Couple of feature questions for a new DM using a shared account

[AncientToaster]

Good morning ladies and gentlemen!

I'm a new user to this program. Since my Family and I are relocating to a new state soon, I have been talking with my friends here about keeping in touch and playing D&D 5th edition. I mentioned that I have used Roll 20 in the past but I wasn't always a fan of that system. i felt like the fact that it was online only was a little difficult to work with. Servers were down a few times and it lagged pretty bad on almost all browsers that I used as the DM.

We were interested in making a shared Ultimate account. One of my buds wants to DM in the future and we both want to make this a small investment in order to keep us all playing D&D in the future remotely. I'll run a campaign or adventure and he will alternate.

One of the features I want to make sure I get into my games personally is background sound and music. For our actual tabletop games, I have playlists on YouTube that I've been using for years now that I have compiled lots of background music and ambience that I play over a Bluetooth speaker at the table. I want to make sure I can integrate my YouTube playlists into Fantasy Grounds for my players and I to hear.

Secondly, does the Ultimate account come with the 5th edition ruleset as the package or would we need to invest in the digital PHB, Monster Manual etc?

Also, it appears that there are now two versions of Fantasy Grounds. I watched a Matt Colville video on this program that sold me, but I'm not sure if he's using the new Unity or the "Classic" program. What is recommended for us newbies? I don't want to get the classic version if it's going to be discontinued and inaccessible for us.

Look forward to your responses!

[Granamere]

For online sound and music to some degree.
https://www.syrinscape.com/online
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/319720/Fantasy-Grounds-Syrinscape-Sounds-BUNDLE

The ultimate does come with a basic version of the 5e Rules. For the rest of the books you would need to buy. I also recommend you take a couple of classes on FGC before you invest in the system.

https://fantasygroundscollege.net/events/calendar/

The classes are free.

Classic is the current version. Unity is in beta. If you buy modules and book you will be able to use them in either but they are tied to the account that bought them.

Yes I am side stepping the whole shared account things because I do not know how that is viewed.

[Trenloe]

Welcome to the FG forums!


We were interested in making a shared Ultimate account. One of my buds wants to DM in the future and we both want to make this a small investment in order to keep us all playing D&D in the future remotely. I'll run a campaign or adventure and he will alternate.
Unfortunately you can't do this. Accounts are personal account, it's against the EULA to share accounts.

One option would be for one user to GM using an Ultimate subscription and then when they're finish, cancel that subscription and the new GM takes up a subscription.

[AncientToaster]

Welcome to the FG forums!


Unfortunately you can't do this. Accounts are personal account, it's against the EULA to share accounts.

One option would be for one user to GM using an Ultimate subscription and then when they're finish, cancel that subscription and the new GM takes up a subscription.

AH, well there goes that idea.

I guess we could do it the other way and that would work out OK. I guess I'll see what he thinks. I might just use FG for my campaign then.

Do you have any feedback about music integration? I looked into the Syrinscape that the other user posted but it appears to be a paid service and I already have (free) Youtube playlists.

[Granamere]

A couple of things I left out. One I really enjoy Fantasy Grounds and so does our whole group. My normal weekly playing group is scattered. 3 of us live within 50 miles of each other. Two more live over 700 miles away. We also had one that was living in Germany for awhile. FGC worked great to let us all get online and play together. We also use discord for voice.

When I first started paying I felt like I own all the books why do I have to rebuy them. You will see that a lot of work went into converting the books so they can be used in the Fantasy Grounds systems. If it helps think of it as you are paying for that not the book again.

Since you are not in a rush look for the books to go on sale. If not then buy the bundles to get a better deal. The sale deals do beat the bundle deals.

You can download the demo and use it for free. Connect into a FGC lesson and see what all it can do.

Any module you make you can run and share with friends for free. So if you just want to use the 5e core rules and get an ultimate license and make your own stuff you can.

[Granamere]

Syrinscape is not a play list. It is more sound integration. When a sword swings you hear it. When a fireball goes off you hear that. It also does tavern and other background sounds. If you buy the integration off of the dmsguild there is a way to not subscribe to the online bimonthly fee. I have not done all of my homework on that though so research before you buy.

We were using a bot to inject playlists into discord but that only last a short while in our group.

[Trenloe]

Do you have any feedback about music integration? I looked into the Syrinscape that the other user posted but it appears to be a paid service and I already have (free) Youtube playlists.
Assuming you're going to use some voice communication application, then you should be able to run the playlist on your computer and use a mixer, like Voicemeeter Banana, to mix the music with your GM audio. Use "Site Search" to find various threads on Voicemeeter banana.

As I have a tablet PC as well as my main PC, I use the table to connect to the voice app we're using (usually Discord, sometimes TeamSpeak) as a standalone Music/SFX connection and play music through that connection - this is nice as users can adjust the volume. There's also music bots for Discord (and I'm sure for others) that allow you to play youtube audio through Discord - one of out GMs uses Groovy, and this works well.

[AncientToaster]

Excellent, thanks for the suggestions everyone.