It's official, I am now an Owner! I must ask - What 5e content is necessary?

[Gray Geist]

Hello everyone! I wanted to again thank the community here for being so helpful and also so forthright with me regarding Fantasy Grounds, I am now a proud owner and cannot wait to get underway on my new online game in the coming months (damn, June flew by and July doesn't look any slower!). Now I just want to figure out the best 5e content and based on some of the product information, I want to ensure I am not spending extra money on it where I could place elsewhere through funding less known brands in the future.

Based on my previous post I bet some of you are wondering: "Wait, wasn't this guy questioning us all about Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) and Shadow of the Demon Lord rule sets, what gives!?" And you'd be right to say that of course, but remember - my plan always was to play 5e and later move onto more LotFP/SotDL content, those two games are my future for sure.

So I want to purchase 5E content but I already have, for instance, the DMG not only via PDF but also in print. The same goes for the PHB and Monster Manual. Now it's obvious to me that purchasing the Monster Manual via FG will give me all of the monster tokens and stats that are easily manipulated/placed into FG right? But here are my questions:


What does the DMG get me? Does it place the special "alt" rules in there for me to activate during the game?
In regards to the DMG, does it place the items in there for easy access (putting them in chests or on monsters)?
Does it place special mechanics into the game that you would otherwise have to build yourself?
The same questions apply to the PHB.
Importantly, what do the module/adventure bundles net you other than the written adventure(s), map(s)? Again, are special mechanics/traps/items in there that would have to be customized in elsewhere?
What questions am I not asking that I should be asking and what are the answers? (Remember, I am only 1.5 years new to GMing and that's with 5e, I've played T&T and 1e but that's it)


I love 5e because of the outrageous amount of community homebrew, much of which isn't usable but there's so much of it that there is a ton of gold out there. I understand that I will have to build in any homebrew classes, items, etc (not actually how to do it, but that I will have to do it). With that said my goal with FG is to limit the amount of calculation time it takes to set up and/or play a game by primarily introducing very strong automation and ability to drop maps (of my own or other's making) onto the board. I know there's a ton of side things FG also does that are amazing but that is my stated goal for now, keep that in mind when discussing what I may or may not need from the 5e content sector.

Look forward to another great chat with you all! :D

[damned]

Welcome aboard/back!

I would start with this post: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27296-Guides-videos-and-other-helpful-information

Quick clarification - no 5E official stuff (other than SRD/Basic Rules/ALO guides etc) are available for purchase in PDF format.

For me - the PHB is handsdown the most useful purchase.
If you are playing purchased modules then they are the next purchase - if not you can use monsters from the SRD or buy the MM.
I dont have the DMG (well in print I do but not in FG - I dont need any more rules to complicate things for me) so I cant comment on those questions.

My best advice to you is - start small/slow.
Learn Character Creation, Combat Basics (especially the golden rule) and Story Elements (Stories, Images, Chat).

Leave everything else until you have those going pretty smoothly.

[HarryK]

I opted not to buy the DMG at the time I purchased FG. Mostly because it wasn't on sale and I'm a cheapskate. For now I just have the PHB, MM and Xanathar's. Granted I've only run a single session, but I think I can make do without the DMG for now, and just have it next to my desk and refer to it as needed.

In my opinion, the PHB is the bare minimum requirement for DMing on FG. Everything else falls into the "nice to have, but not essential" category. Monster stats are easy enough to change based on the sample critters provided by the PHB and custom tokens are easy enough to import. That said, I certainly don't regret buying the MM and Xanathar's modules.

[ddavison]

Be sure to check out the videos on the bottom of most store pages. The DMG adds a few unique features like the Treasure generation that spits out into Treasure Parcels and loads of tables that you can use in Story Templates to generate content. If you aren't building your own adventure content, it's probably something you should pass on. If you like to do a bunch of building, then it might be a great boon to your process.

On another note, there is typically a big sale each summer to coincide with the Steam Summer Sale. We are not at liberty to share the date when this kicks off (due to contract reasons) but a quick Google search might give some possible start dates. If you plan to buy extra stuff, your money will go farther on sale.

BTW, welcome officially to the community now.

[LordEntrails]

Well, what are you going to be doing/playing? If you are going to create your own adventures, then you will want the Monster Manual and maybe Volos, etc. If you create your own items then you don't necessarily need the DMG, but the Magic Item Forge is very nice and useful so you might still want it. If you want to drag and drop during player creation, or want to share it with your players, then you probably want that :)

But, start small and add from there :)

[Zacchaeus]

Some of the alternative rules from the DMG are already in the ruleset (such as the healing variants). Buying the DMG doesn't add anything to the ruleset itself but as noted above it does add a huge amount of stuff, especially if you are homebrewing.

If you run official adventures then those include all of the treasure, magic items and monsters, so you don't need the MM or the DMG. However if you wanted to change some of the magic items or maybe change around some monsters then both are useful.

The PHB is an absolute bare minumun requirement if you are running games, unless you want to enter the content yourself. Mainly this is for character creation options, since the SRD is limited in this regard. Also of course the PHB is a handy reference guide since it contains all the rules.

Your best bet for your firts purchases are the PHB and Lost Mine of Phandelver. The latter is the starter adventure and there are copious notes and links in it showing you how to play the game and it has been refined and tweaked to be as easy for a DM to run as possible in FG. Every NPC, trap, puzzle, parcel, treasure, item etc is fully described and ready made up. In fact all of the adventures are up to this kind of standard but special effort went into LMoP in certain areas to make it as easy to run and learn from as possible.

[bloodydrake]

As someone that just went thru this a couple months ago and our group is 3/4 of the way thru Lost Mines of Phalender our first module this is what I would recommend

1.PHB I would say this is essential for the DM to have to play 5e.
2.If your planning on just running commercial modules like Tomb of Annihilation you don't need to buy any other Wizards Sourcebooks like DMG or MM or Volo's..all the NPC/Monster/Magic Items/ stat blocks and tokens you need are included in the modules. However if you want the custom classes,spells,feats in those source books for your players you can consider them as needed.
3.You can get additional content for fantasy grounds at DMSGUILD..lots of Adventure League Modules and 3rd party products I would say at this point I find Rob2e's Fantasy Grounds 5E Coding Package essential, tho i would wait for a sale Fantasy Grounds 5E Coding Package

[Nylanfs]

Also note, how many other places will you see an owner telling you that you don't necessarily need to spend money. :)

[Gray Geist]

Welcome aboard/back!

I would start with this post: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27296-Guides-videos-and-other-helpful-information

Quick clarification - no 5E official stuff (other than SRD/Basic Rules/ALO guides etc) are available for purchase in PDF format.

For me - the PHB is handsdown the most useful purchase.
If you are playing purchased modules then they are the next purchase - if not you can use monsters from the SRD or buy the MM.
I dont have the DMG (well in print I do but not in FG - I dont need any more rules to complicate things for me) so I cant comment on those questions.

My best advice to you is - start small/slow.
Learn Character Creation, Combat Basics (especially the golden rule) and Story Elements (Stories, Images, Chat).

Leave everything else until you have those going pretty smoothly.


Thanks for the link with the information. It sounds like I'll actually need the PHB, DMG, Volo's and MM. I run a homebrew campaign so I may start running into snags if I don't...but I will start slow.


I opted not to buy the DMG at the time I purchased FG. Mostly because it wasn't on sale and I'm a cheapskate. For now I just have the PHB, MM and Xanathar's. Granted I've only run a single session, but I think I can make do without the DMG for now, and just have it next to my desk and refer to it as needed.

In my opinion, the PHB is the bare minimum requirement for DMing on FG. Everything else falls into the "nice to have, but not essential" category. Monster stats are easy enough to change based on the sample critters provided by the PHB and custom tokens are easy enough to import. That said, I certainly don't regret buying the MM and Xanathar's modules.

Got it, this is good to know especially about the tokens - immersion through tokens and ability to make my own monster is a big deal. Speaking of tokens, can someone make their own tokens quite easily and import them? I ask because I have a ton of Dark Souls monsters I'd love to make tokens for, anyone have experience doing this?


Well, what are you going to be doing/playing? If you are going to create your own adventures, then you will want the Monster Manual and maybe Volos, etc. If you create your own items then you don't necessarily need the DMG, but the Magic Item Forge is very nice and useful so you might still want it. If you want to drag and drop during player creation, or want to share it with your players, then you probably want that :)

But, start small and add from there :)

I am going to be continuing my dive into homebrew (I have a ....strong distaste for the current 5e setting) and/or try and run a Dark Sun campaign. Dark Sun would sort of be homebrew with 5e anyway though...did anyone here make a Dark Sun setting for older editions I wonder? I want to start small but jeez...sounds like I'll have to start small compared to how big I usually start and shop sales when the sale comes around :D


Some of the alternative rules from the DMG are already in the ruleset (such as the healing variants). Buying the DMG doesn't add anything to the ruleset itself but as noted above it does add a huge amount of stuff, especially if you are homebrewing.

If you run official adventures then those include all of the treasure, magic items and monsters, so you don't need the MM or the DMG. However if you wanted to change some of the magic items or maybe change around some monsters then both are useful.

The PHB is an absolute bare minumun requirement if you are running games, unless you want to enter the content yourself. Mainly this is for character creation options, since the SRD is limited in this regard. Also of course the PHB is a handy reference guide since it contains all the rules.

Your best bet for your firts purchases are the PHB and Lost Mine of Phandelver. The latter is the starter adventure and there are copious notes and links in it showing you how to play the game and it has been refined and tweaked to be as easy for a DM to run as possible in FG. Every NPC, trap, puzzle, parcel, treasure, item etc is fully described and ready made up. In fact all of the adventures are up to this kind of standard but special effort went into LMoP in certain areas to make it as easy to run and learn from as possible.

Yeah, like I said above the homebrew aspect of the DMG sounds almost primary, almost as primary as the PHB. I actually ran LMoP a year and a half back so I'm good with that one. Any modules I run in the future would be definitely be hacked to fit my homebrew world's tone and such.


As someone that just went thru this a couple months ago and our group is 3/4 of the way thru Lost Mines of Phalender our first module this is what I would recommend

1.PHB I would say this is essential for the DM to have to play 5e.
2.If your planning on just running commercial modules like Tomb of Annihilation you don't need to buy any other Wizards Sourcebooks like DMG or MM or Volo's..all the NPC/Monster/Magic Items/ stat blocks and tokens you need are included in the modules. However if you want the custom classes,spells,feats in those source books for your players you can consider them as needed.
3.You can get additional content for fantasy grounds at DMSGUILD..lots of Adventure League Modules and 3rd party products I would say at this point I find Rob2e's Fantasy Grounds 5E Coding Package essential, tho i would wait for a sale Fantasy Grounds 5E Coding Package

Awesome! What is this 5e Coding Package? Is it popular among the community? Your link didn't work but I did find it and the 17 min video - sounds really cool. What is your basic "pitch" for recommending it? Just curious :rv:


Also note, how many other places will you see an owner telling you that you don't necessarily need to spend money. :)

Oh...no, duly noted - that's precisely why I invested in the Fantasy Grounds - I have never seen a more active positive community. (Granted I'm not big into forums anymore but still) :p

[Maasq]

Hiya again :)

I use Tokenstamp (https://rolladvantage.com/tokenstamp/)for all my token needs - very quick and easy to generate them from existing artwork.
I can't remember how to set up a token folder manually (as I use NPC Engineer for that sort of stuff now) but it wasn't difficult at all. There will be guidance on the forum somewhere :)

Welcome aboard; if you ever master Discord give me a shout!

Maasq

[Trenloe]

Info regarding tokens are available in Wiki -> User Guides -> Tokens.

Funny that... ;)

Reminder - don't load up lots of tokens, and also keep the token size to what you need to use - tokens are loaded into memory at startup, taking up system resources and making load time longer.

[bloodydrake]

Awesome! What is this 5e Coding Package? Is it popular among the community? Your link didn't work but I did find it and the 17 min video - sounds really cool. What is your basic "pitch" for recommending it? Just curious :rv:


Not sure why the link didn't work but heres a link to a video review its pretty good.
https://youtu.be/m0wNXkp85t4
Basically for Race features, Class Features, Feats and Spells the addon bundle codes them to allow a much more automated session and speeds up combat.
You could go thru and do all this yourself but it takes days of work to manually do it. But once your use to it I can't imagine playing without it.

[Trenloe]

Check the sticky threads at the top of the 5E sub-forum. There are lots of good resources and guidelines available in these threads and the threads linked from them.