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How to Use Dynamic Lighting in Fantasy Grounds

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How to Use Dynamic Lighting in Fantasy Grounds

If you use Fantasy Grounds, you are no doubt aware of the amazing new dynamic lighting tools that are now released in Unity… and I mean AMAZING!!

In my quest to learn how to use these better, I have found what I believe are the two best resources currently available to help you learn how to use dynamic light in Fantasy Grounds. I will immediately go on record to say that I did not create these resources.

The first and biggest credit needs to go to Philip Greig (aka Zacchaeus in the FG forums) for the videos. If you are not familiar with Philip’s YouTube channel, you are really missing out on learning to use Fantasy Grounds better. Here is a link.

Philip Greig (Zacchaeus) YouTube Channel

The second credit needs to go to the Fantasy Grounds Customer Portal. If you have not bookmarked this resource, you need to. It is full of great information to help you figure out the changes in Unity as they occur. Here is a link.

Fantasy Grounds Customer Portal

Fantasy Grounds Dynamic Lighting

The Fantasy Grounds Dynamic Lighting is divided up into four areas. These are:

  1. Ambient Lighting deals with lighting that comes from the sun or another large lighting source. This lighting affects the entire map not just a specific area.
  2. Area Lighting deals with the lighting that comes from various sources that can be placed on the map such as candles, lamps, torches, lanterns, braziers, ETC.
  3. Token Lighting deals with the lighting that comes from various sources that can be carried or created by a character such as candles, lamps, torches, lanterns, light spells, ETC.
  4. Token Vision deals with how much a character can see based on the provided lighting and any abilities or spells that would give them more or less vision. This is an incredibly awesome addition to the other dynamic lighting functions to provide a more realistic line of sight (LOS).

How to Use Dynamic Lighting

Below you will find four videos; one for each of the areas mentioned above. I have mapped out the timeline on the videos, so it is easy to find or return to information about any specific topic of interest.

After this timeline, you will find links to access any related information that is available from the Fantasy Grounds Customer Portal.

I do suggest that you watch all the videos in their entirety and read all the information in the customer portal at least once to gain the best overall knowledge.

 

Ambient Lighting

Timestamps

00:00 – 00:30 – Introduction
00:30 – 01:02 – Enable / Disable Lighting
01:02 – 01:32 – Enable / Disable Player Vision Preview
01:32 – 02:30 – Ambient Lights
02:30 – 03:15 – Turn Ambient Lights On / Off
03:15 – 03:40 – Colour Picker
03:40 – 05:22 – Shadows
05:08 – 06:31 Presets
06:31 – 10:38 – Masking
10:38 – 10:52 – Closing

Related Links

Adding Lights

Timestamps

00:00 – 00:30 – Introduction
00:30 – 00:53 – Add Lights
00:53 – 00:30 – Presets
00:30 – 03:50 – Light Range
03:50 – 04:55 – Behaviour
04:55 – 05:55 – Colour Picker
05:55 – 06:23 – On / Off Switch
06:23 – 06:55 – Darkness Switch
06:55 – 07:05 – Delete a Light
07:05 – 07:48 – Edit / Delete multiple lights at once
07:48 – 08:40 – Light Example – Candelabra
08:40 10:52 – Light Example – Brazier
10:52 – 13:04 – Shadow Caster
13:04 – 14:05 – Moving Lights
14:05 – 14:20 – Closing

Related Links

Token Lights

Timestamps

00:00 – 00:35 – Introduction
00:35 – 01:49 – Token Lights
01:49 – 05:40 – Presets / Overview of Token Lights
05:40 – 07:16 – Creating Custom Token Lights
07:16 – 08:44 – Adding Token Lights Using Effects
08:44 – 12:04 – Creating Custom Token Lights Presets for Effects
12:04 – 14:14 – Adding Token Lights Effects to Character Sheet
14:14 – 14:25 – Closing

Related Links

Token Vision

Timestamps

00:00 – 00:38 – Introduction
00:38 – 01:27 – Token Vision
01:27 – 02:30 – Overview of Token Vision on PCs
02:30 – 04:13 – Overview of Token Vision on NPCs
04:13 – 06:26 – Presets
06:26 – 08:15 – Removing Existing Token Vision
08:15 – 11:30 – Limiting Token Vision
11:30 – 12:06 – Closing

Related Links

Once again, I would like to give full credit and huge thanks to Philip Greig (aka Zacchaeus in the FG forums) for the videos. They are a great help in learning how to use dynamic lighting in Fantasy Grounds. I hope that this post makes it as easy as possible for you to get up to speed on using these amazing new dynamic lighting tools to make your sessions even better.

If you know of any Fantasy Grounds Dynamic Lighting resource that will add to this knowledge base, please let us know in the comments section below. Happy gaming!!

Fantasy Grounds Tips and Tricks – Message of the Day Extension

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Fantasy Grounds Tips and Tricks - Message of the Day Extension

I am always on the lookout for tips and tricks that I can use to improve and simplify my Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop (VTT) experience for myself and my players. This includes trying out new modules and extensions. For this Fantasy Grounds – Tips and Tricks post, we are going to look at the “The Message of the Day (MOTD)” extension.

On game day, I like to open the Fantasy Grounds session about an hour before we get started to let my players jump in if they want to make sure everything is working, check over their character sheet, or review information presented in the last session.

I am not always in the session when they join. So, I was looking for a way to pass along some information before I get there. A way to welcome the players and deal with any housekeeping items before we all come together to start playing. That led me to start using the Message of the Day (MOTD) extension.

The Message of the Day Extension

The Message of the Day extension is brought to us thanks to Trenloe and is discussed in this Fantasy Grounds Forum post. This extension allows you to automatically share a story entry with your players as soon as they log into the Fantasy Grounds session. It appears in front of the character selection screen, so it is impossible to miss for the players.

This guide is going to assume that you have installed and activated the extension and are logged into your session. You can download the extension using this link:

Download – The Message of the Day (MOTD) Extension

How to Use the Message of the Day Extension

Here are the steps to follow to use the extension.

Step 1 – Select your “Story” menu.

Step 2 – Select the “Edit List” icon from the “Story” menu. This will reveal the “Add Item” icon.

Step 3 – Select the “Add Item” icon from the “Story” menu. This will open a “<<New Story>>” page.

Fantasy Grounds - Message of the Day Extension - Steps 1, 2 and 3

Step 4 – Make the title of the new story page “MOTD”. NOTE: This must be the title and the title must be in capital letters for the extension to work.

Step 5 – Enter your message into the body text area. You can use any of the formatting normally available on a Story page such as titles, text, links, ETC.

Fantasy Grounds - Message of the Day Extension - Step 4 and 5

Step 6 – Right-click on the story page and select “Share Record”. NOTE: The players do not need to be in the session for the story page to be shared.

Fantasy Grounds - Message of the Day Extension - Step 6

Step 7 – Confirm on the “Story” menu that the “MOTD” story page is “Public” and thus shared with the players. NOTE: The “MOTD” story page must be “Public” for the extension to work.

Fantasy Grounds - Message of the Day - Step 7

Once the extension is loaded and set up properly, it will display the story page to your players as soon as they log-in. This message will appear over top of the “Campaign Setup” (if still enabled) and the “Character Selection” windows, so the players can not miss it.  NOTE:  The window is locked so the players can not change the content.

Fantasy Grounds - Message of the Day - Player's View

I hope that you will find this Fantasy Grounds Tips and Tricks post useful for your virtual tabletop sessions.  Happy gaming!!

Do you have a Fantasy Grounds tip or trick that you would like to share?  Let me know in the comments.  Thanks for reading.

Learn How to Use Fantasy Grounds

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Learn How to Use Fantasy Grounds

I often see folks frustrated when they are trying to learn how to use Fantasy Grounds.  I get it.  I really do.  Fantasy Grounds does have a steep learning curve, BUT… I am fairly sure that most of these folks did not use all of the available resources to help them over this curve.  With that in mind, here are some great resources to help you learn how to use Fantasy Grounds.

Fantasy Grounds Tutorials

I think that the easiest way to learn Fantasy Ground is to watch some of the fantastic tutorial videos that are available and there are LOTS of them.  Here are my top recommendations.

Fantasy Grounds User Manual, Wiki, and Forum

After you have watched the great videos above, you aren’t likely to remember it all, and they may not have answered all of your questions.  Your next set of resources are a user manual, the official wiki, and the official forum.  I personally still use the wiki and the forum on a regular basis.

A quick word on the forum before moving on.  There are some amazing folks that moderate this forum, and they are SO, SO, SO helpful.  If you get stuck, don’t get frustrated.  Jump into the Fantasy Grounds forum, and you will get the help you need.

Other Great Fantasy Grounds Learning Resources

If you are still looking for more after all of that, here are a few more great places to look.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.  There is lots more information out there to help you to learn how to use Fantasy Grounds.  If you take the time to watch the videos and use the resources, I am sure that you will be a Fantasy Grounds expert in no time.  It does take time, but it will be time well spent in the long run.  Happy gaming!!

Note:  Lots of these resources are for Fantasy Grounds Classic (FGC) not Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU).  The vast majority of FGC and FGU works the same, so they are all still valuable resources to learn from.

Do you have a great resource to help folks learn how to use Fantasy Grounds? Let me know in the comments.  Thanks for reading.

Bring Real-Time Gambling to Fantasy Grounds

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Bring Real-Time Gambling to Fantasy Grounds

A few sessions ago in my current campaign, there was a discussion about how we could bring real-time gambling to Fantasy Grounds.  After some quick research in the Dungeons and Dragons 5e core books, I concluded that the reference materials did not offer much to work with.

The Player’s Handbook makes only a single mention as part of the “Deception” ability check.  The Dungeon Master Guide only discusses it as part of the “Carousing” downtime activity.  Not much to work with there.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything was the best source for some useable game mechanics.  Unfortunately, it is only referenced as part of downtime activities to determine the outcome only.  That is kind of boring.

I figured there had to be a way that we could bring gambling game mechanics into our Fantasy Grounds sessions, and it turns out that there is.

The Gambling / Tarot Pack: Den of Iniquity

Gambling Card Games
Gambling Card Games
Dyn Board
Dyn Board
Tarot Cards
Tarot Cards

After conducting a little Google research, I came across a great little Fantasy Grounds module called the Gambling / Tarot Pack: Den of Iniquity.  The purpose of this module is three-fold:

First, it can be used to conduct some real-time playing card gambling through the use of a full 52 card deck.  It has some nice fantasy pips in the form of a Snake, Lion, Unicorn, and Gryphon.  In addition, the module provides instruction on nine different card games, but realistically, you can play any card game you wish.

If you don’t want to play out every hand, there is the ability to simulate the outcome of a hand or an entire gambling night.  Having both of these options available is very nice.

Knife Throwing Anyone?

Second, it can be used to play a dart or throwing knife game called Dyn using the provided Dyn Cartwheel Dartboard.  This game has some wacky rules and could lead to some very interesting nights in the tavern.

I won’t get into full details.  I will say that there is a part of this game where you switch to throwing your darts or knives at targets in the room.  This is required to save yourself.  There is also a situation where you must pick a fight with a patron in the bar to continue.  This game sounds like it would be a great addition to a seedy tavern.

How About A Little Tarot Card Reading?

Third, it can be used to conduct a tarot card reading session using the 32 card tarot deck.  This was a bonus for me as I was originally only looking to add some real-time gambling.  I am sure that this feature will make a nice addition at some point in my campaign.

So, there you have it.  A nice little module to add to your Fantasy Grounds session to help better roleplay those nights out gambling in the local tavern.  Plus, the ability to add a tarot card reading by a mysterious gypsy lady before they enter.  It sounds like the makings of a fine evening of adventure.

How do you handle gambling on your virtual tabletop? Let me know in the comments.  Thanks for reading.

How to Play Music and Sound Effects on Discord

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How to Play Music and Sound Effects on Discord

In last week’s article, I discussed how you can add music and sound effects to your RPG virtual tabletop sessions.  This week, I am going to discuss how to play music and sound effects on Discord along with your regular voice chat.

As you can probably guess, I use Discord as my voice chat of choice for my RPG virtual tabletop sessions.  I am happy with the results, and more importantly, my group is happy with the results as well.

Now I am a bit of an old school guy when it comes to audio, so I haven’t yet gotten into the use of Discord Bots for music and sound effects.  I have read lots of great reviews on their use, so I do plan to try them at some point.  This will be more for curiosity than necessity, but I am a “give-it-try” kind of person when it comes to new technology.

So, without further ado, here the current setup that I run on my PC.

My Music and Sound Effects Setup

The signal chain for my current Discord setup is as follows:

Source → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Output Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Discord.

Output Channel on Discord → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Output Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Headphones

Here is some additional detail on the various components:

My Sources

• Channel 1 > Microphone. I am currently using an old Samson CO1U USB microphone that I have been using for over ten years.  It is a great microphone, but I use it now more out of nostalgia than anything else.  There are lots of great USB microphones available these days.  I would suggest looking at Blue’s lineup including the Blue Yeti, and Blue Snowball.  I own a Blue Yeti, and it sounds great.  My brother just purchased a Blue Snowball, and it sounds great.

• Channel 2 > Syrinscape. I will begin by saying that I LOVE this application.  The quality and variety of music and sound effects make it worth every copper piece.  This channel of Syrinscape is triggered from inside of Fantasy Grounds using the Dulux-OZ DOE: Sound Extension.  This extension is no longer available which is a shame.  There are two new updated options available from the DMs Guild which I plan to switch to in the coming months as they make things much easier than the DOE: Sound Extension.  The first is the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Links extension, and the second is the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Chat Triggers.

• Channel 3 > Chrome browser where I have Tabletop Audio, Ambient Mixer, YouTube, and Spotify loaded on various tabs depending on my music and sound effect requirements for the session.

• Channel 4 > I use this channel for a line-in from my iPad.  I run the iPad primarily to access my iTunes music library as iTunes is a big resource drain on my PC.  I also use this channel for Jingle Pallete when I need it.

• Channel 5 > Input from Discord. This is the voice chat coming from my players during our session.  It is very nice having this on a separate channel as it allows me to easily turn the player’s voice chat up or down.

• Virtual Channel 1 > Audio for my auxiliary PCs. In addition to my main PC, I run two additional PCs.  One for recording/streaming, and the other for my session notes and reference material.  Yes, this is a luxury, but I had the PCs available.

• Virtual Channel 2 > Audio for my Local PC. It is great having the audio from my local PC on a separate channel as it allows me to mute it during our sessions so that no unexpected computer-related sounds play.

My Virtual Audio Cables

To get the various sources that I use routed to the correct inputs on the audio mixer requires the use of virtual audio cables.  I have been using the Voicemeeter VB-Cables for some time, but I have recently added in the Muzychenko Virtual Audio Cables.  The Muxychenko Virtual Audio Cables are pretty much the grandfather of all virtual audio cables, so the technology is very solid.  These virtual audio cables allow you to use up to 256 cables which makes it very easy to configure different applications to use a different virtual audio cable.

My Audio Mixer Application

The most important part of my music and sound effects setup is the use of an audio mixer application.  My current product of choice is the Voicemeeter Potato Ultimate Mixer.  It is an incredible little audio mixer and one that I have enjoyed using.  The “Potato” has 8 inputs and 8 outputs which gives you an incredible amount of flexibility in your setup.

My Voice Chat – Discord

The final part of this setup is Discord itself.  I use Discord because it is an easy product to understand, has a great support community, and gives me easy access to other Dungeons and Dragons and RPG Virtual Tabletop communities on their servers.  I hear lots of great things about other voice chat options such as Team Speak, Mumble, and Overtone, but I am going to stick with Discord.  It is a bonus that they have now nicely integrated video chat as well.

Using Music and Sound Effect in Your RPG Virtual Tabletop Sessions

My main RPG virtual tabletop is Fantasy Grounds, and I REALLY love it.  Unfortunately, Fantasy Grounds does not have a building audio player like Roll20 or Astral.  Luckily, there are some great options to work around this, and I believe that the end product is even better.  I have had great success in using my above-mentioned setup so far.  I am a huge fan of how using music and sound effects can help to pull your players into the moment and the story.  But it must be done right.  The technology must add to the experience instead of getting in the way.  I have never felt that this current setup has ever done that.

How do you deliver music and sound effects to your RPG virtual tabletop sessions? Let me know in the comments.  Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I now have a video available that explains step-by-step how to get the above setup working on your PC.  I have changed my configuration a little since this article.  I will update the article as soon as I can.  In the meantime, check out “How to Add Your Voice, Sound FX and Music to Discord and Zoom“.