Suggestions for optimal set up

[DARKLORDCC]

Brand spanking new to FG and after many years, just getting back into RPG's. Been running a small campaign for family and friends a couple months now and was reminded of the drudgery involved with the classic pen and paper game and assumed there had to be something better...hence my search and discovery of FG. Don't get me wrong, I love the pen and paper game...the tome-like books, the smell and feel of paper, the pages of amazing art - but I always assumed technology could smooth out some of the clunkiness of the classic game. With that said, how do you more experienced folks suggest I set up my gaming tools and environment? I play a home game - no need (now at least) for remote players. Does this program mean everyone would need to be sitting around with laptops flipped up in each others faces like some pretentious coffee shop? I was hoping to use FG to supplement our home game to automate some of the time-consuming monotony so that the narrative would be smooth for maximum engagement. How would you suggest I do that? I "dungeonized" my man cave to set the right ambience, but what about the technology? I was envisioning a laptop in front of me (the flipped up screen would just replace a DM screen, so no coffee house snobbery there)...but what about my players? Can't play FG on tablets? I thought I read about someone who had a touchscreen embedded into his gaming table...is that feasible? Does each player need there own device? One of my players is my 7 year old son...could my wife run both her character and his on her laptop? Can I run the game from a single computer with two big monitors, one facing me and the other facing the players? Can the players sit around a fire with their favorite meads and munchies watching a huge monitor that I am casting to from my laptop whilst I weave the tale?

I apologize for vomiting so many simpleton questions, or at least ones that have likely been discussed ad nauseam. I am brand new to this but I want to maximize the experience and there are so many functions, so many videos to watch...I want to get the foundation set first and foremost, which for me is the gaming environment itself.

So, rambling aside - what would you guys consider the ultimate set-up for using Fantasy Grounds to supplement a home game, technology included?

Thanks for your time and earnest feedback

[dulux-oz]

Hi Darklord, and Welcome! to the Community,

Sort answer: yes, you can do all of those things - and Community Members have.

Long answer: I've used FG both at the table and over the net, and sometime both at the same time. I, as GM, have my Laptop & put a large screen facing the players (for an in-house game) and then run two instances of FG - one for me, and one for the players. People do this this way to show maps, the Cobat Traket, pictures, etc and play the rest "traditionally" around the table. The next step up is to do the same, but the players start to bring in their laptops (and soon tablets - we hope :) ) to run their character sheet electronically. Dice rolling can be electronic or physical, as FG has the ability to input manual die-rolls.

Eventually, most/all players are going to want to run from their own laptop (it;s just what happens) and it doesn't feel like a "coffee shop". At this point you can do away with the 2nd screen and just play with one as the GM.

Yes, a Player can run two or more characters - its what you'll be doing as the GM in the first, early scenario.

I hope that answers at least some of you questions - others will be along shortly to chime in as well. :)

If you haven't done so already, let me encourage you to take a look at some of the great Tutorial Videos available on the Fantasy Grounds Wiki (and on YouTube). Damn's are good, as are Xorn's, and people seem to like mine as well (mine are also available from the links in my sig, below).

Start with the ones on the CoreRPG, because the CoreRPG forms the foundation of just about all the RPGs we play with Fantasy Grounds - so by learning how to use FG with the CoreRPG you'll learn about 80% of what you'll need to know to play any RPG with Fantasy Grounds. Once you've gone through the CoreRPG Videos you can then go on to Videos about your chosen RPG.

When you get familiar with the basic Fantasy Grounds product the next step is to check out some of the Extensions (Plug-Ins) for FG, such as the DOE: Sound (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?31369-DOE-Sound-Extension), DOE: Locations (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20794-DOE-Locations-Extension), DOE: Weather (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?22142-DOE-Weather-Extension) and DOE: Organisations (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27169-DOE-Organisations-Extension) Extensions (to name a but a few - and a Shameless™ Self Plug).

You may also want to drop into 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!); a great place for newcomers to get started.

And of course, there's plenty of Twitch Channels where you can watch games in progress (including my own - https://www.twitch.tv/dulux_oz - another Shameless™ Self Plug).

And keep on asking questions - we're a pretty friendly lot here, and we love answering questions.

Cheers

[damned]

There are several threads about using FG at the table.
No tablet support just now.
You can play more than one character on a machine.
The simplest one would be to have the GM laptop connected to a large screen with a player instance (localhost) showing the player view.

[LordEntrails]

Optimal setup is going to depend, and as Dulux implied, it's probably going to change as your players grow and learn more about FG.

You can run it on one computer with two screens (start a second instance of FG and connect with a name like "display" and an alias of "localhost") and just use it for a map and GM reference. You can also start adding in the combat tracker and handling hit/miss and damage rolls and initiative etc.

At some point, your players may not want to have a paper copy of their character and just connect with their laptop...

It's all do-able, but, what appeals to you? What do you think is the optimal way you want to run your game? Then we can help you further refine that idea :)

[Trenloe]

And quite a few people use a TV set flat on the table replacing physical battlemaps. Some examples here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV-resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games

[valeros]

Our in-person group does it this way: the DM has two instances of Fantasy Grounds running on a laptop. One is the DM version that he displays only to himself on the laptop's primary display. The other FG client is a second display on the same laptop that is sent to a large screen TV via the HDMI output of the laptop. The DM then has most of the capabilities of the software (maps, combat tracker, status effect tracking, pre-built encounters, etc.). We really only lack the players being able to target creatures for automatically determining hits and applying damage, but that does not matter to us since we are playing in-person.

The players roll dice and move their tokens from their phone using this extension: www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?45911 (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?45911), but that would not be required.

This works out great for us and makes life a lot easier on the DM.

[DARKLORDCC]

Let me just say...you guys are friggin awesome. I am literally misty-eyed at how helpful this community seems to be. I've been having connection issues and as technology is the bane of my existence I've been too frustrated to try to figure it out. I remembered that I posted this when my excitement was high and just now looked up the post to find your responses. In short, your help has reinvigorated me and I will dig in to figure out why I am experiencing "connection failure". Would any of you fine folks offer "consulting" service? I am completely serious. I would pay someone to help me get FG going in earnest. I googled "Fantasy Grounds Connection Failure" and 1.) I was extremely impressed with the amount of assistance offered by damned, and 2.) I quickly became lost when people started talking about porting 1802 and changing routers and calling ISP's...

[Zacchaeus]

The first thing to check is that your network is set to private and not public (Network and Internet > Change connection properties). Secondly check that you have a rule in your anti virus software to allow FG through. If both of those don't solve the issue can you post a screenshot of a tracert 8.8.8.8 so that we can diagnose further (type cmd into the search bar bottom left of your taskbar, run the Command and type tracert 8.8.8.8 into the black box and press return).

[DARKLORDCC]

1 2 ms 2 ms 3 ms dsldevice.attlocal.net [192.168.1.254]
2 26 ms 34 ms 27 ms 75-40-208-1.lightspeed.lnpkmi.sbcglobal.net [75.40.208.1]
3 26 ms 25 ms 25 ms 71.151.220.29
4 * 28 ms 26 ms 75.26.64.248
5 30 ms 36 ms 32 ms 12.83.32.181
6 34 ms 33 ms 33 ms 12.123.159.49
7 35 ms 35 ms 33 ms 12.247.252.10
8 35 ms 33 ms 33 ms 108.170.244.1
9 34 ms 38 ms 36 ms 216.239.49.157
10 38 ms 33 ms 34 ms google-public-dns-a.google.com [8.8.8.8]

[damned]

So firstly - if you are playing around a table at home the Connection Test is irrelevant.
You most likley need to go into Network and Sharing Centre and set your network connection to Private and that is probably enough.

If you are going to play with people remotely then please read this post - yes its longish: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?47051-Fantasy-Grounds-Connections-Explained
and then post the answers to these questions:


1. Your LAN IP Address
2. The first two sets (octects) of your WAN IP as displayed by Fantasy Grounds and as displayed by your Router
3. Whether you are using Wired or Wireless (and not both)
4. Confirmation that you have set your Adapter in Network and Sharing Centre to Private
5. Confirmation of what AV you are running and whether you have set any exceptions
6. Post the results of the tracert 8.8.8.8 command (if you have security concerns you can remove this bit once its been responded to)
7. Confirmation as to what you have setup in your Router if changes have been made

It would be best if you did this stuff first.
Im happy to set you up remotely if you still need it after that - no recompense needed.