burrahobbit
July 18th, 2007, 19:46
Hi all - I'm considering purchasing FGII, and had a couple of pretty basic questions about what it is and is not capable of doing that I was hoping someone could help me answer. I've downloaded the FGI demo, and have played around with it a little, but my understanding is that the customization options I'm interested in might require the full version. I'm not familiar with XML, but am willing to learn. I would like to get up and running as soon as possible, however.
1) Let's say I wanted to play a game with the standard d20 races, plus a race from Arcana Evolved and a homebrew race of my own design, along with a homebrew skill or two, and the feats, core classes, and prestige classes from the "Complete" books I own. Easy to do? Do I have to modify source files, or is there a utility built into the program for custom data like races, classes, skills, feats? Any estimates on how long it would take to enter the data?
2) Say I have a monster from some 3rd-party source, or even just wanted to use one of the IP monsters that doesn't show up in the SRD. Easy to enter? How much does the program "understand" in terms of calculating attack bonuses, etc.?
3) Say I have a house rule that everyone has Use Magic Device as a class skill - how much wrestling with the program would I have to do to convince it?
4) How easy is drawing up a combat map on the fly?
5) Say I wanted to play Mutants and Masterminds. I know people are talking about eventually developing a ruleset, but what if I don't need the program to autocalculate anything on the sheets, or really "understand" what's going on...how easy would it be to distribute a sheet for which the players would do all the math and leave the program basically to roll dice, show maps, facilitate chat, and let me see the sheets?
I know this is all basic and might reveal some of my misunderstandings of what the program does, but it looks exciting and I'm interested to know if it's what I'm looking for.
Thanks!
1) Let's say I wanted to play a game with the standard d20 races, plus a race from Arcana Evolved and a homebrew race of my own design, along with a homebrew skill or two, and the feats, core classes, and prestige classes from the "Complete" books I own. Easy to do? Do I have to modify source files, or is there a utility built into the program for custom data like races, classes, skills, feats? Any estimates on how long it would take to enter the data?
2) Say I have a monster from some 3rd-party source, or even just wanted to use one of the IP monsters that doesn't show up in the SRD. Easy to enter? How much does the program "understand" in terms of calculating attack bonuses, etc.?
3) Say I have a house rule that everyone has Use Magic Device as a class skill - how much wrestling with the program would I have to do to convince it?
4) How easy is drawing up a combat map on the fly?
5) Say I wanted to play Mutants and Masterminds. I know people are talking about eventually developing a ruleset, but what if I don't need the program to autocalculate anything on the sheets, or really "understand" what's going on...how easy would it be to distribute a sheet for which the players would do all the math and leave the program basically to roll dice, show maps, facilitate chat, and let me see the sheets?
I know this is all basic and might reveal some of my misunderstandings of what the program does, but it looks exciting and I'm interested to know if it's what I'm looking for.
Thanks!