Celban
April 3rd, 2007, 15:49
Greetings
I have been playing RPG's since the early 80's. It has been all tabletop, or face to face type gaming. Lately we play d20, MERP and more recently, a game of CoC seems to be gaining interest
I have been looking around for a software to improve our gaming capabilities.
I have a two computer LAN, with one of them SVGA output to a HDTV screen.
I use Campaign Cartographer and/or CorelDRAW at the game sessions to move graphics "tokens" around on a background "map" to replace the hex mat and pen & paper setup we have been used to.
For the most part, this works and we have pretty much gone paperless gaming for my games.
The one big problem I have with this setup is that there is no way to control the fog of war, other than overlaying polygons over what I dont want exposed, and then switching layers on and off, which no doubt is a PITA remembering which layers and getting it all setup is an additional chore I dont relish
Another problem is that each time I want to pull up notes or anything not for the players to see, I have to switch off the TV until I am done. I would like to keep my notes readily available at all times
So, looking at FG apparantly there are these abilities built in
So I have a few questions before I decide to purchase
1) Is there a ruleset available for MERP and CoC?
2) In a face-to-face MERP or CoC game, if we handle our own rule mechanics as we always have, I take it FG can still be used for the purpose of map exploration without all the ruleset coding? (I dont have time or inclination to learn how to code these, though I wouldnt mind paying fair price for that code if it makes the FG "game" more practical)
3) What disadvantages would I suffer for not having the appropriate rulesets and had to manage my own game mechanics? (other than the obvious)
.. a) In a face-to-face game
.. b) In an online game
4) Can FG be used in a "local" network setting, ie... we will not be connected to the Internet at all for game sessions.
So maps, tokens etc etc would have to be stored locally. I tried installng two demo clients on my network to playtest and it seemed to work ok, but I was connected to the internet, and wasnt sure if FG needs to go to the net for things I am not fully aware of. I didnt think of unplugging the internet until I started this post
5) I have a plain-jane utility I coded in VB that handles a variety of MERP related tasks. The output of the various functions can be sent to the clipboard. Can I send/paste the output of my utility from the clipboard into FG to output to the player client(s)?
6) When creating campaigns, are the campaigns modularized, or umm.. embedded into a single large package, or are the campaign's assets retianed in their original form?
7) When I create new content for a campaign, do I have to transfer content to the player client, or is that all transmitted automatically?
8) I store all of my campaign data on an external HDD. I have a backup drive with identical copy of all my game data, so if there is a critical failure of a system, be it computer or primary HDD I am covered.
How does the license system work, and will it allow me to run my games from my HDD no matter what happens to the "host" computer? ie if a computer fails in the middle of a game session, I want to be able to plugin to a different computer and keep right on with the game.
Also, can my FG campaign be stored on my external HDD, and browsed to from FG
9) What is the largest map size FG will support? I have seen 50pix per cell, as a fairly standard size. We are not so much interested in amazing graphical quality as we are in display and information control.
So how many cells wide and across are optimal? What if I had a sprawling castle fortress complex of *arbitrary* 2000ft x 2000ft, (or even greater), how would one of you experienced users deal with this problem?
10) Can FG do hexes? I couldnt figure out how to do hexes in the DEMO
11) Once the overlay mask is "painted" clear to reveal whats underneath, other than resetting the entire map, can a mask be "repainted" in particular areas?
12) Are pointers a sort of a light source? Why do they affect the grid? Why do they only affect the map when grid is on but not when grid is off?
Thats all for now
Thanks in Advance
I have been playing RPG's since the early 80's. It has been all tabletop, or face to face type gaming. Lately we play d20, MERP and more recently, a game of CoC seems to be gaining interest
I have been looking around for a software to improve our gaming capabilities.
I have a two computer LAN, with one of them SVGA output to a HDTV screen.
I use Campaign Cartographer and/or CorelDRAW at the game sessions to move graphics "tokens" around on a background "map" to replace the hex mat and pen & paper setup we have been used to.
For the most part, this works and we have pretty much gone paperless gaming for my games.
The one big problem I have with this setup is that there is no way to control the fog of war, other than overlaying polygons over what I dont want exposed, and then switching layers on and off, which no doubt is a PITA remembering which layers and getting it all setup is an additional chore I dont relish
Another problem is that each time I want to pull up notes or anything not for the players to see, I have to switch off the TV until I am done. I would like to keep my notes readily available at all times
So, looking at FG apparantly there are these abilities built in
So I have a few questions before I decide to purchase
1) Is there a ruleset available for MERP and CoC?
2) In a face-to-face MERP or CoC game, if we handle our own rule mechanics as we always have, I take it FG can still be used for the purpose of map exploration without all the ruleset coding? (I dont have time or inclination to learn how to code these, though I wouldnt mind paying fair price for that code if it makes the FG "game" more practical)
3) What disadvantages would I suffer for not having the appropriate rulesets and had to manage my own game mechanics? (other than the obvious)
.. a) In a face-to-face game
.. b) In an online game
4) Can FG be used in a "local" network setting, ie... we will not be connected to the Internet at all for game sessions.
So maps, tokens etc etc would have to be stored locally. I tried installng two demo clients on my network to playtest and it seemed to work ok, but I was connected to the internet, and wasnt sure if FG needs to go to the net for things I am not fully aware of. I didnt think of unplugging the internet until I started this post
5) I have a plain-jane utility I coded in VB that handles a variety of MERP related tasks. The output of the various functions can be sent to the clipboard. Can I send/paste the output of my utility from the clipboard into FG to output to the player client(s)?
6) When creating campaigns, are the campaigns modularized, or umm.. embedded into a single large package, or are the campaign's assets retianed in their original form?
7) When I create new content for a campaign, do I have to transfer content to the player client, or is that all transmitted automatically?
8) I store all of my campaign data on an external HDD. I have a backup drive with identical copy of all my game data, so if there is a critical failure of a system, be it computer or primary HDD I am covered.
How does the license system work, and will it allow me to run my games from my HDD no matter what happens to the "host" computer? ie if a computer fails in the middle of a game session, I want to be able to plugin to a different computer and keep right on with the game.
Also, can my FG campaign be stored on my external HDD, and browsed to from FG
9) What is the largest map size FG will support? I have seen 50pix per cell, as a fairly standard size. We are not so much interested in amazing graphical quality as we are in display and information control.
So how many cells wide and across are optimal? What if I had a sprawling castle fortress complex of *arbitrary* 2000ft x 2000ft, (or even greater), how would one of you experienced users deal with this problem?
10) Can FG do hexes? I couldnt figure out how to do hexes in the DEMO
11) Once the overlay mask is "painted" clear to reveal whats underneath, other than resetting the entire map, can a mask be "repainted" in particular areas?
12) Are pointers a sort of a light source? Why do they affect the grid? Why do they only affect the map when grid is on but not when grid is off?
Thats all for now
Thanks in Advance