Fantasy Grounds Player Guide

Where is the table?

Everything in Fantasy Grounds lives inside a campaign, and the campaign lives on my computer. You don't build or download anything; you connect to mine through the cloud. Three things get you in:

• My host name: zeldaharvestmoon Copy Host Name
• The campaign name: your table's code (for example WDH0004). It's on your Discord channel and your StartPlaying listing.
• The password: I send it to you on Discord before your first session. It is case-sensitive, so copy and paste it.

Step by step

1. Open Fantasy Grounds and click Join a Game at the top of the launcher.
2. In the Join Cloud Game panel on the right, type zeldaharvestmoon in the search box. My table appears in the list with a green dot (I'm online and hosting) and a padlock (it wants the password).
3. Click the row to expand it, paste the password into the Password box, and press the round Play button.
4. The first time, Fantasy Grounds copies the campaign's files to your machine. Depending on the table and your connection this can take a few minutes, and it's slowest when the whole party is connecting for the first time at once. Let it run. Every join after that only copies what changed, so it's quick.

Prefer to skip the search? Scroll down to Join Cloud Game by Name, type zeldaharvestmoon as the host, add the password, and click the arrow. After your first visit the table also shows up under History on the left for one-click rejoining.

Can't see my table? It only appears while I'm hosting, which is usually 10–15 minutes before start time. Clear the search box, click the refresh arrow at the bottom of the list, and if it's still missing, use Join Cloud Game by Name. No port forwarding or firewall fiddling is ever needed on your side; that's the whole point of the cloud.

The first-visit windows

The very first time you join a campaign, a Campaign Setup window pops up in the middle of the screen. Untick show on load (you only need to see this once), click Open Modules Window if you're curious what books I've shared, then click OK. If Fantasy Grounds asks which modules to load, load everything I've shared: All Rules is the safe choice. Behind it waits the Character Selection window, and that's where your hero is.

Where is my hero?

We build or import your character together before Session One, so when you first join, they're already waiting. The Character Selection window opens by itself, and a placeholder with your Fantasy Grounds username sits in the top-left corner of the screen until you pick someone.

1. Click your character's portrait in the Character Selection window. That claims them: the character sheet pops up in the middle of the screen and the portrait moves to the character bar in the top-left corner.
2. Closed the sheet? Click your portrait in that top-left bar and it comes straight back.
3. Need the selection window again later? Click Records in the top-left corner and choose Characters.

Claimed the wrong one? Right-click the portrait in the top-left bar and choose Release, then pick again. Don't release the character you're actually playing: releasing also clears them from your local cache, and while I can hand them back, it costs us a re-download.

Face, token, colour

• Portrait and token: click the portrait in the top-left corner of your sheet to open the Portraits and Tokens window, then the green + to browse the portrait bags. If you have your own art, send it to me on Discord and I'll set it up as your token on my side.
• Your colour: Menus → Options has a Color: Active character entry. That colour marks your pointers and spell areas on the map, so pick one nobody else has.
• Stepping away: type /afk or right-click your portrait and choose Toggle AFK. A little clock shows on your portrait until you type in chat again.

Building a character inside Fantasy Grounds

You don't have to; most players hand me a concept or a D&D Beyond sheet and we do it together at the one-on-one. But if you'd like to build in-app, the 5E Character Wizard is good at it. Click Records → Characters, press the Character Wizard button in the top-left of the selection window, and work through the tabs across the top: Class, Background, Species (the 2014 books call it race), Abilities, Equipment, then Commit. Each tab shows a question mark until it's complete and a tick when it is. Choose options with the green + buttons and the dropdowns, and read the full text of anything by clicking its link icon. My tables use the 2014 rules and books, so stick to those sources in the Source dropdown. On the Commit tab, name your hero and press Save; the finished sheet opens, filled in.

Ability scores on the Abilities tab can use standard array, point buy, or rolled 4d6-drop-lowest. Drag scores between boxes to swap them. The only row you can edit by hand is Misc, which is where any extra bonus goes.

Speaking as your character

Click the chat entry box, type, press Enter. Whatever you say goes out as your active character. Voices happen on Discord; the chat box is for in-character lines you want on the record, quick out-of-character notes, whispers, and reading the dice.

• Shift+Enter adds a line break instead of sending.
• Alt+Enter sends out of character (or start the line with /ooc).
• Ctrl+Shift+Enter sends an emote ("Bob scratches his head"), or use /emote.
• Ctrl+Enter marks a line as an intended action ("I open the lock"), handy when you want me to adjudicate before it happens.
• ↑ and ↓ in the entry box walk back through what you've typed.
• Languages: of the two dropdowns just above the entry line, the left one is who you speak as and the right one is the language. Pick one your character knows and only characters who share it can read you; everyone else sees runes.

Whispers, votes and moods

• /w Name your message whispers to a character. Type part of the name and press Tab to auto-complete it. /w GM your message whispers to me, and /reply answers whoever whispered you last.
• /vote Should we hide from this orc? puts a voting box in chat. Click it to cycle between empty, yes and no.
• /mood nervous tags your lines with a mood until you clear it with /mood on its own; use brackets for more than one word.
• /help lists every command Fantasy Grounds knows.

Right-click any chat message and choose Copy Text To Clipboard to save a line for your notes. Right-click the chat window itself for Unlock Position if you'd like to move it.

Six tabs down the right edge

• Main: ability scores, saves, armour class, initiative, speed, hit points and wounds, hit dice, inspiration, death saves.
• Skills: every skill with its proficiency star and a dice icon.
• Abilities: your feats, features, traits, proficiencies and languages, each with a link to its full text. Reading only.
• Inventory: what you carry, your coins, and your weight limit.
• Notes: personality, ideals, bonds, flaws, appearance, and free notes.
• Actions: weapons, features you activate, and spells. This is where combat happens; it gets its own section below.
• Fish, Stats, Pets, Journal: extra tabs added by my extensions. We'll look at any that matter to your character at the one-on-one; until then they can wait.

Icons worth knowing on the Main tab

• Lock Locks the sheet so nothing gets edited by accident. Unlock it to change notes, prepare spells, or add items; lock it again for play.
• Dice icon Click to roll that thing: checks, saves, initiative, death saves.
• Link icon Opens the full description of that item, feature or spell.
• Star A lit star means you're proficient. On Skills, a half star is half proficiency (Jack of All Trades) and two stars mean expertise.
• Cog More lives behind it. The cog by AC shows how your armour class, initiative and speed are calculated and lets you add bonuses; the cog by your class is where Level Up hides.
• Hit dice During a short rest, double-click the hit dice icon to roll one and heal. The number counts down as you use them.
• Tick boxes Inspiration and death saves are simple boxes: click to fill, click to clear. Death saves fill themselves as you roll them.
• Little cross by a number Hover, hold Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel to nudge a bonus or penalty in or out.
• Record link (top-left) Drag it onto a hotbar slot to reopen your sheet with one key.
• Find my token Jumps the map to wherever your token is standing. Double-clicking your portrait does the same.
• Export Saves your character to an XML file. A nice backup, and a way to bring them to another table one day.

Skills, inventory and notes

• Skills: left to right, each row has a link, its proficiency star, the name, the ability it uses, a Misc box for a bonus, a dice icon, and the total. A small icon beside Stealth warns that your armour would impose disadvantage; Fantasy Grounds applies it automatically.
• Inventory: the badge at the end of each item cycles through C (carried), E (equipped) and grey (not carried). Equipped weapons appear on your Actions tab and equipped armour sets your AC, so if a new sword is missing from your attacks, it isn't equipped yet. Type a container's name into an item's Location box to pack it (a backpack inside a bag of holding is allowed). Items that need attunement get a tick box, and the header shows how many attunement slots you've used. Hold Shift while dragging to move a whole stack.
• Notes: unlock the sheet, click any line, and type. Pressing Enter in the bigger boxes starts a new line. Your backstory fits nicely here.

Looking around

When I share a map, it either opens as a window or, more often at my table, fills the whole desktop behind your other windows. Either way your token is already placed and each grid square is five feet.

• Zoom: scroll the mouse wheel, or press C and X.
• Pan: hold the middle mouse button and drag, hold Space and left-drag, or press W A S D. With no token selected, the arrow keys pan one square at a time.
• If the map is a window, move it by its title bar or by dragging any empty bit of map, and resize it from the bottom-right corner. The toolbar sits along the top edge: its first button, Zoom to Fit, brings a lost map back into view, and its last one toggles a little navigation panel.
• Find yourself: the Find my token icon on your sheet, or a double-click on your portrait, centres the map on you.

Moving your token

• Select your token with a left-click, then drag it or steer it with W A S D or the arrow keys.
• There's no approval step at my table: you simply go. Walls and closed doors still stop you, and a distance label follows the drag so you can count your movement.
• Turn your token with Shift and the mouse wheel while hovering over it.

Light, sight and pointing

• Most of my maps use line of sight and lighting. Bright light shows in full, dim light is darker, and walls black out what you can't see. Places you've already explored stay visible but faded. Creatures pop into view when you round a corner and vanish when you lose sight of them, which is exactly as scary as it sounds.
• Ping a spot so everyone looks: hold Space and double-click it, or use the ping button on the toolbar.
• Quick pointers: hold both mouse buttons and drag to draw an arrow. Add Shift for a box, Ctrl for a circle, or Alt for a cone. Perfect for "which goblin?" and for checking whether a fireball catches your friends. Click both buttons again and release to erase it.
• If I've turned on drawing, the pencil and eraser buttons let you doodle on the map in your colour.

The Combat Tracker

When a fight starts, I drop the enemies onto the map and roll their initiative. Open the Combat Tracker from Menus in the top-left corner (or drag it onto your hotbar once and never look for it again) and keep it open for the whole fight. It lists everyone in initiative order, marks whose turn it is, shows the party's health, and lists each combatant's targets and active effects. Rows are colour-coded: green for the party, red for enemies, blue for neutral folk. Exactly how much you see of the monsters is up to me.

1. Roll initiative by clicking the dice icon beside INIT on your Main tab. The tracker sorts itself.
2. On your turn: move, then target, then act from your Actions tab. Then tell me you're done, or press the green ▼ at the bottom-left of the tracker if I've let players end their own turns.

Attacking, saving, healing

• Weapon attack: target, click Attack. Chat says hit or miss (unless I've hidden that, in which case I'll tell you). On a hit, click Damage. Fantasy Grounds applies it, halves or cancels it for resistance and immunity, and updates the tracker.
• Spell attack: exactly the same, from the spell's buttons.
• Save spells: target everyone in the area, click Save, then Damage. Fantasy Grounds rolls every save, notes who passed, and applies full or half damage to each one correctly.
• Buffs and conditions: target an ally or enemy and click the spell's Effect button. Bless, Bane, Hunter's Mark and friends then apply themselves to the rolls they affect.
• Healing: target the ally (yes, Ctrl+click a friend), click Heal.
• Spent a slot? Tick the pip. Used a feature? Tick its box. These are the two things the automation leaves to you.
• Taking damage needs nothing from you; it appears in your Wounds and on the tracker. At 0 hit points, roll death saves from the Main tab and the boxes fill in by themselves.

Fights without a map

Some skirmishes stay in the theatre of the mind. Nothing changes except where you click: Ctrl+click the enemy's entry in the Combat Tracker instead of a token, then use your Actions tab as usual. Dragging a button onto a tracker entry works too.