Virtual table-top

Arkandel · Nov 23, 2020, 3:31 AM

Hey folks,

I wanted some advice! Since we're going into yet another not-a-lockdown lockdown I'll try to pull some real life friends into a D&D virtual tabletop campaign, and I was looking at Fantasy Grounds Unity (but please feel free to suggest alternatives).

So questions galore!

Is the $149 version worth it? Note the price might be lower if there's a Black Friday sale this year.
Some of the players will be newbies. Is it user friendly to allow folks to create/level up characters? Does it keep track of stuff like XP, item drops, etc and store the character sheets? Because that'd be awesome.
As the potential DM I'd like tools to make my life running combat smoother. Does it have tools to generate balanced encounters, help with tracking HP totals for the NPCs, etc?
Are virtual table-tops fun? I haven't done it, and I'm concerned it's going to be lackluster compared to the RL experience of rolling dice alongside pizza boxes.

I'm open to suggestions based on your experience.

WildBaboons · Nov 23, 2020, 3:35 AM

I've done exactly one VTT and it's pretty awesome. We use Roll20 though, but it's pretty smooth. Tracks character sheets and stuff. No idea how the DM interface is though

Snackness · Nov 23, 2020, 3:38 AM

@Arkandel I've played in both Fantasy Grounds and Roll20, though I haven't gotten a look at Fantasy Grounds Unity (I will on Tuesday!). FG is very elaborate and cool but was not user-friendly. Roll20 seems more bare-bones to me, but a little easier to use.

Both have nifty tools that take a lot of work off the GM but I've never been on that side so I can't say much else about it.

Virtual table-tops are, in my experience, like any other TT...depends on your group. I have had a WONDERFUL time during my virtual campaigns.

Roz · Nov 23, 2020, 3:39 AM

I have a DM friend who uses Foundry VTT for all his games now, and I've found it really nice on the player end of things. Definitely better on both DM and player end than Roll20.

Auspice · Nov 23, 2020, 4:02 AM

@Roz said in Virtual table-top:

I have a DM friend who uses Foundry VTT for all his games now, and I've found it really nice on the player end of things. Definitely better on both DM and player end than Roll20.

Got to echo this. In my 2nd D&D game now using Foundry and it's amazing.
Only the DM needs to purchase it.

WildBaboons · Nov 23, 2020, 4:05 AM

From a quick look at the mobile website it's hard to tell.. does Foundry support non-ogl books like roll20 and fantasy groundS?

Roz · Nov 23, 2020, 4:06 AM

@WildBaboons It does, although I think you're reliant on someone having built it for you or building it yourself. I can't speak to the difficulty/complexity level there, though.

Auspice · Nov 23, 2020, 4:10 AM

@WildBaboons said in Virtual table-top:

From a quick look at the mobile website it's hard to tell.. does Foundry support non-ogl books like roll20 and fantasy groundS?

This page lists all the packages, modules, etc. people have provided for it so far: https://foundryvtt.com/packages/

Testament · Nov 23, 2020, 4:55 AM

The campaign I'm currently in was run through roll20 at first, now we're using VTT.

What I will say is that VTT is very resource demanding for your computer. I did notice the 15% uptick in CPU temperature tonight while I was playing.

Roz · Nov 23, 2020, 4:55 AM

@Testament Yeah, that's a very good point. It's got a lot of cool effects it can do, but I've also seen some people with potato internet or potato computers struggle. So it'll depend on what people are using.

Testament · Nov 23, 2020, 5:02 AM

@Roz Right. This is the context I'll give. These is my current desktop setup, that I'd arguable call upper-mid to low-high build. I was running VTT on this desktop and Discord through my tablet for voice/camera functionality. So VTT was literally the only thing running on my desktop.

My temperature value at idle usually ranges between 44C to around 52C(to note, I think that's not a stable enough idle temp range, but I'm picky)

Running VTT, my average temp range was between 54C to 65C, so the jump was pretty noticeable. Just something for people to keep in mind if they decide to start using it.

Sunny · Nov 23, 2020, 5:14 AM

My OTT group is trying to get Fantasy Grounds working, and one of my players just---can't connect. Can't figure out what's going on, everything is setup like it ought to be, and it just doesn't work. Which is irritating. Otherwise, it's really not noob friendly, but it is learnable, and I think the complexity is worth it. If I can only get it to work.

Auspice · Nov 23, 2020, 5:27 AM

I'll tag @Jeshin here since he's a Foundry expert. Might be able to give those with questions about it more info.

Jeshin · Nov 23, 2020, 5:37 AM

https://foundryvtt.com/

1 license for 60 bucks
1 download for the DM
RPG agnostic with multiple systems and modules for support
Multiple patreon map maker support

I highly recommend

Sarc · Nov 23, 2020, 11:13 AM

We've been doing our weekly AL D&D for the last 6 months now virtually, as well as numerous cons. My results thus far:

Roll20 sheet creation is by far the easiest if you have to do it by hand. The site is very bare bones but it gets the job done and was easy to pick up. I'd only been back into D&D for a few months before we had to switch to it, and it went quite smooth. Plenty of character storage for free. All in all there's only a few things about it I don't like and they're minor. There are plugins to hook it into D&D Beyond so you don't even need to put in the sheet.

Fantasy Grounds does some very nice stuff in terms of tracking eg. Bless/Bane/etc. and concentration rolls, all the sorts of things you easily miss in roll20. But frankly I found the UI to be...very unintuitive and not user friendly. Character creation was confusing and complex by-hand but on the plus side you can import XML from eg. D&D Beyond, which by-passes that competetly.

I've only used these in an AL context so I can't speak to XP, but I use D&D Beyond for all my character sheet management in that regard. (We're in a shared campaign and so have most of the books available as a group.) So my recommendation is for roll20, with the warning that FG might be better for some people, I just found out difficult to use, where as roll20 is less polished looking but overall quite obvious in how to use it.

Arkandel · Nov 23, 2020, 1:23 PM

Since I haven't used a VTT please don't hurt rocks at my questions but...

Are they worth it over simply using Discord and a dice roller if you're more into theater of the mind (i.e. no figurines, hex grids, etc)? For example some folks mentioned keeping track of character sheets in D&D Beyond anyway.

Also what can they do for encounter generation and combat tracking? I've used Kobold Fight Club before which was neat, since I could create adjusted difficulty enemies on the fly ("create a medium difficulty fight for this group") and kept track of initiatives/AC/HP for the NPCs.

Also also - modules. For instance what does buying D&D bundles (not adventures but actual system books) actually unlock?

WildBaboons · Nov 23, 2020, 2:51 PM

If you're just using theater of the mind and no grid I'd just stick with D&D Beyond and Discord.. but honestly so much of combat in D&D is based on location and positioning that I'm not sure I'd even bother with using D&D at that point.

With Roll20 at least you don't have to use D&D Beyond at all, it's all self-contained. I think Fantasy Grounds is the same. You can buy (some) of the books through your VTT of choice and it unlocks the options in the book for you to use for character generator, encounters and the like.

Roz · Nov 23, 2020, 3:00 PM

@Arkandel Personally I know I'd have a terrible time doing tabletop -- or at least tabletop like D&D -- without some visual functionality, because D&D has a strong component with physical distances as a core component of how the system works. But that's a very YMMV issue, because other players will be different!

Packrat · Nov 23, 2020, 3:33 PM

I have been regularly playing D&D online through lockdown using Roll 20 and Skype and whilst a little clunky it seems to do the job well enough. D&D Beyond seems pretty great for tracking characters but buying (rebuying) all of your books in it is unnecessarily expensive if you want to do it properly.

Arkandel · Nov 23, 2020, 4:14 PM

@Roz said in Virtual table-top:

@Arkandel Personally I know I'd have a terrible time doing tabletop -- or at least tabletop like D&D -- without some visual functionality, because D&D has a strong component with physical distances as a core component of how the system works. But that's a very YMMV issue, because other players will be different!

Frankly at some point I'll go play on a session somewhere to judge for myself. But really the part I was hoping a VTT will help with is in logistical support - creating characters through a friendly interface, keeping track of XP purchases, but also giving some help with combat encounters.

I just don't intend to create dungeon or city maps, plan out the layout of every tavern the PCs enter, etc.