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)

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.
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[Torg Smith]

I didn't see it listed anywhere, but which module has the full races from the PHB? or is that going to be released in a later PHB module?

Fantasy Grounds - D&D Complete Core Class Pack has the races from the PHB.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/360090/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_2

I am not positive on the individual pack that has it, so I don't want to guess here.

 

[smiteworks]

Now this is pretty open... Care to answer three concrete questions how these spells from the Basis Set work in FG?

Disintegrate prompts a saving throw from the target to be either disintegrated (killed and lost) or suffering some damage. If the damage reduces the target to 0 hp, it is disintegrated.

Disintegrate rolls against the Dex with the DC determined by the caster and reports back success or failure. If the target fails the save, then you click on the damage icon or drag the damage dice to the target and it rolls the 10d6+40 damage. It doesn't do anything else special if the target drops below 0. Once they hit 0, they already mark the creature as dead and prep them to be removed from initiative.

Death Ward lets the target survive the next lethal attack within 8 hours. It is reduced to 1 hp instead and the spell ends.

This spell doesn't automate anything. You could add an effect called Death Ward and set the duration to 8 hours. Then you would drag that effect from your spell to your recipient and it would last until you manually removed it.

Faerie Fire grants CA on attacks versus the target(s). The spell's duration is determined by the caster's concentration (up to 1 minute).

You would probably want to add an effect to the spell that has a 1 min duration and is called GRANTADVATK. It would automatically drop that effect in the combat tracker for each creature that failed their save and any attack against those creatures would automatically provide advantage. If you lose concentration, the DM would have to manually remove the effects from the NPCs in the combat tracker (which is pretty easy.)

Here are a list of the effects you can create if you don't want to just use descriptive text:
http://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Effects

How does concentration work?

This needs to be manually tracked. I suppose you could create an effect called "Concentrating" and the DM could apply it to your PC in the combat tracker as a reminder that you are concentrating on a spell.

How does targetting work? See Faerie Fire.

You can drag an attack, damage or effect onto an enemy token on a map or onto an enemy listed in the combat tracker. Alternately, you can CTRL+Click multiple tokens on a map to target each of them. If you then click your spell attack, it will automatically roll to hit each or roll against the appropriate save. If the spell is set to do half damage on a save, it will apply half damage. Otherwise, effects or damage are dealt to those who failed their save.

 

[Torg Smith]

Now this is pretty open... Care to answer three concrete questions how these spells from the Basis Set work in FG?

Disintegrate prompts a saving throw from the target to be either disintegrated (killed and lost) or suffering some damage. If the damage reduces the target to 0 hp, it is disintegrated.

Death Ward lets the target survive the next lethal attack within 8 hours. It is reduced to 1 hp instead and the spell ends.

Faerie Fire grants CA on attacks versus the target(s). The spell's duration is determined by the caster's concentration (up to 1 minute).

How does concentration work?

How does targetting work? See Faerie Fire.

I don't want to diminish the quality or the effort that went into the product in any way, but these are serious usability concerns in my book.

My biggest issue with automation in VTTs is to make it clear which parts and details are automated and which aren't.

The GM still makes calls for the rolls needed. If you look at the screenshots on the product pages, you will see a bunch of little red dragon heads on them. If you click on any of them, a message box will pop up with a detailed description. This eliminates the need to go to the book to look up the information. There is some automation with standard things like to hit, save, damage, etc. There are videos that you can check out on the use of FG for more information.


EDIT: Was beat to the punch.

 

[smiteworks]

I didn't see it listed anywhere, but which module has the full races from the PHB? or is that going to be released in a later PHB module?

Complete Core Class Pack and the PC Customization Pack both have all the races. The D&D Basic Rules have the four races listed -- although I think we just saw an issue that is preventing them from showing up at the moment. I'll be posting a fix for that this morning. I will go in and update the product descriptions to make this more clear.

 

[smiteworks]

I just updated the product descriptions so that it is clear that the PC Customization Pack and the Complete Core Class have all the Races included. We also just pushed an update to the D&D Basic Rules to fix an issue with the custom theme and 4 basic races not showing up. Run an update if you grabbed those already. Finally, we added the basic rules module and theme to the Lost Mine of Phandelver product. That means that the Lost Mine of Phandelver module will give you everything you need to play the latest version using all the basic rules content.

 

[damned]

Wanna try Fantasy Grounds? Wanna play 5E on the best damn virtual tabletop? Wanna try some other systems too? Savage Worlds and Pathfinder rock on Fantasy Grounds.

FG Con 6 – April 17-19th 2015 - register at www.fg-con.com for all the latest info.​

 

[halfling rogue]

Without knocking how others like to play, this seems way too excessive and unnecessarily expensive for me. We normally play in person, but once when we couldn't meet last minute we set up a quick and fast Google Hangouts. One camera faced folks who were there and another camera was set up (via bent in half laptop) to view the grid, and we just played as if we were in person. We were all shocked how well it worked. We haven't done it yet, but we figured if we all had to be absent in the future that this solution could work. Again, not to downplay anyone who wants to use tools like this, but it seems like it really would be more of a hindrance than a help for some.

 

[Mask_of_winter]

Without knocking how others like to play, this seems way too excessive and unnecessarily expensive for me. We normally play in person, but once when we couldn't meet last minute we set up a quick and fast Google Hangouts. One camera faced folks who were there and another camera was set up (via bent in half laptop) to view the grid, and we just played as if we were in person. We were all shocked how well it worked. We haven't done it yet, but we figured if we all had to be absent in the future that this solution could work. Again, not to downplay anyone who wants to use tools like this, but it seems like it really would be more of a hindrance than a help for some.

Yep, until you play in a game on FG...

 

[Bagpuss]

Bit more than 20% depending on the class don't forget you have to add in the ruleset $2.99 and the D&D Character Customization Pack at $8.99. Then for some bizarre reason if you want to be a Sorcerer rather than a Wizard it cost $5.99 rather than $2.99.

So it will cost you anything from $14.97 to $17.97, so actually it's more like 30% to 36%. If you ever change class it is going to add up really quickly, you only need to by a couple more of the "prestige" class and you'll be at 50% for three class.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Here's a complete playthrough of the Lost Mine of Phandelver using Fantasy Grounds. (spoilers and language) this was done before the official D&D 5E support but it illustrates how Fantasy Grounds plays...

[video=youtube;4YyGfv-oa1M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YyGfv-oa1M&list=PLBW-SmHnjnPE4At_n9a0lrpbOLg1K-F4t[/video]

Do you have a video of a complete play through?