We subscribed to story teller in order to share the server, using sometimes two worlds at the same time (have 2 foundry licences / 2 DMs). However there only appears to be one user account (My account) available and we have to use the same user to both administer and run games. Would be great if we could have more than one admin account or user account administration at server level. Or am I missing something?
So, it seems you might be breaking the Terms of service here.
The Forge is using resources for each world online, if you’re 2 GM’s Gm’ing at the same time, it breaks the terms.
What should be done is have the second GM have their own server, it seems that would fix your issue.
In this case, your second GM shouldn’t need Admin access either. I’ll also inform that you break the terms by sharing your account.
Can I share my account with a friend ?
As per our Terms of Service , you can never share your account credentials with anyone. Even The Forge team will never ask you for your password and you should never give it to anyone. This is due to both security concerns as well as legal reasons. Your password is like your credit card PIN number, if you wouldn’t share that with someone, then don’t give them your password either.
You could however share access to games within your account with a sibling or your children for example. In the case of friends, if they are part of the same gaming group as you and they want to DM a game in which you are a player, then that’s perfectly acceptable for you to host the game as part of the Foundry VTT licensing terms and The Forge Terms of Service. This wouldn’t count as account sharing, but rather, you are hosting a game in which you are not the GM.
There are also campaigns of the West Marches style in which different GMs alternate with different players within the same world. That would still count as a single (albeit large) gaming group and is therefore allowed.The use case that is not acceptable is if two people playing in independent gaming groups decide to share the cost of a subscription because their groups play on different days of the week. That is both unethical and hurtful to The Forge service.
The Forge has created efficient software to keep costs as low as possible for the users of the service and part of that is the efficient handling of server resources which would be impeded by people sharing their accounts with other independent DMs or by preventing the regular idling of inactive games.
General FAQ & help
The Forge are not loosing out at all, they would be getting double the amount of funds as a higher subscription level was taken out (which it was). We play both often together in the same group but also other campaigns with a mixture of players who in some worlds play together and other worlds not selected players. But we want to share the same resources and development hence the request. So The Forge are not loosing anything financially or ethically as there would of been no need for the story teller subscription nor the future upgrade to world builder in our case should we run completely separate servers. Plus the ‘cost’ of having a very simple ‘user account’ administration is minimal.
Especially considering when getting to world builder level the amount of work required might well need more than one administrator.
So I put this to The Forge developer again that they should reconsider this as a future option.
The Story Teller subscription is specifically for getting access to the Story Teller exclusive features. You are paying for those features. Paying double the Game Master subscription cost then having two GMs sharing the account means it’s the same amount we receive as if you both subscribed to the Game Master tier, but it also means that you’re both using the Story Teller features and increased upload limits and assets quota without paying for them. In that case, why did we spend so much time and effort developing all these features if it’s simply for people to share the cost ?
The Terms of Service are clear, account sharing is not allowed. If you are two independent groups, then you need two independent subscriptions. The simple fact that you are requesting here the feature for the two GMs to administer the account independently proves that what you actually want is two account with two separate subscriptions.
If you truly think it makes no difference if it’s two Game Master subs or one Story Teller sub, then follow the ToS and subscribe to two Game Master subs. I already have a system in place if you want to share your assets library between two accounts, if that’s something that is important to you. If you want the increase in Assets Quota, then you can add it as an Extra without upgrading your tier. But if you actually want the Story Teller features, then you know it’s not equivalent to two Game Master subscriptions.
The fact that you often play together in the same group is irrelevant, if you are using the feature for one GM to run their own group in which you are not a permanent party member, then they are using your account instead of subscribing themselves, and that’s a way for them to not pay for a service that they are using, so it’s wrong, both ethically and financially.
The Game Manager feature is meant specifically to allow someone to be DM-ing a session for one group while a player from another group accesses their character sheet at the same time, or for you as a GM to open two worlds at the same time side by side during prep time, if for example, you need to check something out or copy/paste some bio or journal description. It is not meant for you to use that feature in the way you are currently requesting.
I hope that clarifies it and if you have any other questions, feel free to ask.