Fantasy Grounds Newbie Questions

[ozmar]

Hello,

I'm checking out this product. It looks pretty cool, but despite all the manuals, wikis, videos and demos, I still find myself struggling with understanding some basics.

I just downloaded and installed the standard classic edition, version 3.3 off Steam. (It's on sale.)

Question 1: Is there sound? I see demos where they roll the dice and it makes a dice-rolling sound. Is that an option to enable? And if so, how do I find it?


Thanks in advance for any assistance.
-Ozmar the Newbie GM

[LordEntrails]

Nope. Sorry, no sound native sound except for a "turn bell". The videos you have seen are probably people using one of the community sound extensions. Their are two you can look into; "MK Sound" and "Audio Overseer".

Personally I would say don't start using any community extensions until you have the basics of FG down solid. Then you can start adding things as you need them.

[ozmar]

Thanks! :(

I'll definitely look into those, but will also take your advice and try to learn how to use this tool first. It seems like it has a lot of utility, but also has a learning curve to overcome.

-Ozmar the Student

[LordEntrails]

www.fantasygroundscollege.net.
Free classes if you prefer a demo/discussion format over a video or manual way to learn :)

[dalebert]

Newb here too. Since I've heard good things about it, I kind of plunged right in and bought the basic license and also licenses to the bundle of 5.0 source books. Now I realize I'm clueless about how to get started.

I offered to run a game for some friends this Friday and quickly realized that's way too ambitious of a way to start. Would it make sense to try to make a character and find a game to play in first? Does anyone know of good tutorials they would recommend?

[LordEntrails]

@dalebert be brave, don't climb out of the water now!!

What resources have you looked at so far? The Tutorial campaign? The manual? YouTube videos? How about a free class at FG College?

What you can also do is to jump on one of the Discord (FG or FGC) and see who's around to help answer questions.

Also, take something like one of the fights from whatever module you have and see about running the combat with pre-gens etc. You can run a second instance of FG on your computer an then walk through how it works from a player and DM perspectives.

[ozmar]

Ok, so I am working on trying stuff out using the Pathfinder basic rules that came with the tool.

Question #2: I created a party of PCs to try to sketch out an encounter and practice running it. I created a druid. How do I create a druid's animal companion and add it to the stable of PCs so I can include it in the encounter? Ideally, I'd like it linked to the PC so the player can manage it.

Thanks!
-Ozmar the Animal Wrangler

[Zacchaeus]

Ok, so I am working on trying stuff out using the Pathfinder basic rules that came with the tool.

Question #2: I created a party of PCs to try to sketch out an encounter and practice running it. I created a druid. How do I create a druid's animal companion and add it to the stable of PCs so I can include it in the encounter? Ideally, I'd like it linked to the PC so the player can manage it.

Thanks!
-Ozmar the Animal Wrangler

You have two choices for animal companions. The first is to create it as a PC and it can be controlled by the player. The second is to get an NPC and put it on the combat tracker. make it friendly and then drag it from the CT and drop it onto the player's portrait. The player then can control that NPC. However whilst they can use all the NPCs attacks and abilities etc they can't edit it in any way.

[Willot]

Wouldnt hurt for the player to drag the NPC link down to the shortcut bar for easy access too.

[ozmar]

You have two choices for animal companions. The first is to create it as a PC and it can be controlled by the player. The second is to get an NPC and put it on the combat tracker. make it friendly and then drag it from the CT and drop it onto the player's portrait. The player then can control that NPC. However whilst they can use all the NPCs attacks and abilities etc they can't edit it in any way.

I tried that, but... for example, the druid can select a small bear as a companion at level 1. The NPCs list only has bears from the core rules which includes a large bear, but not a small bear.

I wonder about creating it as another PC? I suppose I'd have to finely select all the details. Or is there a "small bear" race or an "animal companion" class option?

[LordEntrails]

No small bear race or class. You could create one, but I wouldn't bother. Take the large bear available in FG, drag it a short ways and drop it back onto the NPC list. Open it, click the unlock icon and change it to reflect the stats of a small bear and change it's name. Then share as mentioned by Mr. Z.

[ozmar]

No small bear race or class. You could create one, but I wouldn't bother. Take the large bear available in FG, drag it a short ways and drop it back onto the NPC list. Open it, click the unlock icon and change it to reflect the stats of a small bear and change it's name. Then share as mentioned by Mr. Z.

Ah... that is a really good idea. Thanks!

I think a big part of this for me will be learning what I can do with what the tool provides and what I still need to do "for myself". I want to take advantage of the cool stuff it has, but I'm still not sure what all that is yet.

-Ozmar the Flexible

[LordEntrails]

Have we recommended FGCollege to you yet? The 'problem' with FG is its so powerful you can get caught up in doing more and more. Not that this isn't one of the core things, but stay focused on 'minimal viable product' (if any of you are into Agile!) and start with just what you need. Then do more and more as you learn.

FG is very powerful, just don't let it drag you down a rabbit hole :)

[JohnD]

Don't try to swallow the whole sandwich in one bite. Take small bites, chew, swallow and then once you have that bit down, add something more.

FG really is that full featured and powerful of a tool for facilitating online gaming... just like any tool or software package that gives the user significant capabilities, there is a learning curve.

Welcome... stick with it - you won't be sorry.

[ozmar]

Thanks for the encouragement!

-Ozmar the Agile DM