Full-stack Network Developer / Engineer

Update System
SmiteWorks is looking for a full-stack network engineer and developer to fine-tune our systems for Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU). FGU uses a new update patch system and installer written in Unity with a back-end LAMP system for internal use publishing content. The system works now but we want to vastly improve the experience, speed and capabilities of this system. We are looking for ways to dramatically increase the speed of installs and to allow for optional and dependency based updates.

Installers
We have installers built for Windows and Mac OSX with an installer partially complete for Linux. We need a developer to take over maintenance of existing installers and to complete the Linux (and Steam) installer.

Lobby System
FGU uses a custom Unity interface to a 3rd party lobby system for publicly hosted games. We want to replace this with an in-house lobby system and potentially integrate it with a public calendar system. We would like to expand the lobby system over time to allow pre-game gathering as well.

Network Transports
FGU currently uses a combination of Mirror (connection mgmt), LiteNet4Lib (transport, reliable UDP), and Noble Connect (network facilitation via STUN/TURN/relay) to provide network connectivity. We are looking to replace this with either an alternate solution or with an in-house solution for reliability and speed.

Position Type: Full Time (40-hours per week)
Days: Flexible
Salary: $80,000 / year (commensurate with experience)

Job Responsibilities:

• Full-stack development
• Build and maintain MySQL databases
• Build and maintain Linux Server back-ends
• Build custom endpoints
• UI front-end development when needed (a graphic artist is available to provide graphics)
• Help diagnose customer issues with assigned projects

Qualifications and Skills Needed:

• Unity 3d - creating builds for multiple platforms (Windows, Mac OSX and Linux)
• C# development in Unity 3d
• Expert level technical skills required for job responsibilities
• Basic knowledge of Fantasy Grounds Classic
• Basic knowledge of Fantasy Grounds Unity
• Attention to Detail
• Fast and Efficient Work Ethic
• Excellent spelling and grammar
• Task-oriented focus and ability to work on repetitive tasks
• Ability to work from home consistently and without interruptions
• Pride in work
• Dependable Internet Access

Nice-to-have Skills:

• Knowledge of RPG Game systems (see home page for major systems supported)
• Knowledge for content creation for Fantasy Grounds
• Experience with multiple Fantasy Grounds rulesets

Benefits:

• Work-from home
• Computer system provided
• Complimentary game modules and licenses provided
• Health-care is not currently provided by the company.

To apply, email your resume to jobs@smiteworks.com

Enter Network Engineer for the subject line.

Customer Service Representative

We are looking to hire another Customer Service Rep to join our team of Derek and David.

Position Type: Full Time (40-hours per week)
Days: Thursday through Monday (Tuesdays and Wednesdays off each week)
Salary: $30,000 / year

Job Responsibilities:

• Handle Customer Support (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday)
• You will overlap with other CS reps for all but Saturday
• Help customers with account based issues
• Help customers with installation assistance on Windows, Mac or Linux
• Help customers resolve connection issues
• Help customers set up networking port forwarding for Fantasy Grounds Classic
• Help customers allow programs through their firewall
• Help customers perform specific steps within various Fantasy Grounds rulesets
• Help customers with refunds where needed
• Respond to customers on Email, Steam, Discord and Forums

Qualifications and Skills Needed:

• Advanced knowledge of Fantasy Grounds Classic
• Basic knowledge of Fantasy Grounds Unity
• Attention to Detail
• Fast and Efficient Work Ethic
• Excellent spelling and grammar
• Task-oriented focus and ability to work on repetitive tasks
• Ability to work from home consistently and without interruptions
• Ability to make even frustrated customers happy
• Pride in work
• Dependable Internet Access

Nice-to-have Skills:

• Extensive knowledge of RPG Game systems (see home page for major systems supported)
• Knowledge for content creation for Fantasy Grounds
• Experience with multiple Fantasy Grounds rulesets

Benefits:

• Work-from home
• Computer system provided
• Complimentary game modules and licenses provided
• Health-care is not currently provided by the company.

To apply, email your resume to jobs@smiteworks.com

Enter Customer Service Rep for the subject line.

The last blog report had a data issue that has been resolved. If you are looking at old data, please use the updated version posted to the blog for comparison purposes.

SmiteWorks released Fantasy Grounds Unity in mid-March. In addition, the global pandemic has forced many local groups to play remotely. As a result, there are increases across the board with new game sessions.


Corrected Graphs:

Customer Service Representative - FILLED

Position Type: Full Time (40-hours per week)
Salary: $30,000 / year

Job Responsibilities:

• Handle Customer Support 4 10-hour days each week (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
• Help customers with account based issues
• Help customers with installation assistance on Windows, Mac or Linux
• Help customers resolve connection issues
• Help customers set up networking port forwarding for Fantasy Grounds Classic
• Help customers allow programs through their firewall
• Help customers perform specific steps within various Fantasy Grounds rulesets
• Help customers with refunds where needed
• Respond to customers on Email, Steam, Discord and Forums

Qualifications and Skills Needed:

• Attention to Detail
• Fast and Efficient Work Ethic
• Excellent spelling and grammar
• Task-oriented focus and ability to work on repetitive tasks
• Ability to work from home consistently and without interruptions
• Ability to make even frustrated customers happy
• Pride in work
• Dependable Internet Access

Nice-to-have Skills:

• Extensive knowledge of RPG Game systems (see home page for major systems supported)
• In-depth knowledge of Fantasy Grounds
• In-depth knowledge of Fantasy Grounds Unity
• Knowledge for content creations for Fantasy Grounds
• Experience with multiple Fantasy Grounds rulesets

Benefits:

• Work-from home
• Computer system provided
• Complimentary game modules and licenses provided
• Health-care is not currently provided by the company.

Send qualifications to jobs@smiteworks.com and add Application: Customer Service Representative to the subject line.

This is a 12-month view of the most popular systems on Fantasy Grounds.

Not all rulesets shown have been available for the full 12-month cycle.


Here is a month-to-month trend.

Joshua Watmough, of English Rose LLC, is joining forces with SmiteWorks USA LLC to produce exclusive RPG cartography and artwork for the Fantasy Grounds platform. Artwork will cover a wide range of genres and will consist of maps, terrain, image brushes and tokens that empower GameMasters (GMs) to realize their own artistic visions in a fun and immersive way.

"It was very early in my youth when I discovered the magic of tabletop RPGs. I was captivated by the game's ability to submerge you into other worlds," said Joshua Watmough of English Rose LLC. " SmiteWorks has improved on that experience exponentially with the creation of Fantasy Grounds. I am ecstatic and honored to have the opportunity to help realize an already outstanding product's visual potential."

"Joshua has a unique art style that we love and we are very excited to add another talented individual to our team. The recent success on our Kickstarter Campaign has given us the ability to grow into areas that will significantly enhance the experience for Fantasy Grounds users." states Doug Davison, President of SmiteWorks

About English Rose LLC
English Rose LLC was formed having the primary goal of producing a cohesive line of art based products and packages intended for use in tabletop role playing games (both physical & virtual) that are affordable, easy to use and give the freedom to create images without the need of artistic skills. In doing so they aim to maintain a visual quality across many aspects of image creation with hand crafted assets for a much more illustrative and amalgamated feel.

About SmiteWorks USA LLC
SmiteWorks is best known for building the Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop software. The software is used worldwide by more than 140,000 users to play roleplaying games remotely or to help manage campaigns as they meet regularly face-to-face around a table.

With the success of our recent Kickstarter campaign, we wanted to invest back into the future of the platform some more. We are looking to hire one or more people. We may only end up bringing on one person in the immediate short-term, but we would like to look across all three roles for the best candidate.

Location: Remote, but must be in the United States for tax and accounting reasons. You will need to be able to work from home.
Position Type: Full-time

Ruleset Developer

Job Responsibilities:

• Ruleset development
• Ruleset Maintenance

Qualifications and Skills:

• Extensive knowledge of RPG Game systems
• LUA Scripting
• XML for layout
• UI Design
• Photoshop
• Previous experience modding Fantasy Grounds is a major plus
• Degree in Computer Science or equivalent work experience is a plus

Send qualifications and salary requirements to jobs@smiteworks.com and add Application: Ruleset Developer to the subject line.

Module Conversion Specialist

Job Responsibilities:

• Build adventures modules in Fantasy Grounds (from source PDF and InDesign files)
• Build reference manuals using internal tools
• Maintain and update modules with errata and to fix reported issues
• Perform image manipulation and optimization for maps and other images

Qualifications and Skills Needed:

1. Extensive knowledge of RPG Game systems (primarily D&D)
2. Attention to Detail
3. Fast and Efficient Work Ethic
4. Excellent spelling and grammar
5. Experience with Photoshop
6. Experience with InDesign is a plus
7. Experience with light scripting tools is a plus
8. Experience with advanced regex expressions is a plus

Send qualifications and salary requirements to jobs@smiteworks.com and add Application: Module Conversion Specialist to the subject line.

Full Stack Web Application Developer

Job Responsibilities:

1. Maintain and enhance web presence
2. Build landing pages
3. Build database driven web UI systems
4. Design and plan workflow and UI
5. Develop Server Side Applications
6. Set up and deploy test servers
7. Security testing

Qualifications and Skills Needed:

• LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySql and PHP
• XML and XSL
• CSS
• UI Design Experience
• Security
• Server administration
• Experience with Bootstrap is a plus
• Experience with vbulletin and single-sign-on solutions is a plus

Send qualifications and salary requirements to jobs@smiteworks.com and add Application: Web Developer to the subject line.

Here are the updated game sessions for 2018 on Fantasy Grounds as registered by our alias system. Some manual grouping of rulesets was performed where there were obvious variants.






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Smaller Images:

Title - Repercussions
Location: Bryn Shander

Session Summary

The party made it the rest of the way to Bryn Shander where discovered that the name "Icewind Dale" was very appropriate. We road in on the horses of the dead Seven Snakes assassins and were greeted pleasantly by the local Deputy, a young female Dwarf who kept winking away at Travok. We expressed that we had a personal message for the Sheriff and that we would like to procure lodging and some warm food. She agreed to pass along the message and encouraged us to visit Kelvin's Comfort.

Along the way, we stabled our horses just inside the gate. The stable master commented on how fine the horses were and Gilden seized on this to explain how these horses were the first in a series of fine horses we were hoping to bring up north for sale from our horse farm business just North of Daggerford. He signed some paperwork and pressed his signet ring verifying his name as Elnan Yabiz. Gilden's hope was to leave evidence of these horses up far North away from anyone who might otherwise recognize the markings and the affiliation with the Seven Snakes. The stablemaster seemed very interested in helping us secure buyers for an ongoing relationship.

Along the way to the tavern we picked up some Yeti fur cloaks that should keep us warm. Unfortunately, they had a "Made in Waterdeep" tag, so the authenticity of the Yeti fur is in doubt. :)

At Kelvin's Comfort, we met with the Sheriff and passed along news of the death of his sister. He replied with no sorrow at all and some colorful descriptions of what he thought of his sister while she lived. Regardless, he thanked us for the news and promised to send someone down to Nightstone to settle the affairs and deal with the estate. Kerlioa piped up that there was also a reward for the information and the Sheriff seemed surprised by this but agreed to pull something together for our efforts. We had indeed traveled a very long distance. Our room and board were covered by the Sheriff.

While enjoying the warmth of the food and fire, and discussing whether or not we should try the Pickled Hydra Eggs (which were not eggs at all), a stranger bumped into Atticus and planted a note in his pocket. It proposed a deal of great value and requested that he meet him across town at a little used building. Atticus suggested we rest for the evening and visit the building in the daylight, after a hearty breakfast.

The meeting place was in a seedy part of town and Gilden entered first, after strapping his shield on to his arm.

Inside, there were 3 rough looking characters seated at a table and three rough looking characters behind the bar and at the stairs. Gilden recognized the insignia as being one of the Zhentarim faction based out of Daggerford. Gilden, Atticus and Kerlieo took a seat, facing the Zhents to see what they wanted to discuss, but knowing that this would probably not end well. Travok refused to sit and stood nearby Gilden.

The leader introduced himself as Allek and pointed to a chest full of 5 thousand gold coins. He introduced himself as a member of a band called the Seven Snakes and explained how his band had investigated the death of his comrades, including his sister Kella within the city of Nightstone. The 5 thousand gold was an offer that he brought to Atticus and the rest of the party if they would be willing to turn over the traitor Gilden, who they announced was also a member of the Zhentarim.

Gilden mentioned the incompetence of the B-team that had been sent to Nightstone and how they were unfit to represent the Zhentarim. Travok said we'd be keeping the gold but wouldn't be giving up Gilden. A battle quickly ensued and Kerlioa was shot in the back with 3 crossbow bolts while he sat stunned by the sight of so much wealth in one place (an effect of the curse of greed he acquired some time ago.) Travok interjected himself between Allek and Gilden and they fought side by side against some fairly tough enemies - Allek, a veteran, a cuthroat and three bandits. Kerlioa snapped out of it and brought down a stinking cloud over the bandits, cutthroat and veteran. Atticus dropped a sleep spell over the bandits, bringing two of them into a deep slumber.

The cutthroat made it through the cloud to attack Atticus - who we discovered has an aversion to armor of any sort. Gilden disengaged from the battle on the left to aid Atticus and Kerlioa and Travok held Allek's attention for a while. Eventually, Allek disengaged and lept across to attack Gilden, stabbing him and injecting him with poison that dropped him before stabbing him again on the ground, calling him a traitor.

Atticus dropped another sleep spell over Allek, dropping him to unconsciousness. Travok, meanwhile, rushed over to pour a healing potion down Gilden's throat. He jumped back to his feat and cut down the cutthroat that was threatening Atticus. The party finished off the veteran and then Travok and Gilden finished off Allek before he could wake up.

The rest of the bandits were awakened and Gilden explained that their lives were to be spared if they would relay a message back to the Zhentarim. The message was that Allek and Kella were failed leaders and they had been culled from the Zhentarim as part of an inner faction squabble that had nothing to do with the rest of the Zhentarim. They were to relay that Gilden was alive and well and still a loyal member of the Zhent. He explained that Kella had failed to properly announce her allegience to the Zhent to Gilden and had instead attacked and threatened his comrades. We left them with 50 gold and they vowed to return to Daggerford to relay the message.

It is unknown whether or not this would be the end of trouble or if this spelled the end of Gilden's advancement within the Zhentarim. Gilden plans to discuss this with Sylvia and Graven when they complete their scouting mission around Bryn Shander.

The party looted the bodies and found another bag of holding and a fancy ring. The bag of holding seemed to be empty and didn't reveal anything when turned inside out. Regardless, they quickly placed the 5K gold chest into the bag of holding so that it would be out of sight while they rested. Atticus and Kerlioa spent the rest healing the party and experimented with the new items to discover their full magical properties. The ring was one of invisibility and we left that to Atticus. The bag, to our horror, was actually a bag of devouring. We tried to quickly retrieve the gold coins before they were devoured, but the extraplanar beast inside had already consumed half the gold!!

In our disgust, we threw the bodies of Allek and his comrades into the bag and watched them become devoured into nothingness. Kerlioa took the bag for use later on.

Fully rested, we made our way back to Kelvin's Comfort, our new Yeti Cloaks stained with a red that was quickly drying into a deep brown.

A commotion at the town center and at the gates drew our attention and a guardsmen ran up to us to seek our aid. Frost Giants, it seemed were preparing to raid the town. Sylvia and Graven could be seen just now making it inside the gates as they were shut and barred.

Before you choose the VTT that is best for you, it might make sense to look over this short summary chart that compares the primary named features. I know it can be expanded out further since sometimes a single line item on a chart doesn't adequately describe or convey the importance of the item at work. In order to fully compare the two, it might be worth checking out the free 30-day trial of Fantasy Grounds and also trying the free version of Roll20. At the end of the day, there is a limited free version and a monthly subscription version of each. With FG, you can buy a 1-time license if you don't want to pay any ongoing subscriptions.

This chart focuses primarily on D&D fifth edition, but each system is capable of running nearly any game system you want to run. Fantasy Grounds has secured the most official licenses of any other system, so that will probably weigh on your decision as well if you plan to run Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds or one of the many other systems we officially support. If you intend to build everything on your own, then your focus will likely fall on which VTT gives you the best options to build from or the one with the best community mods available for you to use.

Without further ado, here is the Roll20 vs Fantasy Grounds comparison chart.

We are proud to announce that SmiteWorks USA LLC has contracted with David Middleton from Table_Topping to begin streaming weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League games being played on Fantasy Grounds. The players will be comprised of SmiteWorks personnel and they will be joined by Chris Lindsay from Wizards of the Coast, Rachel Ventura from Legendary Games and Robert Adducci, Community Organizer for the D&D Adventurer League. The SmiteWorks personnel will be Doug Davison, President of SmiteWorks, John Gregory, Lead Developer, Carl Pinder, Sr. Developer and former owner of TabletopConnect and James Holloway, Production Coordinator. Occasional guest spots will be opened throughout the series and will be announced during the week prior to the showing.

The series will begin with the Elemental Evil series of D&D Adventurers League and will move to the Storm King Thunder's series once it completes. One-off games for other game systems licensed for use on Fantasy Grounds will be rotated in once a month. D&D Adventures League modules showcased on the stream will soon be available on the DMsGuild.com website for purchase and play on Fantasy Grounds, along with modules for other seasons of D&D Adventurer League.

To tune into the stream live, please follow us on https://www.twitch.tv/fantasygrounds every Sunday night from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m. Pacific time (GMT -8). All recordings will be posted up to YouTube for later viewing at http://www.youtube.com/fantasygrounds.

To find out more about D&D Adventurers League and how to stream or run your own games, please visit http://dnd.wizards.com/playevents/organized-play

Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, their respective logos, the dragon ampersand, all Wizards titles, the fifth edition rules, and Wizards’ character names and distinctive likenesses are property and copyright of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries. Used with permission.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this stream are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any companies where those individuals may be employed or affiliated. This streamed show is not administered by Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro Inc.

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If you are like any of the gamers that I know, you have buckets and buckets of dice. I received an email from the folks at Easy Roller Dice asking if I would mind reviewing their dice and of course, I said "no problem. I love dice."

They have a fairly good selection of dice colors and materials, but the ones that jumped out to me were the glow in the dark dice set. That was a set that I didn't have yet. In addition, they sent me a dice cup to use when rolling them. I have a dice cup from Castles & Crusades that I often use and I find that I really like rolling them from the cup. The cups are felt lined and the dice bounce around inside in a very pleasing manner. I find that I like that much better than just coupling my hands together into a makeshift dice cup and rolling that way. If you have to roll a bunch of dice, then it is even more important. Rolling 20, 30 or 40 dice at a time works fairly well.

One thing I noticed about the glow-in-the-dark set is that they have a cool look sitting on the table but you wouldn't necessarily recognize them as glow-in-the-dark unless the power failed mid game. Here is where the dice cup comes into play. Throw those same dice into the cup and they shed an eerie glow that is very cool.

The dice themselves are true to their name. They roll easily thanks to rounded edges and the numbers are clear and easy to read. They came in a small dice pouch for the set and overall I think they'd make great gifts for the budding RPG gamer or for the long-time gamer if you go with one of the novelty sets like the glow-in-the-dark or one of the cool metal themes.



Now, back to Fantasy Grounds. Dice are one of the most important parts to get right when you look to build software to emulate it. It's very clear to me that we aren't just sitting around playing a game of spreadsheets and using random number generators. You have to be able to customize the dice and you have to be able to roll them singly or in large bunches comprised of possibly several different types of die all at once. I think that is what initially drew me to Fantasy Grounds and even today it is still one of the great features of the software that makes it stand out from the competition.

As we move further and further into development of the next version of Fantasy Grounds on Unity, we will be looking for even more ways to improve the dice experience. Don't be surprised if you see some cool new options for material types, shapes, reflectivity and more with your dice. Glow-in-the-dark dice? Maybe.

Visit Easy Roller Dice and tell them that you read about them on Fantasy Grounds
The dice I tested
https://easyrollerdice.com/product/glow_in_the_dark_7/
And the Dice Cup
https://easyrollerdice.com/product/p...cludes-5-dice/

Immerse yourself in the world of H.P. Lovecraft with the new release, The House of R'lyeh. Five new adventures are included for your group of intrepid adventures. Pursue leads to secret places and hidden cults. Don't go mad.



The Art of Madness
A strange grave robbery and the disappearances of three artists draw the Investigators to a bizarre school in subterranean Boston.

The Crystal of Chaos
A search for a fabulous semi-mythical crystal lead the Investigators to a horror heretofore unknown.

The Return of the Hound
The sale of a very rare edition of the Necronomicon draws Investigators to Yorkshire following the murder of the former owner and the suicide of his supposed killer in Amsterdam.

The Jermyn Horror
A creature of nightmare bound inside a crumbling and abandoned mansion seeks its freedom, and the Investigators might prove to be the perfect vessels to accomplish such ends.

Nameless City, Nameless Terrors
When an ancient and forgotten city buried in the sands of Arabia is rediscovered, its unearthed secrets might spell the end of human civilization.

Call of Cthulhu is well known for including immersive handouts such as newspaper clippings, typed letters and postings of strange goings-ons. Use these to provide clues to your Investigators as they seek to unravel the mysteries.



Each story is laid out as a general outline, with links to new pieces of the story -- including stats and info for playing important non-player characters (NPCs) and maps of key areas.