On Fantasy Grounds D&D Increases Dominance To 71%

If you thought Roll20's 52% was impressive, on Fantasy Grounds D&D is now 71% of games. Pathfinder (both editions) comes to 13% in second place. These figures are for Q4, 2020.

So here's what D&D (the bright green line) has done since the beginning of 2019. There's am obvious pandemic boost for VTTs, starting in February 2020.

D&D is so big that it makes it impossible to actually see everybody else on the graph. So here it is without D&D so you can see how everybody else is doing. The top purple line is Pathfinder 1E, and the blue one below it is Pathfinder 2E. Then comes Savage Worlds in orange, followed by Starfinder and Call of Cthulhu.

 

[Mercador]

You are. Plus, you can use a VTT to play in any language (with certain caveats).

The issue is that my native language (French) is used in France but I live in Canada, so there aren't VTT in my language in my timezone. I can type without too much errors but it's not the same to play at a table. I should check for play by post however.

 

[MNblockhead]

I am very doubtful that a package that costs 50$ and a reasonably high level of computer knowledge to open your computer as a server will have substantial numbers compared to free systems using browser.

Particularly when it was launched less than a year ago. They may be an insurgency but skeptical doesn’t even come close.

I'm guessing many/most Foundry users use a hosting service like the Forge (which I use). The nice thing is that you have a choice. I could never get Fantasy Grounds or d20pros servers to work for me in the mideast. The Forge worked great, but if it didn't, I could take my license elsewhere, or host it myself. If I were to host it myself, I wouldn't use my PC as a server, I would use a cloud-based VM. But I went with the forge to make it simple and for the great support.

Getting started with Foundry on the Forge was less difficult than getting Fantasy Grounds Classic (and especially FG Unity) or d20pro working. But not as simple as Roll20.

 

[MNblockhead]

They could publish number of downloads. And do they have any type of license check? That license check is one way SmiteWorks collects it's numbers.

They may be able to give numbers on the number of people you install different game systems. But you just enter a link to a json manifest. You don't have to log-in or anything.

Until they have official licenses and not just SRD support, in which case they'd need to track purchases, I doubt they can track.

 

[smiteworks]

I'm guessing many/most Foundry users use a hosting service like the Forge (which I use). The nice thing is that you have a choice. I could never get Fantasy Grounds or d20pros servers to work for me in the mideast. The Forge worked great, but if it didn't, I could take my license elsewhere, or host it myself. If I were to host it myself, I wouldn't use my PC as a server, I would use a cloud-based VM. But I went with the forge to make it simple and for the great support.

Getting started with Foundry on the Forge was less difficult than getting Fantasy Grounds Classic (and especially FG Unity) or d20pro working. But not as simple as Roll20.

You should check out Fantasy Grounds Unity again at some point. It's extremely simple now. You just click Host Game and your players find you by name or in the list. No port forwarding or network configuration is necessary. FG Unity was in Beta until Nov 2020.

 

[LordEntrails]

The issue is that my native language (French) is used in France but I live in Canada, so there aren't VTT in my language in my timezone. I can type without too much errors but it's not the same to play at a table. I should check for play by post however.

Don't limit yourself to games that are among just all Canadians/your time zone. Many folks are realizing that it depends upon time and availability. For instance I play in one game with players in the US and eastern Asia. For me the game is late Saturday night, for the Asians and Australians its Sunday afternoon.

Depending upon when (days & times) you are available, you could find a game that is run weekend evenings in UTC+1, and it would be afternoon for you. Don't give up

 

[MNblockhead]

@Mercador The Roll20 find a game feature is great for finding pick-up games and one-shots, sometime even with little advance notice.

 

[Guest 7025638]

@Mercador The Roll20 find a game feature is great for finding pick-up games and one-shots, sometime even with little advance notice.

I never had any success with that. Most games I’d like to try/play have no current listings (and never had in the last few years) or not even listed as a game to choose.

 

[MNblockhead]

I never had any success with that. Most games I’d like to try/play have no current listings (and never had in the last few years) or not even listed as a game to choose.

D&D is the easiest to find games for, but I've enjoyed a number real obscure games, including completely homebrew systems. It can be fun to see what is coming up and taking a gamble. It certainly leads to more gaming than waiting for a preferred system, setting, or adventure to become available. If I really want to play something, and want to play it now, I generally find I have to run it.

 

[Guest 7025638]

D&D is the easiest to find games for, but I've enjoyed a number real obscure games, including completely homebrew systems. It can be fun to see what is coming up and taking a gamble. It certainly leads to more gaming than waiting for a preferred system, setting, or adventure to become available. If I really want to play something, and want to play it now, I generally find I have to run it.

It's understandable but I don't GM, so my only option is waiting (for any system I'm interested in, D&D is generally not one of them, even though I play it). Thus, I have a sizable list of games I'd like to try at least once, but probably I'll never have the chance, eveb though quite of them are on the shelf. That's my luck, it seems..

 

[MNblockhead]

It's understandable but I don't GM, so my only option is waiting (for any system I'm interested in, D&D is generally not one of them, even though I play it). Thus, I have a sizable list of games I'd like to try at least once, but probably I'll never have the chance, eveb though quite of them are on the shelf. That's my luck, it seems..

Way off topic, but what systems are you wanting to play?

Might be worth another thread to help set up some "try the game" on-line one shots.

Before my new job I posted a sign for people interested in one shots of various systems. It would allow me to actually play a number of games I collected but haven't had an opportunity to play.