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.

 

[vivsavage]

What's interesting to me is Pathfinder 1 having a bigger share than Pathfinder 2. It's even more pronounced on Roll20.

 

[Guest 7025638]

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.

Just a few off the top of my head (I have more than 20 systems on my list):

• HERO System 6e (Champions and some fantasy, too)
• Fantasy AGE
• Eclipse Phase 2e
• Torg Eternity
• Monster of the Week

It is no coincidence that HERO took the first place, I have most physical books of 6e and wish to try it best (I also studied it the most extensively it the past few years) - though I also have the least chance to. The others are alao highly interesting, but I had zero chance for a one shot up until today.

I'll think about setting up a topic like this but on other forums I had negative experience with something like that (mostly I received zero interest, some others said "GM and you'll have players" and when I said that I explicitly wish to play, people stopped being nice, so to speak).

 

[Jiggawatts]

What's interesting to me is Pathfinder 1 having a bigger share than Pathfinder 2. It's even more pronounced on Roll20.

I tried to get into PF2, but it just feels too much like 4E to me. If they had taken 5E's races, feats, and flowy melee combat, and combined it with PF1 spellcasting and more character options (though vastly less feats), that would have been a perfect PF2 for me, but they kind of went the opposite direction.

 

[Hussar]

IIRC, Doug has stated that it's when it's an alias (or cloud) brokered game queries the license, where the session lasts 45+ minutes, and at least one player connects. This means that some direct connect IP address games aren't counted, and probably local LAN sessions wouldn't be counted.

Ok, combined with the later post, that's 15 minutes, but, that seems fair. So long as more than one person connected and it lasted at least 15 minutes seems reasonable.

GODDAMN that's a lot of gaming. 300000 sessions in the Q4. That's a minimum of 75 THOUSAND hours of gaming by that metric. HOLY CRAP. Put another way, that's TEN MAN YEARS of gaming in a single quarter.

I think I need to find my jaw, I know it dropped off somewhere back there.

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

Just to second this one, I play Tuesday mornings and have for years. My old Sunday night game was for those in Australia and the like, but, if you're willing to slot in a game at odd hours, you can almost always find something.

 

[MaskedGuy]

Well just to note that main reason why I visit this forum rarely these days is that its annoying to read 5e fans constant jeering at 2e

I might have lot of things I'm annoyed about 5e, but I don't actually feel happy about constantly talking about things I don't like about it <_<

(I mostly logged on to ask if we REALLY need five separate news articles about upcoming Ravenloft book?)

 

[jsaving]

I keep hearing this, but without Foundry data, we don't really know if people are going over to Foundry in the same numbers they're dropping from other platforms

It's an unverifiable claim, but you don't really have much else to lean into if you know in your heart that the Pathfinder community is mostly embracing PF2e rather than being split in half by it. I personally just hope Pathfinder continues in some form because it's always a good thing to have alternatives.

 

[Mistwell]

Well just to note that main reason why I visit this forum rarely these days is that its annoying to read 5e fans constant jeering at 2e

I might have lot of things I'm annoyed about 5e, but I don't actually feel happy about constantly talking about things I don't like about it <_<

(I mostly logged on to ask if we REALLY need five separate news articles about upcoming Ravenloft book?)

Who is jeering about 2e? I think a lot of what you're seeing is people disappointed 2e doesn't appear to be doing better, not jeering at it.

And no, we don't need 5 different threads on it. Not sure why they were not combined into one.

 

[MNblockhead]

Just a few off the top of my head (I have more than 20 systems on my list):

• HERO System 6e (Champions and some fantasy, too)
• Fantasy AGE
• Eclipse Phase 2e
• Torg Eternity
• Monster of the Week

It is no coincidence that HERO took the first place, I have most physical books of 6e and wish to try it best (I also studied it the most extensively it the past few years) - though I also have the least chance to. The others are alao highly interesting, but I had zero chance for a one shot up until today.

I'll think about setting up a topic like this but on other forums I had negative experience with something like that (mostly I received zero interest, some others said "GM and you'll have players" and when I said that I explicitly wish to play, people stopped being nice, so to speak).

I wish there were better resources for matching players and DMs online. Roll20 is the most useful by far in my experience. There is a Facebook group where people post one-shots, but I stopped using Facebook, and don't recall the name/link. But I never actually joined or started a game through that group.

But, one positive thing about COVID is that all the Gaming conventions have had to go online. I expect that even when conventions are in-person events again that they will continue to support online-VTT events. I would suggest that you look at all the VTT-games offered by conventions. Conventions, whether in-person, or on-line, remain the best venue for trying out new and less-popular games.

 

[MNblockhead]

Well just to note that main reason why I visit this forum rarely these days is that its annoying to read 5e fans constant jeering at 2e

I might have lot of things I'm annoyed about 5e, but I don't actually feel happy about constantly talking about things I don't like about it <_<

(I mostly logged on to ask if we REALLY need five separate news articles about upcoming Ravenloft book?)

Hmm...5e fans? It's been my perception that its the Pathfinder fans who are most upset and vocal about it. As a 5e fan, I've never been inclined to opine either way. Both flavors of PF just feel like another D&D to me and I'm happy with 5e and would rather play something completely different for any non-D&D games.

As for Ravenloft discussions, with 30 different mini-settings in one, I think we need more than one thread. Hard to follow discussions. There should be a top-level 5e-Ravenloft category and discussions for each of the domains of dread. Of course that would just mean we would have 30+ debates over whether the changes to the canon are good or bad. :-\

 

[jsaving]

Yeah, my 5e groups are only dimly aware of Pathfinder to begin with and don't much care either way about PF2e. It's my PF1e group that looked forward to, and was mostly disappointed by, PF2e. Even they don't jeer though, they just wanted something different than what PF2e gave them.