Campaign Safety Tools, Does FG Have Them?

[LordEntrails]

That specifically goes back to my "awareness" comment, though. Rather than being heads down into Lua scripting more dice rolls and damage, some consideration of more social features for a platform based purely around a social hobby just demonstrates a lack of it. And that goes for all us wannabe coders here on the forums too.

Let's not beat on SmiteWorks for not doing something that until today was never asked of them to do.

These "its 2020" approach assumes that these Safety Tools, and the discussion in the RPG community, have been around for so long that they should just assumed to be common. But that's not true.

A Google search gives me the oldest mention of RPG Safety Tools in 2014, on a LARP website, Leaving Mundania. I don't find it on any of the major RPG sites until an article on Gnome Stew in March 2018. Though much harder to find, it appears that the major conventions mostly did not adopt official policies on these types of things until 2019 (though I suspect I'm wrong on this by a year or so). And, again, if these tools were so important in the VTT space, then how come until this week I've never heard them mentioned on either of the two largest VTTs? i.e. Not until this thread for FG and a Reddit post this week for Roll20.

Anyways, that's the past. So, for those that feel this is important, put it on the Wishlist. If you can't add it to the official place for making feature requests for FG, then it would appear not to be very important to you.

Edit: I see my tone of voice could easily be misconstrued here. I don't mean this as an attack on Talyn or anyone else. And I intend for it to be as neutral and non-defensive as possible. Let's all make sure we try and keep this to a friendly discussion. And, as always, assume the other posters always intend such with their posts. It's easy to lose connotation and assume other wise on a forum. Conveying such nuisance is tough on a forum.

[Art Wendorf]

It's shocking (to me) because, as I said, it's now 2020 and this is not exactly brand-new territory we're discussing.

Yes. Yes, it is when compared to the lifespan of the RPG hobby. I hadn't even heard of the X Card until last year. None of my gaming friends knew what I was talking about. This is not something that has been brewing in the back ground for 30 years. So please, "it's 2020 fer crying out loud" doesn't add anything to the conversation. This is the first thread I've seen on these boards that have ever brought it up.

Yes, I absolutely think an X Card (or whatever) extension would be "nice."

Then why haven't you made one or lead a group of like-minded individuals to do so in the years prior to this one? Why did you wait until "2020" to bring it up? You've been a member of Fantasy Grounds Forum since 2016.Most of the really good rulesets and extensions were community made first.

Why should it be a CoreRPG feature (thereby being available to all rulesets which layer over CoreRPG)? Because it's 2020 and it would demonstrate that SmiteWorks has awareness of the current goings-on out there in real life.

Um, I deal with real life every day and, as I stated upstream, I only heard about the X Card and its ilk last year. And only because I'm a gaming geek who frequents gaming forums, unlike probably 95% of the gamers out there. I think it's not as pervasive in the consciousness of the gaming public as you seem to believe.

Now that the subjects been breached, I'm sure someone will come up with something. Maybe. Time is finite and there are only so many workhours in a day.

To expect Smiteworks to jump on everything that rears its head is expecting a lot from a small company. Especially something that, apparently, isn't even on the wish list. Instead, it is reasonable to assume that they're gonna work on the features that have actually been, um, asked for. Don't ya think?

You obviously feel very passionate about this. I honestly think that is commendable. Great even. But treating every one who questions it as if they are attacking the idea isn't gonna win any converts. Just the opposite, really.

[Art Wendorf]

And, quite frankly, you sticking my nice in quotations marks reads as if you think I'm some kind of knuckle-dragging mouth-breather. You might not have meant it that way but it reads as insulting and condescending. It automatically makes me resistant to the idea where I wasn't feeling that way before.

It is a nice-to-have feature. Not a critical or a performance feature as FG runs perfectly well without it and has since at least 2004 when I first demoed FG (though there were a lot of other issues with FG at that time). I think it would be a good feature as long as it's an optional feature. But I wouldn't want a developer pulled off of Unity or any other performance feature to work on it.

It's also something that in a game advertisement that would make me just keep on going past it. I'm not sure why that is though. Maybe because it feels as if there has to be a feature that just says: "Be excellent with everyone" that that group is going to be inconsistent and problematic from a continuity and personality point of view. I know that that is probably not the case, but it just makes me feel that way.

I'm sure that would change though the more I got used to seeing it.

[Moon Wizard]

Seems like their are some strong feelings on this topic; and the debate has been edgy in some cases. So, I’m going to close the thread for now, as I think the cases have been expressed.

I think it would be a great extension idea (which is exactly what extensions are for).

Regards,
JPG