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FANTASY GROUNDS Virtual Tabletop's D&D License!

Officially licensed D&D electronic tools! For real! Fantasy Grounds, one of the leading virtual tabletops, has just released a set of D&D 5th edition licensed data packages. These include the D&D Basic Rules, packs for each of the core classes, and a pile of monster packs. Each states specifically that "This product is licensed from Wizards of the Coast." This appears to be the first officially licensed and branded electronic product. (thanks to Matchstick for the scoop)

Officially licensed D&D electronic tools! For real! Fantasy Grounds, one of the leading virtual tabletops, has just released a set of D&D 5th edition licensed data packages. These include the D&D Basic Rules, packs for each of the core classes, and a pile of monster packs. Each states specifically that "This product is licensed from Wizards of the Coast." This appears to be the first officially licensed and branded electronic product. (thanks to Matchstick for the scoop)

Check out their D&D wares here. They mention that "The DMG is still in the works, along with the Hoard of the Dragon Queen, The Rise of Tiamat and Princes of the Apocalypse." and that "The basic 5E ruleset will continue to be provided directly within Fantasy Grounds to all licenses. These purchasable options add a new graphics theme that is officially branded, along with the library module support, and whatever other enhancements we could squeeze in, like tokens or portraits or decals."

Here's the announcement:
We are proud to announce that we are officially licensed to sell D&D source material and content inside of Fantasy Grounds! This is the beginning of a great new partnership between SmiteWorks and Wizards of the Coast that will benefit gamers worldwide.

You can purchase the D&D Complete Core Class Pack with all the class, feats, spells and equipment or you can purchase individual classes only. You can also buy the monsters in packs or as the D&D Complete Core Monster Pack. These products have been converted to work really tightly with Fantasy Grounds to give you the best possible gaming experience - we know you're going to love them. They contain all the great artwork and content from the official products and all the smarts and integration to work with Fantasy Grounds. Not only will you get the same content that can be found in print, but you also get an exciting new Fifth Edition theme, adventures and content customized specifically for ease of play inside of Fantasy Grounds.

For Dungeon Masters and players on a budget, you might pick up a Player Customization Pack and one or two Class Packs of your choice. Dungeon Masters can often get by with just the Adventure of their choice and one or two Monster Packs.

Don't forget that players can gift purchases through Steam for Dungeon Masters who have linked their license on Steam.


WOTC5EDDBASICRULES.jpg
 

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Wolf118

Explorer
Smiteworks,

Are you looking at future possibility of 'detaching' the character generator from the VTT, so that a person can just subscribe or purchase only character creation tools?
 

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damned

Explorer
as good as character creation is in Fantasy Grounds dedicated tools still tend to do a more complete/detailed job. the character creation in Fantasy Grounds is designed around facilitating game play. i guess the main reason you are asking is because of the lack of such a tool for 5e.... id hazard a guess and say that smiteworks have a lot of other things on their schedule right now that are probably more core to where they are going than developing a cut down tool for char-gen.
 

Crb31

Explorer
Would it possible to see the Lost Mines in actual play- I am curious about the random monsters and how they are created- and the character advancement.
 


vandaexpress

First Post
Just wanted to leave a quick review of this after I bought everything yesterday (As someone who formerly used Roll20 for helping enhance my F2F games with a projector and HDTV)

There's a lot of stuff in here that I like. The drag and drop character creation is very nice. And honestly, the best part was how easy it was to create a wizard and drop the spells into the spellbook and have the DCs, damage, etc auto-calculate. The combat tracker is significantly more robust than anything Roll20 offers out of the box. It's like an uber turn tracker. I can see it being extremely useful even in theater-of-the-mind style games. Targeting is amazing and well done, automatically decrementing hp etc is very cool.

You can achieve similar results in Roll20 but it requires knowledge of the API and programming, etc, which I have, but my time is valuable and the Roll20 API is notorious for periodically breaking down for whatever reason (see 'unexpected token s' errors).

I'm not sure if its just my inexperience, but the maps included in the phandelver module seem to be too low-res to use as battlemaps in the VTT. This isn't a big deal to me since I already own the high-res versions purchased direct from Mike Schley's website, but it could be a letdown for people who buy the module and expect it to be ready to play out of the box.

The default token selection for player characters is weak - they have a GREAT selection of portraits, and I was surprised that these portraits hadn't been converted into tokens. Maybe this is something they can add in the future. Again, not a huge problem since I already have an enormous token library I developed for Roll20.

The rules lookup is solid. They have everything you could possibly need to reference available right there.

Initial verdict is positive. I will post a more detailed review as I gain familiarity with the software. For now, I'll continue to use Roll20 until I'm comfortable enough with the new interface to be willing to run a live game with it.
 



damned

Explorer
hola [MENTION=6790472]vandaexpress[/MENTION] the maps by default open up so they fit. they have been scaled down to 35 or 50px per square (I wish they were all just 50px) just use your scroll wheel to zoom in. hold down the ctrl key to see all the pins pop up with links to all the encounters and story content right where you need it. this will be so much better/faster/easier than importing your own maps.
 

damned

Explorer
oh and you cant achieve any where near the combat tracker coolness in roll20. not today. the combat tracker does so much for you. saves so much time and effort for both GM and players.
 

Nylanfs

Adventurer
The default token selection for player characters is weak - they have a GREAT selection of portraits, and I was surprised that these portraits hadn't been converted into tokens. Maybe this is something they can add in the future. Again, not a huge problem since I already have an enormous token library I developed for Roll20.

Check out the token sharing section of the forums, also there are some token packs that you can buy.
 

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