D&D General [Help] Playing D&D online with strangers

Re Discord, this is a VOIP application, primarily. We use it for voice whilst playing. The latest version has video chat as well, but my group just uses voice. It was originally intended as voice chat for people playing online shooters and so on. It is free unless you want to pay a top-up (we haven’t). A Discord server is basically a channel you set up and is how you keep your voice channel private to the people you invite to it.

Fantasy Grounds doesn’t have any voice-chat built in. I understand that Roll20 does but most people find it poor so use a stand-alone VOIP app.

Beware that we have found it unstable when used in combination with FGU, so people tend to use a secondary device like their smart phone. (This also makes it easy to get another drink from the fridge mid-game...)

I found the Discord video chat feature to put a very heavy load on my computer such that the fan was whirring the whole time and there were glitches (like no audio or video for some people sometimes). We switched to Google Hangout and had a much better experience.

It depends whether you want to play or DM.

I use Fantasy Grounds, and find the automation an absolute life saver. Most of the classes / monsters are already coded in, so there is very little manual set up.

If the DM has the ultimate license (which most do), then the players don't even need to pay anything (as the DM can share their modules).

I think between my current group of 5 (all met online through the Fantasy Grounds looking for Game forum), we probably have 4 copies of the ultimate license all up (as we all DM this and other campaigns at various times).

I saw somewhere on Roll20 about tipping/paying DMs. Is that a thing?

Regardless of the platform, some GMs charge for their games. That can be good or bad.

Don't limit yourself to one platform. Play with multiple groups until you find one you fit the best with. There are multiple places online to find games, each platform will have it's own, plus there are some neutral ones. Reddit has r/lfg that is pretty active. Also reddit r/vtt has a list of VTT's.

Just a few of them are; Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Astral, Foundry, MapTools, Battlegrounds, etc.

Also, check out www.fantasygroundscollege.net, they will teach you (for free) how to play online and how to use FG. Very friendly and helpful group over there.