In Fantasy Grounds Do You Have to Buy Supplemental Books Again
Cutting out the extra piece of work
Over a twelvemonth agone, I started writing about video games here at Destructoid. Since I had been playing a ton of the pen-and-paper-RPG Dungeons and Dragons, and digital games owed so much to that series, I figured I would attempt to write about that as well.
It hasn't worked out and so well thus far. Roleplaying with a group of all-time friends tin exist a transformative feel that smiths memories as existent equally any physical take a chance, only it as well comes with its own set of constraints, namely time and organizing multiple schedules. Syncing upward multiple people'southward fourth dimension and expectations to marshal almost as perfectly as the planets required to summon an Elder God is difficult, and trying to reliably write near that and relate it to y'all is its ain challenge.
Then when I heard about Fantasy Grounds, a virtual tabletop program that'due south designed to facilitate long-distance roleplaying games, my ears perked up. My players were close enough where playing most seemed unnecessary, but a plan where I could organize and collate everything I needed from the Dungeon Master's Guide to whatever adventure I was currently running sounded perfect.
Fantasy Grounds may at showtime seem unwieldy and expensive, merely like a magical sword, its worth becomes increasingly apparent with each successive swing. Please don't take my lunch money.
Simply look at that paradigm and try not to get overwhelmed. There are die, a chatbox, a map, a combat tracker, an NPC list, and graphic symbol tokens upwards, and this was but a fraction of the features that I played with. I've been using Fantasy Grounds for the past couple months to DM Curse of Strahd for my regular grouping of players, and I experience like I've however merely scratched the surface of what it tin do.
Nosotros'll outset with what I used it for the most oft: cross-referencing. If you pay for the licenses for each volume (boy oh boy we'll talk about the price somewhen), you tin check for rules, spell effects, monster stat blocks, or anything else y'all could e'er think of in seconds, all in one identify. That alone is a huge boon that's demonstrably improved my sessions. Thumbing the Player's Handbook each fourth dimension you want to resolve a spell effect tin irksome down games considerably, and so games felt punchier when I could bring them up on a whim.
Since Curse of Strahd tin exist overwhelmingly open-concluded, I assigned certain regions to the hotbar on the bottom and then that I could refresh my retentiveness or bring upward maps anytime my players wandered into a new area. That hotbar is incredibly convenient, every bit you can drag and drop anything y'all want into each one and so that y'all accept it at the set. It fills up rapidly, only you can also hold CTRL, Shift, or ALT to bring upwards some other full bar, which leads to smart arrangement depending on how you want to customize it.
The maps themselves are beautifully scanned in from the books, though they aren't scalable so zooming in causes all sorts of artifacting. What specially helped me is that in that location are small pins in each room that when clicked on bring up the information that pertains to that area. With Strahd, this made it so that I didn't have to memorize every unmarried room in each dungeon, and was therefore less stressed virtually my players going into areas that I wasn't familiar with. Absolute knowledge of a dungeon is still preferable, but since time for studying the book is already limited, having this knowledge at my fingertips was instrumental in quicker prep times for impromptu adventures.
Again, this was all with me using a laptop during a live session instead of playing long-distance games with others. At that place are a billion different things you can do when playing online with friends, like using that chatbox to share languages that only certain players know (instead of having to walk a player away from the table to give them individual info), or using the combat tracker to log gainsay. I was rolling existent dice at the table, simply the combat tracker is a powerful piece of calculation. Just like the hotbar, you can drag and drop any monster or attack and drop it into the combat tracker to expedite the process.
In online play, you can add fog of war to the map to preclude players from seeing entire dungeons and metagaming, and movement tokens around that stand for each player or NPC to wherever you desire. Depending on how you prefer to play (with maps or more theatre-of-the-listen-way), at that place are ways to get in work.
So I generally honey Fantasy Grounds, only there are 2 caveats. The kickoff is that information technology can be tough to learn how everything works. There'southward no integrated transmission when you buy a license, then figuring out how hotbars and integrating each volume tin be initially overwhelming. However, in that location are a couple of resources that can make sense of things. First, at that place's the online transmission hither that helps a ton. There are also video tutorials that fabricated the plan click for me (though the voiceover is amusingly quiet). You can learn how to brand this all work with some referencing, I'd just recommend that yous make sure y'all're nice and comfortable with the program before starting a game with your friends and being completely lost.
The other caveat is that the pricing structure can be daunting, making it seem more expensive than it truly is. In that location are two types of licenses: regular and Ultimate. The regular 1 allows you to be a player or a DM, but your friends will also have to go a license to play with you. This costs $iii.99 per month or a apartment $39, with that monthly fee non counting towards the full cost if you ever decide you want a total license. With the Ultimate license, players can connect to you without always paying for a license. This costs $9.99 a month or $149. That's without the Player'southward Handbook ($49.99), Monster Manual($49.99), or any other supplements you might want. Adventure books cost $34.99 new, which is actually cheaper than the books when they release.
It might initially seem like you're getting nickeled and dimed, only if you don't ain the books and go straight into this method of paying, it's not all that bad, especially if yous have your whole group pitch in. It's too important to note that you don't necessarily need those supplements, since you can add together them in manually if you want. For example, instead of having all monsters at the ready, you can quickly add them manually in if you lot already have the necessary books. Nonetheless, equally stated before, having all of the references in the program is a lifesaver and I can't recommend information technology enough.
If you have a grouping of friends who are on the fence nigh Dungeons & Dragons (and other pen-and-paper-RPGs, since Fantasy Grounds supports quite a few of them), it might be worth your fourth dimension to divide the cost and pick up an ultimate license. For one person, it can be cost-prohibitive, but the experience of both prepping and running games is much better at present that I have Fantasy Grounds. Considering the fun my group and I take had with roleplaying, it's definitely worth anybody chipping in the equivalent of a new game.
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Source: https://www.destructoid.com/virtual-tabletop-program-fantasy-grounds-has-improved-my-dd-sessions/