Roll20 Announces Discord Activity Integration

Roll20 announced a partnership with Discord to allow users to access the virtual tabletop directly through the app as an Activity.

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Users of Discord will be able to access Roll20 VTT and their full account inside Discord while using that program's built-in audio and video conferencing tools. Features available include:

• The full virtual tabletop with maps, tokens, layers, etc
• Integrated character sheets, 3D dice, and compendiums
• All your current campaigns, assets, and marketplace content
• Access to official modules for D&D, Pathfinder, Marvel, Fallout, and more
• Dynamic lighting (Pro/Plus only)
• Built-in video/voice chat via Discord

The feature is available now for Roll20 Pro subscribers (which is also on sale this week for 27% off, only $79.99 for your first year or $7.99 for your first month). Starting on April 30, 2024, all Pro subscribers will be invited to a private Discord server to beta test the Rolll20 Activity.

No details have been announced when this will be rolled out to other Roll20 and Discord users or how long the beta testing period is expected to last. However, Roll20 did announced that the site's integrated voice and video chat isn't going anywhere for those who prefer to use that service over Discord, and that their new Project Jumpgate beta is both not affected by this new option and will also be available for users of the Roll20 Discord Activity. A FAQ with more details is available on the Roll20 blog.

 

[Uta-napishti]

LOL, given that Discord just had a major outage an hour ago during our D&D game, and Roll20 failed as a backup to allow us all to audio chat, I dunno what I think about them teaming up right now I mean I was researching how long it takes to set up a Mumble server... but we had to cancel the session in the end.

 

[payn]

LOL, given that Discord just had a major outage an hour ago during our D&D game, and Roll20 failed as a backup to allow us all to audio chat, I dunno what I think about them teaming up right now I mean I was researching how long it takes to set up a Mumble server... but we had to cancel the session in the end.

Im knocking on wood since I havent experienced an outage yet.

 

[MNblockhead]

One window would be cool! Too bad I'm on Foundry.....

There are mods to integrate Foundry with Discord. I've not tried them, though.

 

[MNblockhead]

That's pretty cool. It would certainly streamline a LOT of stuff. I keep most of my gaming stuff on Discord now, - campaign notes, background information, inter-session role play, that sort of thing. Being able to keep everything one stop shop would be pretty sweet.

Now if only Fantasy Grounds actually supported voice at all.

Be careful what you wish for. So far, every implementation of conference calling integrated in a major VTT has been disappointing for me. If they are going to integrate into the VTT interface they need to make it possible to do voice only and completely hide the video. It eats up too much screen real estate. Or let you pop out the video into another window. I've only used video in my remote games when I'm setup with dual screens. But then, their is not much difference between having it embedded in the VTT and using a separate teleconference app.

What is more interesting to me is how Roll20 might do integrations beyond embedding the voice & video from Discord into the VTT interface. There are already VTT mods and Discord applications that will integrate rolls, etc. But even when not clumsy, I've never found enough value in them to bother. Now that Roll20 is giving official dev support, they could so some interesting things.

For me, the best thing about the integration is that you only have to send one link for players to join. And if you are using integrated Discord, if a player's internet goes down, or they just have a bad connection, they can still dial in by phone to participate.

 

[MNblockhead]

I like my A/V to be in a different window than my tabletop, since I have 2 monitors.

But I never use roll20's A/V - and I have to imagine I am in the majority, so I am guessing that business wise this makes sense.

They get to reduce their dev/feature surface area and also add a new differentiator for their Pro tier all in one fell swoop.

Which I why I hope they allow you to pop out the interface into another window. Foundry supports this with much of its interface--well through a mod, not a core feature. I use a 3 monitor setup. My laptops built-in monitor and two external monitors.

Still, I liked using the Discord app because, until a couple months ago, I didn't have great internet. So I would run Discord from my phone, paired to my bluetooth headset and ran my VTT on my laptop. Now that I have a gigabyte connection and new laptop, this isn't necessary, but some of my players have older computers. So one downside I could see with Roll20s integration is if you have someone with lower bandwidth and an older computer, can they use discord on another device, such as a smart phone, or use the dial-in number, and turn off discord in Roll20? In other words, if the integration forces all players to use it, then you might have the occasional player who will find the VTT lagging and the voice getting choppy.

 

[MNblockhead]

Im knocking on wood since I havent experienced an outage yet.

Yeah, Discord has been rock solid for me for years, even from countries without access to stable high-speed bandwidth. I prefer Google Meet, but years ago I accepted that Discord is the default gaming video & voice app. Despite still finding the interface overly busy and distracting, I do like the consistent voice quality and all the applications available to customize your experience.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Excellent news! I use both, so that will be quite nice.

I expect it will remain a Pro feature for GMing.

 

[Uta-napishti]

Yeah, Discord has been rock solid for me for years, even from countries without access to stable high-speed bandwidth. I prefer Google Meet, but years ago I accepted that Discord is the default gaming video & voice app. Despite still finding the interface overly busy and distracting, I do like the consistent voice quality and all the applications available to customize your experience.

It's been rock solid for us too until yesterday .... my comment was just based on the irony of cancelling an RPG session based on each of those services failing us - in sequence - and then loading ENWorld to see the top story being them being combined