Does each player need a license?

[Drachenfurz]

Hi everyone.

I am new to this board and I am quite interested in FG. I just tried the Search function but to be honest: I did not find the answer to my question within 10 minutes, so I decided to ask it here. I hope you can help me with that:

Due to the fact, that I recently moved and left my old roleplay group behind, I would like to know if there is a NEED for each player to purchase the program or not. Does only the DM need it or does each player have to purchase a license? The problem is that most of my players are not able to buy a license.

I understand, that each player can buy a license, but I do not know if it is neccessary.

Thanks in advance for your help
Patrick

[Elf]

The DM has to purchase a Full licence and each player has to have at least a Lite licence. The current prices are:
Full licence: $34.95
Lite licence: $19.95

Note that if you buy in bulk (ie a gaming group at once, there is a discount). Here is the link.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/

[Drachenfurz]

Thank you very much for the quick reply. I will check what my former group says to this kind of roleplay.

[skybluerob]

If you like roleplaying games, you will more than get your moneys worth.

[sunbeam60]

Yup, definitely go for it guys! We've got a great community here and when you factor in the time you spend in FG, it's basically cheaper than, well, everything else.

And with a price like that, how can you _not_ buy FG? :) Makes sense to me...

[Drachenfurz]

First of all: Thank you for your replies. They answered my question.

But I have another one. I hope you can answer it aswell:

I did not quite understand the thing with the rulebooks. I think it will be the best if I tell you, what I have in mind, then you can tell me if it makes sense to buy FG:

I would like to play some AD&D 2nd Ed. campaigns with my former group. Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Birthright whatever. If we say that I have a license and my players aswell, is it possible to play it?
If yes: How much work is it, to implement the 2nd Ed. rules? Is there a ruleset for the 2nd Ed. already available?

I do not want to change the system (quite expensive to buy new books). Furthermore: I do not want to spend too much time with implementing the rules if it makes no sense.

I hope you can answer the question aswell.

Greets
Patrick

[joshuha]

Well there is a 2nd edition ruleset and character sheet floating around, however these aren't official like the d20 system that is included. That means this was done by an individual and may require modification to suit your needs.

Modifying a ruleset isn't difficult as XML is not much different than say HTML or even forum BB code tags. It just depends on how much you want FG to do. You want every reference table and page of a book in FG then that will take awhile from scratch. You just want the character sheet and maybe a couple of frequently used combat rules then that will be able to be done in a weekend.

[Griogre]

First the important thing to realize is that rulesets are nice but not required. I.E. you can play AD&D without any special ruleset. What Fantasy Grounds gives you is a chat window to talk and share die rolls. It gives you a map function that allows you to use as a battlemap. It also gives you tokens to move around the battlemap. If you and your group have the rulebooks you are set.

What is a ruleset then? It is mostly reference materials that you can use to look up stuff inside of Fantasy Grounds so you don't need to use your books. Probably the most important thing in the ruleset is the character sheets, however because you are playing AD&D you could get by with the d20 character sheets.

So, in summary FG is the table, dice, battlemap and minitures. In addition it allows you to talk through the chat feature (though I do recommend using voice software to speed combat). A ruleset is all that reference matereal on your DM Screen, the PH, DMG and Monster Manuels. It is also the character sheets. If you and your group already have the referances then you could get by with a minimal or no ruleset. There is no reason you could not start playing and add a ruleset later, either - though you may have to re-input data into a character sheet.

[Jingo]

Yep. Griogre is correct. It's entirely possible to play right off the bat with what FG offers you (shared dice rolls and chat window). In fact, we went this route in a custom RPG that one of my players created. It didn't have anything to do with the default d20 ruleset that FG provides, other than it uses some of the same dice. And he actually GM'd from his lite license... Not easily, but he managed it. We ended up keeping track of character sheets in shared Notes and of course die rolls from the DM were visible all the time, but it worked out. We ended up having *a lot* of fun. He has since purchased the full version and has started his own ruleset, creating his own char sheets etc. Happy gaming!