Best Virtual Tabletop

[Celebrim]

Why? Its not surprising that something that is done as a labor of love by people is going to occasionally run into glitches in support.

I can give it a try because free is a very low risk price point, but the problem with things run as a labor of love is sooner or later the love runs out. Whereas if you are getting paid, you're going to do it even if you hate it.

Still, the price is nice. Other alternatives:

Maptool: $0
Foundry: $50 + accessories?
Fantasy Grounds: $149 + accessories?
Roll20: $99/year + accessories?

UPDATE: Price is nice but with all the forums down, all the tutorials down, and so forth, it's going to be very hard to use.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I can give it a try because free is a very low risk price point, but the problem with things run as a labor of love is sooner or later the love runs out. Whereas if you are getting paid, you're going to do it even if you hate it.

To be blunt, so what? This thing would keep functioning for years without further support. There are people still using the 8.2 version. Since its not dependent on someone else's server, it'll work until your OS won't play with it. Its not like the pay programs are immune to vanishing

Still, the price is nice. Other alternatives:

Maptool: $0
Foundry: $50 + accessories?
Fantasy Grounds: $149 + accessories?
Roll20: $99/year + accessories?

UPDATE: Price is nice but with all the forums down, all the tutorials down, and so forth, it's going to be very hard to use.

Maybe, maybe not. Other than the FoW, most of what you want is pretty basic functionality. Importing maps and tokens and moving the latter around is pretty simple.

 

[jdrakeh]

I really like Owlbear Rodeo. It's simple and effective, but may lack the utility of other VTTs. I've toyed with the idea of purchasing a Foundry license. It's very highly rated, only one person needs a license to host a game (players don't need to purchase anything to join a hosted game), and it's a one-time fee of $50 for full access instead of an ongoing subscription. I very much dislike Roll20. It's unintuitive for me and, frankly, looks pretty ugly compared to other VTTs I've checked into. The one upside of Roll20, in my opinion, is the absolute wealth of system support, both official and 3rd party.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I run Foundry hosted on the Forge. Most of my favorite systems runs very well on it and have good support - Savage Worlds, WFRP4e, Pf2 - and hosting it on the Forge is imho well spent money for constant access and a problemfree experience.

I don't know how well 3.5 and OSR are supported though.

 

[Rabulias]

I'd figured that with Roll20. One thing I like about Roll20 is storage. But it feels like all of this but fog of war is just the basics of any virtual table. And the problem I have with Roll20 is that you can't have customized character sheets until you rent it at the "Pro" level which is $99 a year - a price that really makes Foundry's on time price of $50 and self-hosting feel worth it.

I moved to Foundry 2 years ago, but before that I used Roll20 for years. I made a customized character sheet for my game. Making character sheets in Foundry is a more technical and daunting process compared to Roll20, but you can do a lot more with Foundry's sheets than Roll20's.

I will also point out that (last time I looked) you only need the Roll20 Pro subscription to edit the custom character sheet or to create a campaign that uses a custom character sheet. If your sheet is stable and working, you can drop the subscription and continue to use it no problems. Maybe pick up a Pro sub for a month to fix bugs. If you run multiple campaigns or pickup games, you can create a bunch of baseline games using the custom sheet before dropping the sub.

But I really recommend Foundry VTT. I am not sure how much you would need to change in the rules, but there is active development on a D&D 3.5 system. You can find more details at: 3.5e for Foundry VTT | Foundry Virtual Tabletop

There is also a Discord channel you could ask questions on: Join the LotD / 3.5 SRD for FVTT Discord Server!

Hope you find a VTT that works for you!

 

[Celebrim]

To be blunt, so what?

It's not that I'm worried about the program. It's that for example the online tutorials are down and the community forums that would provide support are also currently down. And regardless of which tool I use, I'm probably going to be buying at least some tile sets. So the question becomes, is it worth it to spend $50 for Foundry (which seems to be the professional version of the same thing) just for the support?

 

[Thomas Shey]

It's not that I'm worried about the program. It's that for example the online tutorials are down and the community forums that would provide support are also currently down. And regardless of which tool I use, I'm probably going to be buying at least some tile sets. So the question becomes, is it worth it to spend $50 for Foundry (which seems to be the professional version of the same thing) just for the support?

I agree the lack of the online wiki is a problem at the moment.

But I also have to note this has not, best I can tell, been typical. I admittedly don't check it regularly (I've long since internalized most of what I use, so the only time I check over there is when an update happens or I've forgotten how to use something I don't regularly use), but I have to suggest unless they've just lost whoever was paying for the Rptools hosting, and no one else is willing or able to, it'd be premature to read much problem into this. Honestly, I've had pay services that were down more. In some cases, much more. Though that may be because I was using them more regularly.

 

[Thomas Shey]

For what its worth, if you want to give it a lookover anyway, here's the Wayback Machine's copy of the wiki:

RPTools Wiki

web.archive.org

 

[Celebrim]

I moved to Foundry 2 years ago, but before that I used Roll20 for years. I made a customized character sheet for my game. Making character sheets in Foundry is a more technical and daunting process compared to Roll20, but you can do a lot more with Foundry's sheets than Roll20's.

My current group has 5 professional software architects. I have some hope that if we have fun, I'll be able to leverage as much technical skills as I could possibly want.

I will also point out that (last time I looked) you only need the Roll20 Pro subscription to edit the custom character sheet or to create a campaign that uses a custom character sheet. If your sheet is stable and working, you can drop the subscription and continue to use it no problems. Maybe pick up a Pro sub for a month to fix bugs. If you run multiple campaigns or pickup games, you can create a bunch of baseline games using the custom sheet before dropping the sub.

That's interesting. My main problem with Roll20 is the subscription-based model means a lot of money in the long run. This group has been together like 12 years now.

But I really recommend Foundry VTT. I am not sure how much you would need to change in the rules, but there is active development on a D&D 3.5 system.

There are a variety of things that come up. The two biggest is that all characters get bonus hit points based on size class and PCs have narrative currency called 'destiny points' that have to be tracked. I additionally have custom races and classes, custom feat lists, custom spell lists, and there are a variety of tweaks to the rules - HD doesn't add to the DC of saving throws, spell level doesn't add to the DC of saving throws, clerics get fewer spells, fighters get more feats, sorcerers are constrained by 'domains' in spell selection similar to clerics, and so on and so forth. I think though that as long as I don't have to fight against the system, we'll be fine. The custom character sheet is probably the most important step as we've never had automation beyond dice rollers before.

Worse come to worse, we can just use the map features. So to me as the most likely GM 95% of the time, it's really about how easy is it to make and import maps and size them to a fixed grid, how many layers have to created in order to handle line of sight/fog of war (difficult terrain? elevation?), how easy it is to use the interface to move tokens around etc. I use 3.0e token sizes so I need to be able to support things like 1x2 and 2x3 tokens and I'd like to be able to define light sources on tokens so that light sources move automatically.

 

[Thomas Shey]

By the by, if I ever did switch from Maptool, everything I've heard so far makes me think I'd go to Foundry. But part of that is because I really, seriously don't want to be dependent on someone else's server.