Originally Posted by
Trenloe
Good luck.
To be perfectly honest, for your first few runs, don't try to automate everything with effects - you have way too much to get used to without applying (and removing) lots of effects, etc.. Get used to the FG interface first - share maps and story entries, get used to the basics of the combat tracker (Initiative, targeting and hit points), get used to the PC sheet and, for the GM, the NPC sheet, etc., etc..
For your first session I'd recommend you consider making rolls like you would do in a face-to-face game - either manually set the modifier/ADV/DISADV in the modifier stack/with the buttons below the chat window before rolling, or just roll and work out the totals yourself (just like you would do face-to-face). You can still trigger the roll from the PC or NPC sheet, which will have the base bonus and saves a lot of time to start with.
Then, as you get more familiar with FG, you can start to look at things like effects and more advanced combat tracker features. It was probably my fifth session that I even considered using effects.