Recommendations for FG DMing on the go?

[Cybra]

At the moment, I have a really nice laptop that I use for when I have to DM away from my regular setup, but now that its warranty has expired, it's a question of "when" not "if" I'm going to drop it and utterly destroy it. So I'd like to have a backup plan ready. I was leaning towards either getting a virtual machine or getting a Surface Pro, but figured I'd ask the community for some ideas.

Those DMs that sometimes have to do so on the go, what is your setup? Do you use a virtual machine to connect into that everyone else connects to for games or do you have a particular laptop or 2-in-1 you recommend?

[damned]

If you usually game from your home PC then consider continuing to do via your favourite remote access software.
Save you dealing with copying campaigns, updating 2 devices, challenges with mobile GPUs etc.

[LordEntrails]

Ran FG for years from my laptop while travelling every week all across the country. Never dropped it once. But I did do weekly backups to a USB drive just in case I did.

I don't see any point in buying a second device just in case I break my primary computer. But yea, I would not expect a Surface Pro to replace my laptop. And I would rather wait until I actually needed a cloud hosted VM before setting one up. With a reliable backup, it gives me the flexibility if my laptop dies, but doesn't incur any unreasonable expense.

[Cybra]

Sorry. Should have been more specific. My home setup is a desktop PC so traveling with that is out.

The laptop I have is a good one that I'm not planning to replace any time soon but in the event it dies, I was looking for a backup solution for if I was on the road.

Thank you all in advance!

[LordEntrails]

Why not setup remote access to your home PC? Then if your laptop dies you can access your home PC and run it remotely from whatever device you can acquire on short notice.

[Cybra]

That'll work. Is there any particular Remote Access program you recommend?

[Mephisto]

I just have my campaign on Onedrive. Works fine, just don’t have 2 computers run FGU simultaneously with OneDrive. You could file duplicates.

[Nylanfs]

We would really, REALLY advise against your LIVE campaign directory being on OneDrive. Using it to backup and transfer is fine, but your actual campaign shouldn't be there. Check my sig for a automated batch file that will automatically send your campaign to a backup location.

[Blahness98]

For a while a few years ago, I was DMing on the go with Acer Mini Laptop and using Chrome Remote Desktop. Worked fine for GMing as long as the Wi-fi I was using was halfway decent. I haven't used that setup in a while so I do not know if it still works. Otherwise, use your remote desktop software of choice and tunnel into your main rig.

[MartianXi]

Why not setup remote access to your home PC? Then if your laptop dies you can access your home PC and run it remotely from whatever device you can acquire on short notice.

Any recommendations for remote access software?

[Trenloe]

Any recommendations for remote access software?
VNC using the "lite" plan - https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/plan/lite

[damned]

Any recommendations for remote access software?

Screenconnect using Free plan

[kylemahaney]

Sunshine / Moonlight gives basically a native experience for not just FG but any games from a remote environment, just check the "Desktop-style mouse movement" option in the settings on your client. Had a DM who ran it for years from an older Thinkpad running linux connecting back to his home pc.

[LordEntrails]

VNC and TeamViewer are the only free(ish) programs I've used, but neither of them in about a decade. I would go with the input from others here before trusting my input :)