D&D 5E Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds?

[Queer Venger]

I used to use Fantasy Grounds (right from it's very first inception), but I don't any more. Three years ago, I switched from a PC desktop to a Mac desktop. To get FG on Mac OSX you have to go through Steam. And I'm wary of Steam (for a bunch of reasons I don't want to go into here). So, I switched to Roll20 (where I've been for 2.5 years). Yes, Fantasy Grounds was "prettier", but I find Roll20 more "practical". I'm a "make it myself" person anyway, so pre-fab mods don't lure me. The only downside to Roll20 is they still have bugs in the Audio+Video side of things (but I use Roll20 through Skype or Google Hangouts and the probs all go away). So, in summary: Roll20 is my pick of the two (for very personal reasons).

as much as I love FG, I too am on a Mac, and until it's released for iOS I have to stick to Roll 20

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Can you customize rules in FG? For instance, let's say you want to play 5e, but you want to make Second Wind grant temp hp and you can't activate it unless you are at half hp or below. Can you buy the 5e class packs, and then adjust them to make them do that? Can you just do it yourself without the class packs to build on? Same goes with adjusting how Pact of the Blade, or Warlock invocations, etc works.

For those who like to houserule, its a big deal to know if the integration will let you, because otherwise it borders on useless.

 

[smiteworks]

You can pretty much houserule however it fits your system. Depending on the houserule, this may mean that you don't use the automation that is there for the feature already, or it might be something you can just toggle and continue to use automation.

 

[damned]

Can you customize rules in FG? For instance, let's say you want to play 5e, but you want to make Second Wind grant temp hp and you can't activate it unless you are at half hp or below. Can you buy the 5e class packs, and then adjust them to make them do that? Can you just do it yourself without the class packs to build on? Same goes with adjusting how Pact of the Blade, or Warlock invocations, etc works.

For those who like to houserule, its a big deal to know if the integration will let you, because otherwise it borders on useless.

the system is absolutely designed to allow you to houserule. thats one big reason why its not a full blown character builder because (probably) most games houserule something. whether you can make teh system automate your houserule is a different matter. you might be able to do it with an Effect or a simple Extension or you might have to do it manually. There are lots of ways to use the rolls manually if needed. You can often do a manual roll and still drag the result to execute some part of the automation.

 

[Mistwell]

Roll20 does everything I want, and comes with better build-dungeon-yourself tools than Fantasy Grounds. Fantasy Grounds is better if you're playing the published adventures, but I find it easier to make your own maps and adventures in Roll20.

 

[Dracones]

Can you customize rules in FG? For instance, let's say you want to play 5e, but you want to make Second Wind grant temp hp and you can't activate it unless you are at half hp or below. Can you buy the 5e class packs, and then adjust them to make them do that? Can you just do it yourself without the class packs to build on? Same goes with adjusting how Pact of the Blade, or Warlock invocations, etc works.

For 5e there's two parts: the rules and the data.

Fantasy Grounds can ship the 5e rules mechanics without any issue for free. And they do that. They also ship the rules for Numenera, Pathfinder and a lot of other systems. What they can't give away for free is the rulebook content. Like classes, spells, monster statblocks and so on.

So the core Fantasy Grounds app has the 5e rules and they're completely open. You can open them, edit them, create extensions and change them. You can even scan your copy of the players handbook, monster manual and DMG and import that data into Fantasy Grounds for free. There's even a parser(Par5E) that'll help you with that.

The paid for class packs and monster manual are just that extra content created for you. I think they're locked down a bit more because WoTC is paranoid about IP issues(which is why we still can't buy the books in PDF form).

So I'm not sure had much you can mod the paid for class pack classes. But you can 100% build your own classes from the ground up and mod them to do whatever you want. You can even bundle your changes into an mod and give it to other people who can use it. The rulesets are designed to be extended on.

 

[Prism]

Roll20 does everything I want, and comes with better build-dungeon-yourself tools than Fantasy Grounds. Fantasy Grounds is better if you're playing the published adventures, but I find it easier to make your own maps and adventures in Roll20.

Interestingly I have found the opposite. I am writing my own campaign in Fantasy Grounds and making good use of the story and pinning elements. I also like the ability to create magic items and treasure parcels and then transfer them over to the party if they find them. Admittedly I have also purchased the monster manual (again) so building encounters is super simple. You can customise the monsters easily too. I didn't feel I could any of that in Roll20

One point in favour of Roll20 that I don't think anyone has mentioned is the ability for players to update their characters online between sessions since the service is always on. To do the same in Fantasy Grounds you have to export all the characters as DM, copy the files to the players and import the following week after they have updated.

 

[transtemporal]

thats one big reason why its not a full blown character builder because (probably) most games houserule something.

Not making a fully featured character builder on the basis that some groups use houserules, when there is absolutely a baselined ruleset, is not a great argument. Especially when the product is so expensive.

 

[Hussar]

For 5e there's two parts: the rules and the data.

Fantasy Grounds can ship the 5e rules mechanics without any issue for free. And they do that. They also ship the rules for Numenera, Pathfinder and a lot of other systems. What they can't give away for free is the rulebook content. Like classes, spells, monster statblocks and so on.

So the core Fantasy Grounds app has the 5e rules and they're completely open. You can open them, edit them, create extensions and change them. You can even scan your copy of the players handbook, monster manual and DMG and import that data into Fantasy Grounds for free. There's even a parser(Par5E) that'll help you with that.

The paid for class packs and monster manual are just that extra content created for you. I think they're locked down a bit more because WoTC is paranoid about IP issues(which is why we still can't buy the books in PDF form).

So I'm not sure had much you can mod the paid for class pack classes. But you can 100% build your own classes from the ground up and mod them to do whatever you want. You can even bundle your changes into an mod and give it to other people who can use it. The rulesets are designed to be extended on.

Could you link to the instructions on how to do this? I've been hunting around and the wiki is so arcane that I can't read it. Is there a step by step guide for building races, building classes and building monsters?

 

[Hussar]

Not making a fully featured character builder on the basis that some groups use houserules, when there is absolutely a baselined ruleset, is not a great argument. Especially when the product is so expensive.

The 5e character sheet is a fully featured character builder. I can't imagine what more you really need. Drag and drop race, class, background, equipment, spells and you're done. Everything is step by step and all you have to do is drag and drop and everything is calculated for you.