Thinking about switching to Fantasy Grounds

[Sarteck]

Hello, FG.

I currently run a game on another popular VTT site, but I'm getting rather annoyed with many aspects about it. Even after dropping a bunch of money on it, that annoyance has built up enough that I'm strongly considering dropping my losses and switching to Fantasy Grounds, which seems to be the other leader in VTT gaming. After having a peek through your Support forum and seeing questions and problems actually being addressed (and not too many in the first place TO address), I'm even more interested.

I would like to give my players the best gaming experience possible, and have a couple questions.

The VTT I currently use is browser-based and was working adequately until somewhat recently. Unfortunately, "something" changed between my Session Zero (where we all tested things out to make sure it was working properly) and my Session 1 a week later, and some of the players were experiencing slowness, bugginess, or even inability to load the game at all. Am I correct in assuming, since Fantasy Grounds is application-based, such issues would be far less common? Are there times when Fantasy Ground is just down for everyone? If so, how often is this? I really like the Dynamic Lighting aspect of my current VTT, but had to TURN OFF that feature during my Session 1 just so that some of my players could load the game. Does FG have a similar function? The VTT I use also allows for custom macros to make some tasks as easy as clicking a button (for example, changing the token of a druid and her associated character sheet to that of a badger when she shifts forms, or for rolling Initiative for a group of monsters without having to go into each individual sheet, and similar stuff). Does FG provide that? Is there a performance trade-off for the size of a game, or does FG pretty much perform stably without slowdowns and crashes?

You guys probably know which VTT I'm talking about, but I don't know if it's against the ToS to mention it or not... but if you do, any other advice or information you could offer concerning switching platforms would be greatly appreciated.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi Sarteck welcome to FG.

I haven't used Roll 20 so I cannot really comment on it. I can only comment on FG.

FG Unity does have Line of Sight - note this is not dynamic Lighting in that the LoS is infinite. It isn't limited by character vision or light source ranges. This can be simulated somewhat by using the mask in conjunction with the Los feature. FG Classic does not have LoS but does have a mask mode.

In Classic the host of the game is the DMs computer; so as long as the DM is up and running players can join. However the DM may well have to forward ports on their router in order to be able to host successfully. Unity is the same but in addition it has a cloud brokering feature which allows for connection via a SW server. This allows people who are unable to use Classic because they are unable to forward ports; are on an IPv6 network or have other networking issues that prevents them from successfully hosting a game. So in answer to your question in Classic there is never any loss of service; in Unity potentially if the cloud server is down then you may have issues with the brokering. Since Unity is still in Beta it is difficult to say whether the cloud server going down will be a thing. For the last few weeks it has been very stable.

As for macros FG doesn't have the same kind of macro that Roll20 has; it does it differently. Natively the changing of the Druid portrait in your example isn't built into FG but there are at least two community extensions which do allow this; one is available directly from the forums and the other is a paid for product available via the DMsGuild.

FG is an extremely powerful tool with a great deal of built in functionality - especially for the 5e, 2e and Pathfinder 2 rulesets.

My advice is that you should think about taking out a subscription for an Ultimate license and give the software a whirl. If it's not for you then SW offer a full 30 day money back guarantee and so you can get the cost of the sub back at the end of your month. If you do like it then you can either continue the sub or buy the one off licence.

Lots a video links in this post here which should help you get a feel for what the software can do. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ul-information

[Valyar]

Now, the performance problems with Roll20 are not something new and for sure occur more often during the corona-time, but I would say that this is the least of the issues with the platform. The lack of innovation for years, the same bland interface and clunky way to manage your assets was the main reason I switched to FG yers ago. Also the subscription for gimmicks and more storage (which is super cheap nowadays...) is no-no for me.

Fantasy Ground is excellent hosted by you platform and if there is game system that is officially supported by FG, it is the best choice. The most popular ones have really good automation and excellent modules if you want to chip in money, but also you can very easily create and export your own content for personal use. There are a lot of very good community rulesets that support other popular games. Depending on your computer literacy you might find the interface super easy to use or not. Give it a go with the demo version that you can evaluate. I am absolutely sure it will worth your time

If you play games that are not supported by FG, there are two rulesets - CoreRPG and MoreCore that provide you a lot of flexibility to have different rolls to address your needs and create your charsheet without programming experience. They are great but, to properly mod them to look and feel like polished ruleset and charsheet you need to do some coding. FG is not friendly towards development and will take much more time compared to other platforms that use modern web technologies such as Foundry VTT or even Roll20. So in FG there is no macro or easy to access automation.

[Hurske]

Some other info also to add, initiative can be done with two clicks of a mouse, you can roll for every participant in the battle at once , only the enemies, and you can have it to where it is group initiative, or individual.

You mentioned that the druid shape shifting, I use an extension here for my druid player, that changes the stats as well as the picture, and HP with mouse click, makes it very convenient.

[Sarteck]

Thanks to all of you, I really appreciate the feedback. I think I'll go ahead and spring for a month of Ultimate as suggested, just to try stuff out. I've been going through some of the links in the thread Zacchaeus linked to; it's a lot to take in, and I'm sure I will understand it a lot better if I can actually work with the application first-hand. I can already tell that it's going to be a much different experience than Roll20, and will have to compare and contrast features for myself. From the videos I have watched, it seems to offer a lot that Roll20 doesn't (and probably can't, honestly), but it also seems quite a bit harder to customize the experience.

Fortunately, I'm no stranger to either coding (parsed languages anyways, not too hot on compiled languages) or networking (I work as a systems administrator for a webhosting company), so I hope to be able to adequately navigate it. I'm really excited to hear that it's not a centralized hosting environment that everyone has to share (as mentioned, what with the Coof going around, Roll20's servers are bogged).

Thanks again; I'll probably have a lot more questions, and will place them in the appropriate forums if I'm unable to find a satisfactory answer on my own.

[JohnD]

Welcome. Hope FG works out for you.

[LordEntrails]

Welcome! I think you'll really like it here. And don't let yourself get frustrated. You can take free classes at FG College and always can drop in here or on Discord with any questions.

[Sarteck]

Welcome! I think you'll really like it here. And don't let yourself get frustrated. You can take free classes at FG College and always can drop in here or on Discord with any questions.

I hope it doesn't boil down to "taking classes," I've been out of school for decades, and even then I was more of a self-learner, heh.

I went ahead and sprang for the Ultimate 30-day sub earlier today, and have been toying around with FGU. I'm really impressed with the responsiveness both host-side and client-side, but I have to admit people weren't joking when they said there's a bit of a learning curve (at least so far on the DM side of things). Definitely something your average Joe couldn't sit down and use intuitively. I'm not afraid at all of teaching myself more about how to use it, but I'm hoping the player side of things will be a bit easier. (Of course, I won't find that out until I actually get a test campaign up and running.)

[Beemanpat]

I haven't taken classes but I bet there is some gems to had there. There is a learning curve. I watch YouTube videos. Search the forums. Players do have it easier so if I'm struggling with something most times I'll make a quick ruling to keep th game moving and the player will search for the answer online then share it so we'll all hopefully remember it next time.
The biggest and bestest asset is right here. People on here are so helpful. Cant find it in a search on here just ask.
Anyway my 2 cents. Hope you like it and welcome to the forums.

[JohnD]

I hope it doesn't boil down to "taking classes," I've been out of school for decades, and even then I was more of a self-learner, heh.

I went ahead and sprang for the Ultimate 30-day sub earlier today, and have been toying around with FGU. I'm really impressed with the responsiveness both host-side and client-side, but I have to admit people weren't joking when they said there's a bit of a learning curve (at least so far on the DM side of things). Definitely something your average Joe couldn't sit down and use intuitively. I'm not afraid at all of teaching myself more about how to use it, but I'm hoping the player side of things will be a bit easier. (Of course, I won't find that out until I actually get a test campaign up and running.)

If you have someone who knows what they're doing giving you a walk through, you can learn enough to be a competent player in about 75 minutes (assuming you have average 21st century computer acumen). The DM side takes longer than that, but a good player base will form a solid foundation for the DM stuff.