D&D 5E Foundry Gets Official D&D Support

Joining Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and WotC’s own VTT plans, the Foundry virtual tabletop is getting official D&D support. You can se their announcement video below.


This will give yet another way to play D&D and that's some very good news.

 

[Zaukrie]

But you can’t play the game as normal with just SRD. I don’t understand why anyone would willingly restrict themselves to that.

You aren't restricted, it just isn't sold there yet. You can enter stuff yourself, you can import it from DnDBeyond if you own it there. You can use beyond20 to manage all the characters and rolls (and even monsters if you want).

It just makes no sense to spend the resources to do this for a few months for a ruleset that will be replaced soon......

 

[TheSword]

You aren't restricted, it just isn't sold there yet. You can enter stuff yourself, you can import it from DnDBeyond if you own it there. You can use beyond20 to manage all the characters and rolls (and even monsters if you want).

It just makes no sense to spend the resources to do this for a few months for a ruleset that will be replaced soon......

D&D beyond isn’t ubiquitous. I’m certainly not going to be DDB products that I then need to by again on Foundry when they are finally released. Relying on third party mods is not a great approach for a serious VTT for the biggest game market going.

I’m certainly not going to switch to a different system just to have to enter myself a couple of hundred spells, and several dozen subclasses, and a thousand monsters.

The majority of monsters, spells and subclasses aren’t changing as best as we can tell.

This makes no sense to me at all… and this is speaking as someone who loves and uses Foundry every day for other systems.

 

[Zaukrie]

D&D beyond isn’t ubiquitous. I’m certainly not going to be DDB products that I then need to by again on Foundry when they are finally released. Relying on third party mods is not a great approach for a serious VTT for the biggest game market going.

I’m certainly not going to switch to a different system just to have to enter myself a couple of hundred spells, and several dozen subclasses, and a thousand monsters.

The majority of monsters, spells and subclasses aren’t changing as best as we can tell.

This makes no sense to me at all… and this is speaking as someone who loves and uses Foundry every day for other systems.

I'm not sure what you want here....we are 6 months of so from teh rules being replaced. I can't see how it makes economic sense to put old rules into the system, you'll never sell enough to make it worth it (then do the work again later).

Either way, I'm not trying to convince you of anything, other than it doesn't make sense to spend the effort to put in rules that will be replaced in 6 months or so (though that's just the PHB maybe, so I'm not sure how I feel about waiting on the DMG and MM).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's awesome news. Foundry's kit has always been impressive and only gotten better over time. Love the mainstream recognition and legitimacy.

I try a lot of different VTTs during GenCon Online (a number of games each year are run by people pushing their new VTTs, sometimes with hilariously misplaced optimism) and Foundry has always been really impressive. I was in a game of the Alien RPG using it, and the look and feel of the interface -- tweaked for Alien -- really added to the experience.

 

[SteveC]

Just to make one more comment on the time delay getting to the new PHB and other content. If this is the same team as has been doing other similar content, it's a very small team. The job of creating a product for the PHB/MM/DMG, not to mention Tasha's and Xanathar's Guide and other books is going to be substantial. I think the team had to make the judgement of "is the new edition going to be successful and replace the last edition" and they're thinking that it will. I think that's a safe bet. Some of you may know that I sometimes post negative things about WotC, but there's nothing in the air right now that tells me that most people aren't going to adopt the new books. That means you'd be putting a small team on a project that will only really sell for about six months and then turn around and do the same work for the next books. As much as I'd like it to make sense to do that, I don't see it as being realistic for a small team.

 

[Zaukrie]

Just to make one more comment on the time delay getting to the new PHB and other content. If this is the same team as has been doing other similar content, it's a very small team. The job of creating a product for the PHB/MM/DMG, not to mention Tasha's and Xanathar's Guide and other books is going to be substantial. I think the team had to make the judgement of "is the new edition going to be successful and replace the last edition" and they're thinking that it will. I think that's a safe bet. Some of you may know that I sometimes post negative things about WotC, but there's nothing in the air right now that tells me that most people aren't going to adopt the new books. That means you'd be putting a small team on a project that will only really sell for about six months and then turn around and do the same work for the next books. As much as I'd like it to make sense to do that, I don't see it as being realistic for a small team.

A small team also building the tool, and supporting other game systems......not just DnD.

 

[Gammadoodler]

I try a lot of different VTTs during GenCon Online (a number of games each year are run by people pushing their new VTTs, sometimes with hilariously misplaced optimism) and Foundry has always been really impressive. I was in a game of the Alien RPG using it, and the look and feel of the interface -- tweaked for Alien -- really added to the experience.

The smoothness and seamlessness with which it handles all the mechanical bits and bobs of PF2e is something to behold.

Stuff like when someone casts an Enlarge spell, a player can drag the spell effect onto your token, and Foundry makes the token the right size, adds the damage buff to your strikes and applies the clumsy condition all at the same time. Right click the 'Enlarge' effect at the top of the screen and all that stuff goes away.

Or when you want to take the Hide action, it gives you a button to push to make the Stealth check in the chat entry, and clicking on it triggers a Stealth roll that's only visible to the GM.

Maybe other VTTs have some of this type of stuff..but sure as heck Roll20 doesn't.

 

[TheSword]

I'm not sure what you want here....we are 6 months of so from teh rules being replaced. I can't see how it makes economic sense to put old rules into the system, you'll never sell enough to make it worth it (then do the work again later).

Either way, I'm not trying to convince you of anything, other than it doesn't make sense to spend the effort to put in rules that will be replaced in 6 months or so (though that's just the PHB maybe, so I'm not sure how I feel about waiting on the DMG and MM).

I want the core rules of the game to be available on Foundry when an announcement goes out that the game has official support? I don’t really understand whats odd about that. 5e has been out a decade.

To be honest I don’t care how far away the future rules are. If it bothers them release the PHB in such a way that it can be amended and form the basis of the next release. Price the fact that it might be overtaken accordingly.

I’m really surprised that this is controversial. If Roll20 released a game system but no actual core rules people would be raging out. I’m just saying I’m surprised that they’ve made an initial release announcement and seem to have no sensible follow up.

 

[mamba]

But you can’t play the game as normal with just SRD. I don’t understand why anyone would willingly restrict themselves to that.

there is an importer for D&D Beyond

D&D beyond isn’t ubiquitous. I’m certainly not going to be DDB products that I then need to by again on Foundry when they are finally released. Relying on third party mods is not a great approach for a serious VTT for the biggest game market going.

well, there is no official support yet, that is what the announcement was about after all. Whoever currently plays D&D on Foundry is using the D&D importer....

In the future, sure, buy the Foundry modules, but as I said, I don't think many people would buy the 2014 core books now, so they might as well save themselves that effort

The majority of monsters, spells and subclasses aren’t changing as best as we can tell.

that is not my understanding, at all

This makes no sense to me at all… and this is speaking as someone who loves and uses Foundry every day for other systems.

I'd wait for official support if you are not using it for D&D already

 

[mamba]

I want the core rules of the game to be available on Foundry when an announcement goes out that the game has official support?

do you also want WotC to only talk about the 2024 core books the day of their release?