Nalfien
August 24th, 2007, 17:51
I have just finished DMing my 2nd session of my new campaign that begins with the WotC product “Expedition to Undermoutain.” I have had Fantasy Grounds since it’s first version and honestly I haven’t really played that much online. I can honestly say though, that Fantasy Grounds has been my most prized D&D purchase of ALL TIME.
I bring my laptop as I DM for my four players and run FGII. Then I hook up a flat screen monitor and run dual monitors with a client side FG also running. I put the monitor facing the players on the other side of my laptop. I have both FG apps in windowed mode and put the player log in app on the flat screen. If I need to see how things look on the other monitor I just hover over the app in my start menu and Windows Vista lets me see a thumb nail view. If I need to adjust the position of anything in FG on that monitor, I right click on the start menu and maximize it. This makes it full screen on my laptop where I can move pictures if I need to. Then I make it go back to windowed mode and it goes right back to my players monitor.
This allows me to:
1) Use the FGII combat tracker.
2) Use FGs NPC maker to keep player stats and drag and drop ability for the combat tracker.
3) Use the Monsters in FG when I can for drag and drop for the combat tracker.
4) Display maps to my players and reveal the map as they explore it.
5) When combat breaks out, they draw the map they see on the screen and we use minis to play out the battle. I keep track of initiative, ACs, monster HP, etc in the combat tracker.
6) I can display images to them such as:
a) Monsters they are fighting
b) NPCs they are talking to
c) Scenes they see (like castles)
d) Maps (and link my maps with other images, NPCs, text I need to read, etc with FGII shortcuts enabled!)
e) Visual puzzles for them to solve
f) Pictures of their characters
I love FGII as a tabletop tool. Its made my DMing go much more smoothly and allows me to keep the tempo of combat and descriptions. I could write more, but I hope I’ve made my point.
I’ve seen the D&D 4th ed. YouTube videos and the software they showed for online use and probably tabletop use as well. They showed a laptop in one of the teaser videos. WotC has a lot of catching up to do if they want to come close to what FG has to offer. They were using 3D graphics that didn’t even look Neverwinter Nights quality. I hope FGII plans to stay 2D because it allows me to do the many things I’ve described above.
I bring my laptop as I DM for my four players and run FGII. Then I hook up a flat screen monitor and run dual monitors with a client side FG also running. I put the monitor facing the players on the other side of my laptop. I have both FG apps in windowed mode and put the player log in app on the flat screen. If I need to see how things look on the other monitor I just hover over the app in my start menu and Windows Vista lets me see a thumb nail view. If I need to adjust the position of anything in FG on that monitor, I right click on the start menu and maximize it. This makes it full screen on my laptop where I can move pictures if I need to. Then I make it go back to windowed mode and it goes right back to my players monitor.
This allows me to:
1) Use the FGII combat tracker.
2) Use FGs NPC maker to keep player stats and drag and drop ability for the combat tracker.
3) Use the Monsters in FG when I can for drag and drop for the combat tracker.
4) Display maps to my players and reveal the map as they explore it.
5) When combat breaks out, they draw the map they see on the screen and we use minis to play out the battle. I keep track of initiative, ACs, monster HP, etc in the combat tracker.
6) I can display images to them such as:
a) Monsters they are fighting
b) NPCs they are talking to
c) Scenes they see (like castles)
d) Maps (and link my maps with other images, NPCs, text I need to read, etc with FGII shortcuts enabled!)
e) Visual puzzles for them to solve
f) Pictures of their characters
I love FGII as a tabletop tool. Its made my DMing go much more smoothly and allows me to keep the tempo of combat and descriptions. I could write more, but I hope I’ve made my point.
I’ve seen the D&D 4th ed. YouTube videos and the software they showed for online use and probably tabletop use as well. They showed a laptop in one of the teaser videos. WotC has a lot of catching up to do if they want to come close to what FG has to offer. They were using 3D graphics that didn’t even look Neverwinter Nights quality. I hope FGII plans to stay 2D because it allows me to do the many things I’ve described above.