A Few (Infrequently?) Asked Questions About FG

[Randolin]

Hi folks. Hopefully I'm not bothering anyone with obvious questions, but I didn't see these answered in the FAQ or in the first few pages of posts.

I'm looking at picking up FGUnity for a campaign I'm about to start with some friends and family. I don't have any FG products yet. I have lots of experience with Roll20 and Tabletop Simulator.

If I own the Ultimate edition and the rest of my crew is using the Free version, do I have to be the one who GMs or can I host a server and hand over the wheel? One of the other players wants to run this specific campaign, but I'm the one with the money and would rather buy it for my own use later. He'd just as soon use Roll20, but I was looking for an upgrade as long as I can facilitate the rest of the players without their buy-in.

If I buy the current, non-Steam FGU version will I be eligible for a Steam code later with my same license? I use Steam all the time and I'd really like to have it in my collection, along with DLC store and Workshop and friends lists, etc. But I'm not interested in FGClassic, and I'm similarly not interested in waiting an indeterminate amount of time for the Steam release. We're probably starting our campaign within a week or so, and if I don't convince people to start with FG then that ship will probably sail. I suppose I could just pay for a month subscription to get started off Steam, but.. Just seems like wasted money if I'm ready to buy the whole thing.

I'm also a bit unclear on which of the D&D 5e products are packaged with the Ultimate edition. A lot of sites out there have a limited set of "Open" content from Wizards for 5e. Even their own character builder tool only has one of each subclass and a single feat. I own the hard copy books, so I can always add the details myself and this is a minor detail. But does FGU Ultimate come with everything from the PHB ready to go? Sword Coast races/classes? Etc? I expect I'd have to buy the adventure modules, no biggie.

Anyway, thanks for your time reading and/or answering this.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi Randolin welcome to FG

The license holder is always the host and you cannot hand over the reins to another player. Anyone who wants to host a game must own a license.

Yes, if you have Ultimate then your players only need the demo version.

No content other than the free Basic Rules and the SRD come with any license. All DLC is a separate purchase. More info here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?32987-What-do-I-need-to-play-5e

Once FGU releases on Steam you will be able to add your key to Steam. Note that FGU doesn't run via Steam, there is nothing in the Workshop for FG and you cannot invite friends to play via Steam and all of the DLC is available via the store as well as Steam; so there is no real benefit from adding it to Steam per se.

[Randolin]

Hi Zacchaeus,

Just wanted to say thanks for such a swift and thorough reply!
I'm afraid that due to the first point, this might not be the right tool for this campaign my buddy wants to run. But I will definitely keep FGU in mind for the next one I run.

Cheers!

[Imagix]

If the licensing is the only drawback, there's a couple of options:
1) If there are only one or two people who will GM, each can buy an Ultimate license.
2) If there are too many people who will GM, then every player could buy a Standard license.
3) If it is going to be you doing the GM, but the other person will be GMing for one or two sessions, then a subscription to the Ultimate license might be better.

Having said that, the purchase of the books and such might be a problem, since those are all shared from the GM out to everyone else.

[Magnimost]

We're overdue an optional FGU Group/Guild license, where a gaming group can have as many GMs as they desire.

[damned]

We're overdue an optional FGU Group/Guild license, where a gaming group can have as many GMs as they desire.

Like that wouldnt be abused.

[LordEntrails]

Like that wouldnt be abused.
I'm sure it wouldn't be abused if you gave it a price commensurate with it's possible value. They say D&D has 40 million fans, I don't know how may RPG players that includes, but perhaps if you say D&D have 50% of the RPG fans and have the D&D fans are RPG fans then maybe their are 40 million RPG fans.

So then all you have to do is take the price of a standard license, $40 and multiple it buy 40 million. Say $160 million for a Guild license, and another $160 million or so for each reference book, though you can adjust that for price.

Sound fair?

Guild licenses will never happen, let's not get into that, please!

(Just in case someone wants to debate, I wasn't serious about the price. But I was serious about not wanting to get into it!)

[Magnimost]

Like that wouldnt be abused.

I've requested this before a few times over the years, and every time I get a hand-wave response.

A more pertinent question should be: "what is the net effect on revenue, profit and market share from introducing a group license?"

Of course it will be abused. Group licenses would certainly introduce (new) ways to abuse the system. But it would also alleviate the pressure to abuse the (old) ways to abuse the system (if there are any). And it would capture more players, as currently any group with multiple GMs has a really tough decision between the limited choice of FG licenses, Roll20, that other VTT I can't recall right now, and just running through any video conferencing software, Twitch, or audio. SW has an uphill battle against the competition due to the very steep learning curve, so more competitive licensing would help with uptake.

There are robust plug-and-play license management solutions with tiered pricing, so it's not something SW would have to build from scratch. I can provide links if needed.

[damned]

Growing your business by building your market share in unprofitable ways, into unprofitable segments is what you do when you are playing with other peoples money (tech firms and VC).
VTTs are a niche part of a relatively small industry/market. And its a market where most players dont make enough money to do things full time.
When you are running a profitable business you dont run around looking for unprofitable avenues to turn to.

You talk about hand waving...

[LordEntrails]

If you want a guild license, all you have to do is approach Doug with enough money and I'm sure he will figure it out. But until you are talking real money, or you have done the market research to support a profitable answer to "what is the net effect on revenue, profit and market share from introducing a group license?" it seems like a bad business decision to spend limited resources on something that seems like a bad idea from the start.

And just because people don't think your idea is not a viable business decision does not mean they are being dismissive or hand-waving you off. As you said, we've had this discussion before and other than stating what you want, you really haven't given anyone any reason to think your idea would be a good business decision.

Finally, it's not that I don't think a guild or group license is an appealing idea for customers, I just don't think it's a wise business decision for SW. And if SW goes out of business because of bad decisions, then my favorite VTT stops getting developed and enhanced.

But, I've said more than I said I was going to say. So I'm going to try really hard to not engage any further.

[Magnimost]

And just because people don't think your idea is not a viable business decision does not mean they are being dismissive or hand-waving you off. As you said, we've had this discussion before and other than stating what you want, you really haven't given anyone any reason to think your idea would be a good business decision.

I did just that in my earlier post.

If you fail to see the upside, there's indeed no reason for either of us to engage further - especially since I don't know if I'm talking to a decision maker or a gatekeeper. I'd rather not spend my free time doing financial advising anyway, I do that for work.

Back to playing games.

[LordEntrails]

- especially since I don't know if I'm talking to a decision maker or a gatekeeper.
Neither. I don't know why you would think I would have either role. But I can assure you I don't.

[Neovirtus]

While I think there a number of legitimate business reasons (such as licensing issues and pure economics of group licensing), I think there is a solid case to be made for de-coupling the Host and GM role. From what I understand the real issue there is technical... FG would have to be completely rebuilt to achieve it, if I remember correctly. Of course, such a change inherently would lead to fewer potential sales, but then again I'm sure it would bring in more groups with rotating DM's, and groups like mine would spend more knowing that anyone could GM with all our content under one Host Account. While I'm sure the current license agreements wouldn't accommodate such a change, I think it is inherently "fair."

[GavinRuneblade]

While I think there a number of legitimate business reasons (such as licensing issues and pure economics of group licensing), I think there is a solid case to be made for de-coupling the Host and GM role. From what I understand the real issue there is technical... FG would have to be completely rebuilt to achieve it, if I remember correctly. Of course, such a change inherently would lead to fewer potential sales, but then again I'm sure it would bring in more groups with rotating DM's, and groups like mine would spend more knowing that anyone could GM with all our content under one Host Account. While I'm sure the current license agreements wouldn't accommodate such a change, I think it is inherently "fair."

This can sort of be achieved already with two people working in unison. Before I bought my ultimate license a friend had one. He hosted, I was on a free account. I told him what to do and ran the game as DM, he acted as my hands controlling the UI. The other players had the same experience. Now for him, he was seeing behind the DM screen the whole time, and didn't like the experience as much because of having too much meta knowledge he didn't want as a player, he's much happier now that I have my ultimate license and act as both host and DM. But it is a doable setup.

With some extensions granting more control to players it could be even more doable. The hardest part is sharing the books, but this is less an issue for people who use a lot of homebrew content.

[Fear Grounds]

We're overdue an optional FGU Group/Guild license, where a gaming group can have as many GMs as they desire.

You can't play a video game, online with your friends, unless they own the same game. How is this any different?

Instead of group licensing, everyone just get the standard license instead of ultimate. That way anyone in the group can host/GM and it's only $4 a month. The SRD data that comes free of charge for the most popular systems, is more than enough to run games. Yeah, you may have to enter some info yourself, but that's pretty normal for the GM who makes things up. If playing an official campaign or adventure is what you are after, you'll be quite surprised by how little data you have to enter in order to run it from the SRDs.


Every player does not need the campaign/adventure book. As GM, just get the extras you need to run your story. With the multitude of extensions, maps, tables, races, backgrounds, etc available; there really is no limit to what you can add.

That being said, if you want all the bells and whistles, then you are going to have to sit down and put in the time to enter it all. If you already own the book, then you can copy the information you need into fantasy grounds(classic or unity), but it's going to take time and effort. If you don't have the time or patience to do it yourself, that's why they sell them made already. We have the option to pay for someone else doing all the work in converting the books for us, and making it look/work great too.

[esmdev]

Another consideration to the 5E DLC between FG and Roll20 is cost vs. content. FG content and R20 content is generally equivalent but in some cases FG enhances their offerings (such as Dragon Heist where FG provides free enhanced maps). On the other hand, FG is considerably less money per pack. Items which cost 49.95 on R20 marketplace cost 29.99 in FG store for the same thing. I don't know for sure but I don't think you can legally swap licensed packs on R20 between different people either.

So in the long run people who use R20 are paying more for the same content. With FG you could pay off an ultimate license with the savings from the purchase of several DLCs or could fully outfit 3 DMs for just a little more than the price of 2 on R20. Plus sales on FG store run weekly and rotate so you could save even more with some patience.