5E Product Walkthrough Playlist
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  1. #11
    Another must do is if you build custom maps you always test them with a client (you can log in as host - then on same machine log in as client) and run around the map with client to make sure you did not make any "crazy" spots in it. You never wait till "game day" to test a new map.
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  2. #12
    LordEntrails's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ScottFromPortland View Post
    Has this been anyone else's persistent experience with Fantasy Grounds?
    Not for me. In part because I learn about 6 new programs a year, and have been doing so for 20+ years now. BUT, that doesn't mean FG should be intuitive for everyone. About 1/3 of those programs I learn I never "grok". They just don't have a UI that is intuitive to me. I suspect FG is the ame for you.

    Quote Originally Posted by ScottFromPortland View Post
    I've spent many, many hours learning how to use Fantasy Grounds. I've built many, many "custom" solutions to things like a Ring of Protection, as well as *actual* custom solutions like this Gargantuan Ochre Jelly. I'm not a noob without any knowledge; I've spent many, many hours learning this bass-ackwards system. And it still, reliably and repeatedly, proves itself obtuse, arcane, and utterly non-intuitive.
    I don't mean this in a defend FG sort of way. But you haven't learned FG is you are struggling to create a custom NPC. That's not a criticism of you. Its just a realization that FG has a different UI approach than makes sense to you.

    You are not alone in that.

    It's not uncommon for some folks to say they don't "grok" the FG UI. But there are other like me that find it very intuitive and easy to use. People are people, and we are all different. I say this same thing when I teach people other programs (CAD, PDM, PLM, CRM, etc) - Forget how you think the program should work, figure out how the programmers think, and how the program acutally works. There is usually a logic there, even if its not intuitive to you. And if you can't, its not necessarily a knock on you (or the program), but it may just be that you need to realize the program is always going to be one you struggle with (for me, DOORS and RTC are two programs I will never be comfortable with), and if the struggle is not worth it for you, move one to something else and don't let the sunk cost keep you from what is going to server you better in the long run.

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  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by ScottFromPortland View Post
    I've been running a weekly game for a little over a year on Fantasy Grounds. I am constantly reminded of how disappointed I am with this product.
    I spent hundreds of dollars for this product, yet I've seen very little effort provided to build out things as simple as a Ring of Protection. All the time I have to re-learn how to program in "custom" features that are basic ingredients in the core game. Super frustrating. Super inconsiderate. Super unprofessional.
    I've decided to share my frustrations each time they spring up, so that folks who are considering purchasing this product can be warned about what they're gonna be up against if they invest the mind-numbing entry fee plus the cost of each of the sourcebooks they wish to include.
    It's the purchase that keeps on costing.

    For today's newest frustration:
    I'm trying to build a new Ochre Jelly that's Gargantuan-sized. You can't simply edit the existing NPC to create a copy; no, that would be way too intuitive. Instead, I finally figured out how to drop an ochre jelly into the combat tracker, then take it back out. Yay! I can rename and edit it now!
    Can I put it into an Encounter?... Heavens, no! There's an error message when I try.
    I'm sure that there's some arcane solution to this... it seems like I've probably looked this up more than once in the past and waded through Forum messages to figure out the bass-ackwards method to do something as simple and common as creating a new version of a from-the-book NPC(monster).
    Do I want to wade back through FG's Forums for the umpteenth time to track down how to do super-basic things? No, no I do not.
    My experience with FG has been littered with moments like this. I am deeply dissatisfied with this product, and disgusted with how much money and time I've sunk into it.

    Has this been anyone else's persistent experience with Fantasy Grounds?
    No, it has not been my experience at all.

  4. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by ScottFromPortland View Post
    I've been running a weekly game for a little over a year on Fantasy Grounds. I am constantly reminded of how disappointed I am with this product.
    I spent hundreds of dollars for this product, yet I've seen very little effort provided to build out things as simple as a Ring of Protection. All the time I have to re-learn how to program in "custom" features that are basic ingredients in the core game. Super frustrating. Super inconsiderate. Super unprofessional.
    I've decided to share my frustrations each time they spring up, so that folks who are considering purchasing this product can be warned about what they're gonna be up against if they invest the mind-numbing entry fee plus the cost of each of the sourcebooks they wish to include.
    It's the purchase that keeps on costing.

    For today's newest frustration:
    I'm trying to build a new Ochre Jelly that's Gargantuan-sized. You can't simply edit the existing NPC to create a copy; no, that would be way too intuitive. Instead, I finally figured out how to drop an ochre jelly into the combat tracker, then take it back out. Yay! I can rename and edit it now!
    Can I put it into an Encounter?... Heavens, no! There's an error message when I try.
    I'm sure that there's some arcane solution to this... it seems like I've probably looked this up more than once in the past and waded through Forum messages to figure out the bass-ackwards method to do something as simple and common as creating a new version of a from-the-book NPC(monster).
    Do I want to wade back through FG's Forums for the umpteenth time to track down how to do super-basic things? No, no I do not.
    My experience with FG has been littered with moments like this. I am deeply dissatisfied with this product, and disgusted with how much money and time I've sunk into it.

    Has this been anyone else's persistent experience with Fantasy Grounds?
    No it has not been my experience at all, either. I've used all three iterations of FG and, yes, it has greatly increased in complexity as it has greatly increased in power. Lord Entails had a excellent response so I won't repeat it.

    My only insight is that as a fellow professional programmer and former game designer you may have a forest / trees problem since you seem to be trying to solve things at a very low level. To do stuff in FG you usually want to do three things: drag and drop, right click and use a context menu, add a effect script to a character sheet or the combat tracker.

    This works for you custom Jelly. The monster manual data is locked so users' can't inadvertently destroy it.

    What you are trying to do determines the best way to create a gargantuan sized ooze. If its a one off in combat as the result of a spell or other magic and the jelly is already on the tracker you would just edit the size category and change the hp.

    If you want a custom monster for an encounter you are making and you want to use it again then you would drag and drop the jelly into the uncategorised list of npcs to get an unlockable copy. Then you would unlock the copy and change whatever you wanted, ie size and name and then just use that version of the monster in your encounter.

    More elaborately, if you want to make your custom monster available for all your games you would put it in a custom campaign and export it so you could open the jelly in any of your campaigns.

    If you would like to sit in on one of my 5E sessions and watch or just connect and talk - PM me.
    Last edited by Griogre; November 24th, 2022 at 17:43.

  5. #15
    I love Fantasy Grounds. I'm sorry to hear that the OP is having such a frustrating time.
    The only issue I ever had (which is leaps & bounds better these days) was lag or slow loading times. But the programmers have done a lot to streamline the coding and it's pretty smooth anymore.
    I only reply because the OP asked what others' experiences had been.
    I find it to be fairly intuitive (I play PF2). The only real learning curve for me was creating custom effects. But there are some good wikis for that. You can copy and edit anything. Creatures, weapons, items.
    And any time I've ever had a problem, all I had to do was make a concisely worded post, and one of the programmers or an experienced community member got back to me quickly, and always respectfully.
    It's unfortunate that you're having these issues. I hope you get it figured out!

  6. #16
    Apart from Roll20, which I didn't like, I have no experience at all with other platforms, so can't really say how it compares. I also have no idea how to programme and came to FGU as a new DM two years ago, so I was learning the game AND the platform.

    Not going to lie, I had to do homework to learn it. I still do, sometimes, need to scan the forums for various issues I have or things I want to do, but don't know how. Thankfully, getting responses on these forums takes next to no time at all and everyone is very helpful.

    I learned as I went though and have quite enjoyed knowing more and more about it, as it's meant I have gradually started adding more and more ideas.

    So, even though my experience of FGU hasn't been the same as yours, I believe I can at least sympathise with what you are saying.

  7. #17
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    FGU has the capability to track and manage a lot of custom effects, but you don’t have to use them. You can just manually adjust things, like simply adding a untyped bonus to AC instead of adding an effect for a ring of protection. In most places, there is room for a miscellaneous bonus. You can just use these and the modifier box to make simple adjustments.

    Discord is a good resource for on the fly feedback from other DMs if you want to get an effect string figured out. Make sure to click on the help icon to look at the wiki for effects as well because there are examples there. I would recommend keeping the game moving forward with simple adjustments during the session and then go back after the session and create the effect to replace the simple bonus. You will probably remember it better for the next time if you aren’t trying to figure something out in the heat of the moment.

  8. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by SilentRuin View Post
    I love Fantasy Grounds. Of course I took the time to understand it first, and as long as I follow the rules of how things work it works great. That entails watching videos, asking questions on discord and these forums - basically getting the lay of the land (starting here is good). Now, I stick to 5E for my ruleset games and have modules for PHB, DMG, MM, and Monsters of the Multiverse to meet all my needs for NPCs etc. that I don't just make myself. I also take the huge risk, yes EXTENSIONS = RISK, of using extensions with FGU though I stick mostly to ones I wrote so that I have full control of things when FGU gets updated and breaks them (remember extensions = RISK? It is known) and can fix them myself as opposed to being dependent on waiting for someone else to fix them.

    But really raw FGU by itself with a few modules is how I started and learned the game, which is the best way. Now if you just leap in and try to intuitively create things with no concept of the rules or how things interact? Then... man that would have gotten me lost and frustrated quick. Fortunately, I understood that FGU is the most powerful DM tool out there which gives me the maximum lazy and ease once I learn the ropes out of any D&D game assist software out there. But it does have a learning curve to reach that.

    Skip the learning curve and play by osmosis? Some maybe can do this. I couldn't have.

    Woe be to those that try to skip the learning curve for sure.

    Gist is, at this point running a game is dirt simple and easy. I can concentrate on content and game play alone now. But the learning curve? It is known.
    What he said.

  9. #19
    The only frustration I suffer from FG is self-inflicted from applying too many extensions.

  10. #20
    In our online game we have the odd frustating occurance. A PC was constantly rolling with disadvantage and none of us could work out why. But something with his character had gotten corrupted, so I just copied the info from his broken character to a new one mid game. It took about 5 minutes, but the players had a break and the problem was solved.

    Found nothing truly game breaking, some have instances where maps display incorrectly or tokens won't show on one player's map, but on the whole I'm happy with the product. It is too expensive though, and requires learning syntax if you want to get the most out of effects, but with the latest updates most of the main effects are done for you.

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