D&D 5E Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds?

[Mgrancey]

Just kinda sighing at this point as I am not sure if my satirical post missed the mark or people just missed the point.

 

[Prism]

Thought it might be also worth discussing chat options with both tools

Both tools have a built in text chat system which is combined with the dice roller

Roll20 has built in audio/video although we found it crashes a fair bit - quality is decent though

Skype can do multi person video and audio although seems to time out after a few hours (4?), so you need to reconnect. Its free

OoVoo can do multi person video and audio and seems to cope with most network glitches fairly well. Its also free but has an advert on the screen

Any others people use?

 

[Inconnunom]

Just kinda sighing at this point as I am not sure if my satirical post missed the mark or people just missed the point.

I picked up what on where you were going, but yeah didn't translate to well into satire.

Generally, the conversation in this thread is really great. There are at least two really solid platforms to deliver virtual table top. And let's face it, they have a long way to go. They could use really solid improvements but people really enjoy them now too, which is great news. As long as supporters exist for both parties we will have good competition over the players and fans. And as long as people are pumping money into both sides, development will keep progressing.

I'd love to see two threads really delve deep into this instead of delving into a fan war. Like "What improvements or features added would you like to see in Fantasy Grounds" and "What improvements or features added would you like to see in Roll20"

 

[aramis erak]

I've only used two VTT's... one of which was a TN3270 based text VTT (with monospaced text maps) from the early 90's... And the other was Maptools.

Much of what I needed was readily handled with default maptools settings: lighting, visibility, and movement. the rest was handled over skype. Worked well. Automating it further was simple enough. And the mapping, while not flawless, worked well enough. I've run sessions via maptools, and as long as the connection is stable, it's fine.

 

[JohnD]

My earlier post was not helpful. Apologies but the accumulated bull meter sometimes overflows and that led to my post.

Probably, both are good options depending on what each person values. Personally, FG is my choice, and has been for over three years.

 

[Nylanfs]

Thought it might be also worth discussing chat options with both tools

Both tools have a built in text chat system which is combined with the dice roller

Roll20 has built in audio/video although we found it crashes a fair bit - quality is decent though

Skype can do multi person video and audio although seems to time out after a few hours (4?), so you need to reconnect. Its free

OoVoo can do multi person video and audio and seems to cope with most network glitches fairly well. Its also free but has an advert on the screen

Any others people use?

One of the Fantasy Grounds users has a Teamspeak server that is setup and donated to the FG user base to use. You can find info on it in the forums.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Thought it might be also worth discussing chat options with both tools

Both tools have a built in text chat system which is combined with the dice roller

Roll20 has built in audio/video although we found it crashes a fair bit - quality is decent though

Skype can do multi person video and audio although seems to time out after a few hours (4?), so you need to reconnect. Its free

OoVoo can do multi person video and audio and seems to cope with most network glitches fairly well. Its also free but has an advert on the screen

Any others people use?

I use Teamspeak (I just set up a personal server for free and boot it up before game. It's probably similar in difficulty to running Fantasy Grounds). The audio quality is generally excellent, you don't get lag, it reconnects automatically if you get disconnected, you can manually adjust the volume you are hearing from each person, you can choose push to talk, voice threshold detection, always on transmission, etc. Lots of good stuff and free.

I use that with iTabletop for the videos (I have a philosophical opposition to Skype), but most people don't like iTabletop because it can be buggy. Still, its the best thing I've found for what I want. The only automation it has is dice cups, and you can create rooms for ambience, and maps if you need greater control of the screen, grids, FOW, and such. It also allows you to play audio you upload from your own system, is persistent and hosted, and accepts a good number of file formats for uploaded graphics, and maps. You can use it for free, but the number of free users who can join a free game is limited. The best deal is to purchase a lifetime GM license (includes future versions), which is on sale about once a month. Players don't need to purchase a license if you buy the lifetime version. I find it visually more atmospheric and appealing than Roll20, and the ability to set up numerous persistent rooms pushes it ahead also.

I just can't stand the look of Roll20, nor the fact that the user videos are at the bottom of the screen to facilitate an even more extreme version of forehead gazing.

 

[thete]

Which VTT do you prefer and why?

I've used roll20 a couple of times and while it worked great, I've been wondering how it compares to Fantasy Grounds. With the new 5e campaigns getting released onto Fantasy Grounds it seems like it might be a good choice to use to run those campaigns for some friends.

But the price difference between the two was.... shocking... and I wondered which of the two VTT people preferred and why. They might be worth every penny for the preset campaigns on Fantasy Grounds, I just don't know.

Please help me decide what system to use for my gaming and sing the praises of your chosen software!
I'm looking to run D&D5e and Savage Worlds games mostly- so far it looks like either VTT can do both.

Thanks!

Here is my virtual 2cents
The best VTT is whatever one the GM feels like using that day.

You're that GM who needs to make that call?
Well you owe it to yourself to try all online tools out, there's no need to limit or commit to one tool.
Step 1 get into some free pickup games (as a player) in each tool you are considering. This is easy done by checking out the maptools/roll20/FG/G+ etc communities.

2. Take some time to check out each tool from GM perspective. Some offer low barrier to entry, others reward a deep commitment of GM effort...only you as a user can really decide which offers which.

3. Ok next step is a bit bigger. breath...im going to mention cold hard cash. Try each one out with as minimal investment of $ and time as you are comfortable with. They all offer/allow cheap subs/some degree of free use.

4. You can now make the right choice for YOU. Disregard all discussions you have carefully absorbed online and decide on your personal experience. You will be rewarded with a decision that suits you and keeps you inspired.

5. Later down the track revisit those other tools occasionally with an open mind You might find they suit certain situation/styles of play better. You will then find the dilemma of what VTT to use less of a big deal as you switch from tool to tool as a user

 

[Nylanfs]

This is from Valarian on the FG forums who doesn't have a ENWorld account.

Not having an EnWorld account, I'm not diving in to the debate there. However, there's a couple of things that would be nice to point out.

Firstly, once a ruleset is built in Fantasy Grounds, you can create as many campaigns with the same level of features as you like. With Roll20, unless you're a mentor level subscriber with access to the campaign duplication function, you have to start from scratch with all the macros each time. That feature alone in FG saves a lot of time when starting a new campaign.

The voice chat in Roll20, heralded as a built-in feature, isn't really a built-in feature. Roll20 uses embedded Google+ Hangouts as their voice chat feature. A Fantasy Grounds user can also go and use Google+ Hangouts to handle their voice chat, with only a little additional effort over the Roll20 offering. Using Hangouts directly would avoid the interfacing issues (dropouts) mentioned in the thread.

Oh, I was also a backer of Roll20 as it had potential. Unfortunately the developers seemed to fall in to the trap of maps, maps, maps. I like that Fantasy Grounds has the focus on the characters, NPCs and campaign functionality. The maps are incidental to everything else in my mind, and come last in the list of features I find important in a VTT. I have yet to try the character sheets in Roll20 but, again, I have a feeling that they aren't available unless you subscribe. As a backer, I count as a free player who doesn't get the adverts and I have some content available (maps and tokens). I keep trying new VTT offerings (e.g. Roll20, iTableTop, Tabletop Connect), but none of them have yet enticed me away from Fantasy Grounds.

 

[Johnny Champion]

My group is new to VTT and this forum/thread was very instructive. Thanks to the OP.

We play F2F and have no needs for remote gaming so that changes our evaluation. We have purchased a 55" LCD TV with Chromecast mounted horizontally on the table. We also have a good internet WiFi connection.

After evaluating a few VTTs we choose Roll20. Dungeons and battle maps are made in Dungeon Designer 3 and imported. We use miniatures on top of the table. Tokens are from the web and are very extensive. I can't recommend more strongly this setup. I am very impressed.