Fantasy Grounds Classic Reviews

**FANTASY GROUNDS UNITY (FGU) IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR EARLY ACCESS/OPEN BETA PURCHASE ON THE OFFICIAL FANTASY GROUNDS WEBSITE. EARLY ACCESS WILL LAUNCH ON STEAM LATER.** I've been DMing a 5e homebrew campaign remotely using this application for several months at the time of this review. I bought the Ultimate License and 5e books while they were at a big discount, and I've been exploring its capabilities and quirks since then. This is a great app. It makes planning games, DMing, and homebrewing very easy and organized. It has a ton of automation for things like dice rolls and effects to keep the game moving quickly (and to keep absent-minded DMs like me from forgetting that a few creatures are prone and that someone ought to have advantage on their attack rolls against them). The community is very helpful as well, with tons of guides in the forums on everything from creating a character to creating custom calendars to changing how battlemap grids behave. It's a neat tool that has allowed me to run games remotely like never before, which is phenomenal because my gaming group is spread out across the U.S. The one quirk that new users ought to be aware of is the finickiness of the application. Due to its fairly unintuitive nature and dated engine, a decent amount of time needs to be put into simply exploring the app before it can be used effectively. This can be frustrating both for players and DMs, since it can throw the app's automation out of whack and consume time fixing problems. If you choose to use this app, there will be an experimentation period in which you will need to learn its language and how it is used most effectively. Additionally, be aware that in addition to purchasing the application itself (and an Ultimate License, if you decide you want to be able to host games for players without them having to purchase the app as well), you will need to purchase the modules for your TTRPG of choice. This is equivalent to buying the physical books, and the FG modules are priced comparably to their physical counterparts. If you do not want to purchase the modules or only want to use a few things from a module, it is perfectly possible to enter in the details manually, though this is often time-consuming and more effort than many would like to expend. With Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU) around the corner, one can be optimistic that SmiteWorks will breathe new life into an already wonderful app. I find it to be much more high-functioning than alternatives like Roll20, and I would recommend it to anyone who plays remote D&D (or any other tabletop RPG supported by the app). Definitely worth the investment.

Let me say that I love this program. "What Mr. Zero? Then why rate it down?" That's easy, because it is expensive and it really shouldn't be. Yes, after watching a couple videos online this is my go to DM screen (yes that's right I use the program on my laptop while playing a physical game for my friends. The program offers you very little for just buying it, no books or anything, thus you have to manually enter everything or buy books so you can drag and drop. The Demo version is worthless unless you are connecting to someone who has the ultimate edition and that is also an expensive upgrade. In complete honesty, the paid version should be free and the ultimate should be the paid version of this program. Next you have to buy the books that you'll be running in your games and from what I have seen they actually cost more than the physical copies. Even bundled it's still more than just going out to the book store (or amazon). This is understandable, however if you already own the Physical copies it is just tedious to have to buy again and at such costs to automate this process for you. Someone has pointed out to me that the Player's Handbook is $50 MSRP, I picked mine up at Books A Million for $19.99 so the costs might be the same or cheaper in your area; I would still recommend that you wait for a sale as it can be pretty easy to spend way to much money for what you may or may not use. I did some research and from what I've read Ultimate edition lets you share your purchased content with your connected players. So at least your players don't have to buy the same books as you just to play your game. I will upgrade just so that my players can update their character sheets or play over the internet the next time the world ends. I will update when I find out about LAN connects and internet connectivity. Thanks to poster Kaustix: A Standard License Host requires all players that join to have at least a Standard License. An Ultimate License will allow anyone to join a hosted game, Free or Standard. TLDR: Wait until they offer the program for free like I did and buy the books when they are on a serious sale. Otherwise be ready to manually enter everything into the game or drop ALOT of money into this program. The regular version is best used to plan you adventure or character and the Ultimate edition is best for hosting games online as DM with players that don't have any books bought or are running the free (demo) version.

This program is incredibly useful and has made my D&D game the best! There are few useful mods for it, and the subreddit/forums are useful too. It's a hard program to fully learn, but watchig YT videos and tutorials REALLY help to get it all together. I use this for D&D in person and stream it to a 32 inch tv for a "battlemat". My players use real minis on the TV surface and I use tokens for the monsters on FG. It's incredible. I have written and formulated my campaign in the program itself and then I keep notes separate in OneNote. It's very versatile and if you want the ability to have incredible maps from images all over the Internet, this program is for your group.

My comments are strictly from the perspective of a D&D 5e DM. Prior to getting Fantasy Grounds, I reviewed other options primarily because FG is fairly expensive - or so it seemed. As I started pricing it, it became obvious that the D&D components were priced the same as full priced retail manuals - since they come with the full text and in-game functional tables, this makes sense. Once I saw it as a licensing issue and understood that this really was an electronically functional version of the game manuals, I was on-board - I wanted the real rules and the full text to be available to me. Since none of my players had an FG license, I also elected to carry the burden and nabbed an ultimate license. One thing that you will hear is that Fantasy Grounds has a learning curve. This is true. I was 12 hours in before I felt comfortable with it and it was another 12 hours before I realized that I could have done a better job on some things. As time has gone on, I have realized that I want things structured a little differently to better facilitate online gaming - things that don't become clear until you are actually hosting a game. To learn Fantasy Grounds, I recommend finding a PDF module that you want to use and then 'port' it as a module. Create a campaign just for the module and start moving the text, creating encounters, and building parcels as needed. There is a lot to learn, so use youtube and ask questions in forums when you get frustrated. At the time of this writing, I've DMed a pair of 4 hour sessions via Fantasy Grounds and have had a blast. My players are satisfied with the visual and rules assistance provided by FG and I am thrilled to be DMing my first campaign since 1989. I anticipate putting over 1000 hours into this software and appreciate what it allows me to do.

*** Update as of 3-July-2020**** I'm not going to remove the previous review because it's all accurate still. That being said, FGU has more features and is better than classic, mostly. However, even perhaps more importantly.... There is a piece of software called "Foundry" that is LOADS and HEAPS better than every other options out there. You pay 50 bucks for software as the host and it works just.. seamlessly. Check it out, it's outstanding and incomprehensibly good. People connect via their browsers, but with NO exaggeration, it has 1/50th the load time of FGU or FG, and is so utterly beautiful. Check it out, you will be impressed. **** End of update**** I tossed back and forth a LOT regarding which route to play DnD with my friends once we got separated by thousands of miles yet again after a fun vacation where we played it together and had a blast. The list I used? Tabletop Simulator (which we already all owned and love), Roll20 (online only RPG VTS), and Fantasy Grounds. The cost of entry is actually high for both Roll 20 and Fantasy Grounds. Yes, you can go a LOT cheaper for both. But I didn't want to be constantly hampered by things we didn't have access to. I didn't want to keep paying monthly, either. So let's set it straight regarding the cost - Roll 20 isn't actually cheap, either. A quick you tube check will show you supporting details for that. So, putting money aside, I considered what I had. Tabletop Simulator is an AMAZING program that I can't recommend enough for people who like board games. For DnD, I could pretty easily figure out how to pull a grid into a generated table. It also has a number of generic RPG tokens that actually move! And it has different states for those characters, even. So it looks very slick, and it can be done in VR. This was almost enough to make me solely do everything in this. However, using the table to load the maps really isn't as smooth as you'd think. And though I can make as much dice as I want, i do still have to pick the right dice, roll them and track them, and avoid tossing them off the table. You can make it work, though. It's a viable option. But there's no official DnD 5e materials. There's stuff some people scan in, but it quickly becomes more hassle than you'd expect. So then I moved to Roll20. Some parts of it are easier than TTS, but it looks like a web page attempting to do desktop app features. I guess that's because it is. You have to be online all the time. Dice don't roll like dice roll in TTS. In short - the feel wasn't what I wanted. But it definitely has some perks, and I could totally get behind someone saying this was their choice and why. You can also get officially endorsed DnD stuff, so that's a great perk! But when I really investigated Fantasy Grounds, I found it was everything I could want - I could roll dice like one rolls dice. I could get EXTREMELY well integrated official DnD content. I can't emphasize this enough!! The content is outstanding and has an abundance of interactive features you cannot get in Roll20's version of them. It FEELS good. Once you get a ten minute primer, it's pretty darn intuitive (for me, anyway, though I write software for a living, so results may vary). I get player and gm copies of the same map. I can decide what players can see. I can use Fog of War (you can do that on Roll20 as well, and some could argue maybe a little better version of it), and I can choose to interactively peg certain encounters. Reveal or not reveal based on their states. I can build encounters and an EXTREMELY powerful combat tracker that gives the GM tons of info, and the players only more simple interfaces. I can hide one roll and not another. A player can hide rolls that only the GM sees, you can jump to 5 different sections of a campaign and keep them all open at once. The list goes on and on. And when you properly drag and drop your PCs and NPCs, players can hover and see their character's range of attack. They can drop a dice ONTO the one they are targeting. If the strike lands, you can then drop damage dice that automatically take into account if you did a critical on your targeting roll! Seriously, it keeps going and going. And when my wife wanted to play as a Kender and it wasn't officially supported, adding it with features it needed was as intuitive as anything, and showed up dynamically and instantly to her. So this is congealed DnD in the best sense. it is now how I will run all games, even in person! You still get the fun of dice, but none of the hassles of it. Games run smoother, run faster, are easier to track, and are vastly more interactive. It gets you to the fun of telling a story and garnish it with beautiful images. I spent a lot on this game... and I don't regret it at all.

Fantasy Grounds is a wonderful VTT (Virtual Table Top) and has allowed me to reconnect with some of my best friends and introduce them into my “shameful” addiction of table top RPGS. If you just want the short answer, it is definitely worth a buy. --The Program Itself-- Pros: →The staff (honestly the biggest pro is how much they love their customers, quick to reply, always friendly and make you feel like more than a customer) →Once you pay for it, you own it (unlike Roll20) →If you have the Ultimate you can get all of your friends to join you, and why will not have to pay for the program or the DLC (so long as you host). This is HUGE as I am able to introduce my friends to it, give them hundreds of dollars of content and get them hooked on the hobby. (Plus… if you are close and play a lot they might just buy you some DLC because they want that cool new race, or campaign, etc.) →Extremely customizable, you can play on multiple operating systems, rule sets, and even add extensions and modules to enhance the capabilities of the program. →New content is constantly being added and with weekly sales it is one of the FEW companies I actually look at their sales every week. →Great community that is always there to guide you and help you get started Cons: →No Lobby. You need the exact IP (and to have the host port forward) in order to connect to another person. If you are just itching to find a group it can be hard to do so as there is no lobby to just “join game”. You can go to their website and look for groups (Roll20 does it better, but every group I had on Roll20 disbanded after a few sessions, FG people seem to stick so it is more worth the search). → UI. The UI is… pretty rough and not very intuitive. It is also missing things seem the be needed such as multiple monitor support. → “No Sound”. There is one default sound with the program and that is when it is your turn you get a “ding”. You can also download some free extensions and software to make it so the game can do basic things such as sound effects (based off what happens in the chat) and music. It is kind of clumsy to setup and it does not work very well once you do. The single biggest thing about this is there is also no voice chat built in. Most people seem to use TeamSpeak or Discord (we use Twitch). →Not everything is truly automated enough. I am using close to a dozen extensions and there are still things I wish were better about the program to just run. You can buy extensions from their parties but I think more should come with the base game (they are building a new version based off Unity which should address a number of issues). One example of something I think is annoying is I can’t just have all of the Feats in 5E do what they say (some you can), but for example barbarian rage needs “coded”. Easy enough to do, but this should either come with FG or the 5e ruleset. --The x64 program is *basically* useless as it is very unstable. You can’t do fog of war for example and not have it crash. --Rulesets— I only have 5e, but I can also talk about what I have seen on YouTube. Pros: →Does about 80% of what I would like it to do. →You can play in multiple ways such as actually on a map, “theater of the mind”, etc. →Give you enough to get you started Cons: →Again, things like feats should be fully implanted and there are a lot of extensions on line that I feel should be automatically included with the ruleset such as “Roll for Initiative” which allows the DM to request saving throws, initiative, etc. all with a button click. →Still *have* to buy a lot of DLC. Once you get the core book, you will still mostly spend about another $100 or so to get your first campaign running. This is all *technically* option, but wow would running a game be a chore if you didn’t have the DM guide, a campaign, the monster manual, etc. This is really where the Ultimate edition comes into play so your players don’t ALL have to buy the player handbook, etc. →Not enough basic resources such as maps and tokens. →Multiple of the same item. This drives me crazy that I have a short sword from the basic rules, the players handbook, the DM guide, the campaign, Xanather’s Guide to Everything etc. and it is ALL the same item… just listed from each source. If the item is different I want it kept, but if it is an identical match I wish it would just hide them. --Campaign— I have played a few one-shots and am DMing the Out of The Abyss Game (very good). Pros: →Comes with all the story bits that you need and usually a handful of maps →Monsters that are used in the campaign at least have their stat blocks (sometimes an image) →Easy to run and make notes, and character progress and everything very smooth. Cons: →Never enough maps or tokens, especially on long campaigns. While I do not expect every inch to be a battle map I am surprised that there are sometimes set locations that do not have maps… and they do not come with a few maps for random encounters →I have multiple DLC and for example I have the Lost Mind of Phandelvor, and I keep it open when I run the Out of The Abyss campaign because it has some items, and tables, and things I might find useful, I can’t however turn off the story elements. I wish they would let me keep the “cool stuff” like a MAP for example in the campaign but turn off the story. --Business— The company and people are great, you should support them. I do have ONE issue though I wish if you bought items on Steam it would show up on your account on their website. While I get that they do this because I did not buy it THROUGH them, it means I can’t buy bundles. Since I already have products on Steam if I go to their site to complete the bundle I would buy the whole bundle again… which is not worth it. I would gladly go out of my way to go to their site to have them get more money (Steam takes ~30%), but I do not have to pay an extra 20% myself to do that. The company does what I think I would do if I owned it as far as when new rules come out (D&D 4th vs 5th) have people pay for it and also if I did a MAJOR program update (example they are remaking the entire thing in Unity, but going to give players a discount) is that I thin is fair. I even asked them about the new Savage Words 2.0 coming out and they are deciding if they will give a discount or not and told me to hold off if I did not want to pay full price for both. This is honest and fair and as a consumer I value it, but obviously I hope for a discount because... we all want money, right? I plan to support this company and buy many more products from them. I am antsy all week to get back and play with my friends and continue our adventure and this program allows me to do that, and I honestly prefer it to in person. The hassle of having to check AC, or distance, draw a map, etc. all takes away from the FUN of the game. About the only thing in person has over this program and is that you can feel the dice and also play with your mini. If you have questions on something please feel free to reach out, I will tell you anything you want to know about this product.

I did alot of research before investing in this software. I must admit I had some hard times figuring everything out in the beginning, mostly with parsing my homebrew. The good news is that as long as you play a supported system you need no parsing. The software does what it promisses and I like that there's no full automation as it allows me to change values and add my own houserules. I recomend ppl intrested in this software to not look at the guides at first (atleast for me it was confusing in the beginning) but instead look up ppl on twitch/youtube who use Fantasy Grounds, I would recomend looking at 5e or Savage Worlds campaigns. Also take full advantage of the forum and meet the great community, there's alot of help, mods, extensions, tips and fun over there. For me this software is simply the best software investment I've made in recent years and have become a necessity that I play around with even when I do not play a game. Just letting my fantasy flow and creating adventures or having a parsing session.

There's just not enough here to rationalize the amount of money you'll have to invest to run a solid game. Every little bit of content is going to cost you another chunk of money, and after all of that investment, you'll be left with an outdated, clunky UI, and a convoluted process for the poor soul who ends up being the host to actually make it so that others can connect to their game. There's simply no excuse for this outdated setup in today's world. It's clear that the developers don't care about their user base, and are simply in it for profit, as evidenced by the rework they did, in the form of Fantasy Grounds Unity. For some fairly minimal upgrades, the developers felt they could charge users all over again, with a paltry discount for those who are upgrading. Go with a more user friendly alternative, like Foundry VTT. You get more functionality, an open source developer community with new content always being delivered, and much better ease of use.

Fantasy Grounds is quite honestly the best virtutal tabletop software. I've tried several, but I run campaigns exclusively on this now. This software has a massive learning curve. You can get the basics quickly, but to master it takes a while. It is so feature rich that you can automate 90% of the DMing with enough planning and set up. My players love the system - other DMs that play in my campaigns want to switch over. Combined with other software (map designing, photoshop, ect) you can create excellent and wonderful campaigns loaded with graphics built upon a fantastic under-the-hood ruleset system which takes the technical (mathematical) aspects comepletely from the game so you can have lightning quick combat encounters and focus on roleplaying. Of course the combat traker is wonderful if you want to have a combat heavy hack-n-slash campaign and only makes combat more enjoyable. The story design part of the game is great. You can pin combat encounters, NPCs, story elements, loot, exp, and more directly to the map. Experience can be awarded on command. Loot can be dumped into the party inventory automatically and the players can divide it themselves. Character creation is simple and easy. All of the math is again automated here. Just drag items to your inventory. Same with spells, but things get more complex if you multiclass, but its just part of the learning curve. Some will complain about connectivity issues. Port-forwarding is a simple thing to do, but VPN software can get around it. Mac -> PC does have some issues. I only have one Mac user in my games, but he has the majority of the technical issues. Tech support is very fast as well, but I've only had to use it once. Overall, I can't recommend this software enough. I have had hours of use with it.

First..This is NOT A GAME! A Table is not a game, The playing PIECES are not a game..the DICE are not a game. This is a collection, a system, that will let you CREATE YOUR GAMES to play with some automation and cooperation online with your fellow players. WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: People who want to DM (Manage/Run) a game. PLAYERS do NOT need to buy the game. BUT the DM will be the one who buys all the books/supplements and shares them with the players. There is a way for players to share in the costs but it's rare and not really done. I'm not getting into it here. Work with UNITY version only. The 'Classic' has been sun-set (No more support/security) so just save the hassle. The UNITY is a re-write to take advantage of better technology. YES, Classic could work and fully GROUNDED to get you playing, but it was made in 2004, while UNITY was released 2020 with very active update/maintenance. Join FantasyGroundsCollege (dot net) and get yourself trained! Lots of help there! I love DND. I have a hard time finding a game to play. I'm WILLING to DM but I don't have people or opportunity. FG will let me craft my story, get my experience and finally do the game I wanted to do! Enjoy..and PATIENCE will be the thing to get the skills under your nails. Laters and HIGH ROLLS FOR YOU! (Additional) My DM group has been using this for over a year and it's been very handy to have the automation/visuals, without the DM having to do a lot of manual work for a video conference session. Playyers can login quite fast. Only regular thing is making sure everything is updated BEFORE you play your session. (Multiple fixes each week). I HIGHLY Suggest you try out the demo version.