Virtual roleplaying part 2 - installing FoundryVTT

As it currently stands, Foundry is in beta, and to get to play with it you are going to need to back the Patreon.

This is going to cost you either $5 or $10, and you can sign up by going here. If you don't already have a Patreon account, you'll need to create one or sign in via Facebook or Google. Once you've done this, expect a message in the next few hours with a link to the current download version.

Which Patreon level you pick depends on how 'bleeding edge' a version you want to run - $5 will get you access to the odd-numbered ('stable') versions, whereas $10 gets you access to the even-numbered ones as well (more bleeding-edge, more likely to have bugs, but you get new stuff sooner and have access to a private developer discussion channel on Discord).

Ok - warning from here on in. I'm a Mac user. I don't actually have a Windows machine, so if you're installing on Windows, the first couple of steps, and some file paths, will be different. You can find the official instructions here, which should cover Windows and Linux: for now, I'm self-hosting on Mac, although I may move to my home Linux box later (in which case, I'll post again to explain how :D).

Download the link: on the Mac it's a trusty .dmg (disk image) file - double click to mount it, drag the app to Applications and there you are. (For Windows, it's a setup.exe, so double-click it and see what happens :D)

Now double click on FoundryVTT, in Applications, and you'll find yourself at the startup screen. From here on out, it doesn't matter what OS you're on.

Accept the license conditions, and you're good to go.You're going to want to create a world, but first you're going to need to install a game system, so navigate to the Game Systems tab and hit Install System.

Game systems are built as zip files with a 'manifest file' which defines everything Foundry needs to install it. You'll be confronted with this screen: go find the manifest URL for the D&D5E system (which I'm assuming is the one you want), which will probably be https://gitlab.com/foundrynet/dnd5e/raw/master/system.json, copy it, paste it into the dialog box, and hit Install.

A little network activity later (watch the progress bar along the bottom), you'll have the screen on the left!

Now back to the Game Worlds tab, and hit Create World. Give it a title, pick a game system (the one you just installed!), don't forget to fill out the Data Path (or Foundry complains), add a description and click Create World again. And now you can hit Launch World and you're in.

What happens next we'll leave for the next post.... But while you're waiting, I strongly suggest you join the FoundryVTT Discord server, where all the helpful people are (you can find me as FleetfootMike), and link your Patreon and Discord accounts.