D&D General 'Playing D&D' (Without Playing D&D)

[MGibster]

I picked other. Playing other games/settings as if I were playing D&D.

 

[R_J_K75]

I think Roll20 is a lot bigger and more versatile than folks give it credit for.

Oh I bet. Im always amazed at how many ppl here on EN World have played so many different games. I feel dumb...."Uh I play D&D." There are def features from a vtt I could see being useful in a tt setting. So, if I subscribe to Roll20 Id still have to buy the 2E books correct?

 

[CleverNickName]

Oh I bet. Im always amazed at how many ppl here on EN World have played so many different games. I feel dumb...."Uh I play D&D." There are def features from a vtt I could see being useful in a tt setting. So, if I subscribe to Roll20 Id still have to buy the 2E books correct?

Yep. And you'd have to buy them from the Roll20 Marketplace if you wanted to automatically import all of the features and stats and so forth. (Not required, you can always build this stuff yourself using the tools...but that can take AGES of time for something as big as AD&D. Buying them on Roll20 is technically optional, but practically required.)

That's the biggest downside to using Roll20. They all but require you to purchase gaming materials in their proprietary Roll20 electronic format, which can only be used on their Roll20 VTT platform. A lot of people understandably don't want to do that...especially if they've already bought the materials elsewhere.

EDIT: Hm. I did some digging around inside Roll20, and I can't find the AD&D books in the Roll20 Marketplace. There are a couple of character sheets, but that's about it. This probably means that Wizards of the Coast hasn't given Roll20 permission to distribute these materials. So if you are running an AD&D game, you will be doing a lot of front-end work to get everything set up.

 

[payn]

Oh I bet. Im always amazed at how many ppl here on EN World have played so many different games. I feel dumb...."Uh I play D&D." There are def features from a vtt I could see being useful in a tt setting. So, if I subscribe to Roll20 Id still have to buy the 2E books correct?

I'd also look at Foundry. It cost 50 bucks upfront, but that's it. There are things to buy like adventure modules, but there are many many game systems free to download for it. I think Foundry looks, feels, and is more flexible than roll20. YMMV

 

[DND_Reborn]

My "D&D" activities include:

Working on creatures/ NPCs/ PCs (creating, level ups, planning, backstory, etc.)
Working on adventures/campaign (maps, notes, house-rules, etc.)

Unless it is directly related to my sessions somehow, I don't consider other activities (movies or podcasts, time on EnWorld, etc.) "D&D" personally.

 

[Celebrim]

Ahhh, yes. The "lonely fun".

I'm convinced the vast majority of game books are sold primarily for lonely fun and never make it into an actual gaming session. Some systems that exist I'm not sure have ever been played.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

@CleverNickName

You are missing an option.

What about, "Cutting off bards in traffic?"

 

[R_J_K75]

Yep. And you'd have to buy them from the Roll20 Marketplace if you wanted to automatically import all of the features and stats and so forth. (Not required, you can always build this stuff yourself using the tools...but that can take AGES of time for something as big as AD&D. Buying them on Roll20 is technically optional, but practically required.)

That's the biggest downside to using Roll20. They all but require you to purchase gaming materials in their proprietary Roll20 electronic format, which can only be used on their Roll20 VTT platform. A lot of people understandably don't want to do that...especially if they've already bought the materials elsewhere.

EDIT: Hm. I did some digging around inside Roll20, and I can't find the AD&D books in the Roll20 Marketplace. There are a couple of character sheets, but that's about it. This probably means that Wizards of the Coast hasn't given Roll20 permission to distribute these materials. So if you are running an AD&D game, you will be doing a lot of front-end work to get everything set up.

Think I still have the 2E Core Rules somewhere. Now that was a good program regardless of the glitches here and there

 

[R_J_K75]

I'd also look at Foundry. It cost 50 bucks upfront, but that's it. There are things to buy like adventure modules, but there are many many game systems free to download for it. I think Foundry looks, feels, and is more flexible than roll20. YMMV

IIRC, which I may not, Fantasy Grounds was the VTT, and Hero Lab was the character builder, but I believe when we used it late 2000s you could subscribe to a game system/edition.

 

[MNblockhead]

We have often talked about and considered implementing a touch screen, or just a VTT mirrored on a TV in the room. Just havent got there yet. We mostly play TotME these days, I havent used a battle mat a minis in at least 6 months. I can see the benefits of a VTT but as I said upthread just not for us insofar as the learning curve. Unless everyone in the group is willing to use off time to learn the UI then its not worth it.

A VTT for in-person play is a great compromise that avoids the worst of prep time with for online games and the worst of time spent on setting up terrain or drawing on a battlemap. Of course if you play almost entirely TOTM, then none of this is an issue.

I bought a TV case from Collabrewate for gaming. Not touch screen. I used it with minis. I used Map Tool (which is free, open source VTT). I only used it to display maps and reveal areas from fog of war as the party explored.

There is some initial learning curve, especially figuring out how to have the DMs view on your laptop and the player view on the external screen, both running from your own laptop. And it takes a bit of time to learn how to quickly prep a map and use the drawing tools to clear fog of war. But once you figure that out, the prep time is almost nil. I could run complete sand box games. No need to prep maps with walls, lighting, etc. I can have thousands of maps organized in folders--or just dumped in one folder if they are file-named well--and search and pull one up in seconds. A few more seconds to apply fog of war filter. A few more seconds to reveal it and size it so that the squares are 1" by 1", and then everything else works just like using a Chessex battlemap, except you can have maps with cool artwork with fog of war. If you don't want to use minis, you can use digital tokens, but that does require applying a grid, which gets a bit more fiddly, but is probably less time than hunting out minis and placing them. But like using minis. I just wanted an easier and quicker way to pull up maps and put them into play and a way to have fog of war without having paper cutouts or cotton balls to hide areas.