Fantasy Grounds Game?

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jfall

Fantasy Grounds Game?

Post by jfall »

Hey, anyone out there running a Fantasy Grounds game under the new release of the Castles and Crusades rule set? While I don't have the time to run one, I'd love to try one out...

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Post by Treebore »

Nope. We are all too poor or cheap to buy it since we do just fine with the free version of SKYPE and OpenRPG.

Aramis has an old version and says its real good, but we as groups haven't tried it.
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jfall

Post by jfall »

Treebore wrote:
Nope. We are all too poor or cheap to buy it since we do just fine with the free version of SKYPE and OpenRPG.

Aramis has an old version and says its real good, but we as groups haven't tried it.

Hey Treebore,

I have run a D20 3.0 game or two on the original Fantasy Grounds and yes, it was a very nice application. I've heard great things about Fantasy Grounds II as well... They've fixed lots of problems that they had w/ the original from what I've seen.

We also used to use SKYPE w/ Fantasy Grounds and it went well for the most part. We only had issues if the person hosting the application didn't have enough bandwidth and we had more than 4 people in the same channel. Huge latency issues...

So how well does the game run under OpenRPG? I've not personally used the tool but I've heard good things.

Any room in a game for either an observer or a part-timer?

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Post by Treebore »

jfall wrote:
Hey Treebore,

I have run a D20 3.0 game or two on the original Fantasy Grounds and yes, it was a very nice application. I've heard great things about Fantasy Grounds II as well... They've fixed lots of problems that they had w/ the original from what I've seen.

We also used to use SKYPE w/ Fantasy Grounds and it went well for the most part. We only had issues if the person hosting the application didn't have enough bandwidth and we had more than 4 people in the same channel. Huge latency issues...

So how well does the game run under OpenRPG? I've not personally used the tool but I've heard good things.

Any room in a game for either an observer or a part-timer?

OpenRPG is hit or miss. Sometimes it works fine and allows me to upload everything I want, doesn't freeze up, etc... Other times its an irritating piece of crap, but we still manage to have fun.

As for listening in, etc... Sure, I am running a game tonight in about 35 minutes (6PM PST, 9 PM EST), I think we have room for one listener (7 players +1 DM is one short of SKYPE's max of 9 in conference call).

Slimy may have room for a player in his Wed game, posted in this forum.

We had a Friday game going, but I think that one may be dying if players don't start showing much more reliably.

ssfx17 has a Saturday game going, I think. If he does he may have room for a player too.

I believe they all would be fine with someone listening in.

I think Rigons Sunday game is filled to his limit, but I bet he would be fine with you listening in on that too. It runs every other Sunday, with this coming Sunday being the next session.
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The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

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Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

Grand Knight Commander of the Society.

jfall

Post by jfall »

Treebore wrote:
As for listening in, etc... Sure, I am running a game tonight in about 35 minutes (6PM PST, 9 PM EST), I think we have room for one listener (7 players +1 DM is one short of SKYPE's max of 9 in conference call).

Ah.... regrettably I won't be able to make tonight's session. Maybe next week? Sounds like you have a full compliment of players. That's great to hear the virtual games are doing so well. I never really took a look at this particular facet of the game.

I'm still sort of "learning" the rules and suspect that I'd likely bog any game down that I participated in, so I think that observing initially might be the best course of action.

Will you be running the game again at the same time next week? If so is there a way that I could also download OpenRPG and connect in order to observe visually as well? I know that there's a setting in Fantasy Grounds that allows an observer...not sure about OpenRPG, thus the question.

Thanks again for the feedback Treebore. Good luck running your game. I've been reading your posts and it sounds like a hoot.

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Post by ssfsx17 »

I do indeed have a Saturday game going, and I have a lot of room!
C&C/D&D-related writings, Cortex Classic material, and other scraps: https://sites.google.com/site/x17rpgstuff/home

Class-less D&D: https://github.com/ssfsx17/skill20

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Post by Treebore »

http://www.openrpg.com/index.php?page=install

Follow the directions for downloading OpenRPG, you'll likely have to do 3 downloads.

Yes, same time next Monday. PM me your SKype ID.
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Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

Grand Knight Commander of the Society.

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Post by LordSeurek »

ssfsx17 wrote:
I do indeed have a Saturday game going, and I have a lot of room!

This game is text based however, and not chat based. But be great to have more along!

Rob.
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Loggahead

Post by Loggahead »

I discussed FGII over with my gaming group and we are all pooling our money together and purchasing it. From what I have learned off of the forums at FG, it looks to be an oustanding digital table.

If you and your group purchases several licenses together, you get a steep discount. It worked out to only $15 for 5 clients licenses and 1 full gm license.

We are going to be working on hosting some games. Hopefully others will join in this!
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Post by jaybird216 »

I love the Wife Aggro series of posts, Logga. Very nice.

jfall, I'm a relative newcomer to C&C, but I really enjoy playing with Skype and OpenRPG (Aramis' Thursday night "Go For Your Gun Game" and Rigon's Sunday Dragonlance, currently). If I don't slow them down with my noobocity, I doubt you would either.
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Loggahead

Post by Loggahead »

jaybird216 wrote:
I love the Wife Aggro series of posts, Logga. Very nice.

jfall, I'm a relative newcomer to C&C, but I really enjoy playing with Skype and OpenRPG (Aramis' Thursday night "Go For Your Gun Game" and Rigon's Sunday Dragonlance, currently). If I don't slow them down with my noobocity, I doubt you would either.

hehe! Thanks for the encouragement. I haven't had time to add to them recently as I have been very buy with real life work (Im a network admin and just did an Exchange 2007 migration), but I have plenty of new series i want to write.

One great idea I have is to place some painted fantasy miniatures in my wife's china cabinet and see how long it takes her to notice the surly dwarf warrior standing with axe raised right in front of her expesnive china. haha.
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KMelka

Post by KMelka »

jfall wrote:
We also used to use SKYPE w/ Fantasy Grounds and it went well for the most part. We only had issues if the person hosting the application didn't have enough bandwidth and we had more than 4 people in the same channel. Huge latency issues...

I've been running Fantasy Grounds since version 1.0, and I've never had any latency issues. When people experience problems it is usually due to either the hosts or a client bandwidth connection. The program itself, especially FGv2.x, is optimized for play online.

One thing that jumps out about your comments here is the use of Skype ... is the game host also hosting the Skype session? Myself and many others use Skype for VOIP, but someone else hosts the Skype connection than the GM. If you read through the Skype FAQ you'll also notice that if you have more than four people in your conference there are minimum requirements for your PC and bandwidth. For this reason many people choose Ventrilo or Teamspeak. I sat in a game with 5 people playing the C&C ruleset during our testing phase of the ruleset, where someone other than the GM hosted the Skype connection, and the game was flawless.

Kevin Melka

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Post by LordSeurek »

I didn't think people 'hosted' a session on skype. Or do you mean, the person who starts up a conference call? Maybe thats one in the same, but as far as I know, nobody hosts anything in our games for skype, we dont log into anothers session, we simply all join over skype to a multiple chat call.

Rob.
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Loggahead

Post by Loggahead »

Well, we purchased FGII and the C&C ruleset yesterday and its fantastic. I can't wait for our group's first session with it.

FG seems to do the best job I've seen of recreating the tabletop feel.
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KMelka

Post by KMelka »

LordSeurek wrote:
I didn't think people 'hosted' a session on skype. Or do you mean, the person who starts up a conference call? Maybe thats one in the same, but as far as I know, nobody hosts anything in our games for skype, we dont log into anothers session, we simply all join over skype to a multiple chat call.

Starts a conference call. I dug up this info from a review:
Quote:
Conference Calls: Because Skype conferences are Peer-to-Peer, it's important that the conference host (the person who starts the conference) has a good Internet connection and computer. If you are planning to conference with many participants you should choose the person with the best internet connection to be the initiator (host) of the conference.

I can't get to Skype's page from work (damn internet filters) to get the exact specs, but they do outline PC system requirements for conference calls of more than 4 people.

This applies to any VOIP really when gaming online. Splitting the bandwidth is typically a good idea to improve performance. I wouldn't try to host a game and run a Teamspeak server from my home either, but if said server was elsewhere it would likely be fine.

Hope this helps!

Kevin Melka

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Post by LordSeurek »

Overall, I dont have any major issues with OpenRPG or gameteble. There are times, as Tree pointed out that it can be a pain in the ass. I think for 10 or 15 bucks, I may be swayed to give it a go, if anyone else is game for it. I have heard a lot of good things about FG, and wouldn't mind giving it a go.

Rob.
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Post by LordSeurek »

KMelka wrote:
Starts a conference call.

Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe next time our conference calls gets all silly, we can have someone else host the conference call to see if there are any differences..

Thx, Rob.
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Post by jaybird216 »

I'd be game to pitch in a few bucks if one of my groups wanted to try it. I can't remember how we did it on Thursdays, but usually on Sunday, Rigon hosts the OpenRPG and Treebore does the SKYPE.
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Post by LordSeurek »

jaybird216 wrote:
I'd be game to pitch in a few bucks if one of my groups wanted to try it. I can't remember how we did it on Thursdays, but usually on Sunday, Rigon hosts the OpenRPG and Treebore does the SKYPE.

Maybe we can see if there is some real interest in picking up FG say after Xmas. We would need a solid group (like Sunday) who will be committed because of the cost of it...

Rob.
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Wulfgarn

Post by Wulfgarn »

I would be as well intrested in using the program

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Post by jaybird216 »

I just took a look at their website. Seems really cool. I'd definitely be up to the investment, after the holidays.
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Post by nwelte1 »

I really like the little bit of Maptools that I played with. Does light, line of sight, templates, can draw nice detail maps, etc.... Seems stable too from what I have seen. Plus it is free.... I see no need for a C&C rule set since the rules are so simple, but that said I would be interested in testing out FG2.

If anyone is interested in testing out Maptools with me I would love to see how easy it is to use during a game.

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Post by Treebore »

nwelte1 wrote:
I really like the little bit of Maptools that I played with. Does light, line of sight, templates, can draw nice detail maps, etc.... Seems stable too from what I have seen. Plus it is free.... I see no need for a C&C rule set since the rules are so simple, but that said I would be interested in testing out FG2.

If anyone is interested in testing out Maptools with me I would love to see how easy it is to use during a game.

Our whole groups problem with Maptools is the requirement to host it. None of us are able to.
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Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

Grand Knight Commander of the Society.

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Post by nwelte1 »

Treebore wrote:
Our whole groups problem with Maptools is the requirement to host it. None of us are able to.

I did a test with 3 with me hosting and it ran fine. Would like to test with a CK and 5 players. If you want to try with me hosting let me know.

Loggahead

Post by Loggahead »

LordSeurek wrote:
Maybe we can see if there is some real interest in picking up FG say after Xmas. We would need a solid group (like Sunday) who will be committed because of the cost of it...

Rob.

I'm game, I purchased 4 clients and 1 full license plus the C&C ruleset.

FG is absolutely incredible. It really does a good job recreating the feel of a real tabletop. I've tried openrpg, klooge, and screenmonkey and must say that none of those products come close to what FG offers.

Let me know of any games. I was thinking of hosting a small skirmish battle just to get familiar with the die rolls, etc. I also have a private dedicated TS server for voip.

-logga
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Post by Moorcrys »

I played a 3.5 game using it this week to get a feel for the program -- it doesn't come with any documentation on its own (it's all accessed on the website). It really is very good -- the DM was able to do quite a bit with it (a good deal of dungeon exploring and several combats were run and all went very smoothly with no glitches) and the interface is easy to get a handle on and use. I had a really good time.

If you're at all leaning toward checking it out for C&C, I would. Particularly since C&C is a simpler system, more is handled by the program itself (modifiers and such) than would be for 3.5. They seem very well suited for each other and you definitely get a lot for that C&C purchase in terms of tokens, portraits and such.
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