Originally Posted by
Trenloe
Very interesting review of your first session.
Are any of your players playing remotely or are they all in the same room as you? If they're all in the same room as you, what do you use Fantasy Grounds for?
I know that a few people use Fantasy Grounds to facilitate their own face-to-face gaming and there can be a lot of merits for using it that way, but primarily Fantasy Grounds is a "Virtual Table Top" - providing a computer based version of your tabletop for gaming. If you're all in the same room there is less need for a virtual table top - just use a real table top. Now, of course, when you use a real table top the players will need to have printed character sheets (sounds like you did that already), their own dice (or a good amount of them to share) and the GM (you) will either need to print out any maps you intend to show to the players or draw them on a piece of paper/erasable battle map. This is how the majority of face-to-face role-playing games are carried out. Are you new to pen-and-paper role-playing? Have you played in such a face-to-face game?
I just think that from your description you are trying to take on too much by running your first game as a GM in a face-to-face environment and then throwing in the additional complexity of having to prepare everything on Fantasy Grounds as well. Yes, a well prepared scenario in Fantasy Grounds can help the GM out, but you would need to make sure it is well prepared and you're familiar with Fantasy Grounds and how the scenario works. Additionally, Fantasy Grounds is not a replacement for the RPG rulebook - you will still need to know the rules for the game you are running...
Now, this might not be what you want to hear having just forked out a lot of money on the Ultimate License, but perhaps you could remove/reduce the use of Fantasy Grounds so that you and the players can enjoy learning about the game system and the scenario face-to-face - they'll learn more and so will you. Then, once you're more comfortable with the game system rules, the scenarios you are running and the gaming group you can see where FG can help you out and start to use that to aid your games, not drive them...
Additionally - the comment regarding one player wanting more turn based role-playing. Don't do this - it will slow your game down and stops the flow. In a face-to-face game it is easy for the GM to notice if a player is not getting involved or feels they are a bit out of it - when you notice this simply bring them into the story "What are you doing?", "Do you agree with what the rest of the party is doing?", etc.. It's all part of the GM learning experience - don't let one or two players own the session, make sure you bring everyone around the table into the story. This can sometimes be hard for certain sections of a scenario as certain characters do come to the fore in specific situations - but having a player appear out of it for the whole session will need some addressing. Have a word with them outside of the game, find out their opinion and work with them to involve them more - it may be that the character they are playing is not right for them or not right for the campaign, it might be that they are looking for a bit more action, investigation, or something else; or it may be that they have an issue with the style of another players. It's difficult being a GM sometimes - you have to try to make sure that everyone is enjoying themselves, engaged and contributing to the storyline. This will take time - you to get comfortable in your GMing style, for the players to mesh, for you to understand what makes each player tick, etc.. But, GMing is also an incredibly rewarding experience - keep at it! :-)