Setting up a Persistant Server

[mbielaczyc]

Hey all!

So, I am running a West Marches style game both in person and online. My players want to be able to access their character sheets and the Shops during downtime. My thought was to have the server up at all times so they can do this, but don't want to run it on my main PC. So here is my plan, and I need people to give me their thoughts on this before I invest.

1. I have a arcade Mame set up that is on a really old computer, so i would upgrade that computer to a newer system.
2. Set up FGU on that computer and have the server running. I know everytime it would reboot, I would have to make sure FGU was up.
3. When running games I would either use Google Remote to run FGU from the server, or I would turn it off, copy over files, and run it from my main machine (I have tested with google remote and it runs fine, though it must be in a browser window so no stretching for multiple desktops).

So questions:
What do you all think is wrong with my plan?
What type of system specs would you recommend?

[anstett]

I leave my main computer up 24/7 and Fantasy Grounds running all the time exactly for this type of situation.

I run a Traveller play by post on our wiki. Players jump into FG as needed for skill checks, etc. I then transfer the chat logs to the site as well.

Yes to restarting FG every couple of days just to run updates. But that is a simple thing and I normally do that when I run other software updates.

[mbielaczyc]

Thanks Anstett!

Do you think this little computer would run Fantasy Grounds? It seems like it has the right specs, though I can't tell if it has the dedicated video memory.

https://a.co/d/dwWTO3e

[Nagorak]

PCs with integrated graphics like that use part of the system memory for video memory. I have a similar system from Trigkey and it is capable of running full 3D games (albeit older/lighter weight ones). I see that some people have even got Fantasy Grounds running on the Steam Deck, so I think that computer should be able to handle it.

With that being said, Ace Magician is a bit of a sketchy company, IMO. A few months ago there were issues with some of their PCs coming with viruses preloaded on them (https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/mini-pcs/mini-pc-maker-ships-systems-with-factory-installed-spyware-acemagic-says-issue-was-contained-to-the-first-shipment). It probably was a simple mistake on their part, and it probably is no longer the case with newer units being shipped, but it's still not a good look. Personally, I'd look at a system from a different company. There are a handful of different ones on Amazon selling these cheap mini-PCs.

[mbielaczyc]

Thanks!

[Laerun]

The main challenge or concern is bandwidth in this case. In the past, there was a year of discounted Amazon AWS cloud like service. I believe a few years ago, Gwydion did a video on how he set his up for online cloud play, but I could be wrong. Running remotely would be better for all involved. A local server is subject to your local internet.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?58731-Hosting-Fantasy-Grounds-from-an-AWS-Server/page3