Fantasy Grounds, should I? Here's what I am looking for . . .

[Messy1]

Hello!

Been looking at Fantasy Grounds for a few weeks and it looks amazing, but I don't really have a need for an online tabletop for RPGs . . . Yet!

What I do need is this:
-Easy way to access various D&D rulesets
-Easier way to plan adventures for my pen and paper D&D campaign
-Easy way to generate, update, and create characters for the setting I'm in

My campaign . . . I'm a DM for a Birthight campaign setting using D&D 2e rules. I have all the physical manuals and accessories for the Birthright setting,
which I absolutely love! Some features of my campaign are:
-We meet to play face to face almost twice a month
-Play sessions include 5 to 10 players with their own unique characters

Things I want to be easier for me as the DM
-References in one place (i.e. my Windows Surface Pro)
-Easier time looking up spells (I have the PDF versions of the complete Wizards and Priests Spell Compendiums for D&D 2e and I printed them both out and bound them in three ring binders)
-Creating and printing battle maps (I currently use Campaign Cartographer 3 and have become proficient at using it)

Other things I would like to do in the future:
-Play Birthright and convert it to D&D 5e
-Perhaps take my current Birthright campaign. And convert it to 5e
-Have.modules fir Birthright I can download and use (right if FG does this?)

Things I am willing to do to make my dreams come true . . .
-idk maybe enter all the rules and Birthright content and other AD&D 2e content into an app, fir FG?

What's this freelance stuff I've been hearing about? Basically, I want to make the wonderful D&D Birthright setting available to as many people as I can and make it as easy to run as I can.

Will FG help me achieve this goal?

Thank you,
Messy1

[Zacchaeus]

Answering your last point first the Birthright setting is copyright and so you would never be able to distribute anything you created in FG for it.

I don't know birthright so I don't know what's in it; but you can add anything you'll find in a campaign book into Fantasy Grounds. The current version of FG does not have the ability to create nor print maps (or anything else). The new version due out soon will have map making tools but there won't be a print option.

You can certainly do all of the things that you want (with the exceptions noted above) and use FG as an aid to your tabletop games.

More information in this lengthy thread here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...t-the-tabletop

[esmdev]

I think the most difficult part of using Birthright in FG would be mass combat and domain actions. The spells, proficiencies, classes races and bloodline abilities would mostly just require a whole lot of data entry, the problematic two would require actual coding. You would probably also want stored domain stats, that would also require coding. It isn't impossible but would take a whole lot of time. I'd love to see it added to 2E but given the logistics I'm not holding my breath. Due to the copyright terms you'll likely never see it in 5E unless WotC does a 180 on it (they have thus far refused to let anyone even license it) so it couldn't be produced in FG except maybe for 2E.

That being said, FG is fairly robust and handles standard 5E very well. It also has methods for setting up reference documents within the system. If you don't mind manually handling systems that it doesn't cover, it will do that but requires the DM to provide the result instead of FG. Domain actions like agitation and such would be handled just like you would in tabletop game, the player rolls and the DM provides the results. That is generally how most people use FG for systems that haven't been created or licensed and works just as well for handling campaign specific systems of specific settings.

[Messy1]

Yes, I do understand the copyright issues and I would not try to distribute despite what I said in my original post.

So what I hear is that I can manually enter the information to FG and then have it available to reference for my birthright campaign? Also, I assume the rulebooks for 2e that FG has could also be incorporated?

Okay thanks

[Messy1]

Wait, maybe I don't understand the copyright issues . . .

So in order for FG to add Birthright modules WoTC would have to do what?

Also, are you saying that I could manually enter spells, and other stuff from reference I own to use?

And yeah too bad about the kingdom system stuff that needs coding. It would be awesome.

[Ckorik]

Wait, maybe I don't understand the copyright issues . . .

So in order for FG to add Birthright modules WoTC would have to do what?

Also, are you saying that I could manually enter spells, and other stuff from reference I own to use?

And yeah too bad about the kingdom system stuff that needs coding. It would be awesome.

1) Answer this last

2) Yes - the program was used for years with no official support - just lots of typing or cut/paste if you have pdfs

back to 1) - if you do enter in all the stuff - and take time to do it nicely - you could submit it to FG who will contact the publisher to determine if they'd like to sell it officially - that's (AFAIK) how stuff gets added - someone does the grunt work - follows the posted process to submit the item - and if it's accepted by the publisher the author gets a cut of all sales for a period of time.

[Trenloe]

...if you do enter in all the stuff - and take time to do it nicely - you could submit it to FG who will contact the publisher to determine if they'd like to sell it officially - that's (AFAIK) how stuff gets added - someone does the grunt work - follows the posted process to submit the item - and if it's accepted by the publisher the author gets a cut of all sales for a period of time.

I would not rely on this without contacting SmiteWorks first. Having an expectation that stuff you produce (even if very nice and well done) will get official approval can lead to a lot of wasted time and frustration. There's probably a good chance of getting a license, as Wizards of the Coast own the IP and have released the PDFs on DM's guild. For example: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/169..._0_0_0_0_0_0_0 But Wizards can be quite strict on what products they release licenses for.

So, always best to check if you're interested in developing official products and not assume anything based off other releases.

[Messy1]

Thanks, that's very helpful!

[Valyar]

You need campaign organizer. Realm Works is the tool to go

[The High Druid]

While I don't want to discourage you from using FG, as I think it's marvellous, I havn't found using it on my SP3 to be a particularly good experience, there's just not enough physical screen space to organise windows well, and FG doesn't have the best window management to compensate.