Sell me on Fantasy Grounds vs the Competition
I'm in the middle of trying this thing out, but I can't actually test the stuff I want to test without paying for it, so I'd like to know how this compares to the other prominent VTT solutions from people who love it.
I have a weekly group, we meet in person, we play D&D4. We like it a lot, and it's my intention to use FG to run D&D4. I have about 20 or 30 friends scattered across the country who bug me constantly to run a game, and FG looks like a robust solution for D&D4 over the internets.
I note that there's at least one other popular VTT solution that also supports 4E. I can't really tell what the difference between the two programs is, except in very abstract terms. I understand that one program is more map-centric, with a map acting as the table, and FG tries to abstract things back one level more so you're looking at an actual table, which contains maps and characters and space for rolling dice.
But while I understand that, conceptually, I have no real understanding what it means during play. What my reaction to both would be.
So I'd like to hear from people who have tried both. Given that one is free and the other costs money, why did you pick FG?
Another question, then, is the robustness of the 4E toolset. I watched a video that seemed pretty impressive in terms of how well FG understands 4E. The white dragon breathes on everyone and it's...it actually seems easier than doing in live and in person.
But I note the competition has stuff like dynamic LOS that reveals and obscures the dungeon as the players move through it. That seems pretty keen. Though A: it seems like a lot of work, as someone...me...would have to define all the walls and pillars and trees so the engine knew what was what and B: it seems *kinda* gimmicky. Like...just fog of war would be fine. And I know FG supports that.
Lastly, what kind of Adventure support for 4E is there? I rooted around and I couldn't find anything. I see there are tokens for a lot of the real modules, cleverly renamed so as to avoid problems. That's great, I would buy those. But do I have to enter the adventure data manually? I sorta presume, if this thing is popular enough...someone must have done it before me.
I also have stacks of older modules I've love to run under 4E, but while I would be delighted if I could download/buy Temple of Elemental Evil (regardless of system) already entered for FG, I sorta presume I'd have to do it myself.
Oh one more question. Do I pay for the 4E rules set? Is it like a plugin? Do the players all have to buy it, or can I push it to them? I think I know the answers, and it's "Yes, Yes, No, Yes," but I'm looking at dropping $150 on this thing and I'd really like to remove ambiguity before I do so. :D