This video was a huge pain in the ass to make, I apologize for obscuring the combat tracker with my giant head. I also want to point out the reason these third-party virtual tabletops have to charge you money for the books you already own, is because they had to pay wizards of the coast for the license. And they need to recoup that money.
I bought some books on Roll20, I can see it becoming expensive if like my group split across platforms. But its ok, I'm just happy to play. I just wished I remembered the AUD dollar was so bad against the USD in the current crisis!
How hard is it to upload custom rulesets? As I am making a Wargame/RPG and have been using Roll 20 for it's freeness and knowing that it can work with any game even if it's not uploaded to it. Which it has worked great! But I've always looked at fantasy grounds as a paid-for/offline alternative and your video shows it is nicer... if you have the ruleset. Thanks Matt wish you, your family and MCDM/ the great people there well too.
phton ohphotn not really, no studio or equipment and not sure most of my players would be interested in becoming actors. The game I did a video with my group was five hours of video I edited down to one hour. It would be a big project. Maybe I’ll find some group doing this that would like me to DM
The twinkle of excitement in his eye when he explained you can hotkey any data around 18:00 is amazing lol But, tbf, while we're chuckling at how excited someone is about seemingly simple functionalities, FG is literally the only VTT I'm aware of that actually has all of the obvious functionalities. Setting this kind of automation up on Roll20 or Foundry makes me wince
It caused me a lot of problems during the game, when two characters constantly chat in Elvish and it drove otehr players crazy (in bady way). It was rude and annoying. And not very funny. So, I declared it's not feature for players to use to share game impacting ideas, only jokes. But I still like it. It saves me a lot of time when I', not sure if certain players can read specific text or understand specific NPC.
@@colinoneill9470 It's not a bad feature, the only issue for me with it is that because chat and rolls/spells are all placed in the the same text box, its very easy for it to go unnoticed. especially if you send a whisper in the middle of combat.
Me: "Matt's a goober because he didn't know he could drag the red helmet over to put all the hostiles on the map at once" Matt: *Clicks target button and drag-selects all the baddies* Me: ".... well... isn't that something."
Matt, it was your original Fantasy Grounds videos that got me started with it and virtual tabletops in general. I tried Roll20 a couple of times, but never loved it. Within a couple of Fantasy Grounds sessions, I was fully-in. I've since introduced it to a number of friends, who absolutely love it. It has allowed my old college group the opportunity to come back together than play again, even though we are spread across the country.
My game went digital for the pandemic, and today we played for 9 hours, about h 1/2 of which was this crazy battle between elementals, the party, yuan ti, and a pair of bullettes. It was fantastic.
Hey Matt, bom dia! Out of nowhere, but I was telling friends about you, your videos, where you started and where you are now, etc. And it hit me how me and our community we're really behind you on basically everything. We came for the content, we all loved the package, got a lot of cool things happening and now I really feel a lot of cohesion. I see how some of the choices you made weren't thinking about what's most profitable, but making sure that the content and the community are as dope, neat, and with the best quality possible. Thank you for keeping up such a good work. I just showed up to leave a comment of support, got a little out of hand.
I generally find that "how long it takes to make a character" rarely has anything to do with the medium. Just people hemming and hawing about decisions.
I mean, when you have a lot of decisions to make it's going to take awhile, especially choices you can't change. Hemming and hawing is a bad way of describing weighing options
@@lionskull1 i usually got a few generic backstory outlines tucked away, so choices like which class features to take or what spells i want end up taking longer
Pro-tip for people with more than 1 monitor, don't make it full screen and just stretch the edge onto your other screens, as a DM, it makes life a lot easier to have lots of stuff open.
Thank you so much Matt! My friends and I have been trying to figure out how to play during this craziness and just happened to come into a subscription to fantasy grounds. By far one of the most engaging tutorials I've seen so far. I will be forwarding your beautiful hair and voice to my friends plagued by shorter attention spans.
I'm planning to DM my first ever game with a group where only one person has played it before. Your videos have been a great help in making the whole thing less intimidating! Thank you for making such helpful content :D
thanks for making this. I already use Fantasy Grounds but I still learned some new tricks and you're so much better at explaining this than other tutorials I have watched.
I've always enjoyed your content, in particular your animated speaking style (because I've had to listen to enough lectures in my time) but the 'it's focusing on the skull!' intro was nice and I'm glad you kept it!
HI Matt, just wanted to stop in and say thank you. I started Dming for some friends and your videos helped me to get over those new DM difficulties. Our games are going well and we are all having a great time. You helped with that.
This was absolutely tremendous! Thank you for this video Matt! I can’t wait to see the next video, especially with all these changes that are occurring and with social distancing. Also, I am not a man afraid to admit that I love what you have done with your hair! I wish an endless amount of blessings be flown your way for all your help and amazing attitude!
Thank you for making this! I remember waaay back when i was deciding between roll20 and fantasy grounds. Your video on combat (plus some other things i researched) was what made me decide for Fantasy grounds, and i love it, use it at the table to track initiative, player hp and a ton of stuff and use it for online sessions as well. So thanks again, I am sure a lot of people will be using it more from now on.
Outstanding stuff. I currently run three campaigns (one 5e and two Pathfinder) and the process of moving all the prep work, AND learning curve for each player has felt like a Sisyphean task. This vid came at an uncannily timely point. Bravo!
This was so incredibly helpful. Thank you! I bought Fantasy Grounds shortly after hearing about this video and now I LOVE using this program. I agree with you on the moderating just enough of the tedious points and none of the parts I want to control.
It says something about Covrisma that I have looked into Fantasy Grounds, know full well that Fantasy Grounds is NOT a good fit for my group, and yet I'm still tempted to watch this all the way through.
Stumbled on your videos after a friend invited me to play DnD. After watching your a few of your videos I started DMing. You're a great teacher and I hope to be somewhere near as great a DM as yourself. Keep being great !
Matt, thanks for this! We were dithering about VTT for our 2 games and about 30 seconds into this, my husband decided on FG b/c you're having so much fun! Thanks for the new info and keep up the good work!
This was perfecting timing for me and my group. We were trying to figure out the best way to play online because we are used to playing in person. Thanks for this video!
Been using this program for a good while now. It's super useful and I love the automation and the ability to even add in some of my custom items/races/npcs and having it all automated.
This video has convinced me to start DMing. I had tried DMing a few months back, but it wasn't a good fit for our group. But now, I can play with my good friends who live miles away! I'm super excited and nervous. Thank you for the inspiration and information!
Hey Matt! I just binged your entire "running the game" series this past month during mundane tasks at work. I started with a few videos from other DM channels and when I told my housemates I was interested in running a campaign, my brother told me of your channel. I just wanted to thank you for all the help!! I have now run 2 short sessions of DnD in a (currently) small world I made up for my brother and girlfriend. We are having a blast and everyone is excited to keep playing. I will absolutely be on watch for more "running the game" while I start listening to the campaign diaries. Congratulations on your kickstarters and your company, you deserve it and I appreciate your work. I hope those fantasy books you mentioned are still available when I get around to order strongholds and followers. Peace. Out.
Thank you for doing this piece! This was my first time watching a video of yours. My group and I have been discussing how to continue our game, not just because of the pandemic, but because a number of our group (25 years together) have been suddenly scattered across the realm like the tribes of Babel. We were discussing the different platforms we could use and this has been helpful. I also genuinely enjoyed watching you, you seem a very pleasant fellow. I am now subscribed! Thank you!
Thanks so much, MC. You're probably drowning in, "we need this," but I just dropped in on FGU and am going to buy all of the modules we as a group need. I'm going to ask the players to pay what they can, but given the current state of the world, I'm happy to buy the PHB and DMG, MM, etc., to make things good for us. Glad to see a new video. Keep it coming!
I have been using fantasy grounds for many years and you only have to pay for the stuff once divide by all the years of use, it's incredibly worth it, when you factor in that if you own the Ultimate license everyone else can play for free.
We really appreciate you taking the time to reshoot the start of the video fifty times until those good rolls came up ;) Anyway, thanks for this video, I'm actually in a Fantasy Grounds game later today, for the first time, and this came in really handy. Keep up the good work Matt!
I understand this is an old video, but thank you so much for illustrating the use of Fantasy Grounds. It definitely convinced me to give it a try. Thank you so much for everything that you do!
Been so long since I've seen a video of yours. I've missed your videos and your voice. Very helpful video, my friends and I have been trying to find something to play online. Thanks Matt!
I realize there are plenty of other sources for Fantasy Ground related content, but I appreciate your presentation style and energy levels. Much of your other content is either not relevant or interesting to me, but I would happily enjoy more Fantasy Grounds material from you. Thanks for making this.
When running face to face games, I use FG classic as a table top on a TV screen. I built a custom table that has the tv in the center. The players manage their characters how they like (paper, DnDBeyond) and play their minis on the tv screen. I manage the maps and npcs/monsters in FG and use the tokens for most and mini for bosses. I have their characters loaded into the Combat tracker to get the Initiative order managed. It's ran super smooth for 8 months. Looking forward to that when this is all over. For now, we are using this time to take a break from the campaign, and run some Call of Cthulhu sessions over Discord.
The first 20 seconds alone made me laugh out loud alone in my room...the skull being covered in the second cut..this is peak environmental storytelling
I'm so glad I backed your Kickstarters, and that that is helping you guys all stay safe. Hope to see you at a conference some day, but only once the world is back to normal. ❤️
Matt you rock! Dm'n my second session tomorrow, you rock! Thanks for the inspiration. So much of what I bring is your advice filtered through my brain.
Hey Matt I appreciate you a lot man. I only got into D&D about a year or so ago, when I turned 24. I'd never played before, and I'd never really given it much thought. My dad played when he was younger, but I always thought it was weird. Now I'm hooked on it. I'm DMing two campaigns currently, and I managed to get my dad into one of them. One of the campaigns is more modern (uses modern classes and rules) while I tried to make the one my dad is in as classic as I could. Im focusing a little less on the story at first (it's still there though) and more on the combat and dungeon crawling. He only ever played for the combat when he was younger in 1st edition. Him and his friends would just make a dungeon and run it. Anyways, he had a blast and I'm really excited. My dad and I haven't had too much in common for a while, but this is something were both enjoying immensely. I got a lot of the advice on how to run that game from you. For that I thank you, for helping me reconnect with my dad.
That's ace thanks a lot for that Matthew - just preparing to run my first campaign (LMOP) from London through Fantasy Grounds (with a bunch of friends who have no clue about D&D - even less than me which isn't saying much haha) and this was a great help ! Appreciate it and hope you are staying safe also. Peace ✌️
Thank you for the video, Matt! I'm in the process of possibly getting a group together to play online for the first time, and was shopping around to figure out what would work best for us. I can't say for sure we'll go with FG, but this introduction to it definitely helped a lot!
Matthew, thanks for the quick look at Fantasy Grounds. I bit the bullet back and 2002 and got the Ultimate Edition and not only do I play in online, I have used it at the table as my DM screen. The players run their characters traditionally and we have miniatures on the table, but I keep track of the battle via Fantasy ground. I find it runs the game so much smoother with both Fantasy Ground and D&D Beyond at my fingertips at the table.
Even tho I am biased (maybe 1.5 years experience with tabletop RPGs), this is a great option to run the game. I love how the combat works, the language chat, the little color pallet to change your dice, the creation of NPCs or items...just so satisfying
Thank you SO VERY MUCH for making this video. I've never used Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds to run a game and this was really helpful. Looks like it takes a minute to fully set up, especially since I already had to convince my players to set things up in D&D Beyond. I might have to give it a click around to see if this will work for us while we're being forced to stay apart.
Dude, FG is a BEAST of a tool. Learning to use it, especially its effects (which are like a rudimentary coding language) was very satisfying. And while automation can be a bit of mental work, doing everything manually is VERY doable and doesn't ask you to do more than copy/paste the title of the effect. You can add effects, damages, attack rolls, saving throws so on and so forth if you really feel the need to.
I just got a notification from Steam that the game is on sale (50% off on the license and 35% off on DnD products in-app) until wednesday 24, 2020. I was hesitant because of the price but I am probably buying it now. This video got me plenty excited!
This video was very helpful. Currently I have a long term illness and over here I'm classified as 'vulnerable' so I've been recommended to self isolate for 12 weeks. Your videos are a highlight of my week and I've been looking forward to more Matt for what seems like ages. I'm pleased you're all ok and good to hear how Kingdoms and Warfare is going.
Thanks for mentioning me Matt! I usually run my games at a physical table, but these times it's hard to get the group together! I'm definitely going to try this out and see how it goes!
Matt thank you so much for making this video while I already knew some of it I didn't know all of it. The fairie fire thing did in fact blow my mind. Please now make another video explaining the proper cleaning methods of removing brain matter from a wall.
Fantasy Grounds has been great for my group. 5 strangers, spread between Australia, the UK and the US, and only the DM (me) had used it before. We're 7 sessions deep and having a blast.
Best introduction to Fantasy Grounds ever. Shifted to Starfinder so I don't really want to buy more books, but FG is an excellent system for running games
I already use FG as a basic mapping program for my home game, putting the second instance up on my TV. I have watched a few other instructional videos on how to use it, but none as informative and enjoyable as this. Would you be willing and able to do more videos to go more in depth? It would be a fantastic series I would love to see.
I would love to see a mini adventure with 2 or 3 players to really show the power of Fantasy Grounds. Make sure the players interact in any way possible to show off as many features as possible.
Thank you Matt! I am DM'ing for the first time and did a home brew through 5th level into Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I got Fantasy Grounds due to COVID and have been working on how to make my game fun for my PCs. This video made my job so much easier.
I appreciate that you aren't pushing one system over another, just sharing what you know and why you like it. Too many people online are hostile to other services, as if any of them are somehow objectively "better." Truth is, whatever one you learn first, there's a good chance you'll stick with it as they all have learning curves. (I am old, so I remember the WordPerfect vs MS Word conflict and am a grizzled veteran of the Browser Wars between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, where people also tended to favor whichever one they learned first.)
Loved your vid! Recently started playing on FG, now switching to DM'ing on FG and your few minutes incredibly increased my proficiency at its use! (On a completely odd and seperate note, there's a little boy from 1985 who wishes he had your hair for the rest of high school! ...is that little boy you? ... Yes, yes it is.)
And on a bizarro final note, who the hell are the trolls that gave you the thumbs down? 48 different nutsacks felt it didn't measure up. I'm guessing here, but it must have been the online contingent looking for "Drinking and Driving" (dnd) online access or maybe the "dogs and donuts" people have a following and felt Fantasy Grounds would never work for their niche online fetish. who knows. I liked it. I liked it a lot.
I know you said you weren’t here to sell me on fantasy grounds. But I’m sold on fantasy grounds now, hahah. I’m only up to your character creation and I’m impressed, I love how everything is drag and drop. I’ll definitely be checking this out
Best thing about FG as Matt pointed out is the automation. You can bring someone into the game that has very little experience with the game/rules system and they can just PLAY. FG also has several other licensed game systems including AD&D :) Keep playing!
Please do that video on running a one-on-one or solo adventure next! I have two kids who enjoy D&D, but their interests are so different running separate games for them makes more sense!
Wow! Very informative. Love your enthusiasm. Both Roll20 & Fantasy grounds have great features. I've been hesitant to participate in an online game (I did once, a friend ran mines of Phndelver, but it lasted 1 (or 2?) sessions, the the usual scheduling conflicts happened. Because I'm self-isolating (immune-suppressed) like my life depends on it (it does), I think its time to dip my toe (OK, to the kneecap) in online play. Thanks Matt. Keep up the good work. I can hardly wait to get my second book from you.
I remember seeing some shitpost on the Matt Colville subreddit, of some mad theory that Matt was a Scottish vampire from the 1600s or something like that. The camera is trying to tell us something.
One thing I like is the concentration saves. Whenever you take damage while concentrating, it will automatically roll your save for you and remove the effect if you fail. If you have warcaster, it also knows to roll with advantage.
This video was a huge pain in the ass to make, I apologize for obscuring the combat tracker with my giant head.
I also want to point out the reason these third-party virtual tabletops have to charge you money for the books you already own, is because they had to pay wizards of the coast for the license. And they need to recoup that money.
I bought some books on Roll20, I can see it becoming expensive if like my group split across platforms. But its ok, I'm just happy to play. I just wished I remembered the AUD dollar was so bad against the USD in the current crisis!
And there is some work making the module too. It's not created by magic (wouldn't it be awesome?)
How hard is it to upload custom rulesets? As I am making a Wargame/RPG and have been using Roll 20 for it's freeness and knowing that it can work with any game even if it's not uploaded to it. Which it has worked great! But I've always looked at fantasy grounds as a paid-for/offline alternative and your video shows it is nicer... if you have the ruleset.
Thanks Matt wish you, your family and MCDM/ the great people there well too.
And even if it was free they still have to take the raw data and turn that into something that can be used virtually.
Can you make custom stated weapons and the like?
Fantasy Grounds was sure fun playing with Matt and Craig running. It felt better than other online RPGS.
Is there anywhere we can see your live plays with fg?
phton ohphotn not really, no studio or equipment and not sure most of my players would be interested in becoming actors. The game I did a video with my group was five hours of video I edited down to one hour. It would be a big project. Maybe I’ll find some group doing this that would like me to DM
Lars is gonna be like you DID say that was my character.
Sigurd got SWOLE
Yes, but unfortunately, it's for a one-on-one campaign where everyone but Lars is a Beholder :/
@@MCXL1140 swolegurd
I love how Matt, a video game designer, gets so excited about a computer's ability to compute xD
The twinkle of excitement in his eye when he explained you can hotkey any data around 18:00 is amazing lol But, tbf, while we're chuckling at how excited someone is about seemingly simple functionalities, FG is literally the only VTT I'm aware of that actually has all of the obvious functionalities. Setting this kind of automation up on Roll20 or Foundry makes me wince
I love that the skull is just gone after that intro.
The language chat feature is, imho, one of the best features of Fantasy Grounds. I use it it a lot, drives my player nuts sometimes.
It caused me a lot of problems during the game, when two characters constantly chat in Elvish and it drove otehr players crazy (in bady way). It was rude and annoying. And not very funny.
So, I declared it's not feature for players to use to share game impacting ideas, only jokes.
But I still like it. It saves me a lot of time when I', not sure if certain players can read specific text or understand specific NPC.
Agreed - also the whisper feature. As a DM, I am constantly throwing whispers to my players. It's like secret notes, but faster.
@@colinoneill9470 It's not a bad feature, the only issue for me with it is that because chat and rolls/spells are all placed in the the same text box, its very easy for it to go unnoticed. especially if you send a whisper in the middle of combat.
This is exactly what everyone needs right now.
Me: "Matt's a goober because he didn't know he could drag the red helmet over to put all the hostiles on the map at once"
Matt: *Clicks target button and drag-selects all the baddies*
Me: ".... well... isn't that something."
Fantasy grounds in a nuthselll. I've been using it for 2 years yet every now and then watching someone DM gives me the pikachu meme face.
" *it thinks the skull is a person, no, I am the human!* "
ahh, nothing like living in a cyberpunk nightmareland
On the plus side, we know we can use pictures of skulls to confuse our Robot Overlords.
Then right after, the skull is removed from the shot, proving our ability to adapt and overcome!
Matt, it was your original Fantasy Grounds videos that got me started with it and virtual tabletops in general. I tried Roll20 a couple of times, but never loved it. Within a couple of Fantasy Grounds sessions, I was fully-in. I've since introduced it to a number of friends, who absolutely love it. It has allowed my old college group the opportunity to come back together than play again, even though we are spread across the country.
Me too, last night!
Roll20 is fine as a free option but if you wanna start getting more features, other VTTs just destroy it when it comes to premium feature options.
In an entirely appropriate way, I have missed the sound of your voice.
And me too, but in an inappropriate way! Stupid sexy Colville.
My game went digital for the pandemic, and today we played for 9 hours, about h
1/2 of which was this crazy battle between elementals, the party, yuan ti, and a pair of bullettes. It was fantastic.
Hey Matt, bom dia!
Out of nowhere, but I was telling friends about you, your videos, where you started and where you are now, etc. And it hit me how me and our community we're really behind you on basically everything.
We came for the content, we all loved the package, got a lot of cool things happening and now I really feel a lot of cohesion. I see how some of the choices you made weren't thinking about what's most profitable, but making sure that the content and the community are as dope, neat, and with the best quality possible.
Thank you for keeping up such a good work.
I just showed up to leave a comment of support, got a little out of hand.
I generally find that "how long it takes to make a character" rarely has anything to do with the medium. Just people hemming and hawing about decisions.
hell i can take an hour to design a character in an MMO before i even chose a class, and that isnt even a mechanical choice
I mean, when you have a lot of decisions to make it's going to take awhile, especially choices you can't change. Hemming and hawing is a bad way of describing weighing options
As a guy who is starting a new campaign with all new people, back story and character traits take more time than the mechanical choices.
Laventhros Ormus true
@@lionskull1 i usually got a few generic backstory outlines tucked away, so choices like which class features to take or what spells i want end up taking longer
Pro-tip for people with more than 1 monitor, don't make it full screen and just stretch the edge onto your other screens, as a DM, it makes life a lot easier to have lots of stuff open.
Thank you so much Matt! My friends and I have been trying to figure out how to play during this craziness and just happened to come into a subscription to fantasy grounds. By far one of the most engaging tutorials I've seen so far. I will be forwarding your beautiful hair and voice to my friends plagued by shorter attention spans.
I'm planning to DM my first ever game with a group where only one person has played it before. Your videos have been a great help in making the whole thing less intimidating! Thank you for making such helpful content :D
thanks for making this. I already use Fantasy Grounds but I still learned some new tricks and you're so much better at explaining this than other tutorials I have watched.
I've always enjoyed your content, in particular your animated speaking style (because I've had to listen to enough lectures in my time) but the 'it's focusing on the skull!' intro was nice and I'm glad you kept it!
HI Matt, just wanted to stop in and say thank you. I started Dming for some friends and your videos helped me to get over those new DM difficulties. Our games are going well and we are all having a great time. You helped with that.
This was absolutely tremendous! Thank you for this video Matt! I can’t wait to see the next video, especially with all these changes that are occurring and with social distancing. Also, I am not a man afraid to admit that I love what you have done with your hair! I wish an endless amount of blessings be flown your way for all your help and amazing attitude!
Thank you for making this! I remember waaay back when i was deciding between roll20 and fantasy grounds. Your video on combat (plus some other things i researched) was what made me decide for Fantasy grounds, and i love it, use it at the table to track initiative, player hp and a ton of stuff and use it for online sessions as well. So thanks again, I am sure a lot of people will be using it more from now on.
Outstanding stuff. I currently run three campaigns (one 5e and two Pathfinder) and the process of moving all the prep work, AND learning curve for each player has felt like a Sisyphean task. This vid came at an uncannily timely point. Bravo!
This was so incredibly helpful. Thank you! I bought Fantasy Grounds shortly after hearing about this video and now I LOVE using this program. I agree with you on the moderating just enough of the tedious points and none of the parts I want to control.
It says something about Covrisma that I have looked into Fantasy Grounds, know full well that Fantasy Grounds is NOT a good fit for my group, and yet I'm still tempted to watch this all the way through.
Stumbled on your videos after a friend invited me to play DnD. After watching your a few of your videos I started DMing. You're a great teacher and I hope to be somewhere near as great a DM as yourself. Keep being great !
Was a really good look at a product I didn't know about. Thanks for this. Cheers to and all the MCDM crew.
Matt, please keep this series running. I really want to hear more about Fantasy Grounds and you're the best one to do it!
Matt, thanks for this! We were dithering about VTT for our 2 games and about 30 seconds into this, my husband decided on FG b/c you're having so much fun! Thanks for the new info and keep up the good work!
Don't wanna spend money to get all your book info into FG? Be insane like me and manually input, literally everything! Mwahaha... my hands hurt.
cough the trove cough
@@PopezillaTheThird Cough what do you mean? Cough
@@gabrielsmith6600 *cough* you can get any dnd book you want at thetrove.net *cough*
@@evan11711 But can you automatically load it into FG?
I don't use FG, but I started playing online recently, and oh boy, have I been pressing Ctrl-C, Alt-Tab, and Ctrl-V a lot lately.
Matt, I forgot how fun it is to listen to you explain D&D. I really enjoy your work. Thanks!
This was perfecting timing for me and my group. We were trying to figure out the best way to play online because we are used to playing in person. Thanks for this video!
I enjoyed this video. Very well made and easy to understand. Your fast jolly personality makes it easy to watch.
This is literally exactly what I wanted, exactly when i needed it, it's like you read my mind. Thanks Matt
Been using this program for a good while now. It's super useful and I love the automation and the ability to even add in some of my custom items/races/npcs and having it all automated.
This video has convinced me to start DMing. I had tried DMing a few months back, but it wasn't a good fit for our group. But now, I can play with my good friends who live miles away! I'm super excited and nervous. Thank you for the inspiration and information!
Hey Matt! I just binged your entire "running the game" series this past month during mundane tasks at work. I started with a few videos from other DM channels and when I told my housemates I was interested in running a campaign, my brother told me of your channel. I just wanted to thank you for all the help!! I have now run 2 short sessions of DnD in a (currently) small world I made up for my brother and girlfriend. We are having a blast and everyone is excited to keep playing. I will absolutely be on watch for more "running the game" while I start listening to the campaign diaries. Congratulations on your kickstarters and your company, you deserve it and I appreciate your work. I hope those fantasy books you mentioned are still available when I get around to order strongholds and followers.
Peace. Out.
Thank you for doing this piece! This was my first time watching a video of yours.
My group and I have been discussing how to continue our game, not just because of the pandemic, but because a number of our group (25 years together) have been suddenly scattered across the realm like the tribes of Babel. We were discussing the different platforms we could use and this has been helpful. I also genuinely enjoyed watching you, you seem a very pleasant fellow.
I am now subscribed! Thank you!
Thanks so much, MC. You're probably drowning in, "we need this," but I just dropped in on FGU and am going to buy all of the modules we as a group need. I'm going to ask the players to pay what they can, but given the current state of the world, I'm happy to buy the PHB and DMG, MM, etc., to make things good for us.
Glad to see a new video. Keep it coming!
I have been using fantasy grounds for many years and you only have to pay for the stuff once divide by all the years of use, it's incredibly worth it, when you factor in that if you own the Ultimate license everyone else can play for free.
We really appreciate you taking the time to reshoot the start of the video fifty times until those good rolls came up ;) Anyway, thanks for this video, I'm actually in a Fantasy Grounds game later today, for the first time, and this came in really handy. Keep up the good work Matt!
I understand this is an old video, but thank you so much for illustrating the use of Fantasy Grounds. It definitely convinced me to give it a try. Thank you so much for everything that you do!
Been so long since I've seen a video of yours. I've missed your videos and your voice.
Very helpful video, my friends and I have been trying to find something to play online. Thanks Matt!
I realize there are plenty of other sources for Fantasy Ground related content, but I appreciate your presentation style and energy levels. Much of your other content is either not relevant or interesting to me, but I would happily enjoy more Fantasy Grounds material from you. Thanks for making this.
When running face to face games, I use FG classic as a table top on a TV screen. I built a custom table that has the tv in the center. The players manage their characters how they like (paper, DnDBeyond) and play their minis on the tv screen. I manage the maps and npcs/monsters in FG and use the tokens for most and mini for bosses. I have their characters loaded into the Combat tracker to get the Initiative order managed. It's ran super smooth for 8 months. Looking forward to that when this is all over. For now, we are using this time to take a break from the campaign, and run some Call of Cthulhu sessions over Discord.
The first 20 seconds alone made me laugh out loud alone in my room...the skull being covered in the second cut..this is peak environmental storytelling
Great video! As someone who has never played online you really helped me realize how easy it can be. Keep up the good work.
I'm so glad I backed your Kickstarters, and that that is helping you guys all stay safe. Hope to see you at a conference some day, but only once the world is back to normal. ❤️
Matt you rock! Dm'n my second session tomorrow, you rock!
Thanks for the inspiration. So much of what I bring is your advice filtered through my brain.
Great video and very informative!! Love the energy! This was a lot of help in my descision to get this program. Thank you.
Thanks so much for putting this together. It's great to see a new video from you right now.
Hey Matt I appreciate you a lot man. I only got into D&D about a year or so ago, when I turned 24. I'd never played before, and I'd never really given it much thought. My dad played when he was younger, but I always thought it was weird. Now I'm hooked on it. I'm DMing two campaigns currently, and I managed to get my dad into one of them. One of the campaigns is more modern (uses modern classes and rules) while I tried to make the one my dad is in as classic as I could. Im focusing a little less on the story at first (it's still there though) and more on the combat and dungeon crawling. He only ever played for the combat when he was younger in 1st edition. Him and his friends would just make a dungeon and run it. Anyways, he had a blast and I'm really excited. My dad and I haven't had too much in common for a while, but this is something were both enjoying immensely. I got a lot of the advice on how to run that game from you. For that I thank you, for helping me reconnect with my dad.
That's ace thanks a lot for that Matthew - just preparing to run my first campaign (LMOP) from London through Fantasy Grounds (with a bunch of friends who have no clue about D&D - even less than me which isn't saying much haha) and this was a great help ! Appreciate it and hope you are staying safe also. Peace ✌️
oh and i'm terrified of running the campaign btw haha - but kind of in a good way ... is that normal ? 🤔
Thank you for the video, Matt! I'm in the process of possibly getting a group together to play online for the first time, and was shopping around to figure out what would work best for us. I can't say for sure we'll go with FG, but this introduction to it definitely helped a lot!
Matthew, thanks for the quick look at Fantasy Grounds. I bit the bullet back and 2002 and got the Ultimate Edition and not only do I play in online, I have used it at the table as my DM screen. The players run their characters traditionally and we have miniatures on the table, but I keep track of the battle via Fantasy ground. I find it runs the game so much smoother with both Fantasy Ground and D&D Beyond at my fingertips at the table.
I'm 100% ready to see a more in-depth video for how to prep with and use Fantasy Grounds!
I'm not shocked at all to find out that you linked a bunch of VTT map artists in the description. Very considerate of you, good sir. :D
omg perfect. I am really struggling to play online, Matt Colville u are, as always, my hero
Big thanks for the video! Always wondered about Fantasy Grounds. Looking forward to see the next video. A bit of normalcy in this time of chaos.
Love your stream, love everything you do Matt. Keep up the great work!
Look! it’s a Mini Matt Colville! Quite the rare example of transmutation, The class is very lucky to have such an exhibit!
Even tho I am biased (maybe 1.5 years experience with tabletop RPGs), this is a great option to run the game. I love how the combat works, the language chat, the little color pallet to change your dice, the creation of NPCs or items...just so satisfying
We would LOVE a video from you on how to run a game for a solo players. Your videos are always terrific and informative.
Thank you SO VERY MUCH for making this video. I've never used Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds to run a game and this was really helpful. Looks like it takes a minute to fully set up, especially since I already had to convince my players to set things up in D&D Beyond. I might have to give it a click around to see if this will work for us while we're being forced to stay apart.
Matt back in Fantasy Grounds, nice throwback to the History of D&D One Fighter at a Time days :)
Dude, FG is a BEAST of a tool. Learning to use it, especially its effects (which are like a rudimentary coding language) was very satisfying. And while automation can be a bit of mental work, doing everything manually is VERY doable and doesn't ask you to do more than copy/paste the title of the effect. You can add effects, damages, attack rolls, saving throws so on and so forth if you really feel the need to.
Thanks Matt, this was something I didn't know I needed. Stay strong and stay safe everyone!
I just got a notification from Steam that the game is on sale (50% off on the license and 35% off on DnD products in-app) until wednesday 24, 2020. I was hesitant because of the price but I am probably buying it now. This video got me plenty excited!
This video was very helpful.
Currently I have a long term illness and over here I'm classified as 'vulnerable' so I've been recommended to self isolate for 12 weeks.
Your videos are a highlight of my week and I've been looking forward to more Matt for what seems like ages. I'm pleased you're all ok and good to hear how Kingdoms and Warfare is going.
I read Dune for the first time thanks to your video, actively looking forward to your next one.
excellent walkthrough... Pretty cool GUI. Loved the map option ... pretty cool
Thank you for this great snapshot of Fantasy Grounds.
Thanks for mentioning me Matt! I usually run my games at a physical table, but these times it's hard to get the group together! I'm definitely going to try this out and see how it goes!
You sold me on getting Fantasy Grounds. Well done!
That was a very thoughtful remark at the end of your video. Thanks!
Matt thank you so much for making this video while I already knew some of it I didn't know all of it. The fairie fire thing did in fact blow my mind. Please now make another video explaining the proper cleaning methods of removing brain matter from a wall.
Fantasy Grounds has been great for my group. 5 strangers, spread between Australia, the UK and the US, and only the DM (me) had used it before. We're 7 sessions deep and having a blast.
Okay this is awesome. I wish I knew about this before I bought my books, I would have just bought them digitally. Thanks Matt!
This was great. Thumbs up and Subscribed. This was exactly what I needed to see!
Be Well,
Bryan
Thank you for this! I am trying to learn the program right now and I am loving it but it is a LOT, this helped a ton!
Best introduction to Fantasy Grounds ever. Shifted to Starfinder so I don't really want to buy more books, but FG is an excellent system for running games
Nice rolls.
I already use FG as a basic mapping program for my home game, putting the second instance up on my TV. I have watched a few other instructional videos on how to use it, but none as informative and enjoyable as this. Would you be willing and able to do more videos to go more in depth? It would be a fantastic series I would love to see.
I would love to see a mini adventure with 2 or 3 players to really show the power of Fantasy Grounds. Make sure the players interact in any way possible to show off as many features as possible.
Thank you Matt! I am DM'ing for the first time and did a home brew through 5th level into Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I got Fantasy Grounds due to COVID and have been working on how to make my game fun for my PCs. This video made my job so much easier.
Awesome vid, trying to get some gaming in while I have ample freetime. Strongholds&Followers is great, nice work!
I appreciate that you aren't pushing one system over another, just sharing what you know and why you like it. Too many people online are hostile to other services, as if any of them are somehow objectively "better." Truth is, whatever one you learn first, there's a good chance you'll stick with it as they all have learning curves. (I am old, so I remember the WordPerfect vs MS Word conflict and am a grizzled veteran of the Browser Wars between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, where people also tended to favor whichever one they learned first.)
Loved your vid! Recently started playing on FG, now switching to DM'ing on FG and your few minutes incredibly increased my proficiency at its use! (On a completely odd and seperate note, there's a little boy from 1985 who wishes he had your hair for the rest of high school! ...is that little boy you? ... Yes, yes it is.)
And on a bizarro final note, who the hell are the trolls that gave you the thumbs down? 48 different nutsacks felt it didn't measure up. I'm guessing here, but it must have been the online contingent looking for "Drinking and Driving" (dnd) online access or maybe the "dogs and donuts" people have a following and felt Fantasy Grounds would never work for their niche online fetish. who knows. I liked it. I liked it a lot.
I know you said you weren’t here to sell me on fantasy grounds. But I’m sold on fantasy grounds now, hahah. I’m only up to your character creation and I’m impressed, I love how everything is drag and drop. I’ll definitely be checking this out
Best thing about FG as Matt pointed out is the automation. You can bring someone into the game that has very little experience with the game/rules system and they can just PLAY. FG also has several other licensed game systems including AD&D :)
Keep playing!
"Wait, it's not a livestream!"
Had me rolling laughing! We love you, Matt, don't ever change!
Please do that video on running a one-on-one or solo adventure next! I have two kids who enjoy D&D, but their interests are so different running separate games for them makes more sense!
Matt, your voice is fantastic.
The content is also brilliant.
Wow! Very informative. Love your enthusiasm. Both Roll20 & Fantasy grounds have great features. I've been hesitant to participate in an online game (I did once, a friend ran mines of Phndelver, but it lasted 1 (or 2?) sessions, the the usual scheduling conflicts happened. Because I'm self-isolating (immune-suppressed) like my life depends on it (it does), I think its time to dip my toe (OK, to the kneecap) in online play. Thanks Matt. Keep up the good work. I can hardly wait to get my second book from you.
I remember seeing some shitpost on the Matt Colville subreddit, of some mad theory that Matt was a Scottish vampire from the 1600s or something like that.
The camera is trying to tell us something.
Scottish magician
Matt good video. I've been running a game in FG for the last 18 months and didn't even know about Manage Character function. Take care.
Thank you! I needed this info. Trying to figure out what would work best for my friends and myself.
Thanks for the video, you really explained the program with detail and I feel well informed!
Great demo, thank you for the explanation. I had no idea what this app was prior to today.
One thing I like is the concentration saves. Whenever you take damage while concentrating, it will automatically roll your save for you and remove the effect if you fail. If you have warcaster, it also knows to roll with advantage.