Two Computers, same campaign use case

[HywelPhillips]

Hi,

I'm thinking about running a game commercially. If I do, I'd like to allow players access to the campaign when I'm not running it.

I have a spare MacMini which runs FGU perfectly comfortably for non-demanding uses like one player being logged on to look at the character sheet and notes. I wouldn't want to use it for running a live game for multiple players moving tokens on map etc.. But equally I don't want to tie up my workhorse Mac running FGU in the background all the time- I need that machine for demanding paying work like video editing.

So I'm thinking of running the "live" game on my main Mac, then handing off to the Mac Mini to keep the game running in case players want to access it.

I can see from past forum posts that running it from a Cloud Synced area (iCloud or Dropbox) is not recommended.

The suggested alternative would be to copy campaign files to and from the two machines. Which is totally do-able, I guess.

Has anyone tried just setting the data folder of their second computer to point to the data folder on the main computer's drive? They're on the same gigabit ethernet SAN in my case and Macs treat networked drives in a very similar way to local storage.

There would obviously be cause for concern if the two machines were running at the same time, but since they share the same FG licence key that shouldn't be a big issue and I'm happy to be responsible for making sure I shut down the Mac Mini before launching FGU on my main Mac.

Anyone tried this?

Cheers, Hywel

[LordEntrails]

You can do a shared drive. Just make sure you do not access FG Data directory from both computers at the same time. You will (I did) end up losing or corrupting your campaign data.

[HywelPhillips]

Good to know, thanks.

I run a pretty good backup scheme (because work machine) but if accidentally having two instances running corrupts campaign data, it's safer to manually ZIP and copy each week. The ZIP files would give a timestamped series of backups as belt-and-braces as I copy them across too.

I wanted to avoid doing that to make sure I didn't wipe out any work my players did on the campaign on the Mac Mini, but I guess if I make a policy that the game is unavailable for an hour before game start to make sure I can copy the "live" campaign data back over to the main machine and check it is all OK, that's probably the most sensible option.

Cheers, Hywel

[LordEntrails]

The other aspect to be aware of, if you are using FGC or FGU in LAN mode you may need to be adjusting port forwarding or rebooting your router when you switch. Depends on your uPnP behavior.

[Granamere]

I know this sounds like a helpful idea but while you are away what would the players be doing? You could setup a shop for them to buy and sell in but if they were in the middle of a dungeon how would that work? I have thought about this as well but I just do not know how helpful it would be so I have never done it.

[Nylanfs]

The same thing players do while the GM is there, running wild. :D

[Griogre]

Running wild, chortling - and creating characters, especially if the GM has source materials the player doesn't.

[Granamere]

I can see opening the campaign up for a day before to allow people to make characters but once it gets going not sure how useful this would be or how often it would be used.

[Nylanfs]

GM: Why are there 502 new PC's?
Players: ...
Players: The rogue did it.

[HywelPhillips]

I can see the point that unmonitored use by players might lead to non-optimal stuff happening! I guess that's a further argument for ZIP files and manual copying.

The answer is that as a player on Roll20, I keep notes of the sessions and my "master" version of the character sheet inside the system. I look at them between sessions to remind myself of what was happening, re-familiarise myself with my spells or decide what spells to prepare after a long rest, read through my character background, update my notes and make sure I've got them all in order before the next session, that sort of thing.

Since I'd prefer people kept their "Master" version of their character sheet in FGU rather than in D&D Beyond, I'd like to make it possible for players to do that but still be able to consult their character sheets and notes between sessions.

Does that make sense? Maybe I'm in unusually involved and pro-active groups, but it's common for some groups to roleplay great chunks of "around the campfire" RP and planning on Discord text chat in between sessions, and I'd like to facilitate players having access to their characters while they do it. I end up with more notes from out-of-session stuff than from actual gameplay some weeks. Since FGU has relatively good organisational tools I'd like players to be able to leverage them rather than forcing them to use a mix of D&D Beyond and Google Docs. Especially for campaigns with heavy home-brew elements or using non-WOTC sources like Deep Magic.

Cheers, Hywel

[Nylanfs]

The player's can manage their characters locally from their cache. They could just pull up their local copies for reference.

[HywelPhillips]

Ah, I didn't know that!

Does the cache give them access to all shared resources? I'd particularly like them to be able to read back through shared notes and things like that.

And would it let them change their notes locally and re-sync when they reconnect (to update the copy on my master game)?

Cheers, Hywel

[LordEntrails]

So in FGU a player can import a character into their 'Management' campaign from your 'play' campaign. They can then edit and review the character as desired. They will not have access to notes or GM reference material :( Then when they join the play campaign again they will need to import their updated/edited character from their 'Management' campaign into your 'Play' campaign.

I totally get the desire to review characters, notes, etc. It's a habit I used to do a lot when I ran and played in Play By Post. It's not something I normally do much anymore, which is probably a shame.

[Granamere]

So this does depend on where you save the notes. If I use Mad Nomad's Character Sheet Tweaks and I put all of my notes on it then I would have them to view outside of the main campaign. If I save them as note in the campaign then of course I would not have them.