FGII version question

Eugene,

The FG II conversions continue to be great -thanks for all the hard work. Had you converted any of the powers/feats from the players guide?

Yes, actually. I don't know why I didn't send it to Morrus earlier, but I'll do so when I send Monastary. Sorry about that.

Great! Im running a new group through and they just became blades of the resistance. It's easy enough to add manually, but I like having the power on the sheet and Im ....shall we say "challenged" as far as basic coding skill goes.

I was curious how you like using FGII and WotBS? Do you play exclusively as an online group? I was thinking about implementing FGII and integrating it with my live group. Just use FGII to display the battle map and minis on our big screen TV and use FGII to calculate quickly the combat modifiers and keep track of status's and all the fiddly combat stuff but yet still keep the group together live to have fun with all the RPG elements.

Even from an online stand point how well do you like using FGII?

Thanks,

Shannon

I find FG2 to be an excellent way of playing DnD. If I ever start another live group again, I'll definitely be using it. It's an amazingly versatile piece of software. It was designed as a "pure" tabletop simulation, low in functionality, but designed to completely recreate the tabletop experience. But with the robust scripting system (using Lua), there are nearly unlimited possibilities. Eh, starting to sound like a commercial now.

Specifically, I've found that my groups run combat much faster in FG2. Also, because most people are more willing to RP in chat than act things out in-character at a table, the RP is on a different level from just playing at a table.

However, there are a few "cons." I know some of my players are annoyed by the level of automation we use. It's completely optional, but I'm a huge fan of automation, so there's a potential to alienate players one way or the other. Also, FG2 does have the occasional issue. The community is very friendly and will quickly help you figure out why you're having problems, but it's still one of those things that just don't happen at a table. Nothing sucks than having your game interrupted but a crash. If I were you, I'd do some research on the forums to find some of the common issues that only experiences players know that aren't documented anywhere.

I've used FGII at the table and it works very well for the uses you've described (tracking conditions, initiative etc.). It's also very useful if you have the adventure available (like EugeneZ's WOTBS conversions) because then everything is readily searchable and available to you at the click of a button rather than pouring over pages of docs. It's also nice if you project the maps so that you dont have to worry about dungeon tile setup or very large maps. To do that effectively, you essentially need 2 monitors and run 2 instances of FG on your pc -one for the players and one for the DM. One drawback for me when using a montor as opposed to a projector shining the player map on the table - once everyone is staring at a monitor for information, you diminish that face to face social connection which is one of the appeals of tabletop gaming.

FGII for ftf

I've used FGII at the table and it works very well for the uses you've described (tracking conditions, initiative etc.). It's also very useful if you have the adventure available (like EugeneZ's WOTBS conversions) because then everything is readily searchable and available to you at the click of a button rather than pouring over pages of docs. It's also nice if you project the maps so that you dont have to worry about dungeon tile setup or very large maps. To do that effectively, you essentially need 2 monitors and run 2 instances of FG on your pc -one for the players and one for the DM. One drawback for me when using a montor as opposed to a projector shining the player map on the table - once everyone is staring at a monitor for information, you diminish that face to face social connection which is one of the appeals of tabletop gaming.

Thanks for the replies, I'll check out the forums and probably download the demo to play around with it a little.

fr33py said:

Thanks for the replies, I'll check out the forums and probably download the demo to play around with it a little.

Click to expand...

Hit me up on AIM (eugene0506) and I'll be happy to get a server up for you to demo. I don't have time to actually, like, play, but I'll set you up with a campaign we're in the middle of so you can try playing around with the characters, rolling some attacks, etc.