Getting started with FG - what extensions do I need? Rulsets, Extensions and Modules

[HywelPhillips]

(Posted some of this on Discord and thought it might be useful in general for getting started in FG).

Fantasy Grounds has three different sorts of add-ons.
Rulesets implement a game system on Fantasy Grounds: character sheets, what dice rolls the system uses, etc..
Modules contain game data but do not change the way the program operates. That contains stuff like all the spells wizards can cast (where the ruleset tells FG how this particular game system handles spells in general, the data module says how much damage a fireball spell does, what level it is, etc).
Extensions change the way the program operates. Generally, it customises a ruleset, or maybe modifies the user interface of Fantasy Grounds.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
You don't need any extensions
Buy the core rulebook(s) for your system and an adventure module to get you started
Add other stuff as you find you need it


Modules (generally) are on the FG store, whereas Extensions are mostly on the FG Forge. There's a bit of a historical accident where some extensions were on DM's Guild but the FG Forge is the place for extensions going forwards.

Rulesets usually come bundled with the core rulebook of your game system. Fantasy Grounds comes with several built in. Community-developed rulesets may be available on the FG Forge or via the forum.

Straight out of the box, Fantasy Grounds can handle a lot of stuff for you using its built-in automation.

You don't need any extensions to get started

There's more than enough to get used to with what's built-in and many DM's find the built-in automation is all they want or need.

It might be helpful to get some modules, though.

Running D&D 5E: Rules Modules

Fantasy Grounds comes with the D&D SRD data modules built-in, along with the ruleset for D&D 5E necessary to use them.

This is the free version of 5E that WOTC give away, mainly intended for game developers to build new settings and systems on but also providing a limited but perfectly playable version of the system. You can run an absolutely fantastic game with just the SRD. It is what I used for my text quickstart tutorials because you get it free with FG.

The SRD has limitations - only one sub-class or archetype per class, only one background, a limited selection of monsters.

The first module that a lot of people buy is therefore the Player's Handbook, which contains the game data for all the other PHB sub-classes and background options. You don't need it strictly speaking - you could enter all that data yourself, or just run with the SRD options. If you're testing out FG to see if it is for you, you can totally run a whole campaign with just the SRD and your players will still love it. They'll just find they don't have the character choices they might be used to.

So for most people it is a no-brainer to add the PHB if you are used to running 5E and your players are used to having all the usual character options. It's a bit of a pain to buy the PHB stuff again if you already have a paper copy or have it on other online platforms, but what you are really paying for is someone taking literally months to make sure everything is entered in FG for you and ready to run. If you've got time but not much cash, you can totally enter the necessary data for your own party of characters into FG as you go.

The Monster Manual will give you all the monsters from that book, already entered into FG for you. If you run a lot of 5E already, you might find it helpful. I'd say it is optional, personally, whereas I think most groups would benefit from having the PHB. Homebrew monsters are easy to create by copying an NPC sheet in Fantasy Grounds and modifying it to your taste.

Adventure Modules

The other sort of module that can be a huge help getting started is an Adventure Module. Lost Mines of Phandelver and the Dragon of Icespire Peak (which is part of the D&D Essentials Kit) are very good starter adventures for 5E.

LMOP is more of a traditional story-led adventure, intended for a group of characters. Icespire Peak is a sandbox adventure with lots of little quests that the characters can do. Since they are both set in and around the same town they can be combined very successfully, too. That's what I did when I started to teach myself Fantasy Grounds at the start of the first COVID lockdown. If you have just one player, Icespire Peak may be the better one to start with as it has rules for "sidekicks" especially designed for this situation: it is better balanced for that purpose than LMOP.

Phandelver is cheaper, though

So What Are Extensions For?

Extensions are broadly speaking there to extend FG to automate more stuff and make it easier to handle in certain situations. You won't know which ones might be useful to you until you've really got to grips with FG.

For example you totally CAN handle druid wildshape by replacing the druid's token with an NPC dragged to tracker and onto the map, setting it to friendly and sharing the NPC sheet with the druid player.

Works fine, but is a little cumbersome for high-level Moon Druids in particular. There's a couple of nice extensions that deals with this and related stuff like Polymorph spells in a smoother way. They make it easier for the druid to have a list of shapes they always change into and let them manage their shape shifting straight from their regular character sheet without the DM needing to do anything.

Useful to have for a group with a high-level druid in it? You betcha, which is why it is they are popular extensions.

Necessary to run a fun game at a good pace? Absolutely not, not even if there are druids on the party.

Most FG extensions are in that sort of category.

All are optional. Don't get any of them until you've run a few games and you know how vanilla FG works. You can't make a judgement on which extensions might be useful until you know how the core FG automation works.

Running Systems Other Than D&D 5E

There are a few other bare-bones systems that come free with Fantasy Grounds, usually where the publisher provides something akin to the D&D SRD document which is free for developers to work from.

These take the form of a provided ruleset which is what Fantasy Grounds uses to implement all the stuff inside a game system: what a class is, what sort of dice rolls the system uses, what details spells have listed in the rulebooks, the character sheet, what stats NPCs have, that sort of thing. That's separate from the game data of the statistics for each of the spells or each of the monsters.

At the time of writing you get rulesets for stuff like Pathfinder 1e, 2e, D&D 2, 3.5, 4 and 5E, Numenera/Cypher system, FATE core Starfinder and a couple of others built in to FG.

There might also be a supplied module with whatever game data the publisher gives away for free, which you can load up when you create a campaign using that ruleset. Or there might not; Pathfinder 2E gives you a blank campaign with no classes, no spells, no ancestries, etc..

You can run a game like that but you'll have to enter everything in by hand. Most people therefore purchase at least the core rulebook for their system (Pathfinder 2E's is here) even if the ruleset comes free with FG.

A lot of other systems, like Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds (SWADE), Vaesen, etc. supply both the ruleset and the data from the core rulebook bundled together with the core rulebook on the store.

Yes, it is a bit painful to have to pay again for all this data if you already own the rules in hard copy or PDF.

But just consider having to enter all the details for all the spells and all the classes and abilities and items from the 600+ page Pathfinder 2 rulebook yourself, by hand. Suddenly paying to have someone else do that work for you feels like a worthy investment. It's hundreds of hours of someone's time to make sure every detail of every spell is loaded up and ready to go with automation built in, and maybe to build the ruleset to implement it all in FG as well.

Many other systems also have adventure modules for sale on the FG store to get you started: The Lightless Beacon is a good one to start with for Call of Cthulhu, A Wicked Secret is great for Vasen (start with The Silver of The Sea, it's a much better introductory adventure than the one in the core rulebook), everyone should give Sailors on the Starless Sea a go for Dungeon Crawl Classics, and so on.




So... buy the core rules for your preferred system, an adventure module to get you started, and run some sessions for your friends. That's all you need, and it might be all you'll ever need to run and enjoy games via Fantasy Gounds.

Cheers, Hywel

[Ulric]

You did a great job explaining a complex concept for inexperienced FG users!

[garymichaelduke]

Hello There,
Is this a place to find a software tool / utility to manage ASCII numbering?

garymichaelduke