Character Management Dev Request

[Beokuhn]

Hello!
I've played in 5E campaigns across most of the main VTTs (Foundry, Roll20, and Shard), and I've run two campaigns using Fantasy Grounds Unity. FGU is, by far, my favorite, but there is one really big gap that makes running games difficult compared to other VTTs: Lack of offline character management capabilities for my players.

I have an ultimate license along with easily $1000 of sourcebooks, adventures, and add-ons, and my players access my servers via demo installs on their workstations. As far as I know, they can ONLY view/manage their characters while I have my server running... and the end result is that I end up doing a lot of their character management for them. This is a bummer both because it takes my time away from campaign building and because it removes some of my players' agency.

Given the setup I've described above, is there a good way (emphasize 'good') for my players to view/edit their characters while my server is down? If not, I'd like to put in a strong request to the devs to build something in subsequent releases. As a DM, FGU is at the top of the heap. As a player, for reasons like the one noted above, FGU is still pretty middling right now (IMO).

[Kelrugem]

Hello!
I've played in 5E campaigns across most of the main VTTs (Foundry, Roll20, and Shard), and I've run two campaigns using Fantasy Grounds Unity. FGU is, by far, my favorite, but there is one really big gap that makes running games difficult compared to other VTTs: Lack of offline character management capabilities for my players.

I have an ultimate license along with easily $1000 of sourcebooks, adventures, and add-ons, and my players access my servers via demo installs on their workstations. As far as I know, they can ONLY view/manage their characters while I have my server running... and the end result is that I end up doing a lot of their character management for them. This is a bummer both because it takes my time away from campaign building and because it removes some of my players' agency.

Given the setup I've described above, is there a good way (emphasize 'good') for my players to view/edit their characters while my server is down? If not, I'd like to put in a strong request to the devs to build something in subsequent releases. As a DM, FGU is at the top of the heap. As a player, for reasons like the one noted above, FGU is still pretty middling right now (IMO).

Players can create their own campaigns and save data there (just not host if they have no license). Especially, they can load their character there (it is loaded from their cache, so, no need to export the character previously) :) Just click the import character button, this will show them a list of their characters to load.

But note that if they edit their character there, then this will of course not be synchronized with your campaign :) If they do that, then they have to load their edited character into your campaign :)

They can also use their campaign for creating copies of their characters, like from each level as reference etc. :)

[LordEntrails]

As stated, players can manage their own characters when not connected to the GM/Host. Kel outlines the steps above, but I thought I would add that the advantage to this when everyone is back in the hosted game/campaign, the chat shows that a player has imported a character. This means that the GM is aware of changes made to the character in case they are worried about integrity.

One disadvantage to the FG way of things is that the players do not have access to the GM content while not connected. I don't know hw solvable this is from a legal/contractual point with the IP holders (Wizards, Paizo, etc) but there are a couple of related requests on the Wish List you can vote for or add your own requests. https://fgapp.idea.informer.com/

[Sulimo]

Video demonstrating the functionality mentioned above (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30o7jjJpLoo).

[Beokuhn]

Thanks. I think the lack of access to my content is the big issue with the approach everyone is mentioning. For instance, one of my campaigns is set in Midgard using Kobold Press' content, and none of my players would have access to ANY of that (races, classes, spells, etc) unless they're logged into my server or are willing to drop ~$250 each. It's kind of a non-starter.

Anyway, I'll check out the wish list and will add my vote for unlicenced players to access their GM's content offline.

Thanks again!

[Beokuhn]

@Sulimo and @Kelrugem, thanks for the rundown! Unfortunately, my players' characters utilize races, classes, and subclasses that go well beyond the basic ruleset. When they try the methods you both noted, they tell me they are unable to access any of my additional content (which is considerable, at this point). Are you aware of a way to share my library offline?

For instance, I am running a free licence on Shard (as a player), and I can access all my GM's paid content whether he's online or not. I know FGU is more of a local architecture rather than cloud-based, but figuring out how to do that on FGU would elevate this platform considerably.

[Kelrugem]

Sadly not, as described by LordEntrails above :) One can share own custom modules though in that sense, but not official modules

However, your players can still add things manually and look at the things already on the sheet :) Other than that they may have to wait for your campaign to be open

[Nylanfs]

Thanks. I think the lack of access to my content is the big issue with the approach everyone is mentioning. For instance, one of my campaigns is set in Midgard using Kobold Press' content, and none of my players would have access to ANY of that (races, classes, spells, etc) unless they're logged into my server or are willing to drop ~$250 each. It's kind of a non-starter.

Anyway, I'll check out the wish list and will add my vote for unlicenced players to access their GM's content offline.

Thanks again!

Would this site help them, it has all the OGC material Kolbold Press has released.
https://kpogl.wikidot.com/

[Beokuhn]

That's a nice resource! Thanks!

Thankfully, I have .pdfs of most of the KP stuff, and I have campaigns on D&D Beyond that can give my players access to most of the WotC stuff. At the end of the day, my players have everything they need. Where it gets tough is when someone needs to roll a new character or their chars level up. Then, it becomes a dance where we have to coordinate time outside of game time where I can boot up the server so they can get in there and get their character squared away. This is particularly an issue in a homebrew campaign I'm running where I'm letting players choose any race/class/subclass from any of the WotC or KP material. When I have my server running, it's neatly consolidated within FGU. When I don't, players have to consult a LOT of different books to know all their options.

ANYWAY... we're getting by. It's not ideal, but we're making it work. Something like this (https://fgapp.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=135371) would make our lives a lot easier, though.

[TheoGeek]

Sometimes when this happens, I just leave the server up so the players can join at their convenience, but that doesn't happen often for us.