Planescape How do people play these days?

[Nordom]

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to get back into online playing. I used to be a regular on www.planewalker.com but that site now seems defunct. Just curious what's the most popular way of playing online these days: is it PBP on forums, or Zoom/Skype, Discord or a different program?

I got very excited when I read that Planescape is returning to 5e next year, and I'm wondering if any Planescape campaigns are being run on this forum or on a different platform that people know about.

Appreciate any guidance for this old timer.

 

[Stormonu]

For online, I personally use roll20. A few of my friends use Discord and various bots. One friend uses Tabletop Simulator.

 

[Nordom]

Thank you!

Will check them out shortly. Any big reason(s) why you use roll20 over the others?

 

[bloodtide]

Depends what is "popular"...

A lot of new and or younger players like Discord, mostly so they can voice chat.

I still PBP on some of the Ye Old PBP sites. Play by post works great for older gamers who can post each day or two.

 

[Audiomancer]

I currently play in one campaign on Roll20. Another campaign is on a brief hiatus while the DM shifts it over from Roll20 to FoundryVTT. Both campaigns use Discord for voice chat and messaging.

 

[Dioltach]

During the various lockdowns my groups played over Skype/Teams. But then again, we're all in the late-40s to late-50s age bracket.

 

[Lycurgon]

My regular group and another group I played with once both used Roll20 for maps and rolls and used Discord for voice and/or video. We have found Roll20 voice to not be reliable. The reason we use Roll20 is that it is free to use. You can pay for extras, which one of our DMs does but it is not necessary. You can create characters with DnDBeyond and use it for rolling with the results going into Roll20 if you use the Chrome Extension Beyond20.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I have a weekly game which plays in person and a biweekly game which plays on Roll20.

 

[Stormonu]

Thank you!

Will check them out shortly. Any big reason(s) why you use roll20 over the others?

The base portion of it was free, honestly. So until I was up to speed on how it works, I didn't pay for anything - "try before you buy".

It does take some time to learn it in depth properly - about an hour or two of fiddling with it for me to learn the DM side of things - importing and setting up maps, how to build/import NPCs, build a playlist and such. Player side of it is much quicker to learn, especially if the DM has imported characters and such.

As others have mentioned, the voice chat in Roll20 is not very reliable. But it can be used with discord or other chat programs for that portion and still get good usage out of the other parts of Roll20.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I live by Discord and the Avrae Bot these days. If we ever go back to gaming in person, I'll seriously miss people being able to post GIFs in response to the game's events.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Foundry and Discord (voice and banter/roleplay/announcements between sessions)

 

[Bupp]

Discord chat with Avrae bot, and I use Owlbear Rodeo for my vtt. Owlbear is very lightweight, and super simple to use.

 

[TheHand]

When the Pandemic hit, I transitioned my live Planescape game over to Roll20, but we used Discord for voice. I ended up running a Planescape-flavored interpretation of Descent into Avernus. Even though we have resumed live games, the convenience of short online sessions wound up in me running 2 PS campaigns, with different parties (though individual characters have bounced back and forth between them). In person we meet 1 time a month if lucky, but can game much more frequently online.

Most of my resources are things I've cobbled together from online sources over the years and hand-converted materials from ye olde 2nd edition physical copies (we're playing 5th, though we did play a heavily modified 4e years ago. The game has been more-or-less going for 10 years now).

 

[Burnside]

Regarding the virtues of Roll20, a lot of folks use it because:

• Basic functionality is free for everyone
• Runs in-browser (don't need to download any software)
• Marketplace has all the official WotC adventures pre-packaged (for those who want them)

Most folks, however, when using Roll20 don't rely on Roll20's video/audio interface, but instead deactivate it and use Zoom or Discord instead (more reliable).

 

[jgsugden]

Roll20 is my choice for an online option, but note that WotC is devising their own 3D online tabletop (in theory).

You can look for open games there to try to find one that suits your preferences, but I suggets going back to your roots. If yuo had good experiences there, look for contact info for the people that shred those experiences. You might be able to gether a few of them to create what you want, or you might find one looking for a solid player to join their established group. Finding a 100% solid group while starting with no player base can be tough. I always try to go back and find the people that really linked up to the ideas I want to explore.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I run over Discord, but that's because I run Dungeon World and thus I don't need careful maps for combats.

 

[Velderan]

My group uses discord for audio, Roll20 for maps and tokens, and D&D Beyond for character sheets. There's a Chrome extension called Beyond20 that sends dice rolls in D&D Beyond over to Roll20 that we use.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Discord as foundation for voice, video and handouts, plus AboveVTT with DnD Beyond for D&D, and FoundryVTT for all other games.