A few questions before I decide to go for it

[FlawedLogic]

Hello,

I'm new to the boards, and to the online tabletop experience as a whole. I've had basically the same regular face-to-face D&D group for 4+ years, and a few of us are about to move away and scatter across the Eastern time zone. :( So we're looking at our options for bringing the game online in order to stick together.

I've been doing some research, and it appears that FantasyGrounds and Klooge.werks are the two most recommended of the online tabletop apps currently available. My group is leaning towards FantasyGrounds, but I have some concerns that I'd like to get responses to before we actually begin to make any purchases:

1.) I've heard that FantasyGrounds has some connectivity issues that might become prohibitive. If I were to host a game on a cable or DSL connection, how many players (also on broadband) could I REALISTICALLY expect to have join the game without things becoming frustrating? Please be critical/pessimistic here, if necessary.

2.) I've also heard that some complications arise when two players who are behind the same router connect to a game outside their LAN. At least one part of my group consists of a soon-to-be-married couple who will most certainly be in that situation. We're all pretty well-versed in network configuration, but would this present a problem anyway?

3.) I've tinkered with the demo version a good deal, but I'm not sure how exactly the dice roller works for more complex rolls. For instance, is there any way to quickly and easily roll damage for a "Flaming +2 Longsword with a +2 Strength bonus", without having to remember to hit a hotkey for "+2 Enhancement bonus" "+2 Strength bonus", then roll all the dice, then add everything up? Is it possible to set the entire dealy to a single hotkey, and have it label which damage is physical and which is Fire?

4.) We'll be using Ventrilo (likely hosted on a non-player, non-DM server) for our game. Will this affect performance?


I'll probably have more questions soon, but those are all that come to me at the moment. Thanks for your help!

[FlawedLogic]

Oh! Another one!

The /whisper system is nice for communication between player and DM, but is there any way for a player to /whisper to another PLAYER? There are occasions in which it will be necessary for our group.

[gurney9999]

Welcome FL!

1. and 2. I'll let others respond to this in greater detail, as I am not an expert on the subject. For me, however: I am behind DSL and a router and I have never had any problems connecting to a game. When hosting a game I bypass my router, connecting to my modem directly. I'm sure I could have worked through the hosting issue from behind the router but I'm not a super-user when it comes to modifying router settings (actually, let me change that. I'm great at editing router settings. I just can't seem to make things actually work :) ). In any case, I've never had issues other than that.

3. There are two elements associated with a hotkey, the 'code' (for lack of a better term) and the 'label'. Your label can be "To Hit: Flaming +2 sword +2 Strength" but the modifier underneath is +4.

4. I've not used ventrilo with FG but I have used Teamspeak and there have been no issues with performance for me.

5. No whispering between players... but if you are using ventrilo you can handle whispering between players there, right?

[Cantstanzya]

1.) I've heard that FantasyGrounds has some connectivity issues that might become prohibitive. If I were to host a game on a cable or DSL connection, how many players (also on broadband) could I REALISTICALLY expect to have join the game without things becoming frustrating? Please be critical/pessimistic here, if necessary.
99% of the people with conectivity issues has to do blocked ports, whether it be from a hardware or software firewall. In my opinion you cannot fault FG for this because it is just a matter of people not understanding their network setup. If a port is blocked people outside the host will never see them. What I suggest is have everyone install the demo and have users try to connect. If the demo works then the purchased product will work.



2.) I've also heard that some complications arise when two players who are behind the same router connect to a game outside their LAN. At least one part of my group consists of a soon-to-be-married couple who will most certainly be in that situation. We're all pretty well-versed in network configuration, but would this present a problem anyway?

For some reason this topic comes up alot and I just don't see it as a problem as long as you set it up right. Here is my setup. I am the DM and have my two kids behind the router. They use my internal IP address to connect, ie 192.168.1.103. Two people outside my router that live 10 miles away in the same building behind their firewall both use the alias. I then have two people in the same house 600 miles away also using the same alias. I have been running like this for a year and a half without problem.



3.) I've tinkered with the demo version a good deal, but I'm not sure how exactly the dice roller works for more complex rolls. For instance, is there any way to quickly and easily roll damage for a "Flaming +2 Longsword with a +2 Strength bonus", without having to remember to hit a hotkey for "+2 Enhancement bonus" "+2 Strength bonus", then roll all the dice, then add everything up? Is it possible to set the entire dealy to a single hotkey, and have it label which damage is physical and which is Fire?

Rumor has it that in the new version there will be a dice cup that will allow you to mix dice in the same roll and hopefully do what you want


4.) We'll be using Ventrilo (likely hosted on a non-player, non-DM server) for our game. Will this affect performance?

We use vent as well. We have had up to 7 people in FG and vent at the same time without any problems other than people talking over one another. I prefer it to have all in character stuff typed, and all out of character stuff voiced through vent.

[Griogre]

1.) I've heard that FantasyGrounds has some connectivity issues that might become prohibitive. If I were to host a game on a cable or DSL connection, how many players (also on broadband) could I REALISTICALLY expect to have join the game without things becoming frustrating? Please be critical/pessimistic here, if necessary.

Cantstanzya nailed it. Most problems are people not having their port open or forwarded properly. Unfortunatly, the Game Master *has* to do this - and sometimes the Game Master is not that familiar with how to do this or how his network, router and security software are setup.

There is really only one case where a person can not host and that is when he is behind his ISP's firewall and they will not open a port for him. This type of setup is fairly rare except inside something like a city wide wireless network which is used to connect to the Internet.

I also strongly agree with Cantstanzya about using the demo to test connectivety - if you can connect using the demo you can connect using the full version.


2.) I've also heard that some complications arise when two players who are behind the same router connect to a game outside their LAN. At least one part of my group consists of a soon-to-be-married couple who will most certainly be in that situation. We're all pretty well-versed in network configuration, but would this present a problem anyway?

This really should not be a problem. The only complication is when the Gamemaster is on the same LAN as some player(s). That just means the local player(s) should connect using the local IP of the Gamemaster.


3.) I've tinkered with the demo version a good deal, but I'm not sure how exactly the dice roller works for more complex rolls. For instance, is there any way to quickly and easily roll damage for a "Flaming +2 Longsword with a +2 Strength bonus", without having to remember to hit a hotkey for "+2 Enhancement bonus" "+2 Strength bonus", then roll all the dice, then add everything up? Is it possible to set the entire dealy to a single hotkey, and have it label which damage is physical and which is Fire?

Using you example, yes this is easy to do. You would drag the +2 St bonus to the modifier box and then the +2 enhancment bonus to the modifier box. Then drag the modifier box down to a hot key. When ever you now press the hotkey you just made it will list both modifiers. What FG does not do roll two different types of damage dies at once. IE if you have to roll a 1d6 for Fire Damage and 1d8 for normal damage you can not do this in one roll, you have to make two seperate rolls/hotkeys.


4.) We'll be using Ventrilo (likely hosted on a non-player, non-DM server) for our game. Will this affect performance?

Depends on the bandwith of the people involved. Probably not in a small group. Voice programs can use a great deal of bandwith. Vent uses a good sounding codex that requires more bandwidth. With the server arangement you mentioned I doubt you would have much problem except when the DM also sending lots of data to the players. I use Teamspeak with my group because I have a dial up player and can use a less bandwidth using codex. I have played a game with Vent and 5 people and the DM. The only stuttering happend when the DM was sending us a large map without preloading.


The /whisper system is nice for communication between player and DM, but is there any way for a player to /whisper to another PLAYER? There are occasions in which it will be necessary for our group.

There isn't a way for a players to whisper to each other in FG. They may be able to share notes with just one other player but I'm not sure on this.

[Jingo]

3.) I've tinkered with the demo version a good deal, but I'm not sure how exactly the dice roller works for more complex rolls. For instance, is there any way to quickly and easily roll damage for a "Flaming +2 Longsword with a +2 Strength bonus", without having to remember to hit a hotkey for "+2 Enhancement bonus" "+2 Strength bonus", then roll all the dice, then add everything up? Is it possible to set the entire dealy to a single hotkey, and have it label which damage is physical and which is Fire?


I found a way to do something similar to this. It takes a little bit to set up but once you have it, it works fine. I don't know why they made it so difficult to put more complex rolls and such into FG quickslots, but here's how I did it: Open the char sheet, and on a blank damage slot for weapon type "/die 1d8+4 Flaming Long Sword Damage" (without the quotes). Drag this down into a quick slot and it'll automatically appear in a chat when you click on it. Right-click on the quickslot to modify its label to something more informative.

Good luck. And as to whether you choose FG or Klooge... ummm get both! That's what I did, since I couldn't decide. :D

[richvalle]

I found a way to do something similar to this. It takes a little bit to set up but once you have it, it works fine. I don't know why they made it so difficult to put more complex rolls and such into FG quickslots, but here's how I did it: Open the char sheet, and on a blank damage slot for weapon type "/die 1d8+4 Flaming Long Sword Damage" (without the quotes). Drag this down into a quick slot and it'll automatically appear in a chat when you click on it. Right-click on the quickslot to modify its label to something more informative.

Good luck. And as to whether you choose FG or Klooge... ummm get both! That's what I did, since I couldn't decide. :D

You can type the same sort of thing into the chat box and then drag it (before hitting enter) into a quickslot.

Another way to do this sort of thing is to put your modifiers into the quick slots and then roll the die. So you could have a quick slot for BAB +5, +2 Flank, +2 Bulls Strength. Roll the die and you'll get something like 15 BAB+5, +2 Flank, +2 Bulls Strength.

rv

[Jingo]

You can type the same sort of thing into the chat box and then drag it (before hitting enter) into a quickslot.
rv

Huh! Sweet! I could have sworn I tried that when I first got the software and it didn't seem to work and so I came up with my convoluted way of adding it into the quick slot. But your right, it works. Thanks.