Fantasy Ground and FFG Star Wars

By ThePatriot, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

I wanted to see how people liked using the custom ruleset for Star Wars in Fantasy Grounds. I've owned FG for almost 8 years now and I always enjoyed it because it felt like you were actually at a table. Especially if you use voice chat.

My group is transitioning to FG because it's just easier to use than Google Hangouts and Roll20. The GM and one of the players will be purchasing it while I have two full keys, they used the be player keys, that I'm giving to two other players. I have the old GM key which is now a full key.

Sorry, what is Fantasy Grounds?

Sorry, what is Fantasy Grounds?

It's a virtual tabletop simulator used for many RPGs.

Ahh. But it doesn’t seem to give you any kind of video chat option with the players and GM?

Where’s the section related to working with Star Wars?

Ahh. But it doesn’t seem to give you any kind of video chat option with the players and GM?

Where’s the section related to working with Star Wars?

We'll be using Skype for voice chat and linky.

Sorry, don't have a lot of experience with Fantasy Grounds myself, but I don't think it would be a massive difference to using Roll20. At least, that's what I am assuming.What kind of issues did your group have with Roll20?

Sorry, don't have a lot of experience with Fantasy Grounds myself, but I don't think it would be a massive difference to using Roll20. At least, that's what I am assuming.What kind of issues did your group have with Roll20?

For me it was very low memory on my system when combined with Acrobat Reader and Google Hangouts. I've owned FG since 2008 and saw that there was a ruleset for FFG Star Wars. Hence the thread. ;)

Edited by ThePatriot

Where is the ruleset for Star Wars? I didn’t see it, but maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place.

Also note that Roll20 doesn’t have to be used with Hangouts, and that you could use it with two computers or two devices. So, you could do the chat with one device or computer, and the Roll20 stuff with a different device/computer.

Personally, I’m about to get started in a Roll20 game, and I’d love to see a detailed comparison between that and FG.

Sorry, don't have a lot of experience with Fantasy Grounds myself, but I don't think it would be a massive difference to using Roll20. At least, that's what I am assuming.What kind of issues did your group have with Roll20?

For me it was very low memory on my system when combined with Acrobat Reader and Google Hangouts. I've owned FG since 2008 and saw that there was a ruleset for FFG Star Wars. Hence the thread. ;)

Yeah, I can imagine that, depending on the amount of RAM your system has. However, Fantasy Grounds can be just as a memory hog I think, when it comes to managing multiple windows. Can I ask how much RAM you are using? 4GB should be fine for Acrobat and Google Hangouts.Like Bradknowles said, you guys can try out Roll20 with Skype instead, see if that helps a little.

Where is the ruleset for Star Wars? I didn’t see it, but maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place.

Also note that Roll20 doesn’t have to be used with Hangouts, and that you could use it with two computers or two devices. So, you could do the chat with one device or computer, and the Roll20 stuff with a different device/computer.

Personally, I’m about to get started in a Roll20 game, and I’d love to see a detailed comparison between that and FG.

You can see it here on their forums.

Sorry, don't have a lot of experience with Fantasy Grounds myself, but I don't think it would be a massive difference to using Roll20. At least, that's what I am assuming.What kind of issues did your group have with Roll20?

For me it was very low memory on my system when combined with Acrobat Reader and Google Hangouts. I've owned FG since 2008 and saw that there was a ruleset for FFG Star Wars. Hence the thread. ;)

Yeah, I can imagine that, depending on the amount of RAM your system has. However, Fantasy Grounds can be just as a memory hog I think, when it comes to managing multiple windows. Can I ask how much RAM you are using? 4GB should be fine for Acrobat and Google Hangouts.Like Bradknowles said, you guys can try out Roll20 with Skype instead, see if that helps a little.

I have 6 Gigs, but it's the cpu that's the problem. It's a dual core 1.2Ghz APU. None of us has the paid version of Roll20, so that's why we're using Hangouts. Hangouts has the dice roller for FFG Star Wars.

I've messed with it a little in Demo mode. It seems pretty alright overall. Not quite as intuitive, for me personally at least, as Roll20/Roll20 with Hangouts, but it looks like it'd work fine. Not to mention it can be cheaper overall compared to if you were using the premium aspects of Roll20 that could run you $100/year.

I've messed with it a little in Demo mode. It seems pretty alright overall. Not quite as intuitive, for me personally at least, as Roll20/Roll20 with Hangouts, but it looks like it'd work fine. Not to mention it can be cheaper overall compared to if you were using the premium aspects of Roll20 that could run you $100/year.

Yeah, the price for Roll20 can be expensive over the course of a year. FG is a one time cost and you can mod in your own rulesets as you see fit or you can use others. I played around with the FFG Star Wars ruleset and it figures out the dice rolls using standard dice with a programmed table from the book. The GM stuff is a lot more in depth than Roll20 is and you can store a lot of information about your game. It's all local so no cloud hosting.

I have 6 Gigs, but it's the cpu that's the problem. It's a dual core 1.2Ghz APU. None of us has the paid version of Roll20, so that's why we're using Hangouts. Hangouts has the dice roller for FFG Star Wars.

Ahh. So, you’re comparing the free version of Roll20 against the paid version of FG?

Did you try any of the other dice rolling apps, so that you didn’t have to use Google Hangouts?

I have 6 Gigs, but it's the cpu that's the problem. It's a dual core 1.2Ghz APU. None of us has the paid version of Roll20, so that's why we're using Hangouts. Hangouts has the dice roller for FFG Star Wars.

Ahh. So, you’re comparing the free version of Roll20 against the paid version of FG?

Did you try any of the other dice rolling apps, so that you didn’t have to use Google Hangouts?

I had paid for Roll20 for awhile, so my comparison is valid. The best value for Fantasy Grounds is the Ultimate Version where all it takes is one person to buy it and you can have as many people connect using the free version as you want. The Ultimate Version of FG is a little bit more than a 1 year Roll20 sub, but in the end you own the software and get unlimited updates.

To use the Roll20 FFG Star Wars API you have to be a Pro subscriber. To use the FFG Star Wars ruleset costs nothing once you buy the software.

Edited by ThePatriot

That is fair enough, I don't think anyone wanted to criticise you for abandoning Roll20. I was just curious about the system limitations you were running against. With that type of processor though, I can imagine even Fantasy Grounds will give you some issue at points (depending on how many windows are opened, other more CPU intensive things, etc). I was thinking of getting Fantasy Grounds myself to play my DnD campaign inbetween other get-togethers.

That is fair enough, I don't think anyone wanted to criticise you for abandoning Roll20. I was just curious about the system limitations you were running against. With that type of processor though, I can imagine even Fantasy Grounds will give you some issue at points (depending on how many windows are opened, other more CPU intensive things, etc). I was thinking of getting Fantasy Grounds myself to play my DnD campaign inbetween other get-togethers.

It's cool and it's understandable that people will have questions about it. FG does have D&D rulesets available, so it'll be easy to get your D&D game going.

It's very easy to get a D&D game going with FG, but it does take a little work making the adventure (but not much more than F2F) and there is a learning curve because some things aren't intuitive (must drag token from Combat Tracker to map for it to link when targeting and rolling die and NOT from the NPC window or Encounter window, etc.). It's easy to learn and you can get a group together within a day or two as there are waaaay more players than GMs.

The Ultimate Version of FG is a little bit more than a 1 year Roll20 sub, but in the end you own the software and get unlimited updates.

The software you’re buying with FG — is that restricted to a particular platform? Or is it written in a cross-platform manner using a language like Java?

If the software isn’t cross-platform, then that would be a deal-breaker for me. And even if the software was technically cross-platform but performed much worse on MacOS X, then that would be a deal breaker for me.

To use the Roll20 FFG Star Wars API you have to be a Pro subscriber. To use the FFG Star Wars ruleset costs nothing once you buy the software.

Does anyone who wants to use the API character sheet have to be a Pro subscriber, or do you only need one Pro subscriber (usually as the GM), and then everyone else can be a free subscriber?

Again, I want to reiterate that I’m actively looking for more information on this topic, and I’m not intending to come across as flippant or condescending.

These are honest questions that I have in my mind, and I’d really like to learn more information about the differences between Roll20 and FG.

The software you’re buying with FG — is that restricted to a particular platform? Or is it written in a cross-platform manner using a language like Java?

Does anyone who wants to use the API character sheet have to be a Pro subscriber, or do you only need one Pro subscriber (usually as the GM), and then everyone else can be a free subscriber?

Fantasy Grounds works on Windows, but there's some restrictions for using it on Mac and Linux, I think. I think Mac requires Steam or a program like WineBottler, Linux might need similar.

For Roll20, I think whoever is the GM has to be the subscriber. So if you're a GM in one EotE campaign, you can use character sheets and custom dice fine, but if you're a player in another EotE campaign and that GM isn't a subscriber, then it's just the basic stuff.