New To FG

[Zzubberd]

Hello, I would like to DM some games online and heard that FG was a good way to go. I started one of the training videos but it was an hour and 20 minutes long, and seemed pretty complicated. Could I get some advice on how the get the basics for FG and what tutorials would be the best to watch first so I am excited about FG and not overwhelmed. Thank you for your help.

[mhossom]

Welcome to Fantasy Grounds

It really is worth the time to watch the videos. You could start with this one to get a basic idea of how to navigate around in the system.
https://youtu.be/hU6OlMAgGQg

It would also help to take free classes at Fantasy Ground College.
https://fantasygroundscollege.net/

[LordEntrails]

Personally I think most videos are a horribly inefficient and poor way to learn. And that's coming from someone who spend years as a technical trainer. There are shorter videos out there, but I can't recommend any specific ones since I don't frequent them :)

I suggest you read the user manual; https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996639165/Fantasy+Grounds+Unity+User+Manual
Or at least the the Quick Start Guides; https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996639260/Quick+Start+Guide

I will then second the suggestion of FG College. A hour long introductory class will save you many hours of poking around!

[Primo]

Yea, there is a lot of stuff around, and one way to approach everything is really trial and error - mess a little with FG, and when you hit a wall, search it up to see how to vault over it. You'll learn new stuff naturally and through search.

For the first steps, i would recommend you on trying to create a character for your selected ruleset, uploading an image and using some of the map tools! You'll dig it! :)

Welcome!

[HywelPhillips]

My suggestions for how to get started:

1) See if you can find a game as a player to play a session or two with an experienced GM. There are one-shots and drop in campaigns that you can find out about on the forum here, on the FG Discord, on StartPlaying.Games (you can filter by game platform to find games run on FG) and so on. You'll find out a lot about how to use FG from the player end which will help when you come to explain stuff to your players, and get to grips with the core user interface ideas which are a bit different from most other VTTs.

2) Buy a commercial adventure module. Lost Mine of Phandelver or the D&D Essentials kit are excellent places to start (if you are at all familiar with D&D 5E). If you're planning on running a different system obviously worth buying a commercial module for that instead if one is available. I think it is a lot easier to learn with a module already set up for you as it will show you how to combine NPCs into encounters, pin stories to maps, drag PCs to the combat tracker, add characters to the party, put loot items into parcels and so on. I think this is a lot less intimidating than starting with a blank campaign and thinking "uh, now what?"

Doug's video for LMOP is OK (and blessedly short) but is for the older version of Fantasy Grounds, unfortunately. It might be worth doing a revised one of these, Doug! (See the store page).

3) Generate a character for yourself. If using 5E, try to character wizard and try another one building "by hand" using drag-and-drop. This will teach you the most important lesson for learning FG: if you don't know what to do, try using drag-and-drop, or right clicking. I found it a LOT easier to master FG once I realised that everything that could be implemented by drag-and-drop had been.

For example - you want to attack the ogre with your sword. Drag and drop the d20 from the attack on your actions tab onto the ogre's token on the map. Or onto their entry on the combat tracker.

You want to add a spell to your wizard? Drag and drop the spell link to your actions tab. Want to add an NPC to an encounter? Drag and drop. Want to add an item to a parcel? Drag and drop. Want to pin your parcel to the map so you know which treasure chest it is for? Drag and drop to make a map pin.

4) Now run your character through the first encounter of Lost Mines of Phandelver or Icespire Peak. Figure out how to bring up the map, bring up the story for the encounter. Find the NPCs already in an encounter, add them to the combat tracker. Drag and drop to have them make attacks on your PC and vice-versa. Enjoy the fact that FG is taking care of all the recordkeeping for you, unlike most other VTTs! When the monsters are dead, see if there is a parcel of loot. Add to party inventory.

If you can't immediately see how to do one of those things, read the manual and quickstart that LordEntrails posted the links to find out how to do that thing, then carry on.

Once you've got through your first encounter with yourself as the player, you're ready.

There's a lot more to FG than that, but you can pick those up as you go along.

Other advice:
1) For your first online session, start small. It's a lot easier to handle two or three players than six or seven your first time out. Run a couple of one-shots for a sub-set of your normal group until you're a bit more confident running games this way.

2) Ignore extensions and everything on the FG Forge for now. They look exciting (and indeed they are!) but FG already provides SO much automation that you need to get your head around the core software first.

3) D&D 5E, Classic D&D, Pathfinder, Starfinder, SWADE/Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu have a lot more support and starting material than most of the other systems. The skills you'll learn running FG for one of those will transfer to other systems, so start with one of the biggies before going into community rulesets and the like. Walk before you can run.


Cheers, Hywel