An excellent desktop environment for use over the internet.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The interface is easy to use and play on.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Setting up for adventures, especially those that are published, is a pain. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I?ve owned Fantasy Grounds for a couple of months now, so it seems appropriate that my first review as a staff reviewer should be for Fantasy Grounds. It is a product that I?ve grown to utilize more and more over time. I?m actually in a couple of ongoing Fantasy Grounds campaigns at the moment. Before I say anything else, let me point out that I?m discussing the full version. There is a lite version available which is fully functional for a player, but does not allow for hosting a campaign. (The lite version allows you to be a PC, but you cannot DM.)

I?m going to begin by letting all of you in on a little secret, Fantasy Grounds is for real. When they say that it provides everything you need to play your favorite RPG with a group of players via the web, they are not kidding. Using FG is a very well thought out replacement for face to face roleplaying. The dungeon master can easily interact with the entire party to describe the appearance of the distant town or whisper to individual members of the party what they see due to their spot check result! (Or listen, search, etc.)

A favorite Fantasy Grounds feature has to be the dice which each person can physically roll using the mouse. You should be warned that just as some people sit at the table and roll their die during downtime, these dice will be rolled because of the satisfaction of watching them roll. (Advantage, if the dice are not rolled into the ?chat box? the results are not announced to the group...so, nervous or bored dice rollers, rejoice!) Keyboard dice rolling commands are also available.

Dungeon masters will have the luxury of using a wide variety of images to enhance their sessions. AutoRealm, Dundjinni, and Campaign Cartographer 2 are some of the products that have been used with Fantasy Grounds that I?ve seen. The artistic types (You know who you are!) can have fun just making all the maps for a campaign. For the less artistic, there are plenty of maps being made by said artistic types and made available for use by the public.

There are a couple of things that are different between Fantasy Grounds and a face to face campaign. For example, having all conversation done through text rather than speech. This is an advantage to those of you that hate hearing Big John roleplaying as Alyiah, but a detriment to those of you that cannot type. While I have never done so, it is possible to use other programs to provide actual voice to a gaming session. You?ll be able to see more information about that at the Fantasy Grounds forums.

The beauty of Fantasy Grounds is that despite moving the game ?online?, Fantasy Grounds has been designed to stay out of the way as much as possible. It translates the face to face game quite well. To help keep this review short, I?m going to highly recommend that, before you make a decision, you refer to their full list of features available here: http://www.fantasygrounds.com/features.html

Then, download the demo (which does not contain all the features of the current updated version) and give it a shot with other demo users. (Bring a friend from your face to face game, or find someone using the Fantasy Grounds forum.) You can only connect one demo version to another demo version. Don?t download it and expect to connect to ongoing campaigns with people that have already purchased one of the licenses. (Though some Fantasy Grounds users still have the demo downloaded.)

If you are familiar with XML, you can create your own custom content. Folks have already done so and shared it with the community of Fantasy Grounds users. If this is interesting to you, you should visit the Fantasy Grounds forums. In addition, there are also some companies beginning to take an interest in creating content for Fantasy Grounds. (Such as custom rulesets and adventures.)

Now, the developers have done a good job of continuing to improve and support their product. As should be expected, the longer that Fantasy Grounds has been released the more features that are added and the more problems that have been identified and corrected. But, there are a couple of technical issues which remain to be addressed. For example, if you use dial up (Yes, there are still some folks using dial up!), you may have some difficulty. Sharing maps and other images can overload the connection and create lag and possibly cause the program to close. Another example is that occasionally there have been some difficulties with individual players seeing the chat text. This is solved by exiting the session and reentering at the moment, but the developers have acknowledged the problem and are working to correct it with the next patch.

Overall, I think that given the product ?as is? today, it is worth the price and with each passing update, it becomes a better deal.

One final note of concern: if you are not comfortable with networking and you are acting as the dungeon master, you will likely have to (learn a little networking and) take some steps to allow Fantasy Grounds to communicate with the player?s computers. Though, I must say that the community at the Fantasy Grounds has been very helpful to folks in this situation. (Follow this link for an example: http://forums.fantasygrounds.com/viewtopic.php?t=1127&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= )

To your rousing gaming and ample rewards, I. Perez<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: 1. Faithful translation of face to face game.

1. Dice you can ?toss? and watch ?roll?.
2. Flexibility with respect to using images.
3. Community of users creating content.
4. Commercial content beginning to hit the market.
5. Flexibility with respect to using alternative ?voice? solution rather than the integrated chat.
6. User created content, such as rule sets, npcs, monsters, tokens, portraits, etc.
7. Continued support from developers and responsiveness to technical questions in forums.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: 1. If you are using dial up, it works, though not as well as if you are using broadband. One of my campaigns has a player using dial up and I participated in a short adventure (a couple of sessions) where the dungeon master was using dial up.
8. Some lingering connectivity problems that result in occasional disconnections as of the date of this review.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This application has everything you would want in a virtual tabletop. Your able to host a server or join one. The application is simple and easy to use, featuring sharable images that can hold tokens, story entries, item entries, NPC details, and all reference material of the revised SRD excluding travelling goods. Additionally, you are able to roll 3-dimensional dice like you would in real life.

Unfortunately, as stated by several others, the price is a bit too much, and there are no bundle products.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: As stated above, I got all that I wanted out of it. If your looking for the best of the best application, this would be it. I personally don't think it's worth the ridiculous price, but if you want the best, go for it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Also as stated above, the price is absolutely ridiculous. I got suckered into buying it unfortunately, but I tell you with all honesty, you are not getting the best bang for your buck with this deal. Additionally, because of it's ridiculous price, there is a lack of players. There are roughly (from my experience) two players to every one DM (2 Players : 1 DM). That's not nearly enough players to run a quality adventure. I would suggest waiting for this product to release a better deal or finding another product that comes close. If you have money to waste though, go for it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Ripped Off<br>

It took a while for our group to give this product a real try but once we did we have really found it enhances our play. The only thing missing is VoIP.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

So far this is a great product. Currently in the testing phase with players and going well with players. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Graphical User Interface is awesome and replicates the TABLETOP very well. Some other products out there have a few more features but the GUIs are clunky and they try to automate too much.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I REALLY wish there was a server based license like some of the other products. If I could buy a DM license and 4 server slots I could not be worried about losing a player and having to convince yet another person to shell out the $20. Another competitor does it like this and I almost went to them for that sole reason.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Great game, I'm looking foward to many night with this.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This product is one of the best I have seen, it REALLY will replace a tabletop fo games. I have been running games over IRC for years now, and this replaces it, and bumps it up to another level. Totally customizable, even allows you to add houserules.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Works perfectly. Customer support is quick and the developers are quick to add features that are requested by the users.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Have not ran into anything yet.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is great, easy to learn how to use it and it looks like the easy way to DM is to buy add on adventures. There are 2 free packages here and there and they look great. Am wondering if this format can be used in a regular game rather than minis and tables?<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: easy to learn how to use<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Difficulty to set up campains and expand rule packages (legally)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I purchased this a while ago, but it was quite a few weeks before I could find players on the Fantasy Grounds website. I just finished my first game today. This programs is AWESOME! Just viewing it without playing a game will not show you all that there is here. It is just freaking incredible! I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to play online D&D.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The program is just great. Stop by the FG website for more info. You'll be glad you did.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As with any online game, it's hard to line up players and a DM, but that has nothing to do with the product itself.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Very nice implementation of a virtual gaming desktop. The dice rolling simulation is preferable to real dice.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Clean, Intuative, Very nice feel, Dice rolling rocks!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing as yet.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I purchased the full license on 2/14/05, in hopes of hosting on-line games with my game group. The download and installation went smoothly. But the software has crashed every time I've tried to host a game. I sent detailed information about my system configuration and the steps that I was taking in the software to the publisher, but the reply was only "we can't duplicate your problem". Similar replies abound on their message board. I've waited a couple months to post this feedback, in hopes that a patch would fix the problem. But the promised patch is now several weeks overdue, so I've concluded that the publisher is not providing support that's adequate to justify the cost of the software (note that I base this cost-justification comment on the requirement for the GM and all players to purchase at least the lite version of the software -- so for a game group with a GM and 4 players, the outlay is about US $115).<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: It looks great.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It doesn't work and is not adequately supported. Documentation is also pretty limited and incomplete.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Ripped Off<br>

This tool is awesome.... I have tinkered around with programs like OpenRPG, KloogeWerks and the likes, but I always missed something... Of course playing D&D over the internet always misses that little extra you will only find while sitting around a table with friends, but Fantasy Grounds is the next best thing.

At first when I played around with the demo I thought it was more eyecandy than functionality, but was I wrong. It is all there.... Slowly revealing maps to players, tokens for each character, the dicerolls (hidden and multiple dicethrows), it all looks gorgeous and works like a dream.

I never dared hosting a game as a DM, but with FG I am now preparing a few oneshot adventures to give it a go, because FG has made me confident enough I have everything under control.

If you like playing D&D online, this is the tool to support. Third party publishers are already converting their adventures to FG compatible modules, ready to play instantly... <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The eyecandy, the ease of use, the atmosphere it breathes, the support.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I haven't encountered anything I dislike.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Forget everything you know about online roleplaying utilities, because the world just got turned upside down by Fantasy Grounds. Once you try it, there is little chance you will use anything else.

Fantasy Grounds builds on the assumption that a traditional pen and paper session is so much more than just interacting with strange creatures in stranger lands. The program is built to mimic a table, with maps being shuffled around, dice rolling across your sheets, and paper occasionally covering each other. This move could easily have killed the program at birth, in writing it does indeed sound gimmicky, but have a look at the screenshots on the Fantasy Grounds website and you realize that it all blends together nicely. The dice aren?t just numbers; instead you see them roll across the table just as you would real dice. When other participants roll theirs, they roll on your screen too and although you only need the result, it instantly transforms the program into an imaginary table and the game into a face to face session.

This approach carries over to every other aspect of the program. The character sheets aren?t numbers in some abstract, hierarchical, explorer-like tree. No, sheets mimic real-life, except often used bonuses are automatically calculated for you and updated whenever you make changes.

On the full version, reviewed here, many other tools are available to help the game master prepare and run adventures. Want to draw a map, quickly? Click the maps icon, activate the drawing mode, and scribble away ? everything is updated on the players copy as you sketch. With full support for pressure sensitive tablets, you can even obtain the perfect, hand-drawn look with only a small additional investment. When it comes time to use your masterpiece, outline one 5 foot square to indicate scale and the program fills in the rest. Now add tokens, small representations of people and objects, and move them around using handy measurement tools. If the inevitable sorcerer fires a cone-shaped spell, don?t waste time arguing over the affected squares when Fantasy Grounds allows you to simply outline the cone on the map for exact measurement. Like everything else, players and game masters share the same view, updated automatically in the background.

For the less combat-centric, the chat interface allows the game master to assume different identities and speak as the NPC would. Goodbye ?Game master: The pirate screams ?Man your posts?, hello ?Pirate: MAN YOUR POOOOOSTS!?.

But the chat box is more than just a place to hold conversations between characters. All die rolls are listed in the box, and the result can be dragged onto your character sheets for automatic updates. In fact, this dragging around of bonuses, damage, XP awards, NPCs and more extends throughout the interface. Most numbers can be dragged, so if you drag your +4 attack bonus on your Dwarfen Axe onto the modifier box, a small area just underneath the chat box, the next d20 you roll will be listed as Dwarfen Axe 16+4 = 20.

Both the Lite and Full edition comes with a sweet subset of the System Reference Document, and with ability to quickly search (results, as everything else, are updated in real-time), it is no problem to quickly find a couple of goblins, drag them onto the battle-list, have the players roll initiative, and sort all participants by their result.

All of this, and more, boils down to one sweet package. Garnish with a VoIP program running in the background - Skype and TeamSpeak comes to mind ? and nothing is going to stop you from playing with your friends, even if they are in Brazil or Siberia. If you?re limited to text, then take comfort in the fact that Fantasy Grounds does that better than anybody else too.

Feature by feature, Fantasy Grounds doesn?t seem to do that much more than other tools in this category, but everything is done with a panache and effortlessness that must leave the competition reeling. Whatever happens in the future, Fantasy Grounds is hands down the ultimate tool for playing pen and paper roleplaying games online now. Do note the lack of a d20 moniker here, for everything is exposed in easy to edit configuration files, and although factory built for d20, there is nothing preventing the crafty (the roleplaying community is nothing if not crafty) from customizing Fantasy Grounds to other, d20 shy, systems.

If you tried, but given up, on pen and paper RPG online, then know now that it is possible and works smoothly. If you?re using other tools, then ask yourself why.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Extremely user friendly, real dice, simple with advanced features hidden underneath, easy to learn, speedy, gorgeous looking, area of effects indication, everything can be dragged, lots of ways to set up shortcuts<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Occasionally crashes (on a 3 hour session, this happens once, usually), but an automatic autosave system preserves all data and patches have improved stability markedly.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This product is awesome. I never liked the idea of playing P&P RPGs online, but after Fantasy Grounds was released I changed my mind. I now play twice a week with friends.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: -Interactive "real" dice -Lovely graphics -Easy handling -Very good customer support -Fast growing community<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: -Switching to other tasks that run in background makes it slightly lagging<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

An excellent program, and exactly the type I've been looking for. Makes it a great deal easier to game, rather than waiting until the rare times that the group can actually coordinate thier schedules to meet in person, while still keeping very close to the true feel of playing at a table.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Easy interface, excellent design, easy access to rules, wonderful options for the GM, all around great product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>