Fantasy Grounds While Travelling

[Shu'ri Manduri]

Hey everyone, me and some friends are planning a trip through South East Asia at the end of the year and one of the things we want to be able to do is play some D&D when we are bored/hungover. Instead of taking anything physical with us like rulebooks and character sheets I thought that using Fantasy Grounds could be a great idea. Issue for me is that my laptop is a Republic of Gamers behemoth of a machine and weighs more than my carry on allowance, and that's without the power cord. I am looking at getting a cheaper, used laptop to take with me and was looking for suggestions from more experience players. I think the top end of my budget would be about $700 as I can use the laptop when I go around for work when travelling as well. Any recommendations for a good gaming laptop that will run Fantasy Grounds without weighing down my backpack too much would be much appreciated, thanks everyone :)

I was going to wait a couple weeks and see if I could get any really, really cheap laptops due to the holiday sales but I hit the jackpot! I found someone selling a really good AlienWare laptop on https://www.for-sale.co.uk/gaming-laptop (I know those words are not usually used together but I feel it is appropriate this time) as I managed to get it for under $200. It is an M15X, with an i7 920XM and upgraded RAM. So far it runs really well so I am a little curious how I got it for so cheap, but I am very happy at the same time.

[Bidmaron]

Welcome to the boards!
If you can play D&D while hungover, well, my hat's off to you.

As to the question at hand: I am a Mac guy and cannot help you with Windows machines.

[Minty23185Fresh]

I have a Dell Latitude that I purchased a year ago. My two sons both have Lenovos of roughly the same size and weight. I've been both GM and player using Fantasy Grounds from Hawaii and Mexico without issue. From Mexico I ended up having to use a PC running TeamViewer here at home as my "server" because I had to port forward through three routers. I didn't have the password for the last router so couldn't puncture that barrier, therefore TeamViewer. A VPN would probably have served just as well.

The Latitude that I have is a stripped down model, almost no software, standard on board graphics so the cost was near your target. The weight is about 1-1/2 to 2 times that of my wife's Mac, but even for this doddering 60+ year old it is not overly cumbersome in airports and aboard the planes.

[LordEntrails]

My son used to use an HP Envy before he got his gaming rig. We paid about $600US for it and it was just fine for him. Nothing special, onboard graphics etc.

FG really isn't very intensive on hardware so pretty much anything will work.

[GarthGiantbane]

If you are looking for a computer on a budget, consider an off-lease purchase. I work for a school district that uses this source and I highly recommend them.

You can google 2ndGear or InsightSystemsOnline and get to their website. I would leave a link but I don't know if that's allowed.

Hope this helps!

[pindercarl]

Although lower resolutions are becoming less common, a key consideration will be screen real estate. I would look for a laptop with at least a 1920x1080 display. Screen size may also be a factor if you have old eyes like I do.

[Nylanfs]

Also bring a switch so you all can have good connections instead of relying on what ever network where you are staying is using.

[damned]

The minimum Id spec is 4GB and and i3 or equivalent but Id really rather aim for an i5 and 8gb for greater versatility.
Screen size/resolution - that depends on the quality of your vision too! High res screens are great - unless you have trouble with the small detail!

[Shu'ri Manduri]

If you are looking for a computer on a budget, consider an off-lease purchase. I work for a school district that uses this source and I highly recommend them.

You can google 2ndGear or InsightSystemsOnline and get to their website. I would leave a link but I don't know if that's allowed.

Hope this helps!

I will take a look but I doubt they would like it if you take the computer out country, let alone out of continent!


Although lower resolutions are becoming less common, a key consideration will be screen real estate. I would look for a laptop with at least a 1920x1080 display. Screen size may also be a factor if you have old eyes like I do.

High resloution is a must for me so I will be keeping that in mind. Too many times have I hooked a computer up to a television only to struggle finding the right resolution for 20 minutes.


The minimum Id spec is 4GB and and i3 or equivalent but Id really rather aim for an i5 and 8gb for greater versatility.
Screen size/resolution - that depends on the quality of your vision too! High res screens are great - unless you have trouble with the small detail!

i5 would definitely be my lower end goal, lots of the used laptops I have seen around me are older generation i5 with 4/6/8GB and that can be upgraded cheaply if need be. I was thinking maybe and Ideapad or a Dell XPS as they are reliable and the price is pretty great(on used models anyways).


Thanks for all the responses guys, I am going to take a look online and see what I can find in the next couple of days and keep you posted.

[Andraax]

I will take a look but I doubt they would like it if you take the computer out country, let alone out of continent!

"Off-lease" means the lessee has turned it in, and the company is now selling it. When you get it it's yours to do with as you please.

[Shu'ri Manduri]

Ah that makes a lot more sense, sorry I get confused easily!

[Myrdin Potter]

Make sure you have a VPN as well. You will need a switch to make an internal LAN or you will all be connecting via the internet. In a hotel you will need a VPN and PureVPN is a known working solution. You want the dedicated IP add-on as well.

https://billing.purevpn.com/aff.php?aff=33044

If you use that link to sign up I get a referral fee that I will spend on FG products. :-). Or just go to PureVPN.com.

The other advantages to a VPN is much safer use of banking and credit card transactions and ability to view Netflix and similar services.

[Myrdin Potter]

Finally, I have run FG for ages on a small Dell laptop. It really is not that demanding, an i5 is fine. Make sure you have a mouse, pain in the behind to use a trackpad.

If you have a tv in your room and an hdmi out, you can run 2 clients and use the tv to display the players view and then you are the only laptop needed.

[Shu'ri Manduri]

Make sure you have a VPN as well. You will need a switch to make an internal LAN or you will all be connecting via the internet. In a hotel you will need a VPN and PureVPN is a known working solution. You want the dedicated IP add-on as well.

https://billing.purevpn.com/aff.php?aff=33044

If you use that link to sign up I get a referral fee that I will spend on FG products. :-). Or just go to PureVPN.com.

The other advantages to a VPN is much safer use of banking and credit card transactions and ability to view Netflix and similar services.

Thanks for the tip, I already have a subscription to NordVPN and HMA (stupid censors) so I am all set :)

[Myrdin Potter]

From what I know, HMA does not work with FG. I have not tested NordVPN. You need access to port 1802 otherwise you will not be able to host a game.

If you have them already, give them a test.

I lived in China for 5 years and in Singapore a while before that, so I am pretty familiar with VPN.

[Shu'ri Manduri]

From what I know, HMA does not work with FG. I have not tested NordVPN. You need access to port 1802 otherwise you will not be able to host a game.

If you have them already, give them a test.

I lived in China for 5 years and in Singapore a while before that, so I am pretty familiar with VPN.

Hmmm, okay thanks for the tip. It sound similar to the issues that I had when I was downloading torrents of TV shows and I was only able to use one server with HMA; that was Frankfurt. I will be doing some reading about it and some research into how port forwarding works on Nord as well.