Thinking on buying FG

[Wheels]

I'm currently convincing my players to help me buy the ultimate lisense and with it all D&D 5e core books plus some adventure modules. Since this is a big investmente would like to ask a few questions.

1. If my account is the only one with the modules will my players be able to access the information about spells abilities etc on their side. What I mean by this is the links FG has that show the information about a spell for example.

2. If my account is the only one with the modules will my players be able to create their characters on their side or will I have to do it? If I have to do it can I then give them ownership so only the owner can move the token and how do I give ownership?

3. Does FG allow for spell templates like the area of a fireball. If so can the template be made permanent for ongoing effects? Does it have any automation for entering and exiting these areas (for damage or saving throws for spells like entangle)

4. Is there any api so I can create complex things (since I'm a developer) and what type of things can I create (for example adding automatic area templates to spells).

Edit:
5. Is there a way i can approve damage and stuff? sometimes its nice to fudge some dice and from the demo testing it seems everything does immediately to the log?

I guess this is it for now. Thank you all for your time

[Zacchaeus]

Hi wheels welcome to FG and to the community.

1) Yes. You can share modules (like the PHB) that you own with your players so that they can have access to all the information needed to create, edit and maintain their characters. This incldes all the information to actions, traits, spells and items that they have. The character sheet is essentially a collection of links to the relevant information in the PHB. Some information on character creation here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Character_Sheet).
2) See number 1.
3) Yes and No. FG has some fairly crude drawing tools which allow for drawing circles, squares, cones and lines which can be used to figure out the area of something like a fireball. However these aren't templates as such and whilst you can leave them on the ground and move them about they don't actually impact on things like damage etc. You do that by targeting the monsters or players and then 'casting' the spell or effect. You can have multiple targets and each target will make its save against things like a fireball and you can then roll damage against all of the targets at once and those that failed their save will take the full damage and those that passed will take half. There is an effect for ongoing damage which you can place on the player or NPC. More on Effects (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Effects) and the Combat Tracker (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Combat_Tracker) here.
4) Yes, if you know lua scripting and XML. There's almost no limit to what you can create. Some examples of community extensions here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?22975-5E-Community-extensions).
5) You have the option of hiding all of the DM dice throws which allows you to fudge dice without the players knowing. You can also do everything manually by not using the automation which allows the same thing and you also have an option of the manual dice thrower option which allows you to enter the dice roll that you want or allow FG to roll the dice.

Since you are new to the software check out he FG college (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?40020-Join-Fantasy-Grounds-College-Learn-Fantasy-Grounds-learn-D-amp-D-and-then-play!) or the official Discord channel (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?36377-New-Official-Discord-Server) where you can get some more immediate help.

[Wheels]

Hi wheels welcome to FG and to the community.
3) Yes and No. FG has some fairly crude drawing tools which allow for drawing circles, squares, cones and lines which can be used to figure out the area of something like a fireball. However these aren't templates as such and whilst you can leave them on the ground and move them about they don't actually impact on things like damage etc. You do that by targeting the monsters or players and then 'casting' the spell or effect. You can have multiple targets and each target will make its save against things like a fireball and you can then roll damage against all of the targets at once and those that failed their save will take the full damage and those that passed will take half. There is an effect for ongoing damage which you can place on the player or NPC. More on Effects (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Effects) and the Combat Tracker (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Combat_Tracker) here.
I see. I'm currently using a software that allows this sort of automation where you can assign a template to a spell and define ongoin effect on that template and wanted to know if its possible to do it here too.



5) You have the option of hiding all of the DM dice throws which allows you to fudge dice without the players knowing. You can also do everything manually by not using the automation which allows the same thing and you also have an option of the manual dice thrower option which allows you to enter the dice roll that you want or allow FG to roll the dice.
Ah thats too bad. Onde again the software I'm using all actions made by players are presented to the DM to make decisions about it (like attacks and being capable of changing the rolls shown to players) and decide what to do with them.



Since you are new to the software check out he FG college or the official Discord channel where you can get some more immediate help.
Thank you very much. I'll check those links out to get to know FG a little more deeply before making my decision. One of the selling points that is making me think about swapping from the current software I use is all the content available to purchase allowing me and my players to dig right into the game (albeit a little steep on the wallet :) )

[JohnD]

Prices just dropped considerably.

[Zacchaeus]

Ah thats too bad. Onde again the software I'm using all actions made by players are presented to the DM to make decisions about it (like attacks and being capable of changing the rolls shown to players) and decide what to do with them.

The players don't get to see the result of their rolls unless the DM allows it. I thought you meant fudging the DM rolls. So, yes, you do get to basically decide that a miss is a hit or a hit is a miss.

[Wheels]

I was messing with the demo and found out there is a decision window for every roll. That option is pretty much what i was wanting :D

[LordEntrails]

Be aware, you can use area targeting on the maps to easily select something like all the tokens on a map targeted by a fireball etc. See here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Tokens#Targeting).

For persistent spell effects, I use a token module from the DMsGuild, found here (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/195599/Dungeons-and-Dragons-5e-Spell-Tokens).

[Full Bleed]

1) Yes. You can share modules (like the PHB) that you own with your players so that they can have access to all the information needed to create, edit and maintain their characters. This incldes all the information to actions, traits, spells and items that they have. The character sheet is essentially a collection of links to the relevant information in the PHB. Some information on character creation here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Character_Sheet).
2) See number 1.
But *only* if you're connected in a game. His players will not be able to do much offline without buying the PHB for themselves.

[pindercarl]

But *only* if you're connected in a game. His players will not be able to do much offline without buying the PHB for themselves.

To further clarify, players can only access modules that you have shared. This means, they need to be connected to a session. Many GMs will setup a "session zero" wherein they start a campaign, share the appropriate modules, and run Fantasy Grounds in the background. This way, players can connect and roll-up their characters with access to the Player's Handbook, or similar resource. The alternative is for players to have a Fantasy Grounds license and purchase the modules separately. Hope that helps.

[Wheels]

been playing a little more and got some more questions :)

So most (if not all) abilities have uses per day, like rage for example where you can rage a number of equal to your barbarian level, you need a long rest to recover these resources. Does FG track these kinds of things in the character sheet? if so does the action become unavailable when the maximum number of uses have been reached?

On more thing is it seems for the 5E options there is an option called Dice: Manual Entry and it says the following: Use to enable the manual dice entry feature. When on all dice rolls will be intercepted and a pop up will allow the DM to just allow the roll or edit it. This seems to work when I attack with monsters and a popup shows up where i can manually enter the dice result or I can just let the roll go as normal but when players connect to me and roll, this popup is not showing up. I'm I missing something here?

once again thank you all ^^

[Zacchaeus]

!) Yes. Go into 'Preparation mode' at the bottom of the character sheet and you can specify the number of uses per rest (short) or day (long rest). The characters need to manually mark off each tick as they use the power. When the last tick is ticked the power will disappear. It will return when the characters take the appropriate short or long rest.
2) The players need to enable the option to use the manual dice roller if they also wish to use it.

[Wheels]

Nice...that did it. Was wrapping my head around on where to do that.

Yesterday I had my first session using FG and a question arose, mainly about targeting. I know we can drop the dice onto the CT or into the map and FG will automatically assume that target, but when we want to target multiple monsters, it didn't seem to work. We tried doing different stuff like CRTL-Mouse click (tried left and right) and selecting the monsters but the targeting arrows didn't show and the CT did not show who was targeted.

What did work?
1. dragging and releasing onto CT or to the map
2. Me as the DM using the CT symbol and dragging that onto the monsters putting them as targeted on the CT.

What didn't work?
using CTRL-Mouse click to select multiple target (and i've seen it work this way. At least I thing it was using CTRL)


Any idea on how players can do their selecting?

[Zacchaeus]

To make sure that targetting works as expected make sure that you drag the players first onto the CT and then from the CT onto the map. For NPCs make sure that they too appear on the CT (either by dragging from the NPC list or via an encounter) and then drag from the CT to the map. All players and PCs can now be targetted using CTRL-left click. This includes multiple targets - just CTRL-click on them all. Note that encounters which have been pre-placed on the map will be automatically place on the CT and the map by clicking on the add encounter button on the bottom left of the encounter window.

More details here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Tokens).

[Wheels]

Oh that would very well be the problem. Most my PC were not added through the CT. Once again thanks a lot for the help ^^

[Wheels]

I bought the Tyranny of Dragon module and yesterday there was a dragon attack. I added the dragon from the encounter but instead of the token of a dragon i got a token with a letter "L". I went to the NPC list and the adult blue dragon has an appropriate image of the blue dragon and I tried to change the token from the pre-made encounter (this encounter came with the module). Is this possible or because its from the bought module I cant change the tokens?

[Zacchaeus]

Can you narrow down the module (Horde of the Dragon Queen? Rise of Tiamat?) for me and the specific encounter so I can have a look.

[Marswipp]

Tokens can be changed on the entries inside the combat tracker, you just have to unlock the NPC sheet to update the token.

[Wheels]

Horde of the Dragon Queen. The mob is Adult Blue Dragon Lennithon, but cultist also have a "C" instead of the token but for example kobolds show just fine.

[Hurske]

One thing that works, is dragging the token if the dragon into the map, then dragging that same token from the map onto the token you want to replace in the combat tracker.

That replaces the token with the new one and links them both.

[Zacchaeus]

Horde of the Dragon Queen. The mob is Adult Blue Dragon Lennithon, but cultist also have a "C" instead of the token but for example kobolds show just fine.

Right, I see what you mean. Not every NPC has artwork from which a token can be made which is why some of the NPCs have letter tokens instead of pictures. So Cultists for example don't have any artwork but Kobolds do. In the case of Lennithon it is possible to have a token since one exists for a Blue Dragon, however the author of the module didn't provide one. You can give it a token if you open the encounter and unlock it (click the lock icon on the top right) and then drag the blue dragon token from the tokens bag and drop it over the 'L'. When you put the encounter on the CT it will use that token

[Wheels]

I see. Well if I can update the token I'm fine with it. I remember trying to update it but don't recall how I tried it. Later tonight I'll give a new go.

thank you

[Wheels]

Right, I see what you mean. Not every NPC has artwork from which a token can be made which is why some of the NPCs have letter tokens instead of pictures. So Cultists for example don't have any artwork but Kobolds do. In the case of Lennithon it is possible to have a token since one exists for a Blue Dragon, however the author of the module didn't provide one. You can give it a token if you open the encounter and unlock it (click the lock icon on the top right) and then drag the blue dragon token from the tokens bag and drop it over the 'L'. When you put the encounter on the CT it will use that token

Well there are still inconsistances because there are kobolds that have a token associated and others don't. For example the E01-06-00 Seek the Keep the Kobolds have the letter "K" token but the encounter E01-07-02 The sally Port have the correct token.