Interested in purchasing...

[Roxmav]

Hey folks,
I've just directed to this product as a good way of playing D&D online. My normal group are very hack and slash mentality, and my urges to get some good rp'ing are not been met.

So i'm turning to virtual D&D. Which i would be curious to know:

Are there many active games running on FG2, or will I be hard pressed to find a game and people playing?

I assume it runs core 3.5 rules, but can some campaigns offer additional rulesets like the Complete series, and would I as a player have to invest more money to play these rulesets?

Cheers in advance for the help. I'm really hoping this product is the one for me and that I can finally endulge my roleplaying needs! (Did that sound dirty to anyone else?)

[Oberoten]

I do not believe that you'd need any other products to play on FG, it is after all just simulating a table with dice and a way to talk and show maps etc.

As for the level of campaigns up and running, we actually have GM's looking for players... and considering the ratio of GM to Player that should tell a bit. :)

As for innuendo and the gutter. Her's to you from someone that has lived in it all his life.

- Obe

[Sorontar]

Hi and welcome

There seem to be a few games that have started up recently and if your not too bothered about playing another system there are usually Savage Worlds campaigns/one shots as well.

Some DMs may place the Complete Series into a reference module with a bit of work but most I have played with just use the feats etc on the character sheet and reference from hard copy books.

Hope this helps

PS: I have to come up from the sewer to hear your gutter innuendo :D

[Oberoten]

Did I mention the responsiveness and friendliness of the community?

[Roxmav]

Awesome stuff, cheers guys.

I'm not really familiar with any rulesets apart from D20 modern, D&D 3.5 and Star Wars saga.

I'm not against giving any others ago though.

That clears up the ruleset questions though, I thought the software had the rulesets programmed in making it quite limited. Even better! =)

I'll try it when i get back from work :))

(Edit: I am extremely impressed with the responsiveness and friendliness. I wasn't called a newbie once in 3 replies!)

[Valarian]

The term "ruleset" is a hang-up from the first version of Fantasy Grounds where the character sheet and library data (game rules) was all in one place.

In Fantasy Grounds II (FG2), the "ruleset" is now just the character sheets (Player and NPC) and code controlling the look and feel of the application. Game rules have been separated out in to "modules". This makes things much easier for sharing the character sheet part with other people and keeping the copyrighted game rules to ourselves for our own use.

FG2 will support D&D3e "out of the box". The default "ruleset" is a character sheet for the d20 Fantasy SRD. There are also modules that give basic class information, skills and feats etc. for the Fantasy SRD. Digital Adventures (https://www.digitaladventures.net/fg_accessories.htm) have just released a set of Complete Fantasy SRD modules. They are also working on a d20 Modern set of modules.

There is a Star Wars saga edition character sheet on the community forum here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7368), although you'll have to do any modules you want yourself. If you are familiar with HTML and XML, this shouldn't be difficult. You can use the default d20 modules as a template.

For other rules systems, there are various character sheets completed or being done. There is also a generic character sheet (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6314) done by Toadwart that would allow play for most systems.

[Sorontar]

Awesome stuff, cheers guys.

I'm not really familiar with any rulesets apart from D20 modern, D&D 3.5 and Star Wars saga.

I'm not against giving any others ago though.

That clears up the ruleset questions though, I thought the software had the rulesets programmed in making it quite limited. Even better! =)

I'll try it when i get back from work :))

(Edit: I am extremely impressed with the responsiveness and friendliness. I wasn't called a newbie once in 3 replies!)

We'd never call you a newbie you lowly serf, get back to ploughing the fields :D

[Oberoten]

And as you see, we are all heavily into drawing more players in. :) Just like the D&D group on the universities and high-schools and other places.

More players means more fun for everyone.... and if the new player just HAPPENDS to be bigger and stronger than the jocks that keep plaguing you... THAT is a MAJOR bonus, eh?

[Roxmav]

Unfortunatly i'm wider than most jocks, but it isn't muscle ;)

I can't wait to get home and give it a go :)

[Sorontar]

Unfortunatly i'm wider than most jocks, but it isn't muscle ;)

I can't wait to get home and give it a go :)

Useful for blocking doors whilst the small gnarly ones make a run for it, how do I know? I have that job myself :D

[Oberoten]

Heh... They got me involved once upon a time because I was a fencer and hence the only one they knew that actually had an idea how it'd feel to hold a sword in his hand.

[Roxmav]

Hey guys, me and my friend were just toying with the demo to try and get a feel for the software.

We all seemed ok, except there was a long delay on his text, although we think it might have been a firewall issue his end.

The main question we both had, was how combat really runs. We toyed with the combat log, and it just feels... clunky? Would the DM normally prompt for a player to attack and he adds his own modifier and the DM either takes it as correct or checks the char sheet?

It just seems a bit slow, i suppose i'm a bit too used to the board game and the fast flow with people taking their turns in advance and just yelling out numbers.

Did we miss something?

[Oberoten]

Ah... Combat is usually a bit slower unless the players allready know to set up their actions beforehand. If they do it is actually faster.

First we have the combat-tracker. It'll show when it is each player's turn and if they are prepared, they just declare and make their move. (It speeds things up to have basic things like attackrolls, perception checks and base damage on the hotkeys, after all, just roll to hit and damage at the same time if it IS a hit, the GM will apply the damage, if not he'll just ignore it or weave it into his description of the miss. )

[Valarian]

The thing with any Virtual Tabletop (VTT) is that things work at the speed that people type, rather than the speed that people talk. Some get around this by using Voice over IP (VoIP). Combat runs at a slower speed than normal in a normal game, and the same is true on the VTT. The only thing to do is accept that things work at a little slower pace online and use the combat tracker to order the combat turns.

[Sorontar]

First in case you missed it in the description be aware that the demo is of FG 1.05 not FG2 so some of the funky stuff that makes FG2 so much better is missing.

Attacks

As well as hotkeying your attacks and skill checks try to hotkey situational modifiers and buffs such as firing into combat, flank, attacking from prone, higher ground, bless etc.

That way the player can load these up into the modifier box (by pressing the hotkey) before he presses the attack roll.

[Roxmav]

Ah... i must admit i didn't notice the demo wasn't version 2.

Looks like I have a purchase to make, and too find a game willing to take on two new players (who are indeed, two new players.)

[Griogre]

Most people who have played a roleplying game in face to face sessions will have little problem picking up on using FG2.

Probably the most important thing to learn the different ways of to setting up hotkeys. They greatly speed play.

[zifnab69_fr]

Using voice over ip "teamspeak" greatly improve the game to...
We played face to face rpg from years, and begin with FG2.
We did'nt think the game is slower than usual....(using voice)