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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[smiteworks]

Now I doubt all that can really be cleaned up at all, one needs all these things to run a game. But has it been made easier to locate things when you have 8 or so windows open during a fight?

I recommend that DM's run with two monitors and stretch the screen across both. If you have a laptop, most of these support connecting a second monitor side by side with it. One tip is to drag items you frequently need to your various hotkey slots on the bottom of the screen. These hold anything from dice, modifier, macros, individual spells, library entries, map images, etc. For combat as a DM, you normally just need to be able to see the chat window, the map and the combat tracker. Nearly all of the monster abilities can be dragged from their combat tracker (CT) entry to a token on the map or to another listing in the CT. If you need more of the stats for an NPC, you click on their link to open the full NPC record, roll their skill or look something up and then re-close it.

For most screenshots, I tend to open up a bunch of windows to show a bunch of different things at once. In practice, I try to keep my windows down to a minimum.

 

[deactivatedadam]

Clarification on rolling for stats

Hi, I was hoping for a clarification on the process of rolling for stats. I was curious, at the bottom of the section where you set Roll 6 sets of 4 dice drop 1 etc.
Is there a reason you still have to then go and grab four die to roll in the window. I would figure if im saying roll 6 sets, there would just be a "Roll" button that would roll the 6 sets instead of having to do it manually so they can all be done at once.
Can you set a macro to roll 6 sets of 4 and drop that on the window?

In general, Ive been waiting for Fantasy Grounds to get some official 5e products and i am ecstatic about this. The professional look of the theme and the frames are amazing and go a long way to making this my top VTT. I also love being able to manually edit just about anything I want. I got about halfway through parsing the PHB and gave up after contemplating going through the DMG and MM, nothing was particularly difficult, just a long slow climb up a mountain. I'm pretty happy I don't have to do it and appreciate all the work you have put into it.

One more question, when i add a magic item, say the staff of defense for example, will those ever add the powers/spells to the Ability section? In the past i have created my own abilities that essentially match what the staff can do, but it always feels clunky.

Alright, one more, any thought to adding a formal section for Background Specialty, it always feels orphaned.

Thanks

 

[Doctor Futurity]

That's a lot of filthy lucre, considering you can get all three dead-tree rulebook for about $100 on Amazon. But I guess in the digital age this kind of pricing scheme makes sense?

The digital content pricing scheme seems to match the way video games do it: you mark the price astronomically high, then regularly discount it with sales (FG sells on Steam, for example) that mark it down to something more realistic.

I'm curious now to see if this utility has any functional application at a regular table. I haven't used FG since 2006, but did one run very successful online campaign with it back then. VTT is not my preferred resource for gaming, though.....so to buy this I'd really need some demonstrations that it's got applicability in regular gaming as well.

 

[smiteworks]

Hi, I was hoping for a clarification on the process of rolling for stats. I was curious, at the bottom of the section where you set Roll 6 sets of 4 dice drop 1 etc.
Is there a reason you still have to then go and grab four die to roll in the window. I would figure if im saying roll 6 sets, there would just be a "Roll" button that would roll the 6 sets instead of having to do it manually so they can all be done at once.
Can you set a macro to roll 6 sets of 4 and drop that on the window?

It fills the dice into the various slots as they are rolled but stops after each roll to calculate the final tally. Some people like to roll each die separately. You can make a 4 dice bucket and click it 6 times to roll them quickly.

One more question, when i add a magic item, say the staff of defense for example, will those ever add the powers/spells to the Ability section? In the past i have created my own abilities that essentially match what the staff can do, but it always feels clunky.

Alright, one more, any thought to adding a formal section for Background Specialty, it always feels orphaned.

We have been discussing that sort of thing for magic items internally and it is partially why we haven't rolled out the DMG yet. I'm not sure what the answer is going to be, but that part doesn't feel as good as I think it could be eventually.

I'll float the comment about the background specialty among the other two devs to see how we want to handle this. We've treated it mostly as a notation on the character for now since it doesn't really seem to change much mechanically.

 

[tomBitonti]

Hi,

Lots of focus on 5E. What are the options for FG + 4E, FG + 3.5E, or FG + PF?

Can anyone comment on the ability to create and update characters, and to customize monsters and treasure?

How hard is it to create or import custom maps?

Can you use most of the function but still have players roll to hit, save, and damage dice? I've found automated rollers to take a *lot* of fun out of playing. Luv to roll them dice!

Thx!

TomB

 

[MadmanMike83]

This seems like a great boon for people playing games over the internet but is a far cry from what was initially promised with DungeonScape. As rough as it was DungeonScape was centered around developing a tool to use at the table. I have to wonder if Wizard's has abandoned that plan entirely. While I love using OneNote as a DM there is definitely room for something that caters more directly to the needs of RPG players.

 

[mserabian]

For the maps, we typically include a DM version of the map and a player version that hides the hidden stuff and is scaled for token placements. Some of the maps were actually for 10' per square instead of the more standard 5' squares for tactical maps. We generally try to find a good balance between the visual quality and the final size to make sure it loads quickly for a large number of connected players. Make sure that you hold down CTRL when you have a map open so you can see all the push-pins that are clickable. The encounters should then auto-place the bad guys where they start and into the combat tracker. For everything, we drive based off the combat tracker, so remember to add things to the combat tracker first and then drag from there to the map to hook up the auto-targeting and other "intelligence"

Here is a pic with the push-pins and the DM fog of war shown.
View attachment 67796

Regarding the tokens based on the portraits, that is a good idea. Perhaps we can look at adding those in the near future. If you already have a bunch of tokens, you can create a tokens\host folder in your FG app directory and add them there. Sort into folders underneath there to sort them and then you can search by name as well. If you want players to have access to any of these tokens (not normally necessary), then you can put them under tokens\shared.

Thanks for sharing your feedback.

Hey guys… Bought the complete set yesterday and I really am enjoying playing around with things! One question in regard to your statement above about the maps and encounter placement. I'm not sure how this works. I can hold down control on the GM maps and see the pins but when I click on them it opens the encounter pane, but it doesn't place the NPCs… What am I doing wrong?

thanks

mal

 

[smiteworks]

Hi,

Lots of focus on 5E. What are the options for FG + 4E, FG + 3.5E, or FG + PF?

Can anyone comment on the ability to create and update characters, and to customize monsters and treasure?

How hard is it to create or import custom maps?

Can you use most of the function but still have players roll to hit, save, and damage dice? I've found automated rollers to take a *lot* of fun out of playing. Luv to roll them dice!

Thx!

TomB

There is rule mechanic support for 3.5, 4E, 5E and Pathfinder out of the box. 3.5E and Pathfinder come with some lists of monsters and spells from the System Reference Documents available to use as-is or customize. You can also create your own items. See the video posted above for creating an NPC manually.

Importing custom maps is easy. You drag it to your map window. The only gotcha is that it is nice if there is a predrawn grid on the map that the grid is exactly 50 pixels, 35 pixels or some other exact pixel size instead of 50.13 pixels per square. You lay the FG grid over top of the other grid over a single square and it rolls our virtual grid across the whole map. If it is different by 0.13 pixels, then you start to see it drift off over time. Some online map creators are great because the let you set the size per square, but other sources occasionally require you to manually shrink or expand the map to fit -- sometimes by different percentages vertically than horizontally.

Players can still roll their own dice. For instance, you can auto-roll initiative for all your players and the NPCs, or just the NPCs and let each play roll their own. It will automatically recognize the initative roll and adjust them into the right spot. The virtual dice rolling in FG is one of its strengths since it does a good job of simulating real dice -- even allowing players to customize their own dice colors.

 

[smiteworks]

Hey guys… Bought the complete set yesterday and I really am enjoying playing around with things! One question in regard to your statement above about the maps and encounter placement. I'm not sure how this works. I can hold down control on the GM maps and see the pins but when I click on them it opens the encounter pane, but it doesn't place the NPCs… What am I doing wrong?

thanks

mal

Okay, so we normally opt to link those pushpins to a story entry that may have boxed text and other links to encounters, treasures, etc. Click the encounter link from the story entry and it will open the encounter with the list of monsters. You can decrease or increase the number of monsters appearing at this point or just use the default value. Click the button at the bottom of the encounter window to automatically place them on the map, add them to the combat tracker and roll their initiative. If you have the DM preference set to give them Max or Random HP, it will also redo each monster's hit points. For your own maps and modules that you create in your campaign, you can use this same style or you could choose to link directly to the encounter instead of to the story first.

 

[dmccoy1693]

[MENTION=87795]smiteworks[/MENTION] Color me thrilled about this.