New (and Frustrated)

[rhenry69]

So I purchased an Ultimate License, and I'm already wondering if I bit off more than I can chew with this. Despite having watched hours of tutorials, demos, and reviews online, I'm still completely lost. The user interface looks and behaves nothing like it does in the videos.

For example, I can't make a character. I would think this should be a simple thing. I can't even make a character sheet to come up. Is this impossible without buying the Player's Handbook (and just using the built in SRD stuff)? All the wiki information assumes the purchase of the PHB content.

Help me not regret this big purchase. :confused:

[celestian]

A brief method on how to create a character.

Click here:
https://i.imgur.com/rnX7gEJ.png
Then here (or click any of the existing characters you have listed here to see them):
https://i.imgur.com/3gNHX1N.png
Then here (create new character):
https://i.imgur.com/T4ekNte.png

At that point a character sheet should pop up.

[Uraence]

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?40020-Join-Fantasy-Grounds-College-Learn-Fantasy-Grounds-learn-D-amp-D-and-then-play!

[Zacchaeus]

You'll find some more up to date videos here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?42440-Tutorial-Video-Series).

You might also want to visit the FG College (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?40020-Join-Fantasy-Grounds-College-Learn-Fantasy-Grounds-learn-D-amp-D-and-then-play!) and get some actual hands on lessons.

[Trenloe]

And, remember the key guidelines about right-click context menus - if you don’t see something, right-click on the object in questions to bring up a context sensitive radial menu.

Covered in the user guide "Basics" section here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/The_Basics#Context_Menus

[damned]

Hi rhenry69 check the date of the videos too - the platform is constantly evolving - mostly incremental changes but over time they amount to quite large changes.

[JohnD]

You must have looked at the wrong videos. Always good to watch a bit, stop, and then replicate what you just saw.

FG College is a great place for a beginner to get introduced to how FG works.

[wmsmitty]

That’s interesting, because I’m a recent newbie too w/ the ultimate license and creating a character was pretty much a quick and easy deal for me. Yes, it required a little effort on my part to learn the software, but I simply followed the user manual directions and watched One of Doug’s Fantasy Grounds video; following along step by step.

[Trenloe]

The user interface looks and behaves nothing like it does in the videos.
Another thing to remember - FG comes with a number of different graphical themes which change the look of the interface graphics - so don't be put off if the screen looks completely different. It doesn't change the underlying functionality, but to a new user this might appear to be the case.

If you can point us to some specific videos that you've found useful but can't follow in Fantasy Grounds itself then we can probably make some recommendations on which theme to load so that the interface looks similar.

As JohnD says - the best way to learn is FG and videos/user guides in tandem. Don't sit and watch hours of videos, start with a basic video - watch a short section of the video covering a single action, then pause the video and replicate in FG. Take it one step at a time to avoid the frustration.

Anyway, I hope after a couple of days since your post the assistance from people in this thread has helped point you in the right direction. If not, please come back with more specific questions... FG is worth taking the time to learn - it's interface is designed specifically around RPG actions and keeping the screen real estate to a minimum, so it's not always obvious how to do things. Spending the time to pick it up is time well spent!

[lostsanityreturned]

To make it clear
Yes you can do all the click and drag character creation with the 5e srd, no it doesn't automate like that if you have the pathfinder srd.

It takes a bit of research to get used to but once you learn the program it all becomes rather obvious and easy to use.

I do recommend purchasing the PHB, not because you have to, but because for an extra $30 it saves on oh so much time.
Seriously though, the levels of automation in Fantasygrounds are amazing when you get them working.

[paladiusdarkhelm]

I also found Rob2e's post (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27159-Quick-Character-Build-%2815-minutes%29-for-Fanasty-Grounds-5E) helpful. It goes into the basic order of operations for building a 5e character quickly to include some of the nuances of the automation (to make sure you get the most of it you do it in the right order or you may overwrite some of it):