Does Fantasy Grounds work with Windows 10 touchscreen and Ipad tablets?

[Dirtydeedz]

Hey all!!
My first post, and I must say I love what I see here with FG. I have watched several videos and I'm intrigued.
I'm in a Pathfinder table top group using Hero Lab. We use miniatures on the table top and roll dice. We have two or three players using Windows 10 laptops, myself using a touchscreen Windows 10 tablet, and, three using Ipads.

Using Hero Lab to control our encounters, could the GM use FG to display pathfinder maps and custom maps with FoW? I presume using a GM and player client simultaneously. And have one ipad connected for a seeing impaired player. We could also use FG for inventory control. What else could we use it for?

I guess we could all be connected to the GM; but, is that necessary? And, I would like to use FG with my Windows 10 Touchscreen tablet.

We are going to get something. I think d20 is out because we need to use custom maps. So that leaves Realm Works and FG. RW looks so old and outdated, so does Hero Lab for that matter; but, we have $100's tide up in this software. I'm the player that makes most of our "custom stuff" in HL; and, I'm the one pushing FG over RW.

-Thanks in advance for any help and advice pertaining to these issues

[Zacchaeus]

You can use FG at the tabletop as you say with a DM and a second instance running to a second monitor which shows the maps etc. You can pretty much do everything then using FG, especially resolve combat, update characters etc. Pretty much up to you how you want to do it.

Unfortunately that’s the good bit from your point of view. The bad news is that FG only runs on PCs or macs. It won’t run on tablets of any kind.

[damned]

Hola Dirtydeedz

FG works on Win10 touch screens but has no actual support for the touch interface, its not optimized for touch. It uses a lot of right click functionality which can be done with touch but is not as fluid.
There is no support for iPad and its not on the near term development plan AFAIK.

Plenty of people use FG at the table top, many with table top screens. Some players will use some or lots of the features of FG and some groups its pretty much just the GM using the FG.

If Fog of War and Dynamic Lighting are your higher priorities you might look at Maptools right now but FG will have vastly better functionality on these sometime late next year.

Fantasy Grounds has many strengths but the items you have mentioned are not those.

If your vision impaired player requires the iPad that may well rule out FG in either case.

[damned]

You can use FG at the tabletop as you say with a DM and a second instance running to a second monitor which shows the maps etc. You can pretty much do everything then using FG, especially resolve combat, update characters etc. Pretty much up to you how you want to do it.

Unfortunately that’s the good bit from your point of view. The bad news is that FG only runs on PCs or macs. It won’t run on tablets of any kind.

FG will run happily on lots of Windows touchscreen tablets... but not Android or IOS.

[Zacchaeus]

FG will run happily on lots of Windows touchscreen tablets... but not Android or IOS.

Ok, this I was not aware of. Only ever used an iPad so I just assumed that it wouldn't work on any kind of tablet.

[Trenloe]

To clarify - Fantasy Grounds does have Fog of War, but it is a manual mask that the GM removes. It works well for the majority of people, with the GM unveiling parts of the map as the players explore.

[Myrdin Potter]

Ok, this I was not aware of. Only ever used an iPad so I just assumed that it wouldn't work on any kind of tablet.

Those Windows tablets are stealth laptops, like the surface. As long as it runs the right version of Windows (the new ones all use Windows 10), you can run Fantasy Grounds on them.

They have all the issues of a very small screen when you do it, though.

[Dirtydeedz]

Thank you again for your replies. Working on Ipad is not imperative; but, would be a nice benefit. As I previously mentioned, I think we will continue to us HL to resolve encounters, using FG only to show maps and player/npc positioning. We do not need dynamic lighting; but Fog of War is needed. I thought FG had FoW, am I mistaken?

How about this scenario. We currently have a Forgotten Realms campaign, set in Ravens Bluff, during a time between the 1st and 2nd Sundering(the Spellplague has ended), using the pathfinder rule set for PCs. We use some FR HL community files to accomplish this. What the files don't cover, I have created using the HL editor.

How would FG handle this gaming scenario? I'm thinking we could use the FR maps in FG; and, continue using HL like we already are.

One more question, Is there any advantage to ordering through Steam? I don't run Steam on my tablet or laptop, only on my gaming PC which doesn't go with me table top gaming.

[Klandare]

FG does have FoW but as Trenloe mentioned. It is such that you apply it to the map and then share out the map to the players. As they progress through the area, the DM then manually uncovers sections that they would see. My players always tease me because they start moving through things and then stop on them map and say I stop as I don't want to go into the grey area (I had not uncovered more map yet). :D

As for buying on Steam or not, I think that is more of a personal choice. I run FG on my gaming PC so didn't think twice about buying it on Steam as it was simplier to keep all my games and stuff together. Now, they do synchronize all of the sales so when something is on sale on the FG site it should be on sale on Steam (within a few hours of each other). One advantage I have found with Steam is that it seems easier when people are giving me gift cards so I can buy more FG stuff.

[JohnD]

If you buy on Steam then Smiteworks gets a smaller cut of your $. May or may not be a consideration.

[Dirtydeedz]

If you buy on Steam then Smiteworks gets a smaller cut of your $. May or may not be a consideration.

I figured something like that. ;)

[Trenloe]

One more question, Is there any advantage to ordering through Steam? I don't run Steam on my tablet or laptop, only on my gaming PC which doesn't go with me table top gaming.
The main advantage to buying on Steam is if you're not in the US as there may be some pricing differences when you take exchange rates into account. The application is exactly the same - the Steam version is just a stub that launches the usual Fantasy Grounds application.

SmiteWorks sync your license key back into Steam every few weeks, so you essentially get the Steam version as well - i.e. it shows in your library on Steam, etc..

[Erin Righ]

as far as handling your scenario, as a person who uses, FG, HL, RW, CC3+, DPS, and a host of others, I would say that FG will handle your scenario very well, and if you buy the pathfinder core pack for FG the VTT handles the automation of combat better than HL.

For map display get MapTool, using Jamz fork at https://maptool.nerps.net/ it has HL integration in it