Prospective buyer has some reservations

[Cantstanzya]

I am running the demo on Win98. Because FG is not officially tested on Win98 it is "not supported". All I know is that it is running fine for me, at least the demo is. I will be buying the client for the Win98 PC as soon as I finish setting up my campaign. Probably sometime next week.

[Golbez57]

I'm with you in the "prospective buyer" camp, Roghain, and was prompted to check out these Message Boards by the fact that some of the regular posters at the Dugeons & Dragons Online forums will soon be running an Eberron game using Fantasy Grounds.

3) Then my main worry - how big a player base is there? Even if I buy the full programm, make everything as nifty as can be, without players logging on to my carefully crafted adventure, there is little point in actually crafting the adventure...

If people who are enthusiastic about D & D AND online gaming are getting involved with Fantasy Grounds, their experiences are positive, and those experiences are related to the larger community at the DDO forums, I think there'll be a LOT more people using Fantasy Grounds, and soon.

Why? Simply this: many of the hundreds and hundreds of people who visit those forums are long-time enthusiasts of tabletop D & D gaming. A lot of them, in turn, have said that their tabletop games folded because of distance between them and those with whom they used to play. Fantasy Grounds appears to be able to bridge that gap.

One of my friends and fellow tabletop gamers, like me, lives in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. One of her brothers attends school in Florida, and the other is living and working in Ohio. I'll be tinkering around more with the Demo version this weekend, and if it's as nice as a first look indicated, and and she and other friends of mine show an interest, I'll definitely be buying the full version.

Thanks to those who have lent some insight on what Fantasty Grounds is and what it isn't!

[Golbez57]

Well, I was happy to be invited to the campaign mentioned above, and several of us went ahead and purchased Fantasy Grounds this past weekend. We are just getting our bearings, but so far, it seems to be a fantastic tool! I can definitely give it an initial thumbs-up.

My NVIDIA driver hadn't been updated since we purchased our PC in July 2003 (my bad) and so things didn't display properly, but once one of my fellow players led me to do so, things were a-okay. It was a simple fix. Just a heads-up to those who purchase FG and get a weird display at first.

[DM Greg]

I've used GRIP, OpenRPG, Klooge, Screen Monkey and just about every other online gaming tool out there (I'm a gaming whore). Fantasy Grounds hits the right balance. I wanted a table-top emulator. Something that would act just like a real-life game. Lo and behold it's exactly what I got.

My prep time is roughly the same because I use VoiP instead of chat but I have consistengly played more with Fantasy Grounds than I have in real-life over the last 4 months.

I have also met some great gamers in this short amount of time. People that haven't played in years, those who's groups have moved away, students on a different schedule.

All in all it's been the best 40.00 I've spent in a while.

Now onto my Scarred Lands campaign.

Greg Volz
Natural Twenty Gaming
www.naturaltwenty.com

Current running The Shadows Rise (www.naturaltwenty.com/realms.htm)