). Mapping ... lots of prog's out there or scan your favourite module. I use CC2, others use Dundjinni - pro's and cons for all. Some nice maps have been made using PC games such as HoMM etc.
3) Very smooth
4) No other cost

[Morfedel]

Well, I'll ask a questoin too while I"m at it.

Can you zoom in on maps? I was playing with the demo, and noticed a couple of the maps were... rather small, if you planned on using them. Is zooming on the maps possible?

Thanks.

[richvalle]

Well, I'll ask a questoin too while I"m at it.

Can you zoom in on maps? I was playing with the demo, and noticed a couple of the maps were... rather small, if you planned on using them. Is zooming on the maps possible?

Thanks.

Yes. You can use the mouse roller to zoom in. There might be keyboard keys to do it as well but I'm not sure what they are.

rv

[richvalle]

1) Creating adventures is not too bad with the most time consuming part for me being NPC creation.


Have you tried the npc creator NPC Designer? You can export it into FG format and paste it into the FG xml file to add npc's.


rv

[DedmeetDM]

What DnD books are included in the ruleset? Is it just core books for DnD or does it also include The Complete Books, Eberron, FR, Dragonlance, etc?

Just wondering what kind of information is contained, and if those books aren't included can you include them yourself?

[richvalle]

What DnD books are included in the ruleset? Is it just core books for DnD or does it also include The Complete Books, Eberron, FR, Dragonlance, etc?

Just wondering what kind of information is contained, and if those books aren't included can you include them yourself?

Its just some of the d20 srd information. Nothing else.

Though there is nothing inside FG that stops you from using anything from the Complete Books, FR, ect. You just need the books to referance any of the information.

rv

[DedmeetDM]

So what about monster information? Does it come with the MM, MM2, or MM3?

[richvalle]

Just the critters in the srd. Everything else is the proprity of WoTC.

rv

[DedmeetDM]

k...how easy is it to add information to FG? ie...monsters, spells, weapons, feats, etc.

[richvalle]

Its not hard. All the data is in xml files. What I do is open up the right one, copy and paste one of the existing entries (to keep the format right) and the change it to what I need.

There are free xml editors out there that you can download. I've been using Altova XMLSpy and it works ok.

rv

[DedmeetDM]

ok thanks...for a bit of a noob question...how hard is xml to do? I have seen posts on here that require a xml to import stuff.

[richvalle]

I couldn't create xml from scratch, but going in and modifying what is already there is easy.

Xml seems to be database's for the web. All the info is kept in records or 'nodes'. Then you can create a program to access that data and dispaly it however you want. You are just adding to the data that is already there and the program works with it just like all the other data.

Once you look inside the xml data files you'll see what I mean.

rv

[DedmeetDM]

ok thanks for the info...sounds like it should be pretty easy just modifying the files. Now I just need to get FG :)

[Morfedel]

Out of curiousity: how does the GM whisper players who whisper back to him? and can players whisper each other (possibly with GM auto inclusion a part of it?)

EDIT: nevermind on the GM whispering back, I figured that out. What aboutn players whispering each other? Sometimes, two or more players might want to plot against others (I used to GM a lot of Amber, hehe), and it would be nice if the players could whisper each other, though the GM should be auto included in those.

[richvalle]

Currently, all talk goes though the dm.

I suppose you could use a 3rd party chat program to take care of this aspect if you wanted.

rv

[joshuha]

Out of curiousity: how does the GM whisper players who whisper back to him? and can players whisper each other (possibly with GM auto inclusion a part of it?)

EDIT: nevermind on the GM whispering back, I figured that out. What aboutn players whispering each other? Sometimes, two or more players might want to plot against others (I used to GM a lot of Amber, hehe), and it would be nice if the players could whisper each other, though the GM should be auto included in those.

I think you could create an Item sheet, drag only those 2 characters to it, give them edit access and they could type notes on it and only those 2 and the GM could see it. I haven't tested it out but it should work in theory.