D&D 5E Which Virtual Table Top are you using right now and what do you like best about it?

[LordEntrails]

Thinking about switching over to FG.

1. Is it easy to host games for people to connect to?

Usually. FGC requires IPv4 and port forwarding. Most networks can handle this automatically, but sometimes the GM/host has to do setup. FGU has cloud brokered connections that bypass the port forwarding need and it supports IPv6.

2. Do they get new modules on release (and configured)

Yes, they release them on the same day as the Wizard's Play Network date. Which is when DDB and FLGS get to release them and before Amazon etc.

4. FG classic or FG unity?

FGU is probably the best candidate. It is still in Beta (probably a few more months) so you do have to put up with some issues occasionally, but for most people it runs great. If you buy via the FG Store their is a 30 day refund you can get if it doesn't work for you.

FGU does require a 64 bit modern O/S, but that's usually not a problem (i.e Win 8+ Mac 10.13+)
FGC does not run natively on Mac or Linux (FGU does) and therefore can not run on Mac o/s Catalina unless you do some special things on your own (unsupported).

 

[MNblockhead]

I've used a number of VTTs:

Map Tool was my main go to for some time. I didn't use it to really host games in the traditional sense, but instead to share a map and reveal it as the party explored. But I had to move all the tokens. For in-person games or for just sharing maps and GM-moved tokens with a screen share, it is great. I can access hundreds of maps and thousands of tokens and quickly search and filter on this. With very little prep I can find a map, open it with fog of war, and find and place tokens. It is one of the few VTT tools that I can run unplanned, improv sessions with. But setting it up for an on-line VTT experience with each player controlling their own tokens is a pain and requires players installing software on their computers. It is open source and has frameworks for various games but they are created and maintained by volunteers. I think many people would find Map Tool frustrating to set up.

I've used Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 as a player. When overseas, Fantasy Ground is almost unusable in the areas I work due to bandwidth and restrictions on the FG game-hosting platform. I have to use a 3G connection on my cell phone with a VPN, which will allow me to play, but there is no way I could run a game. I liked FG Classic okay and an subscribed to Fantasy Ground Unity for a few months when I was in the USA, thinking I would host games with in in the US and just use it to share maps via Google Meet when overseas, but FGU was too unstable and I gave up on it.

Roll20 is great as a player and has worked in every country I've tried to access it from, including countries in the mid-east and Asia. It is great for pick-me up games and has a good international customer base so I can find one-off games in most time zones. But I never liked running games in it and only subscribed for a few months before cancelling. It just got too laggy with large maps and lots of walls.

I've tested d20pro and like it but never actually ran or played in games on this platform. I didn't buy it because I didn't want my players to have to install software and because it didn't have the fog-of-war reveal tools that I needed to pull up an run maps on the fly.

Astral is very slick but is only useful if you are (a) going to prep all your maps with lighting controls and walls or (b) are okay with just revealing the entire map.

A few months ago, I find went all in with Foundry. The base program with a few plug ins meets all my requirements. I ended up hosting with The Forge since I didn't want to bother hosting myself. Having to buy the license and the hosting separately may confuse or annoy some people but overall once you are set up I find it no more difficult to get started with than any other VTT. One of the draws is its extendibility which allows you to expand and customize the program without having to know any coding. I have extensions that let me take in characters and other content from D&D Beyond and also connect it with World Anvil.

Foundry is also the VTT that finally got me into actually using lighting, line-of-sight, and auto-reveal features. I find it easier than other VTTs and actually use it for most of my maps now. But I can still pull up a map with fog of war and throw tokens on it quickly. Not as quickly as Map Tool, but quick enough. It is actively and rapidly developed with a very active modding community, several of whom have successful patreons that fund them. The main thing is is missing is official WOTC content if you care about that, though it does support 5e open game content. I would also like to see more automation like Fantasy Grounds for 5e. But that is a nice-to-have for me, not a must have. While I like all of FG's automations, there is a high cost and high learning curve to take advantage of them and I found I could really only take advantage of it if I stuck with official WOTC adventures. For third party stuff, I would have to do a lot of data entry that I have no interest in.

I also like how their is a growing community making very slick, fully-prepared adventures for foundry with all the lighting, walls, statblocks, adventure text, etc. preentered. I'm hoping this leads to a lot of content being developed by third-party publishers who can do so without having to contract with Foundry, use Foundry's shop, etc. If Foundry gains a big enough customer base, I think it would provide one of the more profitable ways to sell VTT-ready adventure content.

 

[Quickleaf]

I use zoom for the video chat and had been using Microsoft Excel on a shared screen for the map and tokens.

But then one of my players told me about Owlbear Rodeo, a new free basic VTT that works like gangbusters for someone like me. Upload a gridded map (or use one of their basic blank ones), use the tokens provided or upload some of your own, cover the map with fog of war, then send your players the web address to load in. They then can move their own tokens around the map.

It is a simple and easy VTT that doesn't bother with adding in all the rules of 5E, it's just for easy mapping. As my players all have their characters on D&D Beyond, the easy map is all we need.

I heartily second Owlbear Rodeo. Have used it for several games (we use Discord Voice/Video & Beyond 20), and it's a very cool lightweight VTT without any of the learning curve or headache of the more robust VTTs.

 

[Azzy]

Beyond20 now works with Astraltabletop. That's a huge step forward in my willingness to try a new one.......

Well, then. That may be the impetus I need to finally migrate over to Astral. That and Tabletop Simulator was giving me a bunch of headaches this past session.

 

[Scott Christian]

Playing and setting up Let's Role for my game. So far I like the user interface; however, our game has very specific rulesets that use cards. So we're still waiting to see if those can be implemented.

 

[Hussar]

I realize it's a pretty small selection so far, but, wow, I had no idea that Roll20 was that much more popular than anything else.

 

[Zaukrie]

I realize it's a pretty small selection so far, but, wow, I had no idea that Roll20 was that much more popular than anything else.

Timing and it is free. I think Astral and Foundry will overtake it at some point......Roll20 has a lot of technical debt.

Or, whatever DnDbeyond eventually builds/buys.....

If Fantasy Grounds U didn't have to be backward compatible (it did, that decision made sense), they'd have a better product, and that might have let it grow more. But I think the archaic UI and other things will hold it back.

One thing I've realized......I don't want a fully automated game. I want maps, tokens, and templates for effects. The rest doesn't need to be automated for me.

edit to add: Character and monster stuff....that needs to be better than most VTTs can do. It is why I used DnD Beyond and Beyond20 for that stuff......I can't imagine levelling up a character outside dndbeyond at this point (so silly, I never used tech before!)

 

[MNblockhead]

I heartily second Owlbear Rodeo. Have used it for several games (we use Discord Voice/Video & Beyond 20), and it's a very cool lightweight VTT without any of the learning curve or headache of the more robust VTTs.

Wow, Owlbear Rodeo looks great. If you just want to have an online version of your Chessex Battlemap or dungeon tiles, but with fog of war, it does the trick. It is great that their is a low cost option for those who don't have the time, money, or don't want the hassle of learning the more feature-rich VTTs.

 

[Mallus]

Roll20 as a player. It's my first time using a virtual tabletop and so far it's been a really good experience. We're using it for Labyrinth Lord, so not exactly a very... technical RPG.

 

[Hussar]

Timing and it is free. I think Astral and Foundry will overtake it at some point......Roll20 has a lot of technical debt.

Or, whatever DnDbeyond eventually builds/buys.....

If Fantasy Grounds U didn't have to be backward compatible (it did, that decision made sense), they'd have a better product, and that might have let it grow more. But I think the archaic UI and other things will hold it back.

One thing I've realized......I don't want a fully automated game. I want maps, tokens, and templates for effects. The rest doesn't need to be automated for me.

edit to add: Character and monster stuff....that needs to be better than most VTTs can do. It is why I used DnD Beyond and Beyond20 for that stuff......I can't imagine levelling up a character outside dndbeyond at this point (so silly, I never used tech before!)

While I'm frequently a pretty vocal critic of Fantasy Grounds, I'm not really sure how much easier it could be to level up a character in FG. Drag and drop the level of the class you are adding, and everything is automatically calculated. I'm not really sure how much easier that can get.

The automation - or macros really - just saves typing time really. I mean, sure, it's great to pick up a die and roll it, but, having a button that you drag and drop onto the baddy where it automatically calculates pretty much everything for you is a big plus AFAIC.

But, I do agree, FG's UI is FUGLY. That, and the lack of so many basic options really does bug the crap out of me.