Potential Interested Buyer / D20 Newbie with possibly very stupid questions.

[Roastbeef]

Greetings everyone and thank you in advance for enduring the following stupid questions!

I am very much interested in purchasing Fantasy Grounds because I have little to no experience with any D20 systems and I figure having this system would aid me in coming to grips with the D20 mechanics. Sure, reading through the books is one thing, but unless you actually play and go through the steps / phases it's not immediately intuitive with regards to what comes in play and when.

For the record, I am more interested in Pathfinder 1 and 2 as I feel these systems allow for the most customization when it comes to character creation (I am willing to suffer and learn the more complex system because as a player and potential GM - DM, I would rather have a system that is more complex).
Probably 1st edition because there is just a ton of released material that players and GMs alike can draw from in their campaigns. I am looking at second edition, but I would rather wait until a few more books and supplements come out to have the game feel more rounded in terms of options and the like.

1) I guess that my first question is whether or not Fantasy Grounds can be used as an automated system that would guide a beginner through most of the phases and steps of the game (especially when it comes to combat). I understand (from videos I've been through on youtube and from user explanations I've read through) that the system doesn't automatically run the system for you and requires prompts and inputs from the DM or players to go along with the various phases of the game. Nonetheless, I feel that this is a good tool to practice combat and getting accustomed to the different phases of combat, other rules and when to roll and why to roll.

Am I wrong to assume this? Unfortunately, I just do not have anyone in my social entourage who is into pen & paper roleplaying games and learning first hand from a tutor isn't a viable option.

2) Since almost all of my RPG experience is with World of Darkness - Vampire the Masquerade (old school - classical WOD games really) and is over the internet in e-mail / play by post games, what are the official facts on being able to input manual die rolls? I'm getting conflicting information and facts on just what Fantasy Grounds has to offer on this option; some say that that it is possible and is already an option in the software, some say that it will be possible in a future update - rendition of the game (unity perhaps?), some say further scripts need to be added on the part of the user, some say that you need to play around with the dice roll results, some say you need to have rolls first aimed at NPCs or monsters (dummy rolls) and then edit them and add the result etc etc.... I've bee googling the hell out of this feature (as to whether or not it is even possible with the software) and I get newer and older posts on the forum stating contradicting facts on the feature.

I intend on playing by post - e-mail sessions as I have already done for most of my life as for me, there is no greater immersion than involving good fiction writing on the part of both players / GMs in rpgs. I've actually tried one live table top session with D&D 3.5 waaaaaay back in the day and I was turned off as all of the other players just played it as a beer and pretzels hack n' slash, let's do silly things 'game' and didn't really get into character (basically, Bob the Halfing and such..not my cup of tea). I feel that live sessions are not very immersive as you can spend 5 minutes talking about or describing the inner turmoil of your character as he/she/it? contemplates stabbing someone from behind etc...every thing is very basic and to the point.

Anyways, this is a real deal breaker (being able to use die rolls manually) for me either way on whether or not I intend on purchasing the software and the Pathfinder collection that is needed to run my campaigns. If I can't add die rolls from the forums I am active on, I may have to reconsider the worth of Fantasy Grounds to me.
I would like to use this software to prepare - run games and basically use screenshots to handle combat situations, maps and the like.

3) What is the deal with this new Unity system? If I buy the classic Fantasy Grounds, do I have to buy Unity when it comes out full fleshed out and ready for action at some later date? Should I wait for unity as it seems to be a beefier Fantasy Grounds with more bells and whistles? As an already classic Fantasy Grounds user, do you get the free upgrade / do you have pay the difference for access to that software as well?

Please advise.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Fear Grounds]

1) Yes fantasy grounds can used to help you learn a ruleset. Each ruleset contains all the documentation to explain why thing are done, in an easy to use reference document that is always available to you in game. I find this document to be much easier to search and reference than a PDF version of the rules document. But, it's just my opinion. Not to mention, these forums are full of people that are willing to help you learn.

2) If you open the options (gears in the top right corner) menu of any game that you are running, the second option in the list is "Dice: Manual entry" if you turn this on, then every roll can be manually entered. So play by post is easily handled by Fantasy Grounds Classic and Unity both.

3) Unity is not going to be free to established users, you do however get a discount on Unity if you already have a Classic License. (Standard to Standard, Ultimate to Ultimate). Unity is packed with all kinds of visual upgrades including line of sight for players, map building, fog of war, and effects on images. It is going to be a great tool for GM's once it is done, as it is already a huge help in beta. That being said, some upgrades and features, will be lost if playing by post. Moving images don't move in screen captures. Line of sight/fog of war could still be used on maps, but splitting the party would require multiple versions of the same map to be shared.

If I were intending on staying with the play by post format, I would stay with a Standard Classic License personally.

I use Classic for VTM V5 and it works perfectly. I use Unity and Classic in various D&D games, and find that both of these work well.

The Unity features really shine in combat heavy games, but are not necessarily going to be used in story heavy settings. Don't get me wrong you can always find a reason for maps and pictures, but that kinda goes against theater of the mind too. Either system(Classic or Unity) is easily going to be able to help you run your games.

[Roastbeef]

Greetings Fear Grounds,

Thank you very much for your time and help!

Much appreciated!

[damned]

Fantasy Grounds doesnt really have any real support for PbP/PbE
It makes running the game much easier for the GM but it doesnt offer any specific service/services for PbP
Ive played in PbP games where the GM managed the game in FG but we interacted through OneNote or Google Docs and the GM perfomed actions in FG and pasted screenshots - eg battle maps - to the shared doc.
Having players log in to to do one action and then waiting for another player to do theirs will be cumbersome on FG I think.

[Roastbeef]

Thank you for the reply as well damned.

Actually, I was thinking more so along the lines of using FG as an organizer for my campaign (at some point when I am much more comfortable with the base rules of course) and to help me out when bumbling around with the rules when I start getting into the Pathfinder system. I mean, just looking at how easy it makes handling maps (to sequence your areas - keep track of planned encounters), NPCs for a campaign (just click and drag down monsters, races, archetypes to set up the stats etc), items / weapons and keeping track of character sheets for players involved in your game is a plus right there. I certainly hear what you're saying though and I fully understand that this is not something designed specifically as just a sorting / organizing tool for would be GMs wanting to use mediums outside the hosting option.

I was thinking of just using screenshots of a battle map / tokens for each combat encounter and then posting those to the forums. Then having players communicate their actions - movements (on the pbp forums), dice rolls and I input that into FG, get the results and rinse and repeat (send another screenshot of what is happening on the battle map etc). Basically, the players would never have to log into the game, I would enter their character actions / dice rolls into FG after they are communicated to me and manage changes to their sheets, their token movements on the battle map etc. I would basically manage all the mechanics within FG and then provide a play by play back to the players for the next round (with a fresh screen shot of the battle map for next turn).
I imagine the person with the FG licence can totally manage an entire campaign or battle (controlling PCs and NPCs and all mechanics) just by themselves? This would be akin to running a few battles and rolling dice while not hosting.
Is this possible?

I think that FG should certainly consider adding some offline - non hosting options in future renditions of their game for the pbp - pbe crowd.
I do believe that this would grow their customer base.

[damned]

FGs record management and combat management is excellent.
And the source books etc are all built for the platform and they do that very well.

It would likely work well for that then. The games I played in that did that worked quite well.

The other PbP platform I have used is TavernKeeper.

[Roastbeef]

Thanks again damned! I do think that I will be getting started in the very near future.

[GavinRuneblade]

Thank you for the reply as well damned.

Actually, I was thinking more so along the lines of using FG as an organizer for my campaign (at some point when I am much more comfortable with the base rules of course) and to help me out when bumbling around with the rules when I start getting into the Pathfinder system. I mean, just looking at how easy it makes handling maps (to sequence your areas - keep track of planned encounters), NPCs for a campaign (just click and drag down monsters, races, archetypes to set up the stats etc), items / weapons and keeping track of character sheets for players involved in your game is a plus right there. I certainly hear what you're saying though and I fully understand that this is not something designed specifically as just a sorting / organizing tool for would be GMs wanting to use mediums outside the hosting option.

I was thinking of just using screenshots of a battle map / tokens for each combat encounter and then posting those to the forums. Then having players communicate their actions - movements (on the pbp forums), dice rolls and I input that into FG, get the results and rinse and repeat (send another screenshot of what is happening on the battle map etc). Basically, the players would never have to log into the game, I would enter their character actions / dice rolls into FG after they are communicated to me and manage changes to their sheets, their token movements on the battle map etc. I would basically manage all the mechanics within FG and then provide a play by play back to the players for the next round (with a fresh screen shot of the battle map for next turn).
I imagine the person with the FG licence can totally manage an entire campaign or battle (controlling PCs and NPCs and all mechanics) just by themselves? This would be akin to running a few battles and rolling dice while not hosting.
Is this possible?

I think that FG should certainly consider adding some offline - non hosting options in future renditions of their game for the pbp - pbe crowd.
I do believe that this would grow their customer base.

I use FG as my primary note taking tool. The way you can drag and drop art, maps, NPCs, spells, loot, encounters, etc all into each other is just amazing. Having a map with pins that link to the relevant story entry and each NPC has a link to their full writeup and stats and in that stat block is the full mechanics of the ability... massively useful for DMing, but also an equally massive time saver for prep and planning and worldbuilding.

For Play by Post, It already does copy/paste and that's all I need. I haven't run a PBP/PBE game in years but when I did I used word docs to manage it, and FG does all of the same those did plus more. I don't think adding more tools for PBP/PBE would really improve the experience. What might be a win-win though are tools for more functional "player sets up their turn and DM triggers it to resolve". An ability to pre-load "move then cast" for example, would be useful live but also could be used for PBP/PBE. That has a better chance of being implemented because it is an improvement to the core function, and play experience, but also as a side effect opens a new form of playerbase.