GTW, Smiteworks & Fantasy Grounds College

GTW is now one step closer to releasing an official product with Smiteworks LLC, for the Fantasy Grounds VTT through their stores and through Steam - having signed a contract early last month.

My first map pack designed for FG uses a selection of 22 smaller Forest-based Meander versions combined with a random map roll table and pinned map selection panel to help DM's roll a random map or quickly navigate to the one they need using a visual panel. The smaller 1350x900 Meanders are less than 1mb in size and have the advantage of working within the limitations of FG without causing slow-down or lag. 'Venmire Woods' is now awaiting a Steam review from Valve to see if it passes into stores.

None of this would have been possible without Aaron Marx of Fantasy Grounds College.

FANTASY COLLEGE GROUNDS is an exceptional and ambitious project headed by self-starter Aaron Marx that specializes in opening up the mysterious world of Virtual Table Top using the Fantasy Grounds software and making it accessible to everyone from teaching absolute beginners by running free interactive classes that teach everything from character creation to map-making to being a DM - to seasoned professionals with numerous support systems, FG advice and regular gaming sessions on its Twitch and Discord channels. As they say on their site introduction "Our mission is to learn, teach, and play Role-playing Games using Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop software. Our vision is fostering an online community where people can meet like minded individuals, share knowledge, and learn to use Fantasy Grounds as a teaching tool." While not even a paid member or official spokesperson for Fantasy Grounds, his volunteer grassroots network has done a tremendous amount of work to progress it: From just a few members last year to a few thousand now the college has grown from strength to strength and is now a premier place to conduct VTT games using the Fantasy Grounds program. Aaron's personal assistance and tutelage in teaching me how to use the software not only lead to the joint development of the FG module above that uses the meanders maps with maximum advantage to DM's, thereby expanding the limited number of maps available for users greatly [with many more to come] - but was also crucial in helping GTW to sign a deal with Smiteworks to produce official licensed releases.

GTW is a proud patron of this amazing endeavour to freely teach VTT to a new generation of gamers how to connect, master the tools, map, create and have fun and supports the Fantasy Grounds College Patreon.

The College is currently seeking more volunteers to hold classes and teach the software and aspects of online gaming to others - if that sounds like something you'd to do, contact the College at this link.

[Fingers crossed Venmire Woods passes its Steam review.]