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Within Fantasy Grounds, if you load a map into your campaign and use it during play, it is shared when you choose the Share option and is only accessible to players during the game. When they disconnect, they no longer have access to the image.
The official Pathfinder modules for Fantasy Grounds will contain the maps optimized for online play with grids pre-aligned, combat encounters with NPCs preplaced so they can be added to the map, visibility set, random HP rolled (if that option is enabled), initiative set and added to the combat tracker all with a single click. All the room contents would be linked to the map as a Pin so that you can pull up the room description, contents, encounter and treasure by clicking on it. After combat, you award the treasure parcel and XP and let it divide everything for you. If you already own the PDF, you can build all that stuff on your own. What we will essentially be selling is the convenience of having everything ready to go for you.
Here is a community extension to create a creature entry from a stat block that you can use to quickly enter NPCs, complete with spells.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?34199-CreatureGen-Exte nsion-Import-Stat-blocks-on-the-fly-with-populated-spells
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at this point Roll20 is really quite powerful, and has some advantages over MapTool.
I was a very early user of maptool, when you had to connect via IP address... this turned off a ton of my players in 2004-2006ish with connection issues delaying games (when people started having home wifis and dynamic ips).... and the stigma has prevented me from getting a maptool game going ever since.
As everything comes under OGL Paizo can't really (to my knowledge) stop someone using free content and putting the work in themselves, nor using maps from PDF screenshots/rips for personl games. As always as long as you're not sharing the non-OGL items within a community or online I don't think they will care too much.The OGL isn't relevant here. I'm talking about uploading ripped maps and tokens based on screenshots. None of that is OGL. And, uploading that is sharing it online. My argument is that sharing it online with your gaming group is no different from sharing your maps with your around-the-table group, and I think Paizo has gone with that interpretation as well. But there are others who disagree.
Sure, as I said I don't think Paizo will care and honestly there is nothing they could really do to stop you doing this. You're using content from books you've purchased to share with your group (exactly as you would if you printed it for a home game).
As long as you're not distributing it online within any communities (ie posting download links, or advertising it to send to people) then I don't think they will care and there isn't anything they can do.
Fantasy Grounds at least will offer you the same content that you could create yourself but with all the work done for you and with all the non-OGL things like maps, artwork and adventure texts already prepared for you. There is no need to buy any of it but it would be a time saver for many GM's.
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Ooh, so roll20 stuff is arriving? :O Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
I'm currently GMing Rise of the Runelords AE and starting Iron Gods. I wonder what APs and modules they will be adapting first... And whether I have finished Rise of the Runelords before that or not xD
(seriously though, if RotR AE content for VTT is released by January, I'd consider that as early christmas present for most(if not all) future Christmasses from paizo :'D)
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A question for those of you that have used either of these.
I run our home game through a projector pointing down at the tabletop.
Currently I have been using Syncrpg, a mod of Maptools to do this, but have been thinking about switching. Paying a few bucks to cut out hours of prep is worth it in my book.
So what one would work better for a projector?
What I do with Syncrpg is have a GM session on my laptop, with the projector showing a second copy of the program joined as a player.
Would be nice if Someone came up with an All in one..Offline Application.
I simply use my Projector and scale the Map to size in Windows Picture Viewer...since we use real minis no need for a program to do movement
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A question for those of you that have used either of these.
I run our home game through a projector pointing down at the tabletop.
Currently I have been using Syncrpg, a mod of Maptools to do this, but have been thinking about switching. Paying a few bucks to cut out hours of prep is worth it in my book.
So what one would work better for a projector?
What I do with Syncrpg is have a GM session on my laptop, with the projector showing a second copy of the program joined as a player.
Would be nice if Someone came up with an All in one..Offline Application.
I simply use my Projector and scale the Map to size in Windows Picture Viewer...since we use real minis no need for a program to do movement
I do the same thing, displaying the map with a projector, using miniatures... except I use Roll20 (MapTool would work too) I love the dynamic lighting. They only see what they can see, unless they're mapping, when they get back to a room, they may choose the wrong way out.
- Let's me use the excellent map artwork
- Let's me easily display only what they are able to see (dynamic lighting)
Nothing else matters to me for my VTT as it's all face-to-face with miniatures. I use no built in rules or character sheets. Though, if the content was premade with the dynamic lighting layer already added, I'd totally pay for that.
So, yeah, an offline tool would be spiffy. Doubt there's near the market for that though.
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Fantasy Grounds works well as in offline mode. You can run 2 instances of the program and connect the second one as a player to localhost. Many DM's will then drag that display to a 2nd monitor, connected TV or projector.
There is also an extension that auto-scales the map to fit the full display.
The DM then uses their local display to manage the combat tracker to track intiative, effects, NPC and PC health, etc. and then keep track of the party inventory, awarding of XP, coins, etc. The map reveal is handled manually though by cutting away the mask as they explore. We don't yet have the dynamic lighting to automatically do that.
There are a handful of DM's I know of who bring it with them to conventions and game stores where they don't have an available Internet connection.
Link: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33834-Map-resize-to-TV -resolution-for-Face-To-Face-games
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My own 2-cents on vtt choices:
Roll20 is definitely easiest one to learn (at least out of it and FG, never heard of DS20PRO before) and its free unlike other two where you need to buy license or pay subscription to even use it. I do believe that FG's automation features are handy... If you can get past the obtuse programmer school of UI design. You know the "No really, this is really simple and efficient system once you learn the nicknacks and stuff, you just need to watch lots of tutorials and do a lot of reading!" school of design. Seriously, programmers should be taught mandatory UI and usability courses :'D
Also, roll20 modules come with pdf version of adventure, which makes reading through it much easier than FG's. If FG's adventures have pdfs with them, well I have no clue where to find them, I can only find way to read them in the program. Also while FG module has maps and enemy statblocks ready, I don't think they have enemies on the map ready so you still have to place them there right? Or maybe they do and I just can't get pass the ui to figure out how to use it. In roll20 module switching between maps is easy and if you are willing to pay subscription the dynamic lightning being set up is nice and besides that statblocks, encounters are already on the maps(btw roll20 at least has gm layer if you want to place npcs on the map and them to not see them somehow. I assume FG should have that too, but again I still have no idea how to use it) so basically only thing you need to do prep wise is to read adventure and what abilities do. FG advertises same thing so I assume it might me amble to do same things, but like I said, its much harder to learn than roll20 just because UI is obtuse in FG :P
Just for example, for some reason you enable D&D 5e modules by opening library -> modules -> dragging book icon next to module to "open" them. It doesn't have any tool tips or any tips at all to help with that particular thing, it does have steam community guide though soooo yeah, all guides are in the internet I guess.
So yeah, to summary: With FG you can't just buy the adventure and then run it, you first need to learn how to use FG. While with Roll20 of course you need to know what basic stuff does, it doesn't take as much time/mental effort, is more intuitive and you don't need to learn all features of roll20 to run modules. I for example have no clue how to setup macros and am too lazy to learn to do so even though I know macros are really one of most useful features in roll20 :p Some modules even have them already set up so thats nice.
FG has all the room locations pinned to the map. If you hover over them, it shows a tooltip with the name of the room/area and you click it to access the story, encounters, DM notes and treasure for that area or room. The encounters show the CR and XP and number appearing and whether or not the tokens are preplaced on the map (all modules in the recent few years have tokens preplaced in their starting position.) Click a button at the bottom that has a tooltip explaining the function. It adds the NPCs to the combat tracker, rolls their initiative, randomly rolls their hit points (if that option is enabled) , places them on the map and marks them as invisible until they are revealed from the combat tracker. The combat tracker has the most common actions displayed on the combat tracker so you can drag and drop them to targets.
Afterward, you click award XP and divide treasure with automated features. One of the things that is nice about combat actions in FG is that it recognizes the various defenses and vulnerabilities of all the different creatures we know and love. If you use a slashing weapon on a skeleton, it will adjust your damage automatically when you drop it on monster.
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As a long-time FG user I am absolutely thrilled that this is happening. My group has dispersed all over, so all actual roleplaying has to be done online and FG does this nearly as good as a regular game table. Mostly played Savage Worlds and Star Wars with it recently, but this will give me a short cut to finally play my favorite Adventure Paths as I don't have the time to convert them by myself.
Nice work, Doug!
AstaSyneri on the FG forums...
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Just to note, I did try FG's ui again after I had figured out library thing and it does definitely get easier to get used to more you check how things work. There are still things I'm really confused about.
Like, uh, if modules(in this case speaking about the big D&D 5e campaigns) have tokens preplaced then I'm doing something wrong definitely ._. Like I did try checking them if they had that done, but I thought they didn't.
Like, as far as I know, if I want the players to see the map, I have to "share" it but I'm not sure if that means players will see the pins as well. Or if I want to hide areas behind fog of war, how I should go on about revealing the map without accidentally revealing too much early.
Also I'm not sure how to scroll the maps because holding left mouse button and moving cursor just moves the whole window instead
It might be best to send you over to the FG forums for specifics. I don't want to derail the thread here, but I'll answer this batch.
NPCs for official modules already have tokens assigned, unless there was not an image for the monster, and then we use letter tokens. The are preplaced on most maps for encounters and the encounter will show a checkmark to indicate that.
Sharing a map doesn't share the pins. Those are meant for DM view only.
Panning a map within the window can be done with the pan icon on the bottom right corner of each image window (Click and drag in the direction you want to pan) or use what I prefer and use the middle-mouse button depressed to pan.
There is a wiki and User Manual under Help on the website and links to videos. We are happy to help.
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So I'm going little bit crazy about this xD I mean I'm checking everday if there is more news especially since January is towards end(even though I know we probably won't hear anything before February at least :'D). Which is even more crazy since I'm waiting for roll20 news mostly despite being aware that we probably won't hear about that possibility for even longer time since only FG and d20pro were announced...
Like, I just really want to know which AP or modules would get vtt treatment first :'D
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Work has begun on the new theme for the ruleset and it will be packaged with the Core Rulebook module for Pathfinder. Trenloe is working on the Bestiary modules, Danny Stratton is working on Rise of the Runelords and Cari Most Harper is working on Curse of the Crimson Throne.
This is from Fantasy Ground's announcement thread.
Edit: Also, this:
We are hoping to have products begin rolling out in January and then regularly from there. We have several developers spun up on those modules, while keeping most of our internal team devoted towards working on Unity. Since we haven't been through a full review process yet, we don't yet know what that process will look like and how much back and forth there will be.The first round of products is looking like it will be the following (at least what we have targeted):
- Pathfinder Core Rules and Theme
- Bestiary 1 through 5 (with tokens and images)
- Adventure Paths (Rise of the Runelords, Skull & Shackles, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Kingmaker)For APs, we will be looking to release adventure 1 from each series and then subsequent adventures in following months. Eventually, we will expand to cover more reference material and APs.
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Work has begun on the new theme for the ruleset and it will be packaged with the Core Rulebook module for Pathfinder. Trenloe is working on the Bestiary modules, Danny Stratton is working on Rise of the Runelords and Cari Most Harper is working on Curse of the Crimson Throne.This is from Fantasy Ground's announcement thread.
Edit: Also, this:
We are hoping to have products begin rolling out in January and then regularly from there. We have several developers spun up on those modules, while keeping most of our internal team devoted towards working on Unity. Since we haven't been through a full review process yet, we don't yet know what that process will look like and how much back and forth there will be.The first round of products is looking like it will be the following (at least what we have targeted):
- Pathfinder Core Rules and Theme
- Bestiary 1 through 5 (with tokens and images)
- Adventure Paths (Rise of the Runelords, Skull & Shackles, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Kingmaker)For APs, we will be looking to release adventure 1 from each series and then subsequent adventures in following months. Eventually, we will expand to cover more reference material and APs.
Ooh :O Thank you! Nice to hear they are starting with RotR & Crimson Throne.
Now to see whether roll20 gets on game before my RotR game has ended :'D I mean, I doubt I could continue campaign on fantasy grounds since I don't have money for ultimate license... Unless we manage to finish it while players are on trial month
The first batch is now ready for review. The process is still new to both parties, so we don't have an final ETA at this time. Our main focus is to ensure that we get out the best quality product we can that represents the high standards of the Pathfinder brand.
Why not roll20?Patience.
-Lisa
https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4702852/official-paizo-pre-generated-cont ent/?pageforid=4703380#post-4703380
Interest on Roll20 site...
I sure wish ROLL20 would get pathfinder content. Kudos on working it out with Fantasy Grounds. D20pro keeps on saying you guys are working on something but it's been over a year.
Hopefully your content gets delivered to ROLL20 pronto. My credit card is waiting and ready.