Fantasy Grounds

[Daniel Ehrli]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

At first i decided to try this because our group has less and less time to get together. I made a small campaign to try the features and the overall program, this small one time campaign worked great, without being an expert, i was able to use the game, amd play a very fluid campaign. The tokens amd maps work great, and the pre-programmed classes and macros it really makes the game more enjoyable. The dice throwing animations make it a little more real, while it will never be the same as throwing that dice on a life-death situation, it is way bettwr than just seeing a number randomly appear on a chat.The program is great in almost all aspects (the only thing i think would be better is an easier way to use line of sight and lighting), but wherw i found the program was the best for me was with help in sessions at the table, not only did i have all the session story written and planned. But i had pictures and more important, monsters... I found that making a custom creature is extemely easy, just take a base creature and modify the rest, it will remember your attacks and special abilities, and you can save it and use it later or further modify it. It is amazing, if you like this aspect of the game it will be your best find ever. Also save your loot beforehand amd create parcels.I haven't yet run a my campaign on fantasy grounds, but from my small playtest, and using it as a tool for tabletop playing, i can tell i will use it for voth frok now on. It might be a tad expensive. But think of using it for large and small sessions, from far away or on the table, it is by far the greatest tool i have found for any dungeon master. A must have.

 

[Aeternal]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

It's really at the moment in my opinion the best! Not just cause of the D&D 5e Official Support through their products they sell in partnership with Smiteworks, instead it's because that it has automation via rule-sets (paid or free/community), modules (rules and fluff stuff) parsed via personal effort or sold on their site. Of course, you don't need to use predone adventures. It has a very logical and link-able format for creating your own adventures and other kinds of content for it. The community is old, the program is mature, and with only the hope that it will get an upgrade in the next one or two years... I can't like this program more.

 

[Lukja]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

Fantasy Grounds is not a perfect piece of software, and its (sometimes counter-intuitive) interface takes a while to get used to, but overall if you're willing to pay the price tag this is by far the best virtual tabletop around. I mentioned the interface as a bit confusing, but it's also very impressive and immersive. One of the best features of the program is that it can be as complex as you want it to be: you choose whether to make use of full automation or not. It requires a bit of work, but results are impressive.Plus, native support for a variety of games (and community support for others) makes it a great choice if you fancy a bit of variety in your life. Other VTTs have this as well, but official pre-made adventures in the store are so well done it's almost a dealbreaker. Before buying it, make sure you have no problem running games, because port forwarding can be hell if you're not used to it. Make sure it works for you, or that you're using other software to get around the problem. If you have any problems, the community at the SmiteWorks forums is very helpful and will definitely help you in no time.

 

[LordEntrails]

The Tool that Returned Fun to Role Playing

The first thing to keep in mind, Fantasy Grounds is not a game, it is a comprehensive toolset that lets us play our games however we want to play them. It's a Virtual Table Top, a Character Manager, and a Campaign Builder.

As a Play Space (or VTT): FG provides a great tool for tracking combat including; combat order, damage, actions (attacks, spells, powers, etc), character and monster locations, spell effects, conditions and more. You can use the built in chat for play or use the community TeamSpeak or Discord servers, or as I often do, in person around a table while using FG to handle the mechanics.

As a Character Manager: Numerous rule systems are built in with character sheets for recording everything needed. Or with the optional modules for 5E D&D, or through community or your own material, you can use the library functions to drag and drop classes, races, features, abilities, inventory etc straight to the character sheets for quick building and updating (leveling). Plus there is the party sheet which provides for managing things like; shared treasure, experience, marching order, completed quests, and more rounds out a complete character and party management toolset.

As a Campaign/Module/Adventure Builder: Story entries, Maps, Images, NPC, Items, Encounters, Treasure Parcels, Quests that are all able to be linked together with hyperlink type functionality through simple drag and drop makes building an adventure easy. And running that adventure simple by tracking the party location on a map; linked pins then take you to the story entry for each location or feature. Then with links from the story entry to NPC encounters that can be one-click added to the combat tracker, treasure parcels, images and additional maps that can be shared with individual PC's or the whole party.

Not to be left out, are all the modules (including WoTC's official 5E adventures), maps, tokens and other optional DLC that can be purchased. And for those of you who like to fiddle, the open architecture lets you create your own rulesets and extensions.

Finally, and crucial for any digital product, is the great technical support and amazingly helpful and friendly community.

In short, Fantasy Grounds has given me the tools to build a great campaign (a 5th edition version of Undermountain), the tools for my players to create and manage their characters, and for us to play whether we are sitting around a table or if we are all spread across the globe in hotel rooms. And has returned the fun by removing the hassles of game mechanics and leaving us to Role Play our fantasies.

 

[oz_chandler]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

FG went from a 4 to a 5 for me and my group when they included the Core RPG ruleset, which didn't cost me anything as it's included with the core product. I've been able to create character sheets and data modules with ease to run original versions of older games like Space:1889, Champion:New Millennium, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, T2K v2.2, Spelljammer, among many others. Their store has excellent content for current games such as C&C and DND 5e as well, but I'm old school and prefer older games. Currently I'm running a WEG Star Wars game using the Core RPG and it runs great. No prior computer programming experience is required as there's no coding involved.

 

[Falterion]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

I have recently joined the VTT space and found that Fantasy Grounds is a great tool to reconnect with long lost / moved a way friends. I have been able to run my son and some of his friends through a campaign recently and have had so much fun. My son and his friends live quite a ways away and it is hard to get everyone together. However, with Fantasy Grounds this has been so much easier. After watching a few videos and entering in a campaign from a free module I am much more comfortable moving around within the application. I love the fact that 5E rules and functionality are built into the application and really love the ability to drag and drop just about anything from libraries to characters. Dividing up experience is easy from encounters with simple drag and drop. One thing that I would love is the ability to add in music and sound effects like another unnamed VTT which has it integrated it into the functionality. Overall, I love the interface and the ease of running campaigns out of Fantasy Grounds. I enjoy the fact that I can now play with friends that have moved away and still get that excitement, joy, and overall feeling of fun as when we used to all sit around the table.

 

[mattcolville]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

I use Fantasy Grounds for Dungeons and Dragons, I've run several games using it, I've used it as a player, it's a lot of fun.

The new 5E products make it incredibly easy to use! It's much EASIER to make a new character in Fantasy Grounds than it is in real life, or using any other excel-based solution. Just drag "Paladin" onto your character sheet, and you get all the abilities and proficiencies a Paladin gets. Couldn't be easier.

Fantasy Grounds does combat very well. Running a battle is easy and fun, and in many ways an advantage over an actual table-top. At the press of a button, you can see which enemy you're targeting, even if that enemy moves around. No more "Which orc are you attacking? That one? Is that #1 or #2? Which one did you attack last round? Oh, I gave him the wrong damage." Fantasy Grounds tracks all that for you.

Attacking and damage feels like rolling dice, just like at the table, but without any tedium. "I got a 15." "Is that before or after your bonus?" "Oh, I got a 20." Or "Ok, 17." "Is that your attack roll or damage?" The number of little ways the system speeds up play are so numerous that, summed over all of them, it makes it frustrating to go back to the table.

Outside of combat, Fantasy Grounds is also the only virtual tabletop solution that acts like a real tabletop. I can send my players handouts or maps and they each get their own copy they can open any time they want, draw on, make notes on. The map of the world gets slowly populated with lots of little pins, each representing a note from the players. "Met a cool bard here." "This place is bad news." Etc....

Also, there's a lot of little features that are just awesome. If a PC knows Orcish, he can type in English, and everyone else at the table will see the text in an Orcish script. Unless their character speaks orcish! In which case they see it in English! Amazing!The software is constantly updated.

I bought the Ultimate Edition so none of my players need to worry about cost, and we never looked back.

 

[Plaur Stonesinker]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

I returned to the tabletop gaming world about four months ago and found fantasy grounds about a month in. The group I run is a mix of veteran table top gamers and some who only have played video games/mmos. This was the best way to bridge the two worlds into one, and it makes the mechanics of the game SO much easier to manage. Not that they are hard, but from a DM's perspective, a little bit of prep work speeds up the game significantly. The fact that they have the official DnD 5e products is what makes this a 5 star for me. Great product!

 

[jshauber]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

I have been using Fantasy Grounds for over 2 years now and have to say the price of a one time license had more than paid for itself in the ours of playing/GMing that I have enjoyed using the program. The level of automation and built in features (especially form the licensed products like 5e and Savage Worlds) really makes the entire life of a GM very easy compared to others I tried before settling on FG.With the recent addition of TableTop Connect the material that will be added in the near future (like true 3D graphics and real dynamic lighting) the next version of Fantasy Grounds is going to set the benchmark for what a VTT should be going forward.

 

[Archania]

5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy Grounds

I was looking for a way to play online instead of driving to the local stores which are a drive from where I am in time to play. So was looking for an online way to play. Noticed Fantasy Grounds being played on a youtube video and do some research.This is awesome. I am able to play either D&D and Pathfinder at a time convenient for me and have a great time!Not only do I like it but I purchased the Ultimate for my son who is dm'ing 5e and I got the full.If you are looking for a very functional VTT with a lot of power and potential then this is for you!