What do I need to buy?

[fgeheim]

The world of electronic RPG tools is still very nebulous to me...I'm fairly sure I understand D&D Beyond and want nothing to do with it, so am checking out what else is available.

I watched an example video of Fantasy Grounds and it looks like a nice program...but want to be sure what it actually consists of.

I basically require tokens to be able to accurately portray encounters. But am confused about Licensing and Addons.

I already have many of these Addons as real books and like it that way. Are they required in the same way that they are in D&D Beyond - i.e. that rules and options found in the books are some how required to be able to use them in the program?

[dulux-oz]

Hi fgeheim. and Welcome! to the Community,

Fantasy Grounds (FG) can seem a bit confusing at first, but let me see if I can put it this way: If you think of things like a Video Game System (eg XBox, PS4, etc) then FG is the actual console, and we load up a given Ruleset (Game CD) when we want to play a given Role-Playing Game (RPG). FG comes with the Rulesets for quite a few games (D&D 3rd Ed, 4th Ed, 5th, Pathfinder, etc) and others are available either for purchase (eg Call of Cthulu) or free as a Community Developed Ruleset.

When you play an RPG (on FG or otherwise) you need the actual rules, etc. In the real world these are the hardcopy Rulebooks (or even pdfs), while in the FG world these are Modules. You don't NEED to buy any Modules, as you can enter this info in manually, but the Modules do make things easier.

Finally, there are various "Plug Ins" (known as Extensions) that add more/different features to a given Ruleset (or several Rulesets, if the Extension is written that way). An example is my own DOE: Weather Extension, which adds in a weather system to all the "standard" Rulesets available.

On a related note: If you haven't done so already, let me encourage you to take a look at some of the great Tutorial Videos available on the Fantasy Grounds Wiki (and on YouTube). Damn's 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, because the CoreRPG forms the foundation of just about all the RPGs we play with Fantasy Grounds - so by learning how to use FG with the CoreRPG you'll learn about 80% of what you'll need to know to play any RPG with Fantasy Grounds. Once you've gone through the CoreRPG Videos you can then go on to Videos about your chosen RPG.

When you get familiar with the basic Fantasy Grounds product the next step is to check out some of the Extensions (Plug-Ins) for FG, such as the DOE: Sound, DOE: Locations, DOE: Weather and DOE: Organisations Extensions (to name a but a few - and a Shameless™ Self Plug).

And keep on asking questions - we're a pretty friendly lot here, and we love answering questions.

Cheers

[fgeheim]

So if I want to play 5e D&D then I HAVE to buy the PHB and DMG 'modules', even though I already own them? And this means that I CAN'T just use the tokens and maps that I want, and the license for the software?

Thanks for the links but I really don't want to have to wade through a lot of videos just to be able to know the answer to my question.

[dulux-oz]

So if I want to play 5e D&D then I HAVE to buy the PHB and DMG 'modules', even though I already own them? And this means that I CAN'T just use the tokens and maps that I want, and the license for the software?

Thanks for the links but I really don't want to have to wade through a lot of videos just to be able to know the answer to my question.

No, you don't HAVE to buy them - just enter the info in manually. You can buy them if you want, and they'll save you a heap of time, but your don't HAVE to buy them.

[Trenloe]

...just use the tokens and maps that I want, and the license for the software?

If you're just using tokens and maps (either purchased or added yourself) then you don't need any of the 5E DLC, just the license for the GM and any players who might be joining the session to view the maps/tokens. Just load up the token and map graphics into Fantasy Grounds and use them as a battlemap.

[Talyn]

Welcome to the forums!

Also FG comes with the 5E SRD by default, so that content (some classes, races, gear, spells, etc.) is already available and ready to play, just not the whole Player's Handbook. (Just the content that Wizards put into the SRD.) You can enter all the data yourself; several people have done that. It's a matter of spending a little money ($30 full price for PHB, and it goes on sale roughly every 5 weeks-ish) or a lot of time doing it for free. Plus all the rollable tables, and other FG-specific features are already done and ready to roll (pun intended) with the official DLC.

Entering the data yourself can be a rewarding experience, if you're into that sort of thing, and it will certainly get you familiar with where FG stores the various bits of data and you'll be able to zip around pretty quickly, but it's tedious af -- there's just no getting around that one.

[LordEntrails]

Both the standard and ultimate licenses come with both the 5E SRD and 5E Basic Rules. Anything else from the PHB or DMG you can enter manually if you want.

You may want to Check out the FG College. They are a bunch of friendly folks who can walk you through a demo and show you how things work.

[damned]

The SRD contains a couple of hundred pages of source/reference material and is included for free. The equivalent books contain 2-3x as much info but certainly the SRD (or the Basic rules) provide plenty to get you started.
And yes - if you want the PHB in FG you have to buy it in FG.
If you just want a single class in FG you can buy that single class or you can enter it in manually.

There are lots of variables at play so its hard to answer your question fully without knowing more.

[midas]

Thanks for the links but I really don't want to have to wade through a lot of videos just to be able to know the answer to my question.

We tend to give the links just as more info to help you use the product in case you decide to jump into the FG waters. And welcome to the forums!

[Zacchaeus]

You may find this summery useful. (Yes I know it is a link but it does answer all of your questions and also some more that you haven't thought of yet).