Before I Buy...

[CelineSSauve]

I have a few questions about this product I hope you can all help me with:

1) How do the discounts work exactly? I mean if within my group we'd like 2 full and 4 lite (for example, still need to see what everyone would like and who'd be interested) we'd save 30% on each full and 60% from all lite, but must that all come from the same paypal/credit card or it is one total that can be evenly divided and then paid off by each member of my group 1-by-1? I've never been paid via paypal (I'm assuming here, may only allow credit cards here or something.) but I do know that if you pay with it you don't get any penalties if you're paying a paypal account but you do have to pay if you withdraw (which is what would happen should I have my players transfer funds to my paypal so that I can pay the bulk in full should that be required).

If that didn't confuse you to much, on to the next question:
2) I know that the installer (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/downloads/) requires an internet connection to complete, but could I tweak rule systems, upload images and create adventures offline?

3) I know that you can select to hide GM rolls or allow them to be public, but if player rolls are public and GM rolls are hidden, could the GM still roll secretly for Move Silently rolls and such?

Thanks for your attention and the replies to come.

[unerwünscht]

For your first question I will let someone else answer, as I did not purchase our FGII keys, my boss did.

Question 2, yes you can do all of the prep work in the host software while offline. Infact that is the ONLY way I would suggest doing it. Wouldnt want someone to log in and get a sneak peak at your upcoming trap.

Question 3, If the GM rolls are hidden the players will not see the results of any rolls you make (tho it should still be noted that they will see the shadows of the dice being rolled) so they may be able to atleast make an educated guess as to what you are doing.

Hope that helps some.

[Foen]

Hi CelineSS and welcome to the FG forums!

1) I think the discounts work on a per-order basis (so they reflect all the licences you buy in a single shopping session, for a single purchaser).

If you want your friends to chip in, using PayPal or some other medium, it should have no impact on the main purchase order and hence what you see is what you pay.

That said, checking with SmiteWorks for your particular circumstances is a good idea *grin*

2) Once you have installed, you can work offline as much as you like. When your players next connect, they will download your most recent content

3) The GM can see player character sheets and hence can make rolls for players in private. That said, I think players know the GM is rolling, they just don't know the outcome (just like the real deal).

Hope that helps, and feel free to ask any more questions!

Foen

[Raised]

One note for #3: Even with all roll visibility enabled, the only rolls that 'count' so to speak are the ones done over the chat pane.

I usually play with all rolls visible for ease, but if there's a particular roll like a Spot or Move Silently check that I don't want people to see, I'll just roll the d20 off chatpane and read the value off the dice.

[Griogre]

I'll second what Raised said. Most of the time I "like" the players to know I'm rolling dice it's like the die behind the screen noise - but if I really don't want them to know I roll the die out of the chat window. You won't get an auto total that way - only a die roll though.

On 1) above - you need to make one order to get the discount. I did something similar to you. I made the order on a credit card and had my players reimburse me through paypal. After they paid me I sent them the license numbers. I got enough of a discount (we actually just portioned the price out as a group) that I just ate the paypal charges. However, you can ask them to pay the extra amount paypal charges you. You might want to tell them a credit card adds the highest fee.

You might find it eaiser to be on VoIP during this. It made everything easier for us. I bought the licences 20 mins before game time, my players got on 15 minutes early paid me with paypal, and we were able to talk everyone through installation and setup.

[CelineSSauve]

I was actually advised of https://www.goteamspeak.com/ for free audio for games. But that is an idea for the "truly" secret rolls. I can do math on my own;)

[Griogre]

I use Teamspeak for VoIP but Ventrilo and Skype are now also free to small groups. If you don't have a dedicated server, you should have one of the players host the audio to take the strain off the GM's "up" bandwith.

[CelineSSauve]

Alright, so I seem to have found two other people interested in buying with me (may go up to 3). Now I'm wondering how easy it is to find players around here. Not worth buying the program if I can't even have a full Party to run for (between 4-8 in D&D 4th ed).

Any ideas?

[Griogre]

It's easy as long as you are in a common time zone playing at a common time and running a popular game - but look for yourself. Look at the Guild Hall messageboard and go back a few days and look at the games posted looking for players. By the way you might want to put either where you are located or what time zone you are in if you going to play at times normal to your time zone. The time zone is a big deal because people will want to know what time the game is their time and they can't figure that out until they know where you are.

You won't have any problem with 4th ed, though some people might want to start at 1st because of the newness of the system just to see what it is like.

[CelineSSauve]

You won't have any problem with 4th ed, though some people might want to start at 1st because of the newness of the system just to see what it is like.

Good to know. I'm in Eastern and half of the group in on... Central, I think (Alberta, Canada).

As for the Lv1 thing that's a yes and no. I'll be starting the first three nights with premade PCs of each tier (first night Hero, second night Paragon and the third Epic) then they'd make Lv1 PCs. (Long story short: It's to help with introducing my homebrew setting and the history of it.)

Looks like all I need to do now is confirm the other guy's interest and place the order for the group. :D

((Oh, and congrats on those who made this program, I've only heard good things and the screenshots look amazing!))

[Foen]

Hi CelineSSauve

You might want to put your timezone in your profile, it's the first place people look.

Cheers

Foen