Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vittor Moriann" data-source="post: 6741553" data-attributes="member: 6803484">5 out of 5 rating for Fantasy GroundsI've abandoned playing live RPG using real dice real paper and pen. As I grow older I find that it gets harder and harder to find time to play tabletop RPG on a schedule that coincides with my friends' schedule. So I wanted to try and play online, I'm a computer guy so I've started looking for a way to play RPG with ease. I've tried lots of other VTT, most of them try to achieve the objective of bringing to computer the same experience of playing live which is good, hell if you want you can get your friends over a Skype call everyone with their own paper sheet and real dice and play online and have fun with that. But Fantasy Grounds goes beyond that, FG not only let's me play almost the same way I would on real table but it enhances my game to the point that I do prefer playing on FG than playing on real table and I'll explain how.First of all, I'm playing online because I wanted things to go as smoothly as possible and have as little work as possible, I want to focus on game and not on making the game work. As a DM it's a bit troublesome when you have to track down initiatives, monster hitpoints, which player has which equipment. FG makes it easy for you, you can easily search for the monsters you added to it or got into a module you bought. If you have a ready adventure module, for example, with a single click FG puts the monsters on Combat Tracker, roll initiatives for them, put them on their places on the map. When players roll their initiatives it gets automatically updated on the Combat Tracker for you. The system simply works and it's beautiful to see, but it doesn't stop there, it's just the beggining. If you've ever DMed in your entire life this scene has happened to you: Player says: "Ok, so my Fighter attacks this goblin." DM: "Ok, which goblin is it?" Player: "It's goblin number 2." DM: "Ok, roll the dice." *player rolls dice* Player: "I rolled 11" DM (checking the goblin stat and sees it's CA is 14): "Ok, the roll is 11 but what's your weapon proficiency bonus?"Player: "Huh... it's +3, so a 14, right?"DM: "Ok, you hit him!"Another Player: "But doesn't he have -2 because it's dark?"Player: "Yea, I would but I've got night vision cast on me."Another Player: "Oh, ok."How you do that on FG? The player drag his attack into the creature miniature. FG considers all effects (like bonuses, penalties or whatever), and adds to roll + any modifier the player added to the roll and compares to the monster CA. If the roll was successfull then the player does the same with damage. With two very simple action you can do things that in real tabletop might have taken much more time.But let's complicate a bit more, say the attack caused some kind of effect that dealt damage over time and every turn the DM should remember to remove a fixed amount from a player's hit points. Can FG take care of that? Yup. What if I cast bless on my friends, can FG remember that for me and add +1 to their attacks without me or my friends having to remember it? Yup. What if I do all that at once and cast an area spell and some of the targets are vulnerable to it and the others aren't while whoever succeeds on a Reflex saving throw only takes half damage while the others take full damage. Can FG handle that? Yup, it will correctly roll reflexes for everyone, will deal half damage for those who passed the test and full damage on those who didn't and when it applies damage it will calculate correctly any vulnerability or resistance a target might have.Is Fantasy Grounds perfect? By all means no. It's best used with math heavy systems and have something that a software can improve and if the system has an official rulest like D&D or Savage Worlds, for example. It doesn't make much difference if you mean to play systems that are light on rules like FATE or even Numenera. It's initial cost is troublesome to get into it but it's cheaper than paying monthly fees, you pay for it once and that's it.It's an old software that really deserves an overhaul but it's coming on Unity from what I hear, still it's the best VTT you can use to play online today.</blockquote>

Verification