This is a list of useful "Tips & Tricks" for the Fantasy Grounds VTT, contributed by users on the forums. I tried to credit everyone who provided anything on the list. You can find the original post stickied in The Tavern.

*Dragging the "Next Actor / End Turn" button from the Combat Tracker to a hotkey.
Especially useful for players who may not always have the Combat Tracker open.

*Dragging Damage/Healing/Attack Rolls/Spell Saves from chat to token or combat tracker.
Nice to have if you or a player forget to target something before rolling. This will apply damage/heal, show if you hit or not and force a save against the target.

*[CTRL] + Drag and Drop Damage or Healing from chat to a token or player/npc on combat tracker.
This will reverse whatever was done originally. Example: Player is targeting wrong monster and rolls damage. You can hold [CTRL] while dragging the roll from chat back to that monster and it will heal back the damage done.{Does the reverse if it was a heal} (Just be aware that if they have any effect like unconscious this will not remove it) Saves you from doing math and removing wounds etc..

*Holding [SHIFT] while clicking or dragging damage will make the damage roll as a critical hit.
Helpful if you or a player forget to target something before the roll. Faster than opening the "Modifiers" (+/-) button and choosing critical.

*Dragging /lighting COLOR-HEX-CODE to a hotbar and then renaming it.
If you are a GM that likes to use custom background colors for caves, dusk/dawn, if a player dies etc.. You can type /lighting ff0000 for example and then drag that from chat before you press enter and place it in a hotkey. Then right click on hotkey and rename it "Player Death" so you can change the mood dramatically & quickly. (Great Resource for Color Hex Codes is: http://www.color-hex.com/color-palettes/popular.php

*Dragging Images Directly into FG Folder while game is running.
Instead of navigating to a directory and copy/paste images for your campaigns you can just drag the image directly into whatever Image group you have open in FG. Great for adding a map/image during a game or just quickly getting things prepared.

*Right clicking while dragging dice to add more.
Great for casters or anyone who wants to add dice without editing their spells. Example: Your wizard casts Chromatic Orb at 3rd Level. While they are dragging the damage to the creature they can right click twice to add the two extra damage dice they receive for casting at a higher level. This feature has tons of uses.

*Editing Weapon Meta on the Action Tab.
At the top of the Action Tab where it says "WEAPONS" you can click the magnifying glass and increase the critical range for melee/ranged and add extra dice as well. (Brutal Critical)(Improved Critical)

*Holding [SHIFT] while dragging multiples of the same item. "Grabbing the whole stack"
If you or a player is moving a stack of items like 5 Rations from the party sheet to their inventory or vice-versa they can hold [SHIFT] and drag all 5 at once. Much faster than dragging five times.

**User Added Content**

*Clicking both mouse buttons to create a quick arrow/pointer
Great for players and GMs who want to quickly point to something on a map or image. Simply click both mouse buttons and drag to the area you want to address.You can also:
[SHIFT]+both mouse buttons = draw a Square
[CTRL]+both mouse buttons = draw a Circle (Halfront)
[ALT]+both mouse buttons = draw a Cone

Both mouse buttons clicked without moving the mouse will *clear* the figure drawn this way.(Andraax)

*Vote / Ready Check in Chat Window.
You can use the /vote feature to check if everyone is ready to play at the beginning of a session or after a break. Or you can give an anonymous vote to your group for a binary choice. Examples: /vote Ready? or /vote Check mark to continue playing or X to stop for the night. When clicking on the circles that show up in chat one click makes a check two makes an x. This allows your group to make a decision without feeling pressured because it is anonymous.(You can even cover questions with 3 answers by giving third choice to leave the circle blank)

*Using the middle mouse button to move around the map.(Halfront)
You can navigate large maps and images with the middle mouse button instead of using the navigate button on the bottom right of a map/image.

*Middle mouse to accept movement of tokens when they are locked.(madman)
As a DM/GM you can just click the middle mouse button over a token instead of right clicking and choosing accept move. Great time saver!

*Middle mouse button on "hidden" rolls / text in the GM's chat window shares the hidden roll with players.(Andraax)
Instead of dragging rolls and other hidden text out of chat and dropping it back in just click the "Middle Mouse Button".

*While in mask mode holding [SHIFT] while drawing to unmask.
This allows a GM to unmask things more natrually. Instead of cropping out a square you can hold SHIFT and draw curves, circles or any shape you want to reveal.
(LordEntrails) added:
Holding [CTRL] will re-mask using the rectangle.
Holding [CTRL]+[SHIFT] will re-mask using the freehand tool.

*Holding [CTRL] while left clicking to resize maps or images.(Moon Wizard)
If you hold [CTRL] and left click on a map/image you can move the mouse up and left to resize or down and right to zoom in.(Or middle mouse wheel for zoom)
^You can use this same method to resize any window within FG: Story, Table, Items, etc. Very handy tip!(GarthGiantbane)

*Dragging GREEN helmet on the Combat Tracker to an image places tokens of all Friendly units in Combat tracker on the image.(Three of Swords)
Very useful for adding tokens for all the PCs to a map. Same with Yellow and Red, though usually those are already set up in an Encounter.

*Use the Modifier box in the lower-left to add or subtract large values to things like Gold pieces on a character sheet.(Three of Swords)
That way the math is done automatically. If you sell an item for 3482 gp, type that number into the Modifier box and drag it to your gold pieces field on your character sheet to add it. To subtract, either type a negative value into the modifier field, or hit CTRL when dropping a positive value on to the gold pieces field to remove the coins.

*Right clicking on the chat window and selecting unlock position will let you resize chat window & move it to another location on the desktop.(mac40k)
With desktop real estate being at a premium useful to shrink the chat window to the smallest possible as you can always scroll back to earlier entries as needed.
^You can do the same thing (unlock) the dice tower and re-position it as well. You can move the dice too if you don't like their position.(LordEntrails)

If you know of a cool Tip or Trick that isn't listed above feel free to comment below or reply to the original thread. Thanks!

Happy Gaming

Skillkoil aka Dallas

I don't know if you have ever heard of a man named Terry Goodkind or a set of books he began in the 1990's with his frist entry: Wizard's First Rule

I was 14 when I read WFR for the first time. I was intrigued by the entire book and especially by the quote from Zedd, “People are stupid. They will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true.” Like most books, yes even fantasy, Goodkind had a philisophical message that he teased at many times during the series. He was a huge Ayn Rand fan. He devoured Atlas Shrugged and despised collectivism in all forms. I will leave the philosophy to Mr. Goodkind to explain or defend. However, I was quite a fan of everything else in his books. Between Wise & Hickman, Salvatore, Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time) and of course Goodkind and many others. My teenage and young adult years were filled with magic, mayhem and wonder!

I remember the first time the protagonist Richard Cypher (As he was known then) was tortured by a woman who wielded such an alien weapon to him. How it made me cringe to think of all this imaginary person was going through. It was the first time in my life that I picked up a book and couldn't put it down. I had to get to the end and then when I did. Wait Two years for the next book to be released. Each time the next book in the series was released I was at Waldenbooks or Barnes & Noble with my preorder. Waiting to pick up the hardcover. Back then you had to wait 9 months for paperback on popular books. There was no Nook or Ipad or even Smartphone to download the book to. Not in the beginning anyway. It taught me patience to wait for those books. It also taught me to explore the genre and find other authors like I mentioned earlier. SOT was my gateway to fantasy and ultimately Roleplaying. For that, I will always be grateful to Mr. Goodkind for creating Richard and Kahlan and even Darken Rahl.

As the series started coming to an end there were a few plot points and situations that irked me but who doesn't have them with any series that is over 6k pages long. Then once the series ended the talk of movies & TV shows started. Sam Raimi of Spiderman and Army of Darkness fame was attached to the project. Unfortunately, what did we get? A Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess clone that only had 1 season. How I wish that SOT received the GOT (Game of Thrones) treatment and was treated like the adult, brutal, fantastical and serious series that I thought it could be.

So, Terry, has moved on to drama/thriller titles, (that I don't read) and the once #1 Best Selling Series is all but forgotten. I do have hope though. In this age of reboots and recycles of everything from Hawaii Five-O to MacGyver and if The Vampire Diaries (Which I don't hate BTW) can have TWO spin-offs. There may be hope for this old series about War Wizards, Confessors, Mord-Sith, Dream Walkers, Additive and Subtractive Magic. So with my regret over what was, maybe I can have hope for what might be. If you are looking for a deep fantasy series about war, conquest, love, sacrifice, motivation, intrigue, political drama and much more. I would suggest picking up Wizard's First Rule and meeting Richard and his crazy grandfather and the mysterious woman from the veil, Kahlan. I think it will be well worth your time. Hell, maybe one day there will be a TTRPG for it. (I may or may not be working on it.) Once again, thanks for listening to the musings of a semi-addled soul-stealing warlock.

Happy Gaming!

Skillkoil aka Dallas

The popularity of VTT's (Virtual Table Tops) and being able to augment a game digitally is growing every day. I see many posts in the FG forums of players or groups of players looking for a game. Of course, we see plenty of games posted by GM/DM's as well. I think many people tend to stay in their "comfort zone" of ruleset or genre when looking for a game and this robs them from learning about other games that they may enjoy just as much or more.

Taking the Leap

Change is always a hard thing for us lowly humans to deal with. We like to stay in our "lanes" so to speak. This is doubly true when it comes to the types of Roleplaying games that many people look for. We want to play what we know. However, sometimes change, no matter how uncomfortable it may be, is just what we need to get our creative juices flowing.

My advice, for what it is worth, is to be open to different rulesets and genres of games that you find posted on the forums or discord. There may be a learning curve. However, most of the time, I have found that it was worth learning something new. If I may? I will give you a personal example. I am not a big fan of the Pathfinder ruleset. I find the rules a bit cumbersome for my playstyle and it makes combat last way too long. Now, this is only my opinion from the limited number of games that I have played in. I'm sure if I spent the time with the right GM and group that this wouldn't be the case. Regradless, because of my bias towards Pathfinder, I was very reluctant when a friend of mine invited me to join his Starfinder game. Made by same company, similar core rules (I thought), going to be a similar experience to my Pathfinder games, just in space. I was completely wrong! He talked me into joining the game. Even as I complained during character creation, he guided me through it and the day came for my first session. As soon as the game started I was hooked! I loved the setting, the wide open system wide travel(and beyond), the great genre bend of fantasy/sci-fi. Every aspect of the game was compelling and really got me excited about fleshing out my character and working with my motly group to conquer the universe.

Why bring this up? Something similar happened to me 3 years ago when I tried Savage Worlds for the first time. No D20? Are you crazy? But a very nice woman named Ellspeth guided me through it and I loved it. So, lesson of the story. Eventhough it is uncomfortable and you have to learn all these new rules. Ultimately, it was worth it, for the experience it gave me. I would encourage anyone to give other systems and genres a try. I think you will be surprised by the result.

Can't find a game? Run it yourself!

Talking about scary. You want me to learn how to run a game on a VTT like Fantasy Grounds? I have to keep track of the story, npcs, players, quests, loot, XP AND I have to make it compelling and fun for them? Sorry I'm too scared. This was exactly my response when a friend suggested I start running a campaign. I hadn't DM'ed IRL for years. I had been a player on FG for a few years but I knew nothing of running a game on it. That was 3 months ago. Now I run Two campaigns and love it just as much as playing if not more. Want to know the most surprising part? It wasn't nearly as hard in practice as my fear made it out to be. In fact, I started my Fantasy Grounds DMing career with a homebrew campaign. It is set on a post-apocalyptic future earth with all the fantasy races and using the 5E ruleset. I had to learn to create items, npc's, encounters, and all the things that come along with running a game. Not to mention, trying to create a compelling story and hooks for my players. But it was so satisfying once we started playing to see my players buy-in to this world I thought up and then they filled it with all their interesting and insightful decisions and flare! GMing a game is one of the most rewarding things you can do, in my humble opinion. Don't let your fear of change stop you from having some of the best times you can have in your gaming life.

The Future is Bright

The popularity of table top gaming is increasing daily. In our interconnected world, playing online is a big part of that. There are so many groups and individuals championing Roleplaying that it makes me so happy to be a part of this community. There are games being streamed on every platform you can think of. With millions of people watching and playing along. This means our community is growing and we all need to embrace change. Whether, it is trying a game you have never played or running one yourself. I promise you. You will NOT regret it. Even if it ends in shambles, you will have learned something that you can take with you to your next game. Thanks for listening to my rambles. I hope this encourages at least one person to try something new or take on the challenge of running a game themselves.

If you ever need help, I'm on the forums every day or you can message me for advice.

Happy Gaming!

Skillkoil aka Dallas