Getting your game started on The Forge

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to The Forge. We aim to provide the best possible VTT hosting experience for your games, from the very beginning.

In this guide, we detail how to get started on The Forge, after subscribing. This includes creating a game, inviting players, and installing modules. Need help subscribing? We have a guide to doing so here.

Import existing content/worlds

If you already have Foundry VTT content you’d like to import to The Forge, we suggest you have a look at our Import Wizard Tutorial which explains the entire process.

Creating a world on The Forge

Once you have subscribed to The Forge or enabled Explorer Mode, you can navigate to your My Foundry page to start creating games. You can always navigate to this page yourself by selecting the My Foundry button on the top bar of The Forge website.

After navigating to your My Foundry page, you will either be shown your Foundry VTT server configuration, or your Foundry VTT worlds screen if Game Manager is enabled. We have guides to creating worlds in both screens below.

Creating a world without Game Manager

With Game Manager disabled, your Foundry VTT server will function very closely to a vanilla Foundry VTT setup, including its normal setup page.

Select the green Launch My Foundry button near the top of the page. From here, you’ll enter the Foundry VTT setup screen.

From here, you can follow Foundry VTT’s official guide to creating new worlds. Please remember you will need to install a system (such as Pathfinder 2e or D&D 5e) before you are able to create a world.

Creating a world with Game Manager

To create a new game with Game Manager enabled, select the Create Game button, pictured below:

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From here, you have the option to create a blank new game, or install an existing world directly from the Bazaar.

Selecting “Blank new Game” will create a game/world from scratch in the game system of your choice, while “Select from the Bazaar” allows you to browse pre-built worlds from the community or marketplace.

Blank New Game

Choosing a “Blank New Game” will let you choose a Game System- this is the system the world will be based on. Choosing a system that isn’t installed in your Foundry instance will automatically install it for you.

Once you have selected your system, give your world an appropriate name. You can also, optionally set the folder name for your world (the latter is not seen in-game, and most users will not need to touch this setting).

From there, select the blue “Create Game” button, and you’re good to go!

Select From The Bazaar

You can also select a pre-existing world on The Bazaar, which will allow you to browse several pre-made game worlds, built for Foundry VTT.

You will be able to select any games that are free on The Bazaar, as well as games that you own. You can also view games that you can purchase from here.

Just select a world that you own, or a world that is free. From here, it will automatically fill out the world’s name and folder name. You can customize this name and folder name, much like a normal world- or simply install it with the default names. From here, simply select the blue “Create Game” button, and the world will be created!

Inviting Players

After setting up your game, you’ll need to invite your friends over so you can play together.
Inviting people to your game is easy! In your My Foundry page, you’ll find the invitation link to your game which you can copy and share with your friends.
They’ll need a Forge account to join your game. Following the link will add your game to their dashboard, letting them access it whenever they want.

With the Forge’s User Manager enabled, once a user has joined via the invitation URL, they will have a user automatically created within the Foundry world. You can control their user role and nicknames directly from the “Configure Players” sidebar of the Game configuration.

If the User Manager is not enabled, then you will need to manually create users within the world for your players to use. You can follow the Foundry VTT instructions on Users in order to do this.

Installing Modules

Modules are what makes Foundry unique and great. A multitude of enthusiastic developers in the Foundry VTT Community are making great mods/modules that enhance and add on to the features within Foundry Virtual Tabletop, allowing you a higher level of customization for your own Foundry VTT experience.

To install modules, just head over to The Bazaar where you can browse and search for available modules, and install the ones you like.

After installing the modules, you have to reload your game by clicking the “Stop Server” in your Game Configuration page, or if the Game Manager is not enabled, simply by returning to Foundry’s setup page and launching the world again.

Once in your world, navigate to the Foundry settings sidebar image and click the “Manage modules” button. Here, you can enable the modules you want in a specific world. Make sure to save your selection, and have fun with your newly installed modules!

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When you make a new world, you’ll have to enable them there as well, but you do not have to select the modules from the Bazaar again.

A post was split to a new topic: Getting your players started on The Forge