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VTT's

C

CapedCrusader

Well-known member
So, since we are all social distancing, let talk about VTT's - Virtual Table Tops.

These have been around a while, but are more important now than ever.

Which ones have you used, and which ones do you like?

I am getting familiar with both roll20.net and Foundry VTT.
 
I have d20Pro and MapTools, but other than a once a year long weekend with my oldest and dearest the only gaming I do is by online forums (MythWeavers), so I have very little experience in "live" use of either of them.
 
We've been using Roll20 w/ Jitsi Meet for telegaming. It's OK and we're kind of stuck with it because several of the guys don't have computers to run Fantasy Grounds, so we need the web interface. Otherwise I'd say Fantasy Grounds is the way to go. The Savage Worlds support is light years ahead of Roll20. Heck, I use FG at the table most of the time anyway for managing my character sheet and making rolls and such even without the others being on it. Never tried Foundry, though.
 
Seems very extensible, but it also has like zero Savage Worlds modules for it. It is browser-based, though, which is a plus for my group. I think we'll stick to Roll20 for now and hope the Fantasy Grounds Unity adds some functionality like that in the relatively near future.
 
I was a Kickstarter backer for Roll20, and had a mentor account. I've switched over to Fantasy Grounds.

That combined with the things the Roll20 devs have said in the past put a very sour taste in my mouth.

I also have an 11-seat license for d20Pro, but it just didn't appeal to me.

I wish I had the time to dig into MapTool, it seems like a far greater VTT than Roll20.


Dave
 
I've looked a little at Foundry, d20Pro, Fantasy Grounds, Roll20 and MapTools, and they all have some nice features but what's sold me on Roll20 (so far) is I don't have to install anything on my computer, poke holes in my firewall, etc. Even FG Unity and Foundry require me to run a server/service on my own hardware. I want something where everyone including me as the GM can just connect from any device, no matter where we are and get the game started.
 
OK, I can see that Fantasy Grounds is well supported, but also quite expensive to pick up even just the core game book materials. They want to charge you as much as you paid for the book itself for the data packs.

That being said, WOW there is a lot of Savage Worlds material for Fantasy Grounds.

So.

Being that I am a) single, b) able to work from home, so I still have a job, c) slightly ocd, and d) silly - I have gone in on roll20.net, Foundry VTT, and Fantasy Grounds. I am putting together a campaign and am deciding which of these I will use.

As far as the whole net-based vs running a game from my machine, I am a programmer, and I have access to network technicians in-house. So far all that has been needed for Foundry VTT is a port-forwarding. This can seem daunting, but is really pretty simple. I have not worked all the way through the FG campaign setup yet, just got it installed and need to figure out how to put in a map.

Onward and Upward.
 
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Well, the entire text of the PDFs for those settings is also in those data packs. The entire thing, including artwork, so in that sense I can see why they charge so much. The hard part is it's not all that accessible outside of the program, so there's a tradeoff there.

As for net-based, sure FGU is still a program on your computer (for now, being on Unity opens up a ton of options there which might make it all browser-accessible in the future, or so the devs have hinted at as a possibility) but you no longer need to be a host with FGU, you can have it all cloud-hosted instead so no need for setting up any port-forwarding or the like. FGU is in early-access still, though, although the "Demo" version is free (you just can't really GM a game with the Demo version, but you can definitely join a game). That hosting also should add (may already have, but I haven't looked at it) the ability to have open games as well, letting anyone join until you close out a game or the like. A VTT find-a-game lobby, if you will. Lots of potential there.

Oh, and being Unity also means a strong potential for it to run natively on not just PCs and Macs but Linux and tablet OSes as well. Those aren't all there yet, mind you, but that suggests to me there's going to be a big upside to FGU for the future.
 
Yeah, I went with Unity. (Hard to call it FGU - old schoolness lol FGU is Fantasy Games Unlimited, the old RPG you needed two hours and a calculator to create a character for...)
 
Self plug here but for the low low price of FREE, give MapTool a try and with all that money you'll save, you can spend it on Hero Lab! :D

But seriously, I've been told we have a great community of people so if you feel a little overwhelmed with a big blank grassy map, hit us up on Discord! Chances are, other people asked the same question(s) and willing to help new players get started (or search through the history for answers). We also have a forums if that's still your thing.
 
Yeah, but it looks like the main framework for really getting going with SWADE was only just picked back up to be worked on in December and is nowhere near ready, as far as I can tell (https://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=7443). For me that does make a big difference on wanting to really use it.

Plus the lack of a web interface is a potential issue. Although, TBH, I don't mind hosting it locally as a server if Maptool would present itself as a web page. So either as a GM I'm running the app and doing things from the application and the players connect to the web server front end set up by Maptool or even if I run it by connecting from a local browser instance to do the GM work as well would all be really, really nice additions to deal with that problem.
 
You're probably going to be better off going the other way, getting FoundryVTT (or any other VTT) to provide a way to import from Hero Lab. FantasyGrounds has an NPC Creator extension that can import a standard Stat Block format that is used in any Pinnacle products which Hero Lab supports as an output format. Others could potentially implement something similar.
 
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I ended up going lowball and I'm using roll20.net and using Discord for the voice chat. It does enough to get the job done. I tried FGU as a test but it was too cumbersome and my players weren't impressed.
 
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