Getting back into the hobby. Need help with digital solutions

[dbm]

That was my understanding.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

i used to play D&D all the time when I was a teenager but sadly I haven’t been able to play for nearly two decades. Anyways, I’m wanting to correct that as i want to run a game for both my wife and my 15 year old son. I actually met my wife though D&D so she’s familiar with the game and my son played some with his friends using discord over the summer. So none of us are new to the game, but I’m definitely out of the loop of modern gaming, which leads me to here looking for help.

Good Stuff, welcome back to gaming.

I’m looking for digital solutions to run our game, both for ease of play and just because I love technology and want to make use of it.

Here’s my goal: I’d like like to run the entire game from my iPad Pro in terms of all the DM aspects. Notes, modules, pdfs, die rolling, etc. But I’d like to have battle maps, visual aids, and ambient sounds/music playing on our big screen tv in the living room. My gaming PC is hooked up to my tv so I’d have access to whatever software that could fit my needs. I’m thinking my wife and son could use the mouse to move tokens and navigate combat and whatnot while I’m running things on the iPad.

But I’m at a loss as to what software/website/app I’d use to accomplish this. I’ve researched this a bit and I’ve discovered Foundry, Roll20, D&D beyond, And Fantasy Grounds as potential solutions but I have no idea which if any of these would adequately address my needs.

D&D Beyond has the information to run games from and you can buy adventures there. I have never really used it to run a game so I cannot really comment on the DM organisation side of things. It appears to have some basic tools.
Roll20 will work and can link to D&D Beyond and FantasyGrounds is out as it will not support the iPad (otherwise it would be fine).
I know nothing about Foundry.

Btw, assuming it matters, I’m heavily leaning towards 5th edition but I’m also open to trying Pathfinder.

5th edition may be more forgiving for a smaller group. I have never played Pathfinder 2e.

As a secondary question, are any of the published modules appropriate for two players? Or will I have to crate custom adventures for them since the party of So small?

Thanks for any help!

Most modern modules assume 4 player/PCs, you could use the sidekick rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to round out the party.

 

[nyvinter]

I've looked into both Foundry and Roll20. One of the biggest differences there (for me) is that ROll20 is hosted remotely, while the Foundry hosts off of your own computer. So a Roll20 game will be available even when your computer isn't on, and isn't going to be quite as reliant on your computers specs to run smoothly (at least that's how I understand it). The internet where I live is, um, not good, so I need an option that doesn't involve me hosting the game server.

If you have a Foundry license, there is a subscription-based webhosted version called Forge. I've not tried it myself, but it should be able to what Roll20 does.

 

[Fenris-77]

If you have a Foundry license, there is a subscription-based webhosted version called Forge. I've not tried it myself, but it should be able to what Roll20 does.

I had heard that but hadn't yet looked into it. That's a good thing to know. I'm only getting my toes wet with anything more complicated than playing in a VTT game.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I use dndbeyond, and have been poking around Above Tabtletop, which connects directly to dndbeyond to power the player-facing stuff.

 

[Fenris-77]

There is a free, open-source VTT called Fari, but I don't know anything else about it. Link.

 

[Thomas Shey]

5th edition may be more forgiving for a smaller group. I have never played Pathfinder 2e.

The only thing with PF2e that may be an issue is one with almost all class-based games; though there's flexibility in advancement and creation, classes are still based around certain kinds of functions, and if you lack one, you do.
There are some things to buffer that, like the free Dedication option (which basically gives you a subclass without reducing your normal class feature/feat acquisition) or hybrid classing (true multiclassing--we're actual did that in the campaign we're currently finishing up, because there's only four of us, and the Adventure Path we were playing (Age of Ashes) had a bit of a (well earned) reputation for being rough in some spots. It doesn't make characters vastly more powerful, but makes it easier to cover ground the group otherwise wouldn't).

 

[GreyLord]

i used to play D&D all the time when I was a teenager but sadly I haven’t been able to play for nearly two decades. Anyways, I’m wanting to correct that as i want to run a game for both my wife and my 15 year old son. I actually met my wife though D&D so she’s familiar with the game and my son played some with his friends using discord over the summer. So none of us are new to the game, but I’m definitely out of the loop of modern gaming, which leads me to here looking for help.

I’m looking for digital solutions to run our game, both for ease of play and just because I love technology and want to make use of it.

Here’s my goal: I’d like like to run the entire game from my iPad Pro in terms of all the DM aspects. Notes, modules, pdfs, die rolling, etc. But I’d like to have battle maps, visual aids, and ambient sounds/music playing on our big screen tv in the living room. My gaming PC is hooked up to my tv so I’d have access to whatever software that could fit my needs. I’m thinking my wife and son could use the mouse to move tokens and navigate combat and whatnot while I’m running things on the iPad.

But I’m at a loss as to what software/website/app I’d use to accomplish this. I’ve researched this a bit and I’ve discovered Foundry, Roll20, D&D beyond, And Fantasy Grounds as potential solutions but I have no idea which if any of these would adequately address my needs.

Btw, assuming it matters, I’m heavily leaning towards 5th edition but I’m also open to trying Pathfinder.

As a secondary question, are any of the published modules appropriate for two players? Or will I have to crate custom adventures for them since the party of So small?

Thanks for any help!

You've already pointed the big hitters of running something entirely online. With these, you do not even need to be in the same room as those you are running the game for, or with.

If you want more of an in person experience, but with the same ideas, you have more options. The First is buying and supporting the digital adventures ir games that you wish to run.

I do not use Foundry, but I HAVE been impressed with Paizo's support of both Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, and Starfinder. Both 1e and Starfinder run very similarly to 3.5 D&D. Paizo sells the maps and other materials that you need to run them very smoothly online. Even without Foundry, if you have enough tech smarts, Paizo gives you all the tools that you can run their games virtually anywhere if you buy the digital content for it.

Even on it's own without Foundry or any other item...Paizo has digital maps easily opened on Ipad, Android, or PC. They have the adventures digitally. They have tools digitially. I believe they even have music.

Another method for those in person is to run a Board game Roleplaying Campaign. This is a game like Gloomhaven (which will take you probably in the realm of at least 200 playing hours). It has apps which go along with what is on the board and guide you and the players through the experience in a digital fashion.

I would choose Gloomhaven ANY DAY of the week over FFG's offerings. Gloomhaven uses the app to ENHANCE the experience and to help those who want that digital experience. It is NOT REQUIRED though (FFG has this dumb requirement on many of their games that you HAVE to use an app to even play the game...and that's AFTER you actually paid for the game itself). You can have the digital experience on top of the in person interactions if you wish.

For a small group, I'd say this is really a GREAT way to go and still play in person. The Gloomhaven app takes care of records and other things necessary as well.

In addition, if you wish, Gloomhaven even has a game you can play on your own or with others on Steam. It is the full game, but digitally done. That's another method.

AS I mentioned above, FFG has done some melding of digital and boardgames, but they are neither complete separate. Unlike Gloomhaven, you need both the physical and the digital in order to play (if you just use the digital game, you don't need the physical if you want to go completely digital).

Obviously D&D Beyond is the heavy hitter here, at least that is my impression. You can also buy everything you need to run a game from them, which includes digital content. It isn't as smooth or clean as Paizo's digital content from my experience, but it does the job and has been proofed by thousands upon thousands of players and GMs. If you are looking to play online D&D, that is probably the best bet to either start a group or play in a group online.

 

[aramis erak]

I've been using GTove... minimal power, but free, and you can host your own instance if you have the skills and hardware. All assets go in the GM's google drive. Has dice, counters/standees, maps, and templates support, and thanks to a nifty scaling solution, grids are not directly DPI linked. Manual fog.
Does not do voice nor text-chat, but low enough bandwidth that it seldom interferes with discord.

 

[FoggyGeezer]

I'm starting to learn all this tech as well so I'll be ready to go when i finish building our new gaming table with a TV built into the vault. I'm learning foundry, which is pretty amazing software. It has a module called Plutonium that connects it to the https://5e.tools database, so you can pull over entire campaigns including maps, notes, journal entries, images, etc. straight into the foundry world file. I'm really liking what I see so far.

https://5e.tools/plutonium.html

While Foundry doesn't directly support iOS or Ipad due to Safari limitations, you might be able to run the software from a local PC and access it using the LAN via https://localhost:30000, which is what remote players would do if you're hosting a session. Haven't tested that theory, so it may or may not work on Apple, but it should work on Android running chrome.