New GM, a few queastions

[tamhelsel]

I just started GM'ing Dead Suns using Fantasy Grounds. I'm new to FG and I just have a few questions.

1: How do I apply cover to someone? Right now I am just having the players use a modifier when they attack someone with cover but I was wondering if there is a cover effect I can just apply to someone. I couldn't find anything in the effects tab.

2: How do grenades work in FG? Right now it looks like I just have the player roll a normal attack, see if the grenade hits or deviates, and then have everyone in the area make a save and apply damage. Is there an automated way of doing this?

3: When leveling up, does FG prompt the characters when they get new options, or is that something that they have to keep in mind?

4: How can I apply critical hit effects for weapons?

5: How can I allow my players to run FG more smoothly on their end. On my PC it runs fine (i7, 16gb of ram), but for some of my players with lower end machines, it runs poorly. As I understand it, FG loads modules into RAM. Is there a way to limit what is loaded so it is less resource intensive for people with less amounts of RAM?

6: One of my players wants to use physical dice (we play in person). Is there a way to input the value he rolls and then have FG do the rest of the calculations?

Thanks!

[imjedi]

I just started GM'ing Dead Suns using Fantasy Grounds. I'm new to FG and I just have a few questions.

1: How do I apply cover to someone? Right now I am just having the players use a modifier when they attack someone with cover but I was wondering if there is a cover effect I can just apply to someone. I couldn't find anything in the effects tab.

Welcome. I just started using FG myself for Deadsuns, so first wanted to say welcome and a thank you for asking these questions. I largely haven't asked myself.

For cover, I didn't personally see anything in the system for effects that had cover listed, and honestly, I think that should be ok as cover is largely LOS based and so you would constantly need to evaluate if cover existed anyway. For this I have been telling my players to assess a modifier manually for cover as I indicate which has worked for those using FG. (I also play in person)

2: How do grenades work in FG? Right now it looks like I just have the player roll a normal attack, see if the grenade hits or deviates, and then have everyone in the area make a save and apply damage. Is there an automated way of doing this?

Grenades. The bane of my existence. I wasn't able to find an automated way to do this. The grenades can automate the attack and damage, but have nothing for the Reflex saves to half damage built in that I found.

3: When leveling up, does FG prompt the characters when they get new options, or is that something that they have to keep in mind?

I have not found any prompts and my players have been double-checking with HLO since I own a license for that also.

4: How can I apply critical hit effects for weapons?

Do you mean for the effect of like Burn? You have to manually apply them as they occur. I found a thread here that provides many of these as importable xml sheets that you can then drag as necessary. You do have to set the duration it lasts, but it automates the rolls for damage as far as I found.

6: One of my players wants to use physical dice (we play in person). Is there a way to input the value he rolls and then have FG do the rest of the calculations?

This would be a great addition that I would love. About half my group prefers physical dice rolls and even one uses the app (purchased license) but prefers to still roll his attacks. Being able to have an option to enter the roll value manually would be great!

[Blacklamb]

Welcome to the club I hope your game will go as well as mine does, I'll try to answer as many of the questions that I can.

1. I have not figured this out, currently I have been having my players type in the negative modifier before rolling in the mod box under the chat window. I would love to learn a better way to do this.
2. Currently Grenades work better as spells, I made spells for all the grenades. I have the player roll to hit then use the spell on all the affected players, the spell can be setup to do the save and half the damage.
3. I have only seen it when ability points level up
4. The app does double damage just fine currently, but you do need to apply the effects manually, again the best way is with spells. There is a thread here when someone made them all for you and you just drag and drop them on the sheet. I believe they are working on this along with grenade damage.
5. Limit what you share with the players, minimize the use of shared tokens, optimize your art, and portraits.
6. One of the first setting in the settings menu is to manually roll, when you roll it opens a window to type in the results or have the computer roll. This is set on a player by player preference.

Hope this helps

I just started GM'ing Dead Suns using Fantasy Grounds. I'm new to FG and I just have a few questions.

1: How do I apply cover to someone? Right now I am just having the players use a modifier when they attack someone with cover but I was wondering if there is a cover effect I can just apply to someone. I couldn't find anything in the effects tab.

2: How do grenades work in FG? Right now it looks like I just have the player roll a normal attack, see if the grenade hits or deviates, and then have everyone in the area make a save and apply damage. Is there an automated way of doing this?

3: When leveling up, does FG prompt the characters when they get new options, or is that something that they have to keep in mind?

4: How can I apply critical hit effects for weapons?

5: How can I allow my players to run FG more smoothly on their end. On my PC it runs fine (i7, 16gb of ram), but for some of my players with lower end machines, it runs poorly. As I understand it, FG loads modules into RAM. Is there a way to limit what is loaded so it is less resource intensive for people with less amounts of RAM?

6: One of my players wants to use physical dice (we play in person). Is there a way to input the value he rolls and then have FG do the rest of the calculations?

Thanks!

[Blacklamb]

Here is my grenades spells
Grenades.xml

[Blahness98]

I just started GM'ing Dead Suns using Fantasy Grounds. I'm new to FG and I just have a few questions.

1: How do I apply cover to someone? Right now I am just having the players use a modifier when they attack someone with cover but I was wondering if there is a cover effect I can just apply to someone. I couldn't find anything in the effects tab.

It would depend on the type of cover, Partial, Normal or Superior. If you don't want to use the modifier box, you could use the +/- button on the top and click on the proper cover (granted only the cover button works for some reason) or you as the GM can apply the PCOVER, COVER, or SCOVER effect on the targeted bad guys to grant them the proper bonuses. Granted, these are not totally correct as they do not (or did not in my last test) apply the DEX bonus a person gets for being in cover. So keep those in mind as you apply cover.

2: How do grenades work in FG? Right now it looks like I just have the player roll a normal attack, see if the grenade hits or deviates, and then have everyone in the area make a save and apply damage. Is there an automated way of doing this?

Blacklamb's use of spells is probably the best way to handle grenades since they are AOE. Follow his examples for the grenades. (Might have to steal his sheet since I should have added it to my effects listings..)

3: When leveling up, does FG prompt the characters when they get new options, or is that something that they have to keep in mind?

It will not prompt for things like an operative's exploit, but it will prompt for major class choices (like the soldier's fighting styles). It will also prompt for ability upgrades.

4: How can I apply critical hit effects for weapons?

You can use my critical effects sheet (located in this thread) to do a lot of them. They are relatively easy to do and I may end up just making a module for the critical effects. And @imjedi, the effects last as long as the target does nothing to remove them.

5: How can I allow my players to run FG more smoothly on their end. On my PC it runs fine (i7, 16gb of ram), but for some of my players with lower end machines, it runs poorly. As I understand it, FG loads modules into RAM. Is there a way to limit what is loaded so it is less resource intensive for people with less amounts of RAM?

As said by Blacklamb, try not to share a whole lot. Run tests on how much memory FG will take up by using a second instance. That will give you a ballpark figure of what you are attempting to share and what it will look like on a player's side.

If you have any other questions, let the board know. Enjoy your game!

[Blacklamb]

Blacklamb's use of spells is probably the best way to handle grenades since they are AOE. Follow his examples for the grenades. (Might have to steal his sheet since I should have added it to my effects listings..)

Feel free your sheets are what inspired me.

[imjedi]

Feel free your sheets are what inspired me.

Brilliant method that I hadn't thought of, but knew there 'had' to be a way.

[tamhelsel]

Thanks so much for the help everyone! I've been messing around in FG for the past couple hours and using what you all have told me has really helped

[tamhelsel]

Does anyone know if there is a way to track ammo automatically after shooting? Right now the players have to manually tick off ammo used.

[Blahness98]

It is purely manual. There isn't an automated way to do it at this time as this rule set is based upon Pathfinder. The 5e rule set has this automated, but that code hasn't been incorporated at this time