Hey all. . .

[Endrek03]

Evening,
I'm completely new to Fantasy Grounds (2?), so naturally I have many (too many) questions regarding so much. I don't have much time to type, so I'll just ask a few for now. :)

1) I'm still not exactly grasping combat in FG2.
1a) First, it seems FG2 is very prone to schniniingianans. I trust my group, so I doubt it will happen. . . but with the ability for players to rotate tiles as well as constantly set move paths enough to drive the GM insane, it just seems rather. . . strange. As well as the ability for players to change their character sheets in any way they deem necessary. Anyone have problems with this or am I missing some LOCK feature?
2a) I heard someone mentioning that "Fantasy Grounds 2 has problems with 1 hit kills" (ala Minions in 4th Edition), but I don't see how. Again, unless I'm missing something the Combat Tracker seems to just be there rather than play a pivotal role in a fight (Although I will say the Combat Tracker is VERY nice and am glad to have it.)
My point being is that if a character takes 5 points of damage, the Combat Tracker doesn't care, you still have to manually deduct 5 points from the HP of the character hit.

2) D&D 4th Edition.
Yes, yes I know this is a topic that I've been seeing a lot on the Forums and I've been trying to grasp it the best I can.
However, having not yet bought FG2 (Though soon, I hope), I don't know how easily translatable it is to use 4th Edition rules. . . heck, I don't even know how easy it is to MAKE a new Ruleset.
I was only excited about 4E because it bolstered strong online play. Having many out of state friends this was a good thing. However, D&DI is blowing it, and I still have friends I want to play with.
I understand that so far 4E is fairly "hushed" around here due to the fact that the Rules are not "open source" yet, so noone can just hand out the Ruleset for it. However, having the books myself, any assistance in *making* the ruleset myself would be much appreciated.

3) I know I had more, but. . . I can't think of them at the moment.

4) Yes, I know about Port Forwarding and already did that, connectivity is fine. XD
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_-E-_

[DMJBone]

Hey Endrek03,

1)-It's just like at the table-FG doesn't 'do' anything-you do. The features of the map and combat tracker are there to assist-but you're in charge of watching how the players move and ensuring rules are being followed.

1a) Yeah, they CAN muck with stuff-and be careful, you can too-lord knows I've messed up many character sheets by accident. Be careful.

2) Making a rules set is not easy (understatement of the year) -it can (and is/will) be done. Takes time-people are working on it. That said, you don't need a ruleset-Basically the only thing that's missing (aside from having online versions of the SRD) that matters is the monsters. Character sheets (are coming) can be used as is though really.

Monsters have to be manually entered-I use the personalities feature and create my own monsters that way-If you look at how FG handles monsters in 3.5 - you can fill out the personalities 'file' the same way (so that you can have drag and drop attacks and damage for instance). I fill in HP's and Saves the same way-There's probably a better way to do this-and I'm sure someone will point that out, but it works for me.

2a) I think what you're referring to was the 'set damage' that minions do-that's the problem-as there's no 'dice' to roll-Easy fix-Type the damage into the chat box-drag to a hot button, boom-minion set damage.

Have fun.

PS-oh, and watch out for tokens you place on the map ahead of time showing up in the players token box-this one just got me and it's a bit of a pain-but what can you do?

[Foen]

Welcome to the forums Endrek, I hope you find us friendly and helpful.

I'll have a go at some of your questions, perhaps others will chip in as well.

1a. Mostly, FG2 is based on trusting the players. They have free access to their character sheets and have free access to tokens on the map by default. I think you can lock down the map tokens, but I've never used the facility and can't recall how it's done.

1b. Due to rules in the Open Gaming Licence (which allows FG to distribute the d20/DnD3.5E ruleset), automation is severely restricted so rolling damage doesn't automatically deduct it from the target character. You can drag damage results from the chat window and drop them onto the wounds field in the tracker.

2. There is a DnD4E ruleset, created by the FG community rather than Smiteworks, which you can pick up at the Four Ugly Monsters (FUM) web site, www.fouruglymonsters.com. The WotC Gaming System Licence (GSL) doesn't permit any kind of interactive product, so nothing can be produced legally under the GSL. There are two legal alternatives: negotiate directly with WotC for a special licence (and presumably pay licensing fees); or try to produce something outside of the GSL but respecting appropriate trademarks and copyright (and risk getting it wrong or being sued). The folks over at FUM are trying the second route.

If you want to build your own ruleset, which is quite a complex task, then there is some good documentation on this site (under the 'Library' heading at the top of this page) and there is some good community content. Risking being accused of shameless self-promotion, you might take a look at the ruleset creation guide at https://wiki.witheredlands.co.uk/anatomy.ashx

Well done on the port forwarding, it caused me no end of frustration the first time I tried to host a game!

Cheers

Foen

[Foen]

It is also worth pointing out Xorn's excellent module tutorial, on this thread (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8586).

Foen