Roll20 Hits 2 Million Users!

Virtual Tabletop Roll20 has hit a big milestone - 2 million users! The VTT launched in April 2012 with 1,500 users. I asked Roll20's brand manager, Suzanne Wallace, what metric that was, exactly, and she confirmed that that means "The metric is 2 million Roll20 accounts, ever!" That's an astonishing number of users, and goes to show the incredible growth in online gaming. In fact, it's a sizeable percentage of the total number of people worldwide playing, for example, D&D.

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Suzanne also added in a blog post that "To grow so large in less than 5 years makes us proud and grateful to our wonderful fans. We look forward to continuing to expand our user base in many years to come! 2016 was a busy year for us. We expanded our team by three amazing people; hosted our first-ever Roll20CON; upgraded the FX tool, the API system, and the Art Library; signed a licensing deal with Wizards of the Coast and released three fully-integrated D&D 5th edition modules; and tons more—it was a blur!"

Roll20 frequently provides its usage reports, and about half the users on the system play D&D 5E.

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[L R Ballard]

I notice many third-party adventure modules available in the Roll20 marketplace. Is it fairly simple to adapt a module for use on the platform? If so, is the ease of making modules available on the platform contributing to its rapid growth?

 

[Banesfinger]

I think in the future, publishers will do themselves a disservice if they don't offer their adventures in the traditional media (hardcover and .pdf) as well as a Virtual Table Top file.

 

[MrHotter]

I notice many third-party adventure modules available in the Roll20 marketplace. Is it fairly simple to adapt a module for use on the platform? If so, is the ease of making modules available on the platform contributing to its rapid growth?

It's fairly easy. I converted the Lost Mines of Phandelver to teach myself how to DM on Roll 20 without too much trouble. I still would rather pay them $20 for their conversion than run my own version. Time and talent are things I don't mind paying for.

 

[L R Ballard]

It's fairly easy. I converted the Lost Mines of Phandelver to teach myself how to DM on Roll 20 without too much trouble. I still would rather pay them $20 for their conversion than run my own version. Time and talent are things I don't mind paying for.

Thanks for the reply. Backers of successful Kickstarters still request from creators that they make materials, especially maps, more user friendly for VTTs like Roll20. I'm thinking of one of Dan Coleman's recent module sets:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dancoleman/dungeons-on-demand-volume-4-5e-dnd-dungeon-adventu

I bet there are guidelines on Roll20 for how publishers can make their adventures more Roll20 friendly. I wonder why publishers like Dan Coleman don't roll out Kickstarts to do Roll20 versions of 5e adventures. He's got a million qualified prospects on the site [Roll20]. Too busy? No technical know-how? Low ROI?

 

[tenkar]

Really, all you need is an unkeyed map for Roll20and then run as if you were on a regular table top, except that instead of mapping you reveal areas with the Fog of War feature and use the built in voice and maybe video (or use a side app for that)

Most rulesets even have built in character sheets at this point.

The learning curve from the GM's POV is much less than Fantasy Grounds.

 

[L R Ballard]

Really, all you need is an unkeyed map for Roll20and then run as if you were on a regular table top, except that instead of mapping you reveal areas with the Fog of War feature and use the built in voice and maybe video (or use a side app for that)

Most rulesets even have built in character sheets at this point.

The learning curve from the GM's POV is much less than Fantasy Grounds.

Does the GM then refer to a PDF or print copy of the text? No VTT version of the actual adventuring text required?

 

[Myrdin Potter]

You can do it that way - just the map - and then do everything else like you were playing at the tabletop. Read from the PDF or book and use some form of voice communications. Or you can bring all the text in yourself. Can do it with all the major VTT. Display map, fog of war and dice rolling.

i am not sure why Fantasy Grounds has so much 3PP materials are prepared and ready compared to Roll20, but 2M user accounts is a good milestone for Roll20.

 

[L R Ballard]

You can do it that way - just the map - and then do everything else like you were playing at the tabletop. Read from the PDF or book and use some form of voice communications. Or you can bring all the text in yourself. Can do it with all the major VTT. Display map, fog of war and dice rolling.

i am not sure why Fantasy Grounds has so much 3PP materials are prepared and ready compared to Roll20, but 2M user accounts is a good milestone for Roll20.

I may be totally wrong, but it seems to me, at first glance, that the quality and completeness of official releases on Fantasy Grounds surpass the quality and completeness of releases on Roll20. In other words, on FG, one has all the text available in pop-up text blocks. But, in Roll20, more material remains accessible only in the print or PDF copy of the module.

PS: Another forum thread compares the two VTTs. I'll read that one, then perhaps ask some questions on that thread about differences between the two VTTs. But I agree: two million is a nice accomplishment for Roll20 in only five years.

 

[Superchunk77]

I've been using roll20 for some time now, both as a player and a GM. I pay for the $5 a month subscription in order to take advantage of the line of sight functionality and the ability to have multiple campaigns in the works.

Roll20 is now our go-to VTT for all of our games. The built in video/voice/text chat is more than sufficient, usually we just use voice chat. I've started using the official character sheets for D&D 5e along with the built in SRD and it's great. Once you learn the ins and outs of the character sheets and NPC/Monster stats its brutally easy to use.

I tried fantasy grounds once a long time ago but found the learning curve way too steep for me.