Fantasy Grounds works pretty good on an Android Tablet.

[LindseyFan]

I wonder the ratio of people between those who think that the Holy Grail of VTT has just arrived versus thinking this is click-bait.

I also wonder if you all know this already and I am late to the party. A quick search of the forums appears to show no one has caught this yet, so I will spend my precious “vertical hours” typing up my exclusive scoop. Then it is back to bed for the day, comfortably reading my trove of paid content on a light-weight ASUS tablet.

Steam has released a beta of their Steam Link for Android devices – phones/tablets/refrigerators?. While Steam Link for tvs was a coup for home entertainment, this beta is still in the ho-hum category. That being said, there is one app that looks fantastic: the world’s premier VTT!
The only bug I could find was if you click “update” away from a PC. Windows sends an alert asking you for permission. It’s an interrupt so I don’t know if even Steam could fix that. So don’t click that option when you are not on computer.

Chatting and typing take the effort you would expect they do on a phone or tablet, but even if FG was straight ported to Android, that would always be the case. (how do people do it on Troll20?). Rolling works and is quite cathartic!

But the penultimate function is getting to read your paid content on a device other than a 20” screen. I remember people griping before about not having a pdf or some other way “outside” of FG to view their paid content. Now you can! And it’s even better than a pdf, because all veterans know how much better it is to read the hyper-linked and well organized presentation that is FG. Plus tables. Yes tables work!

So yeah, go check that out and see how cool it is. Your mileage may vary depending on how well you setup your machine or can adapt to touch screen finger commands. I will leave that support issues to the rest of this wonderful community. I am only an FG fangirl here to collect her XP and go back to bed! :D

Ciao bellos!
-M

[LordEntrails]

Nice. This is exciting news. Thanks :)

[Oberoten]

This was well spotted. :)

- Obe

[timdog88]

So, not a steam person here. If I wanted to buy a cheap android tablet as a fantasy grounds reading device, would I have to re-buy stuff through steam, or how would that work if I've bought everything through the fantasy grounds store?

[Zacchaeus]

All you need to do is to add Fantasy Grounds to your Steam account using your license key.

[damned]

Good to see you active LindseyFan

[Nylanfs]

So, not a steam person here. If I wanted to buy a cheap android tablet as a fantasy grounds reading device, would I have to re-buy stuff through steam, or how would that work if I've bought everything through the fantasy grounds store?

Yes you would have to purchase everything through steam for this to work.

The only thing that gets shared are the base license keys.

Also YEA! Lindsey is back!

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

Lack of tablet "support" is one of the most common group complaints i hear. Something like this would be incredible. I was able to make this 'sort of' work on an ipad using parallels access, but the touch interface leaves much to be desired. I even started laying out some rough ideas for a skin that used proportionately larger buttons. I remember the big font extension was a part of being able to attempt this. Anyhoo, great news, i will give this a shot.

[dberkompas]

I haven't bought anything on Steam for FG, yet I was still able to access all my content (5E PHB, DMG, MM, etc) on my Android phone.

Not sure what NylanFS was thinking, maybe I misunderstood what he typed.


Dave

[lostsanityreturned]

Yes you would have to purchase everything through steam for this to work.


Not true.

[JohnD]

Hmm... so my Samsung S2 might work?

[MarianDz]

Interesting :)

[hawkwind]

You don't need to use Steam to run FG on android I have used a program Splashtop though I would recommend attaching a mouse via an OTG cable and unless you have huge tablet like android on a TV I don't thing you could GM of a tablet. Splashtop also works over the internet so for example if you were away on a business trip you could get your Mrs to turn on your PC then remote in from your hotel room and not miss your game!

[Trenloe]

Yes you would have to purchase everything through steam for this to work.
As others have pointed out, this is incorrect.

The Steam "version" of FG is simply a stub that launches the normal FantasyGrounds.exe application - which then accesses all of your DLC, campaigns, community content, etc. as normal. Even Steam FG purchases aren't installed through Steam - you need to sync your purchases to FG and then the FG updater installs them.

[FirunaDaske]

I have the Steam Link app for my tablet, but it does not let me run Fantasy Grounds on my tablet...what am I doing wrong?

[damned]

FG still runs on your PC and you use the Steam Link to control/stream it. Is that what you are trying to do?

[LordEntrails]

I have the Steam Link app for my tablet, but it does not let me run Fantasy Grounds on my tablet...what am I doing wrong?
Run FG on your PC, then use Steam Link to stream it (display it) to your tablet. It's like a remote desktop.

[FirunaDaske]

Thank you guys. That answers my question.

[BDaniel]

Welcome back Lindsey Fan. Hope to hear from you some more.:)

[Minty23185Fresh]

Run FG on your PC, then use Steam Link to stream it (display it) to your tablet. It's like a remote desktop.

This is not new technology. I guess the excitement is "Steam".

I have been using a product called TeamViewer for a couple years now. There is an IOS app so I can use my iPad. Fantasy Grounds runs on a remote computer (remote being in the US while I'm in Mexico, or in my home office while I'm in the living room) and I control it via my iPad, my iPhone 8+, my laptop, …


BTW I have done this to avoid the Port Forwarding issue when I don't know or can't come up with a password for the router in a remote location also.

[rblackburn]

Reading this, it appears you are required to have a computer running and you use a remote desktop type app to use it? Would much prefer a true app as I would just use the laptop verses leaving it at home and running.

[damned]

Reading this, it appears you are required to have a computer running and you use a remote desktop type app to use it? Would much prefer a true app as I would just use the laptop verses leaving it at home and running.

There is no android or ios app.
It is indeed running from a windows computer.

[Ckorik]

Yes you would have to purchase everything through steam for this to work.

The only thing that gets shared are the base license keys.

Also YEA! Lindsey is back!

I'm almost certain that your purchases are tied to those license keys on the FG side.

[damned]

I'm almost certain that your purchases are tied to those license keys on the FG side.

DLC ownership is not shared between stores.
Only the license key is.
DLC is not tied to a license key on the FG store - its tied to your forum username.

[mormegil27]

I'm new to FGs, only purchased a little while ago, and am currently building a campaign and have a core group of players (we haven't started yet). This thread has been very helpful in solving a problem I have, but I have a question:

- One of my players just lost his PC to critical failure, and cannot afford to fix it. So he only has a phone to do mobile gaming currently.

I understand that the software must run on a PC, but you can then use a virtual desktop to access it. I have a spare laptop that I cannot loan my friend physically, but I could run an instance of FG on that laptop in my house, and perhaps he could then control that laptop remotely from his phone.

Would this work? What if the laptop is a Mac, but his phone is Android? Can an android virtual desktop control a Mac?

And if so, can anyone recommend a good app that can do this, for either iPhone or Android?

Thank you!

[LordEntrails]

From a phone? I don't know of specific software that would do it, but I'm 90% sure you an find something. But, I can't imaging it would be anything but painful to try and use FG on such an incredibly small screen. But if they are committed to trying... Maybe someone else can control their character and they are just viewing the map and CT?

[mormegil27]

From a phone?

Well, his monitor isn't dead. I wonder whether he could output his phone to a display somehow, and maybe bluetooth to a mouse? Surely there exist such apps, but yeah, I don't know what they are.

[LordEntrails]

If you already have your monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse, their are these computers to look at. No idea if it would run FG... This one is a Linux version, but they make Windows versions to. Maybe it's still out of financial reach, but they are cheap ($50). https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAE2566G8591&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-Warehouse+of+Savings-_-Barebone+Systems+-+Mini+%2F+Booksize-_-9SIAE2566G8591&gclid=Cj0KCQiAr93gBRDSARIsADvHiOqkbDlemVzhdQN6hF1q 3ArQkXw5Zn2r7J8Woi_1fdF6CegkpJUjz9IaAkdUEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I've not heard if anyone has used one with FG, but I do know people have used them for other gaming platforms.

[LordEntrails]

Well, his monitor isn't dead. I wonder whether he could output his phone to a display somehow, and maybe bluetooth to a mouse? Surely there exist such apps, but yeah, I don't know what they are.
Well, I know Apple TV can cast from a phone to a TV. I also know my Android phone has an app to do that. But both require a "smart" TV. As for a monitor... Well, my previous Android phone had a mini-HDMI output that I could connect via a cable to a TV (used to watch movies that way when in hotels).

Hopefully someone will jump in with actual info for your use case.

[mormegil27]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I will research this and post my solution.

[JohnD]

Doesn't Steam have some kind of smartcast functionality? A friend of mine launches a game in his computer upstairs and uses his 55" LCD TV as a monitor on the main floor.

[LordEntrails]

Doesn't Steam have some kind of smartcast functionality? A friend of mine launches a game in his computer upstairs and uses his 55" LCD TV as a monitor on the main floor.
Yep, Steamcast. Lots of ways to do things, you just have to figure out what's possible with the hardware you have.

Also remember, you need to not just display FG, but have a mouse and keyboard too :)

[Frunobulax]

Doesn't Steam have some kind of smartcast functionality? A friend of mine launches a game in his computer upstairs and uses his 55" LCD TV as a monitor on the main floor.

I'm often surprised at how few people really "get" how SteamLink works. It's simply a remote desktop app. It's trivially easy to use it to get to your desktop and use your PC remotely, just like Teamviewer or any other remote desktop app. The only "steam magic" involved is that SteamLink has much better remote support for things like game controllers, mapping inputs, and so on. Also, it has a lot of pre-mapoed control schemes for most populsr games. Since it interfaces with the Steam app running on your PC, it makes selecting and configuring games much easier.

If you want to surf the web or check your email or whatever else you need your desktop for, it's simple to do with SteamLink. They don't advertise / position it as a general remote dekstop app, but that's exactly what it is. You theoretically don't need SteamLink, you could launch and run games with a differnt remote app, but the interface would suck ***. SteamLink makes controlling everything a hell of a lot easier, especially if you want to use a controller. Don't try to play remote games without SteamLink, but you can also use it to access your desktop.

I think part of the reason for the confusion is that previous to the development of SteamLink software, there were a number of different hardware items thst could export games over a wire. Not much different than a KVM switch really. Valve even made and sold a little hardware box for this, (Steam Box?) but it's since been discontinued.

[dberkompas]

Nice necro.

[Frunobulax]

Nice necro.

Well, who cares? No one can keep up with every post on the forum, and I don't control the dates of search results the forum gives me. It's information that's relevant to the topic.

[dberkompas]

I'll bet you're a blast at parties.

[Trenloe]

If you don't have anything constructive to add to a discussion then please just leave it be.

[dberkompas]

"As you wish" - Westley