by icycalm » 23 Mar 2022 19:35
An explanation of why everyone playing this will need Fantasy Grounds Unity in addition to TaleSpire.
TaleSpire doesn't yet offer any rules automation. It doesn't even have character sheets. So at first I planned to run all the rules myself, as in a tabletop game. This would force me to finally read the PF1 rulebook from start to end, and the added knowledge would elevate even our FG campaigns, because I'd be able to catch errors sooner or avoid them altogether etc. Same for the players: they too would be forced to learn the rules far better than currently, and all our campaigns would benefit.
However, we'd still need character sheets somehow. Now there are several programs online to handle this, some of them with very advanced features, even mobile apps etc. (the apps are useful when people are playing in person, so each of them has his phone on the table with all his character stats for easy access; they even have combat trackers that make your phone beep when it's your turn). But at the end of the day, why not just use Fantasy Grounds for the sheets? It would spare us having to learn a new program, the best of which aren't free anyway, while we've already paid for Fantasy Grounds. Moreover, once a character is in Fantasy Grounds he can be moved between campaigns with a couple of clicks, and characters from other campaigns can similarly move to the West Marches with ease without having to manually input all the stats with every move. And finally, I already own ALL the PF1 rulebooks, and many sourcebooks and adventures, which means all those extra races and classes and skills and feats and items will be immediately available, fully statted, for our TaleSpire game. Keep in mind that in the paid online character generators, YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR EACH BOOK FROM SCRATCH. We're talking about a couple thousand euros that we've already paid. And none of the generators have EVERYTHING, like Fantasy Grounds does.
It's a no-brainer to stick with Fantasy Grounds, basically, at which point the question arises why I can't just run the combat there too? Just add the characters and the enemies on the combat tracker, and run it all in there.
Well, there are a couple of issues with this. One is that the rolls would have to be made on FG, and it just wouldn't feel good not to roll in TaleSpire. But I found a solution with the manual dice input option we recently discovered for FG. So the rolls WILL be made in TaleSpire, and then I will simply enter the result in FG, and it will calculate what happens for us. I think that's a fantastic solution that leverages the power of Fantasy Grounds to drive all the mechanics of our TaleSpire game, with each program contributing what it does best: FG the mechanics, and TS the graphics.
The only problem is that TaleSpire is a lot heavier than FG to run, especially with the giant boards I will be building (we're talking a square mile of terrain for every board), and then on top of that you'll need OBS running. So let's hope everyone's computer can handle this. If not, there are options. The players don't absolutely need to have FG open, they can have their sheet info on paper in front of them, and just tell me to make changes to their FG sheet when needed. And as for OBS, we'll probably only be streaming the PCs' viewpoints, not the NPCs', so for starters only leccosta will need a powerful enough computer. And even THEN there's a solution if his computer can't handle it: I could set up a second computer to stream the game, from my Shadow perhaps, while I GM on my new laptop.
So it'll be a complicated business, and there are many challenges ahead, most of which I haven't even told you yet. But it's all feasible, I am sure, and we'll figure it out.