On Fantasy Grounds D&D Increases Dominance To 71%

If you thought Roll20's 52% was impressive, on Fantasy Grounds D&D is now 71% of games. Pathfinder (both editions) comes to 13% in second place. These figures are for Q4, 2020.

So here's what D&D (the bright green line) has done since the beginning of 2019. There's am obvious pandemic boost for VTTs, starting in February 2020.

D&D is so big that it makes it impossible to actually see everybody else on the graph. So here it is without D&D so you can see how everybody else is doing. The top purple line is Pathfinder 1E, and the blue one below it is Pathfinder 2E. Then comes Savage Worlds in orange, followed by Starfinder and Call of Cthulhu.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

We have a license with Wizards of the Coast to produce a subset of D&D Classics - 2nd Edition AD&D content. This also includes some 1E content that has been made compatible. As a result, it sees more use than a community ruleset that doesn't have official adventures and content.

Many of the real Classic modules for AD&D are there. Smiteworks (Doug) was the first to get the license for 5e for a VTT and the only one that has an AD&D one as well.

Other than AL modules, the only direct buy source of modules for VTT from DMs Guild is Fantasy Grounds.

They also publish no bulls**t numbers showing their best estimate as to the number of games run.

 

[Hurin70]

Pretty pleased to see Rolemaster doing as well as it is. I often think of running a one shot using RM2, but the idea of making up all the pre gens for my players always puts me off.

If you go to the ICE Forums>Vault, you might be able to find some character sheets; can't say for certain. You might also have more luck if you posted a request on the ICE Forums for help with pregenerated characters (post in the Rolemaster> RMC/RM2 subforum): Official ICE Forums - Index

The old RM2 supplement Heroes and Rogues also had a bunch of characters that you could use.

If you want to try the new edition (Rolemaster Unified, or RMU for short, which should be out this year), I have also made my own pregenerated characters of every class (in the core and adding my own homebrew Warrior Mage and Armsmaster) at levels 2 and 5 -- not in the ERA but just in Excel Character Sheets. You can access these at the Rolemaster Blog here (hit Downloads>RMU>Pregen Characters): The Rolemaster Blog – Articles and discussion on Roleplaying including Shadow World, Forgotten Realms.

Once RMU launches, you will be able to use ICE's Electronic Roleplaying Assistant (ERA) to roll up RMU characters (it is really easy). You can currently use ERA to roll up RMC (Rolemaster Classic, essentially RM2) and RMSS/FRP characters quickly and easily, as well as to track/manage combat. You can access the free version of ERA through DriveThruRPG.

We are working on getting an RMU character sheet and sample adventure out for Roll20 too. I ran a couple of sessions with those pregens at GenCon this year, and they went well, but I used other people's tokens, and I don't think we can use those if we are offering this adventure for other people. Still working that out. The RMU character sheet for Roll20 we hope will be appearing momentarily. Updates are on this thread:

• Topic: Looking to get Roll20 character sheet for RMU made.

Glad to see Rolemaster right at the edge of the top 10!

 

[Nilbog]

Wow, DnD 5e is a behemoth! While I'm pleased about its success (and I feel it's deserved, it's a great system) I do worry when one brand gains such market dominance, I'm old enough to remember Atari.....

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Dang...what happened in June-August of 2020?

If I had to guess? People stopped worrying as much about the virus, which then pretty much immediately led to the second major wave of infections (which happened in July and August). Summertime has a tendency to get people to want to go outside and do things, y'know? Late winter and spring are cold and often wet, perfect fodder for "well let's do this D&D thing" when you're stuck inside. Summer breaks, vacations, etc. often take their toll on a variety of media, and it was that much more pronounced with the artificial inflation of inside activity caused by things shutting down.

 

[BigZebra]

We have a license with Wizards of the Coast to produce a subset of D&D Classics - 2nd Edition AD&D content. This also includes some 1E content that has been made compatible. As a result, it sees more use than a community ruleset that doesn't have official adventures and content.

Do you foresee getting a license for 4e? Would be so awesome.

 

[Hussar]

Just for clarity, what is considered a "game session"?

 

[Nylanfs]

IIRC, Doug has stated that it's when it's an alias (or cloud) brokered game queries the license, where the session lasts 45+ minutes, and at least one player connects. This means that some direct connect IP address games aren't counted, and probably local LAN sessions wouldn't be counted.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Astral VTT is also quite new. Would be interesting so see their stats as well.
I was a bit surprised about the number of Savage Worlds-game on Fantasy-Grounds.

 

[Matchstick]

Fantasy Grounds is REALLY good for Savage Worlds. It might be that a higher percentage of SW online play happens on FG than with other systems.

 

[smiteworks]

Do you foresee getting a license for 4e? Would be so awesome.

We haven't managed to secure that yet. We would love to and we have a bunch of the content in earlier stages of development from several years back that we could ramp up fairly quickly if we ever got a license.