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  1. #21
    ddavison's Avatar
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    One thing I recommend to any new user is to try to jump into a game with an experienced DM or group first to see how things run in an optimal setting. The Fantasy Grounds College group on Discord is a great resource for this.

    You mention that you need to know what book/source something came from before you can use it. You don't need to know that.
    1. Go to Library > Modules and activate any books you think you will use -- i.e., all the character building books and the adventure you plan to run
    2. When you need a class, don't go to the Library, select the book and then classes unless you only want to see that book's content.
    3. Instead, open the Classes window and you will see all the classes. You can type in search to filter it. Dragging and dropping a class from any book to your sheet will loop through and show you all subclasses from all books along with any homebrew versions for that class

    The same is true for races, feats, monsters, etc.

    FG was built in 2004 originally and I bought the company in late 2009. Moon Wizard came onboard in Jan 2010. We've improved the interface in many ways since then but it still has lots of hold-overs to early design decisions. We also work at a speed that sometimes allows us to add very cool and powerful new features that unfortunately end up getting buried so only advanced users know they exist. We need to do better in that regard. I came across one earlier today in a support email.

    When entering an NPC with a large list of spells, you can fill out only the Innate Spellcasting or Spellcasting trait and then close and re-open the NPC to have it automatically fill in each of the spells into the action tab with the proper DC, attack bonus, etc. That's an amazingly powerful time-saver, but if you didn't see the notice when we added it, you could very easily miss that feature. We should really add a button there so it will at least clue you in that the feature exists.

  2. #22
    Valyar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken L View Post
    The FG UI is pretty bad, unless you're older, then it feels homely.
    Damn... it feels homely
    The past is a rudder to guide us, not an anchor to hold us back.

  3. #23
    Myrdin Potter's Avatar
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    I am old enough by far to remember the stumbling around of GUI (my first was Apple ][ GS), but my initial reaction to the FG GUI was pretty negative. It actually works remarkably well and the more standard interface gets in the way for many VTT functions (Roll20 suffers from that).

    Interface aside, the real strength here is that the developers listen and slowly change things to make them better. For 5e, you used to need to know an outside parser or XML to make a class, now the client handles it. “Chapters” used to be tabs that you named by dragging and dropping from chat, now it is a much more intuitive drop down and type interface.

    These were all things I complained about and I saw them change.

    Give it a good try and I think you will find it better than first appearance. But more than try, go into the forums where the programmer (ruleset developers) post and note the extra care from the developers. Also, this thread has posts from the main owner and the major developer. This is a company that is passionate about their customers and gaming and it really shows.

    They also are a well run business that pays their community developers and IP partners as regular as clockwork which is rare in the industry.

    Oh, and welcome to the forums!
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  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by ddavison View Post
    One thing I recommend to any new user is to try to jump into a game with an experienced DM or group first to see how things run in an optimal setting. The Fantasy Grounds College group on Discord is a great resource for this.

    You mention that you need to know what book/source something came from before you can use it. You don't need to know that.
    1. Go to Library > Modules and activate any books you think you will use -- i.e., all the character building books and the adventure you plan to run
    2. When you need a class, don't go to the Library, select the book and then classes unless you only want to see that book's content.
    3. Instead, open the Classes window and you will see all the classes. You can type in search to filter it. Dragging and dropping a class from any book to your sheet will loop through and show you all subclasses from all books along with any homebrew versions for that class

    The same is true for races, feats, monsters, etc.

    FG was built in 2004 originally and I bought the company in late 2009. Moon Wizard came onboard in Jan 2010. We've improved the interface in many ways since then but it still has lots of hold-overs to early design decisions. We also work at a speed that sometimes allows us to add very cool and powerful new features that unfortunately end up getting buried so only advanced users know they exist. We need to do better in that regard. I came across one earlier today in a support email.

    When entering an NPC with a large list of spells, you can fill out only the Innate Spellcasting or Spellcasting trait and then close and re-open the NPC to have it automatically fill in each of the spells into the action tab with the proper DC, attack bonus, etc. That's an amazingly powerful time-saver, but if you didn't see the notice when we added it, you could very easily miss that feature. We should really add a button there so it will at least clue you in that the feature exists.
    ddavison, I'll see if I can get into a group for optimal play, FG discord seems to be pretty active (yay) and I was able to get some of my questions answered the other evening (despite it being super late). I'll try your suggestions above (It's entirely possible I was doing things the wrong way (or an old way, etc)).

    Last night I was able to create a couple of NPC's and throw them into an encounter and run the encounter. So progress is being made, things are getting easier. Thanks again everyone for the links/advice and discord hook up.

    2004, yeah 14 years is a long time and without a large number of full time developers, that can make updating slow.

    As others have said, I'm trying to focus on exactly what am I wanting FG to do, which is exactly what it's primary purpose is (be a virtual table top). Of course if the desired flow is to create characters via DND beyond, I'd love the ability to import them into FG (Granted because I suspect not all of your user base has that or wants to pay for both digital sources, that might not be a feature high up on your to do list).

  5. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Myrdin Potter View Post
    I am old enough by far to remember the stumbling around of GUI (my first was Apple ][ GS), but my initial reaction to the FG GUI was pretty negative. It actually works remarkably well and the more standard interface gets in the way for many VTT functions (Roll20 suffers from that).

    Interface aside, the real strength here is that the developers listen and slowly change things to make them better. For 5e, you used to need to know an outside parser or XML to make a class, now the client handles it. “Chapters” used to be tabs that you named by dragging and dropping from chat, now it is a much more intuitive drop down and type interface.

    These were all things I complained about and I saw them change.

    Give it a good try and I think you will find it better than first appearance. But more than try, go into the forums where the programmer (ruleset developers) post and note the extra care from the developers. Also, this thread has posts from the main owner and the major developer. This is a company that is passionate about their customers and gaming and it really shows.

    They also are a well run business that pays their community developers and IP partners as regular as clockwork which is rare in the industry.

    Oh, and welcome to the forums!
    I've noticed! Also I've noticed how nice and helpful everyone is being. It scores big points in my faith in our Steam 4 pack purchase along with all the source books we've picked up. Thanks for the welcome Myrdin Potter :-)

  6. #26
    LordEntrails's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jaradakar View Post
    d.... Of course if the desired flow is to create characters via DND beyond, I'd love the ability to import them into FG (Granted because I suspect not all of your user base has that or wants to pay for both digital sources, that might not be a feature high up on your to do list).
    I think it was mentioned earlier, but maybe not; one of the community members has been working on a character importer from DDB. It's still in development. And I can't find the darn thread at the moment

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  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by LordEntrails View Post
    I think it was mentioned earlier, but maybe not; one of the community members has been working on a character importer from DDB. It's still in development. And I can't find the darn thread at the moment
    Color me excited about that! Thank you for the heads up LordEntrails.

  8. #28
    Trenloe's Avatar
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    Private Messages: My inbox is forever filling up with PMs. Please don't send me PMs unless they are actually private/personal messages. General FG questions should be asked in the forums - don't be afraid, the FG community don't bite and you're giving everyone the chance to respond and learn!

  9. #29
    Hello Jaradakar,

    Welcome in our community !
    I hope you will find your way around the program. Beleive it or not, this is the one I prefer, even estetically. Why ? Because it IS unlike windows and other google things, which give me more the impression of being immersed on it. That's why I don't like roll20 so much. Cause it's in the browser. Exactly the same as when I'm working
    You will see that the automatisation on FG is great, above all, imo, for Dungeon & dragones, pathfinder and Savage worlds. In a few months, Ikael has made a huge work on Savage worlds, and you won't find better anywhere else
    I also use Cthulhu a lot and it's a great ruleset.
    I'm glad you find your way on the forums. U will see that everyone will be more than ready and happy to answer your question !
    Ultimate license holder
    Pref : Cthulhu and savage Worlds

  10. #30
    Just thought I'd drop an update.
    Last Friday (8-17-2018) our group managed to each work around their connection issues and everyone was able to get into the Fantasy Grounds game I was hosting (yay), just took a bit of firewall/router tweaking. Characters were manually transferred from DNDBeyond (this time, converter tests incoming) and we ran a mock combat. Overall it went pretty smoothly and we're all getting adjusted to using the software. Fantasy Grounds did a pretty good job at providing a virtual table top!

    After that evening, I discovered the module i'm going to be running (Tomb of Annihilation) did not have the GM very prepared for random encounters (at least in the way of battlemaps) so I found some maps that I can use for that. I started adding and setting up lots of user notes only to find out this morning that notes are suppose to be more for players and "Story" is for the GM. This came about from wanting to organize my 'notes' into folders. The way you access 'groups' in Story, while scale-able feels super awkward and I wish you had the option to use visually accessible tabs from older version as a 'book mark' option (for your go to groups). I also wish there was some distinction between 'user created groups' and officially authored groups.

    On a more positive note, I love how easy it is to add links to other sections or images. I also love how easy it is to add character images/icons. I love how easy it is to add art/images (one of the cooler Port of Nyanzaru art images from the internet). I loved how easy it was for me as a GM to share a character icon/image with one of my players.

    I'm a little disappointed the module does not have some of the travel/survival information setup in a more digestible way (but then again, the physical book of Tomb of Annihilation does not do this very well either), but not a huge deal. At least Fantasy Grounds seems to have all the tools to setup/link notes and additional story information.

    Next steps are to try out the DND Beyond converter, get a little more prepared for some random encounters (plan to try to pre-roll multiple outcomes out, so depending on where they end up going, I'll have some options ready). I feel we're pretty close to being ready to run/play. We've also been testing communication devices (google hangouts, Skype, Discord, etc).

    Both me and our other DM have both been spending a bunch of time trying things out and learning how to use the software. I think character creation (which is what inspired this thread) is really one of the roughest spots. Fantasy Grounds primary job of being a 'virtual table top' it does pretty well. Thanks again for anyone who responded with links for help and advice.
    Last edited by Jaradakar; August 19th, 2018 at 18:51.

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