Mutliple Licences & Instances of Fantasy Grounds

[Silversteel]

Hi, I forced my reluctant players to go to FG sometime ago. I have an Ultimate Licence, obtained directly from the FG website, and installed on 2 computers, the one in my study where I prepare, and the one in the lounge from which I run my game with my players. I have bought a lot of 5th Ed material like DMG, PH, MM, modules, etc.

When we game, my husband connects to the lounge computer playing on a laptop with a free licence.

My husband currently also has another instance of FG installed on his computer which he uses to prepare characters, with another licence purchased through Steam, but I cannot tell if it is an Ultimate or a Standard Licence. He has not purchased any of the materials, just uses it connected to the lounge computer.

My husband has now decided he likes FG and would like to run his games through it too. He would like to use the lounge computer (with my Unlimited Licence) when he wishes to run with players but prepare on his own computer. However, rather than purchase all the materials I have purchased all over again, he would like to run another instance of FG on his computer using my Licence when he is preparing, so that we share all the purchased material between us, and he can look at modules and prepare on his computer. This would mean we would have 3 computers in the house all using the same licence.

First of all, is this permissible? I understand that it is, provide we're not trying to have players connect to both at the same time, is that correct?

If it is, is it possible for him to install 2 separate instance of FG on his computer, one with my licence and one with his, so that on occasion he can connect to the lounge computer (which runs my licence) as a player using his licence?

[damned]

Hello Silversteel

You might need an official reading on this by the powers that be...

My take is the Ultimate license and associated DLC is for your use and your use only.
SmiteWorks on a number of occasions have said they have no problem with you installing it on two computers - for your own use - for exactly that scenario you describe of prepping/developing on one but actually GMing from a different computer.
Installing it on a third computer for someone elses use would not really fall under that usage model.

From a technical point of view a fantasy grounds installation using licence xyz cannot connect to another fantasy grounds installation using the same xyz license.
You would need to remove the license and rerun the updater to revert it back to one of the other licenses (standard or demo).

[Silversteel]

Ah of course, I didn't think of that, I just thought of it as both of us using the same system from different rooms. Silly me, sorry.

OK, can I also install it on a laptop for when I travel and DM? That would make it 3 computers.

[Silversteel]

Further question: if both my husband and I have different instances of FG on our study computers, with different licences, but we both need to gamemaster from the lounge computer (its set up to game with players interstate using Discord etc), can we run 2 instances of FG on that lounge computer, one with my licence and one with his, so we can both GM from that room?

[Zacchaeus]

You can install, for your own use on your laptop.

I'm not even sure you can actually install two instances of FG on the same computer, so your second scenario may be moot. Even if you can I fear that you may well get all sorts of conflicts and potential corruption of data etc. Also you can't have two instances of FG running from the same location on two different computers unless one of them is reconfigured to use a different port (by default both will use Port 1802 and only one can do so at a time).

[damned]

You can install, for your own use on your laptop.

I'm not even sure you can actually install two instances of FG on the same computer, so your second scenario may be moot. Even if you can I fear that you may well get all sorts of conflicts and potential corruption of data etc. Also you can't have two instances of FG running from the same location on two different computers unless one of them is reconfigured to use a different port (by default both will use Port 1802 and only one can do so at a time).

Clarification of that:

You cant have two computers both running as GM and accepting player connections on the same internet connection at the same time...
They can both GM at different times.
One can GM while the other is prepping.
They can both GM at the same time if only one is GMing for people on another network.
They can both GM at the same time if one uses a unique port.

But these are all networking issues/challenges rather than license or license use restrictions.
:)

[Silversteel]

Thank you. Guess we'll now have to argue about who's using what, where. ;) It was much easier when all my players were complaining about FG. Now all but one are getting their own :)

[Nylanfs]

Also the license key gets written to the registry so you can't have two licenses running on one machine. Is anyone's birthday anniversary coming up? "Surprise honey I got you all FG modules!"

[Silversteel]

Lol - got a fair few already - that's how I learnt the system. After going through the manual, wiki and all the videos.

[ddavison]

Using it with the same account within the same family and household is fine. The purchases are tied to your username, so you want want the username entered on both.

You can reuse the license key on multiple computers you own; however, if you have the same license key, you will have issues whenever you try to connect them. You have a few options there:

1. Re-use the license key. Your husband can use his Standard key to build stuff but he wouldn't be able to host free players without the Ultimate license. Whenever he wants to run the game as an ULTIMATE GM, he would need to change the license key in his settings from his Steam (Standard key) and run an Update to switch it to ULTIMATE mode. In order to be able to connect to your ULTIMATE game later, he would have to revert the lounge computer back to the Steam key when finished by changing it again and running an update.

2. Upgrade the Standard license key in Steam or from our website to the Ultimate key with the Ultimate upgrade. Re-use the same username. This adds an extra expense but prevents you from having to re-buy the DLC.

[Silversteel]

Thank you, that's very helpful

[damned]

Using it with the same account within the same family and household is fine.

Nice one Doug.

[Silversteel]

Thank you all, and especially ddavison. The issue is not running a game from my husband's study, but preparing from there and then running the game on the lounge computer. So to prepare he needs access to the materials, and it would be helpful if he didn't have to buy the books all over again (we already have them all in hard copy too). He also needs to be able to have the modules he's chosen running on both his study computer and the lounge computer. The same as I prepare in my study and run from the lounge computer. Whichever one of us is not running a game can connect as player from a laptop with the free version.

So:

1. if I understand your post aright, the easiest option would be to have all 3 main computers running on my Ultimate Licence, and this is permissible. And we just forget about the second Standard Licence we own. We can always reactivate it someday if we need it.

2. Also if I understand your post aright, the best way to achieve this is to install my licence key on the computer in my husband's study. And we can simply change the licence key in his settings, put in my licence key, and run an update to do this.

3. If we do this, I know we both can't run games with players from different computers at the same time, but can we both be using FG on different computers to prepare provided we don't both try to update at once? Or can only one of us be using FG at a time?

4. I'm afraid I don't understand your point 2. Is that to have a second Ultimate Licence available if we need it? If so, what is the point of the same username? And what is a DLC?

[damned]

Its messy...

Use the same username in settings on all three of your personal computes to get the content on all three.

You wont be able to connect between two computers using the same key.
Yes you could remove key and update each time - you may find having valid licenses on the two most used computers to be easier.

Edit:
DLC is all the content - PHB, DMG etc
To have the same content on all three computers you need to have your username in the settings on all three computers.

[LordEntrails]

I'm not sure about #3, but I think the answer is yes, you can both be using the same license to prepare at the same time.

But one thing to note, on your husbands computer, he needs to login in the FG Settings screen as your forum username, since the DLC is connected to the forum username and not the license key.

[Trenloe]

DLC = DownLoadable Content. It refers to FG products that are linked to your FG user account and downloaded when you run an update with that account.

[Silversteel]

Thank you all again

[Caelen]

I've been wondering about this for a while. Thanks for asking Silversteel, and thanks for the answers everyone else!