GM/DM Question

[Sazodeha]

New to FG here, just bought all the req’s, invested quite a bit of $$

I am the only holder of the full Unity License and all the modules/books, and can host. But I want to be the player, not the DM.

Is there any way at all to allow one of the non-licensed holders who are connected, create, control, ect, be the DM or do they need to be a licensed holder?

I would hate to think that because I’m the licensed holder I am condemned to always being the DM/GM. I understand they hold no rights to the material/data I purchased and would have to be connected to me as host to access it, but I would hope that gives me the option to be just the player sometimes

Thank you in advance

[Moon Wizard]

Only the GM can host for players or share books with players.

Regards,
JPG

[Sazodeha]

Only the GM can host for players or share books with players.

Regards,
JPG

That’s absurd! So if I host & Share I’m forced to always be the GM!? There is no way to give “rights” to a person signed on to act as DM?

I’m pen&paper generation. Back in the day if one in the group bought a book we all could share the material, but the book still came home with me. If you wanted a book for yourself you bought one and most all of us did. But sometimes there were group members that couldn’t afford it, that did not mean they were excluded.

I honestly do not see the threat to their licenses. The material is inaccessible to anyone in the group unless I host.

[LordEntrails]

It's the way FG has been architected since the beginning. And it's the basis for the licensing agreements they have with companies like WotC.

I too come from Pen & Paper, and when we had one book, only one person at a time could use it. With FG, every player at the table can use it at the same time, and be looking at different pages. Pro's and Con's of each system. Things change.

[BaneTBC]

As LordEntrails says, this is licensing restrictions from the publisher (WotC in this case). The Smitework license for being able to share purchased\owned content with your players is handled through the Smitework FG license, if you want no one else to have to purchase a license then the DM\GM needs to have the Ultimate License. If you want to spread out that cost, each player can buy a standard license which would allow them to connect to another standard license owners hosted instance or host one themselves (any license level [including none] can connect to a host who has an ultimate license). That's just covering the software licensing and ability to host sessions.

The second part of the equation is the rulesets\content. The books you purchase are usable by yourself when you host a session, and can be shared with your players. Players cannot share books with their DM\GM or other players. If you plan on rotating DM\GM's, they would need to own the content you are wanting to use OR would need to manually enter the details from the book you are wanting to use. The SRD from 5E is free to use, so anyone can use what is covered in there but anything in the published books would require owning those books in FG or have to enter it in all manually.

Nothing of what you purchase prevents you from being a player in another person's hosted session. They would just need to have the content that you're wanting to use and allow it to be shared (there are controls the DM\GM can use to prevent modules they own from being shared, like if they didn't want to use content from Tasha's they can choose to not share that book with players while still owning it themselves).

If you have purchased things and your expected use doesn't line up with this, you can contact support within 30 days of purchase to request a refund.

[Nylanfs]

Also note that the demo player (or somebody nice enough to cover it for them) could signup for a license sub for a month or so to see how they like it.

[Sazodeha]

I guess I just do not agree with the model. I do not see the point. I have invested over 1k in materials for FG. But now if I want a player in my group to DM, able to access that material I paid for in order to create a module, they also would have to re-invest all that $$ instead of allowing me to share what I own.

Granted, when I am logged out, or not present, said individual is not able to access this material. Which ultimately could be a good thing for FG as it may encourage someone to buy it after momentarily accessing it. But point remains, the data stays with me, the owner, so how does FG loose per say. More importantly maybe a member of my group cannot afford the massive investment like some can and again, the one who can wants to share, it should be allowed as long as the investee is logged in and part of the group.

I think if I was aware I would always be forced to act as GM with my materials purchased, I would not have invested nearly as much as I did. My bad for not reading the fine print.

[Zacchaeus]

If you purchased within the last 30 days you can get a full refund on any purchases since Smiteworks offers a no questions asked 30 day refund policy. Contact support here https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals

[damned]

Your co/new-GM need not invest as heavily as you.
An ultimate license or subscription, the PHB and a module is a much smaller financial commitment.

[Griogre]

As damned mentioned, I would like to impersize the new DM could easily get by with just an adventure and the PHB. In most games I ran face to face most players with any type of financial resources did eventually get at least PHBs and a lot of them got DMGs and MMs.