What's your VTT of choice?

[Bill Zebub]

I used Roll20 for a long time, and initially got excited about (and delved into) all the nifty features.

But what I decided over time is that the fancier the VTT got, the more it all felt like a video game, and less like sitting around a table with friends.

I switched to Owlbear Rodeo and really appreciate the simplicity. (I also used OR for in-person sessions of Shadowdark: I projected the map onto a screen and used Fog of War to reveal areas as the party explored.)

I was perfectly happy with version 1, and am a little disappointed they went down the road of more features, but I've been poking around the last couple of days and will probably stick with it.

 

[Bill Zebub]

As a side note, a few years ago I worked with a friend to develop bluetooth enabled dice so that when playing over a VTT you could still roll physical dice, and have the results broadcast to your friends. We got as far as a working prototype with a d6: you could roll the die, and the result would appear in an iPhone app. It was pretty cool.

Then we started doing patent searches and realized the important stuff was already locked up. :-/

 

[Velderan]

The Foundry community is quite good in providing and updating system modules for games that don't have official support, and the learning curve for Foundry is less steep than it is usually made out to be in my opinion.

It definitely has a learning curve, but the community is generally great about answering questions. I pretty much learned what I needed to know to run PF2e games from the official Beginner Box module's tutorial and looking up guides on YouTube to suggest optional modules to make things run smoother.

 

[Kannik]

Voted OBR as my choice, though Roll20 is what actually gets used the most due to legacy and integration (ie Beyond20) reasons.

 

[Morrus]

As a side note, a few years ago I worked with a friend to develop bluetooth enabled dice so that when playing over a VTT you could still roll physical dice, and have the results broadcast to your friends. We got as far as a working prototype with a d6: you could roll the die, and the result would appear in an iPhone app. It was pretty cool.

Then we started doing patent searches and realized the important stuff was already locked up. :-/

These exist already.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I voted Roll20 because it is what I bought in to and am comfortable with, but I recently discovered Alchemy VTT and it may well be my replacement of choice (at least, for some games). I have been a player in Shard but find it rough as a GM, and I bought Foundry and messed around with it but realized that I'd have to devote a nontrivial chunk of my hobby time to "figuring out and tweaking" Foundry, and have sort of ignored it ever since. Yes, I know it is supposed to be better....but I can pop into Roll20 and have a game going in no time, and that's all I need.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I suspect some answers to this question may be biased to some degree about the lean of this site; specifically how well suited various VTTs are to D&D as contrast with other things (though some of the more popular outside of the D&D-sphere still tend to get some degree of support, but I'm not sure how much help to someone who runs Eclipse Phase, BASH UE, Mythras or Fragged Empire they'd be. This doesn't automatically mean they'd be unattractive, but it might take thumb off the scale for some of them for people not D&D GMs.

 

[Temperantia]

I suspect some answers to this question may be biased to some degree about the lean of this site; specifically how well suited various VTTs are to D&D as contrast with other things (though some of the more popular outside of the D&D-sphere still tend to get some degree of support, but I'm not sure how much help to someone who runs Eclipse Phase, BASH UE, Mythras or Fragged Empire they'd be. This doesn't automatically mean they'd be unattractive, but it might take thumb off the scale for some of them for people not D&D GMs.

This is a fair thought, and (official) support of a game system for one or another VTT certainly would influence the individual usability for a given group.

I can give my perspective on GM'ing in Foundry only, but I've usually done non-D&D stuff here:

My longest campaign was a Degenesis Rebirth one. I regularly run Call of Cthulhu 7E One Shots / Few Shots. I've done some sessions in AoS Soulbound and Symbaroum in Foundry, and I've dabbled with (though not put to much actual use) system modules for Burning Wheel, The Dark Eye, Runequest, Lex Arcana, Splittermond, Shadow of the Demon Lord and Shadowrun 5.

D&D 5E as WOTC-supported module is a fairly recent addition to Foundry (only happened last year if I recall correctly). I ran a couple sessions there for newbies in the past months and the system integration is very well made. But my personal preference for Foundry is not dependent on this 5E integration.

Of the games you've stated, I do find (fan-made) current system modules for both Eclipse Phase 2E and Mythras. There seems to be a Fragged Empire one as well but I'm not sure if it's up to date for the most recent version of Foundry.

 

[Mageman]

Fantasy grounds. The automation is the best by far

 

[Bill Zebub]

These exist already.

This was 2014.