Questions about setup and virtual hosting [New user]

Hey, I just purchased Fantasy Grounds this week. And I had a few questions.

I'm looking into virtual hosting, for my gaming group. Any recommendations on that? I see that the system is basically designed to run on a Windows desktop. I will probably set up a Windows 7 VM in the cloud, and run from there.

Are there any tech docs on doing this? Or installing the token packs once you buy them?

New user here, so if all of this is explained in readily-available documentation, and I missed that, you can slap a big red "Duh!" on my forehead. Thanks in advance for any help.

I don't think I'd enjoy using the program via RDP but I suppose it would work? Installing tokens is really just dumping files into a folder, so as long as you had some way to upload to the right folders on the VM you shouldn't have problems. I just think graphical lag might become a problem since RDP isn't really designed for animated graphics such as dice rolls or map masking and token moving arounding.

Why did you need to run it remotely?

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Originally Posted by kylania

Why did you need to run it remotely?

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I thought the server itself was run on one system, and then everyone else connected to it.

Am I mistaken?

I wouldn't play by RDP. I just want the system to be up and available, and not rely on my ISP.

The game could also run if I'm not available.

It's basically a client that you have others connect to while it's running to have a game. So more peer to peer than client/server.

Gets a little laggy while players are connecting, and if you share too many modules it can really bog down but yeah it's going to use your ISP. That's why if you're using voice THAT you'd want remotely hosted, such as using the Fantasy Grounds teamspeak server. :)

The GM hosts the game. To be GM, you would need to use the screen of the server.

I have run it from a hosted server - but it has a 400mb link so no lag :)

But as everyone else says - the Host is the GM (or his computer). The GM launches FG and loads a campaign and then the players connect to that FG session on his computer.

Hi molonel,

FG is probably best described as a hybrid Peer-to-Peer/Client-Server application - as has been said, the GM runs (& uses) the FG app in "Host" mode and all the Players connect to the GM's PC in "Client" mode. While it is possible to run the GM's host as a VM somewhere in the Cloud, the GM will be connected to that instance and so would be using RDP - so I can't see an advantage to doing this.

Let me point you (as a new user of FG) towards the excellent Tutorial Videos available on the FG Wiki - damns' are good, as are Xorn's, and people seem to like mine as well (mine are also available from the links in my sig, below). Start with the ones on the CoreRPG, as the CoreRPG forms the foundation of just about all of the RPGs we play with FG and by learning how to use the CoreRPG with FG you'll learn 80% of what you need to know to play ANY RPG with FG - I also cover the topic of hosting/clients in my series as well :)

Oh, and BTW: Welcome!

Cheers

Sorry to necro-animate that, but did FGU improve this kind of setup in some way ? I mean can the session now truly run as a client/server architecture with the DM connecting on the server like the players without the need to use RDP ?

The lack of a persistent server is more of an annoyance than it looks, because there are many things that could happen without the need of the GM to be connected so I'm looking forward for that (and will anyway give it a try with with RDP).

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Gurgeh

I mean can the session now truly run as a client/server architecture with the DM connecting on the server like the players without the need to use RDP ?

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Nope. Nothing's changed.

Ok I am also interested in this. I JUST recently started looking into FG and my thoughts are having a secondary computer with enough hardware to run the GM server with fully loaded "everything"

For example, have it run on my secondary desktop with Core i9 9900k 32 gigs of ddr4 ram my old nvidia 1080 1 tb primary SSD 4 tb storage HDD, that I use for random projects, my though is if the DM "host" runs on that with all the mods /files what have you, I can leave it running and access the more powerful system with my less powerful laptop from anywhere. Also this would give players 24/7 access to "fiddle with things" at their leisure, as we all know coordinating times to do things with multiple people can be very difficult in the busy world of adult hood, and isn’t that one of the things FG is hoping to resolve?

I don't see why this is such a complicated concept and it would allow for the DM to use a more portable device to "host" while still benefiting from the more powerful non portable device anywhere rather than being tethered to the higher powered non portable device or be limited by a portable devices hardware, this would also allow the secondary rig to handle the brunt of the processing for the game and less likely to run into lag issues by actually running the game from a secondary system which would handle the active use of the GM and whatever else they might have going on.

Welcome Deasile :)

It's not complicated. As said above by others, do what you want but you then have to connect to your hosting computer via a screen share/control application like RDP.

There are other Tabletops that you can set a dedicated server for both windows and linux. As the GM you connect to the dedicated as well with an admin password so it knows you are the GM. The players have a separate password to connect to it. You can do the GM stuff right from your desktop without needing to use RDP. For me though, before I seen an option with this in FG. I think there are bigger things for the team to work on, especially with FGU than adding true dedicated mode.

There is in relative terms if networking is understood by the person deploying the services little issue in setting up a remote server, however these are often not free and may cost more than leaving your own secure PC turned on.

Those thinking there is some major difference or reason a DM cant run a game like this are mistaken there is little difference than running the server on your own equipment at home other than the DM /GM is connecting to the server via the network, wan themselves.
I will note of course it is dependent on network speeds the clients connections the DM connections and the server resources.

At present unless the FG software is changed and multiple live sessions for different games e.g. many DMs may like to run a dedicated server for different sessions live and as a permanent process, but doing so would be more complex and not for those with limited networking skills, so I have to say for most this is not at all viable or even sensible at present.

What would be nice to see is the ability to host multiple games on different ports on one host, yes the home host at present and that would mean the GM could leave his PC on with the services running for the player base, e.g Mondays Dungeon crawl, Thursdays starfinder, Sundays vampire session ect all live at the same time.

However even as described above at present this could cause issues for those not locking the games down and one could find players cause more issues than needed having access to the system being on all the time.

Hopefully one day someone will take the time to look at these and other comments and realise actually the system could be much more, but add at present it solves the requirements of most other than the professional GM's amongst us and even then its not the end of the world.

I run a not for profit, fun website, look us up we are slowly integrating other services and hope to soon have a pro DM system much better than others to compliment FG we have the support of many of the industry leaders in our efforts for the communities and you can find us on Discord as well.

www.boardgamer.games
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You could do that with FGC - Ive not tried it with FGU...

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Originally Posted by damned

You could do that with FGC - Ive not tried it with FGU...

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Hmm i was not aware of that and will look closer, thanks.