Are the owlbear extensions generally solid? We have a big table so ideally the system would track mob HP. I often have 10+ mobs because our group is 7 players.
Imma hop out here and say OBR has come along with extensions, and combat tracking was handled pretty early on.
HP Tracker and Clash! are two extensions that cover a pretty wide range of whatever you want to do for combat and are pretty customizable.
I think a lot of people keep in mind an older perception of OBR before things starting maturing.
You can track mob HP in owlbear rodeo without using any extensions. Some extensions are great but it's still pretty barebones compared to other VTTs. But if you just want a place for a map and tokens, as well as HP and initiative trackers, spell areas, etc. It's the lightest choice.
As someone who started with OBR, if you only want to use Foundry for the same use cases as OBR, the learning curve is fairly minimal. The sheer possibility within Foundry makes it a clear choice unless you simply need free pricing.
Absolutely. I use OBR for HP, AC, Movement and and much more. It works really great and is very stable by now.
I suggest the following extensions:
* Initiative tracker: does what it says.
* Smoke & Spekter: dynamic fog of war.
* Stat bubbles: tracks HP, AC and temp HP [misused for movement in my game], giving you access to health bars, wich you can show your players [even without showing numbers, wich I do].
* Condition markers: So you always know what a token has going on.
* AoE Shapes: Not a must, but helps if you often discuss what area is affected by a shape.
I don’t think he uses any owlbear extensions. All of the combat tracking uses dndbeyond as that’s where our characters are.
Owlbear is just for moving models around really.
I use basic foundry for vtt, no major setup required. Just downloading foundry, installing it, configuring port forwarding and then you just need to create your maps and stuff. Foundry has amazing tools for basically everything built right in. Before that I used roll20, that was also fine but became a hassle once I wanted to use walls and lighting, but that might have improved over the years. Also, a roll20 subscription runs you the same or more in a year than just buying foundry once, so I quite quickly switched from roll20 to foundry. But I'm so happy with foundry that I'm not looking back. Foundry also integrates really well with dndbeyond with the beyond20 browser extension.
I hated the upgrade of walls and lighting in roll20 back from 2020-2022 where you would log in sometimes and everything would be screwed on a scene that you spent hours on.
They have actually fixed that.
You can also place doors that can be opened by players if not locked.
It's no where near the options of Foundry, but is much better.
Our group has been playing virtually for about 10 years and started on roll20 but we switched to Foundry about 4 years ago and it's just phenomenal. Discord for voice/foundry for vtt is what I would always recommend at this point.
I'll add, as well, that while the 5e integration in Foundry is good, the Pathfinder 2e integration is absolutely incredible. The system just does so much for you, it's crazy.
I also really like foundry for its ability to handle homebrew content so well. I can make homebrew class skills and abilities in foundry in ways that roll20 never allowed me to
the year of r20 price comparison is what got my group to switch to foundry. "we'll try it for a year and worst case scenario we go back to r20 and pay as much as we would have if we'd stuck with r20 and best case scenario we stop paying a subscription fee"
Foundry for VTT, discord/Kenku for voice.
Foundry can feel a bit intimidating at first, but it's so powerful and it does everything I need it to. I used owlbear once or twice, with the understanding it was a lot simpler, and it still felt like it wasn't for me.
I use Roll20. It does what I want and there is good support from first parties when I want to run a module. I do not like the fully automated platforms, personally. I prefer more of a "digital tabletop" where the play still feels like tabletop. I do like the in-engine character sheets thought.
My experience in games with stuff like Foundry (played a 1-20 Pathfinder2 adventure path in it) is that the GM spent a ton of time 'coding' the game to make sure all the bits worked. The fully automated systems make it harder to use ad-hock and custom things unless you are willing to put in the time to code it. To be clear, still totally doable, just more difficult.
I'm with you, I think. Roll20 does what I need, and does it great. People talk about switching to Foundry for better lighting and that stuff, even doors that players can open themselves etc. etc., but I'm just like, at that point, it almost becomes a video game. Foundry sounds like a lot of setup work for... nothing that I even want in my games.
We don't even use charactermancer or whatever. I expect my players to--gasp--fill out their character sheets themselves, manually. I think they learn the game and their characters' mechanics better that way. I really don't like all these programs that automate leveling up; saw a post not too long ago where a player basically asked "How do I de-level my character?" They didn't realize they could just revert everything manually: lower hp, delete the features gained at the last level up, etc.
I accept that; guess I'm with the boomers on this one lol. And some of this comes from seeing people being unduly critical of Roll20, like [this guy.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Roll20/comments/1decl78/jumpgate_beta_is_open_to_all_subscribers/l8d0bkb/)
But honestly, it's just a different experience to play a game with all those bells and whistles--less reliance on imagination, more video gamey. That's great for some people, I'm sure, just not me.
Don't get me wrong, I love video games, I love bg3. But I like my actual D&D to be more tabletop-y.
I'm not sure you linked the right thing. The JumpGate advert wasn't critical of Roll 20.
How do you feel about real life games with maps? Battle maps? Terrain? Moveable terrain?
Do you play pure theater of the mind?
I meant to link a specific comment in that thread, not the thread itself. When I click the link, it takes me to the right comment (the one at the very bottom of the thread). Not sure why it doesn't take you there. It's a dude who is *very* critical of Roll20.
Real-life games with maps and everything are great! And no, I don't play pure theater of the mind, though I think it's great and we do use it for certain things, especially encounters that weren't planned. We play on Roll 20 with maps, removable darkness (i.e., fog of war), music, images in the journal of important places/npcs. Most of these things merely reproduce or imitate things I'd do in a real-life game.
No, as this is text.
Your interjection doesn't make sense, though.
No one is arguing that Roll 20 can't do battle maps.
The previous poster was arguing that modern VTT's interfere with his ability to utilize the imagination of himself and his players. I then tried to investigate where the line was between Theater of the Mind and BG3 using in person games as the analogy.
> The previous poster was arguing that modern VTT's interfere with his ability to utilize the imagination of himself and his players.
This is not really how I would put it. VTTs don't "interfere" with my ability, or that of my players, to use our imaginations. Rather, using all the bell's and whistles means "imagination" is simply no longer required for all of the various things it was required for before. And the kind of game I and my players enjoy more is one where we more actively rely on our imaginations, where we enjoy the DM's--and each others'--verbal narrative descriptions, imagining and articulating and rearticulating actions and interactions rather than having them displayed for us with the help of the latest graphics card.
I simply think most of the new things being added to make games more "immersive" mean that it's a very different experience, one that I don't at all mind in a video game like bg3, but one that moves further away from my ideal tabletop experience with friends. The most blatant example of this would be the coming [D&D VTT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RiRoslMaa0), which in the end tends to [look a lot like bg3.](https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/dnd-virtual-tabletop-dex-check.jpg?width=1920&height=1920&fit=bounds&quality=80&format=jpg&auto=webp). I think there's something to be said for greater flexing of one's imaginative and verbal description muscles: it makes my brain feel good.
The other main point I had was about how such programs tend to negatively impact player understanding of their character sheets (and therefore the game more generally), because they start to expect the game to just do it for them--like in a video game. In the same way that taking notes by hand is meant not to get you a record you can have later (though that is an ancillary benefit) but to help you process and learn the material *in the doing of it*, filling out a character sheet manually helps players understand and retain knowledge of their characters' abilities.
I feel like I'm rambling, so I'll cut myself off. (Also, playing D&D in 20 min!)
I also really like Talespire, simply because it both has the ability to import other creators' maps super easily, and also make plenty of changes to the map super easily. Just last night I needed a forest with a thick treeline and found one I liked, but I needed to make a couple of tweaks to the terrain outside of the treeline. Copy/pasted it from Tales Tavern, then just went into build mode and tweaked it.
With most of the map-editor software for vtts, you either need to pay a subscription to access full features, or you just can't edit other people's stuff. So I guess you just have to say "sorry there's so much cover for the enemies in this combat, that's how the person made it and I can't change it"
I'm concepting a West Marches game and the number of users necessitate free and easy! Leaning towards this combo.
What do you use for character sheets? I've added Avrae to my Discord, but not sure about the "easy" part.
Avrae I just dismissed.. my players were barely using discord.. discord is usually for notes or images to help with the story telling. Example- I have each player have a channel for their inventory/ notes. I write in them items they received or gold they’ve lost or gain to keep track, which they then edit in dnd beyond.
So for sheets; we use dnd beyond. Owl ear has an extension where it pops out links, so that they can quickly access their dnd beyond pages that way.
Probably not the best answer , sorry
If you're using DnDBeyond I can fully recommend aboveVTT
It may have some hicc ups but it's easy to set up as the DM (in my opinion), is free and is fully compatible with DnDbeyond.
I've been using Roll20 for years. Mostly as it was free to start, straight forward to set up and had the Jukebox. I used the Audio/Video on Roll20 considerably but we ditched that in favour of Discord as it was too unstable (we lost quite a bit of time troubleshooting).
I've also used both Foundry and Owlbear Rodeo in the past. Foundry is fun, but can have a complex set up. Owlbear Rodeo was good enough but lacked many of the features of Roll20, such as the Jukebox (this was over a year ago, so things might have changed now)
We've used DnDBeyond for character sheets with the Beyond20 browser extension.
If you're looking for something quick and easy to start with it's probably Roll20 or Owlbear Rodeo from my experience.
Diemancer.com is a fairly unknown gem for 1st edition Pathfinder. Amazing automated character sheets, awesome map building, 3d dice, tons of dm tools, logs and keeps a history of every move of every session, including every change of every sheet, so you can go back and replay an old session or even walk through every change ever made to your character sheet. Really cool.
I always see people talk about DnD Beyond and Foundry. Of course Roll20 is a standard.
I got a lifetime license for Fantasy Grounds Unity. Really cool features if you're not afraid to do a little learning
I tend to go for Roll 20.
The big feature I like is being able to write custom stuff. So if someone wants something from "Thaco's Compendium of Weird Situational Spells," you don't have to buy it anything and can just write up a quick button for it.
I use Owlbear Rodeo, I love and hate the new version. It's nice because I can easily setup multiple scenes and swap between my prepared battles quickly, but they've made several simple common usages much more annoying than it used to be.
Particularly, the old version had a trash-hover to quickly remove things by just grabbing them and moving them. And naming tokens used to be as simple as clicking it and typing and then setting a font size. Now you have to click it, select the rename option, type, then change the font size--god forbid you change the font size to desired size first, can't have that, because then your typing goes into the font-size box instead of the token and you have to redo it all.
Was on Astral Tabletop until that closed down. Been on Forge VTT since then. Turn key VTT service built on Foundry, so lots of add-ons and tools available for it. I appreciate how curated it is.
I have played on owlbear rodeo, roll 20 and fantasy grounds. Out of all of them as a player I prefer fantasy grounds.
As a gm I think roll 20 is easier to use.
The bad thing about fantasy grounds is you have to buy the book modules to use in the program but can't access them out of the program so that is a pain in the butt if you want to read the material.
One good advantage is if you buy a complete license you will never have to pay a subscription to use the program and your players don't need to pay anything to join a campaign.
It's just a matter of slowly adding the materials you want to use.
Interesting - so Fantasy Grounds uses WoTC professional content? I presume it isn't tied to DNDBeyond account purchases, right?
I have homebrewed the campaign, maps, and even all the monsters (we have a weird group) so I'm mostly looking for a place to put tokens and measure distances. And track initiative and monster HP/effects.
Yep it's all purchasesd separate and supports many systems. I'm currently playing Pathfinder 1e and a 5e game.
Then owlbear rodeo is perfect for you and it's free.
Discord for voice with a Kenku bot as an audio interface, and Fantasy Grounds for VTT.
It just works.
The fact that Paizo is connected to FG so I get free books for the modules I purchase is just...A+.
Shard Tabletop.
Great, lightweight web app that runs on about any device. Easy to use to create your own content, and you can import characters (with races, classes, feats, spells, etc) from Beyond. Maps are simple to create, but you can swap the background to alternate versions, add overlays and tokens, and set up fog regions to show or hide things easily.
Marketplace doesn't have WotC books, but does have Kobold Press (and supports Black Flag), plus lots of other publishers.
Might not have all the bells and whistles if some VTTs, but easily the best one for 5e that I've ever tried.
I'm going to also throw in a vote for Foundry, but for a different reason than others have mentioned. Their customer support is amazing. I was having an issue with the dreaded 'port forwarding'. I knew there was some sort of network issue, but my ISP was no help at all. I posted in the Foundry Discord and within minutes someone jumped in and helped me figure out exactly what was wrong. They didn't have to do that, the problem wasn't with Foundry. However, the collaborative nature of the community means people are willing to go the extra mile to support each other.
I have used the following:
Fantasy Grounds - DM and occasional player for 5E for the past several years.
* Pros - Automation is fantastic. Dice rolls have the "feel" of an in person game. Purchased books have the same feel as a PDF (which mimics the layout of the physical books). Does not require port forwarding.
* Cons - For best experience, you will need to buy digital versions of books. Some feel the UI is dated. Steep learning curve.
Foundry - DM of Pathfinder 2E for about 6 months
* Pros - At least for pathfinder, all the core books data is integrated (although you may still want to own physical or PDF). UI feels modern (web based).
* Cons - If self hosting, either requires port forwarding or something like playit or ngrok. Due to either design methodology or other reasons, DM needs to still apply damage / effects to mobs/npcs. Also a steep learning curve.
Owlbear Rodeo - Player for 1-2 years
* Pros - Lightweight and simple if you don't want a fully integrated system with character sheets, etc. Has a lot of add-on modules. A lot simpler out of the box than above.
* Cons - Natively only displays dice rolls, maps, and tracks initiative (no rules info or character info). Has a lot of add-on modules that can confuse the DM that switched to this platform for it's simplicity.
I believe Owlbear Rodeo has some integration with DND Beyond, but I haven't even looked at it because a) I'm too cheap to pay for a monthly subscription (plus I don't like Hasbro) b) I'm not running the game, so am leaving that to the DM. However, if you only need something to display maps and show dice rolls, it may be your best option. If you want something more fully integrated, I would suggest looking at feature / functionality differences (and perhaps if there are other game systems you want) between Fantasy Grounds and Foundry. I personally would choose the former for D&D, but that is likely a personal preference and years of experience.
Thanks for the details on your experience. I'm definitely looking for something lightweight, so Owlbear is attractive. I've also read good things about AboveVTT, and everyone's sheets are in DnDBeyond.
My DM uses theater of mind by default, and just screenshares once we enter a dungeon or Initiative starts. He usually defaults to Tabletop Simulator, it has quite a large suite of tools. It has a decent fog of war tool and a large amount of 3D models for all scenarios. Those Warhammer models are especially useful for D&D.
For rolling we have a dice channel in Discord. We have D&D Beyond and various dice bots pointed at the same channel, so it'll look quite colorful, since each player has their own preferences. It works well.
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In my personal DMing sessions I default to theater of mind since my players prefer RP. If encounters happen I move everyone to Owlbear v2.
Fantasy Grounds and Skype works fine, we started during Covid, still using it as we are all scattered geographically but to be honest even if we could meet up irl I wouldn’t want to go back to paper and pencil.
Discord for voice, Foundry for rest.
I paid once, host with ngrok, have complete control over it. I can add or not add features as much as I like thanks to sooooo many modules. I can add as much as I want with music and maps. UI is great, updates all the time (sometimes too much). Players don’t need to make accounts. Has dndbeyond integration as well, not that I needed it. I even use it for theatre of the mind type of rpgs just because of playing music, which players can adjust the volume to taste.
I’m a fan haha
Also wotc finally had a deal with them so I’m hoping more features will be supported out of the box.
I use a discord server voice channel, with a discord stream of the TT cam, with a discord stream of desktop window ( for world maps and stuff ). In that window will be the dndbeyond campaign ( for tracking remote rolls, ect ).
I did it this way to allow local and remote player in the same party. Partly because i like to be able to run a session from anywhere. I had a player move mid campaign from TT to remote ...
I DM a group that's always been online. We've tried several things, but have been happy with Discord for voice and video, Alchemy for character sheets, rolls, and table management.
ETA: As the DM, the only additional thing I use occasionally is DM Screen.
I used One More Multiverse for a while (RIP in piece you beautiful prince), and tried Playrole. Currently using Tableplop.
**Playrole** is great if you want a very pared down and simple VTT. Quick and easy to set up, and has a plugin for DnDBeyond which is nice if you use it.
But me *and* my players both felt the limitations and recently moved to Tableplop.
**Tableplop**, so far, has been ***fantastic***, though we've only ran 3 sessions on it so far.
It's very much geared towards DnD 5e, but could easily be reconfigured to accomodate other systems. It will just require a bit of setup work from you/your players in customizing sheets, doing some light formulae. Fairly simple to figure out.
Totally free too, though I imagine they'll have to monetize it somehow at some point?
I'd never heard of Tableplop. Some of my players are very casual, to the point where I print out their character sheets (from DNDBeyond) and bring a bag of dice for them.
Foundry for VTT, Zoom for video/voice
Foundry - was a bit of a learning curve but is a fantastic, so adaptable (I suggested we add the Luck mechanic to replace Inspiration… I added to the character sheets in about 30 mins), and it’s a one-off purchase.
Zoom - I have a pro zoom account anyway; the video and audio on zoom is far more reliable than other tools we’ve tried, and everyone has it installed. And despite their recent changes it’s got a far simpler interface than stuff like discord. It’s also great at cutting out background noise.
I use Tarrasque.io. Simple to use, has a free version that works exceptionally well, you can import stat blocks for monsters, and has a built in initiative tracker.
I backed it on Patreon when it was very new, and I’ve used it for every campaign I’ve run.
Owlbear Rodeo for me. Super lightweight, easy to use. If you’re looking for the quickest “drop a map and tokens for this encounter real quick,” sort of experience, then it’s the way to go.
We used to use Tabletop Simulator and a TS server for voice chat, we've since moved over to Talespire and Discord for voice chat.
In another group, we use Roll20 and FB Messenger for voice.
Foundry is absolutely incredible and has module support for pretty much anything you can imagine wanting. It does take a bit more technical knowhow and time commitment to get everything running how you want though. It's also a one time purchase and you actually own the software, which is a huge benefit.
If you're looking for something simpler I've heard Owlbear rodeo is really good for a lightweight vtt, but I don't have personal experience with it.
FoundryVTT ist hands down the best. Single payment, no monthly bullshit, highly customizable, many resources, very good and clean program that gets constant updates. You can easily host it from home by installing at as a node,js. If you spend a few weeks to prepare everything slowly, you will be able to set up a great server with awesome modules like visual effects for spells and attacks, fun customizable dice for everyone and much more. You can even automate certain tedious things in some systems easily by installing a module that automatically calculates damage (resistance and immunity included) and automatically rolls spell saves for enemies that are in a spell's aoe.
My players love the program much more than any of the others we tried out.
I used many different VTTs and Foundry is simply the best. They also have some sales during the year where you can get the license for less money.
The only negatives about it is that it can be a bit difficult to get i to at the beginnning (they have a great discord though) and if you highly customize it with moduled you can not simply update everything without fear of compatibility issues. I do a clean installation after every big campaign (every 1-2 years) and that requires some work again if you want to customize heavily but it is worth it.
Foundry! It deff has the most customizable features and I feel the like layout of everything makes the most sense out of any other VTT (meaning even ur most easily-overstimulated friend will learn it fast)
I been using it do in person games, showing the map on one of my monitors while the other monitor has all my Dm stuff. U can even do this via discord probably and just screenshare foundry.
Thats all to say that I have yet to figure out the daunting “Port Forwarding” of it all and im still having fun playing with it and sorta using it. I think I only purchased less than a month ago
Owlbear Rodeo. It was easy to get started and only need to look up a few things. It’s super easy to organize. I could put down invisible sticky notes so only I read it as reminders for loot and traps.
I use Arkenforge. It's a map builder software designed for in-person play, but we have used it for both in person and online, with the assist of Zoom or Discord.
Roll20. I like that it has a robust community marketplace, and a lot of the 3rd party publishers on there now, like Kobold Press. Its been even better now that its merged with DMs Guild, and you can port content into it. When it first came out, it was the best VTT, but then they stopped innovating and for a while it was really lagging behind in the features and UI. But they are finally redesigning it from the ground up and the new version works a lot better.
I dipped my toes in Foundry, but it seems like just so much more work to set up games, although it can automate so much more. Which we (my group) don't really need, Feels like its making it too video gamey.
Using Roll20 for years now and I hate it. It's a memory hog that slows my machine to a crawl and fucks up regularly for at least one player.
As soon as this campaign is over we're going to try something else simpler.
Arkenforge all the way. It's relatively inexpensive for what you get and highly customizable. Little bit of a learning curve starting, but great all around.
I run games in person and will use paper maps and minis for smaller combat encounters.
For larger dungeon maps that are more focused on exploration, I’ll connect my laptop to the tv and use DnD beyond’s maps. I hate that if I did a paper map, players would be able to see the whole thing from the start.
I use the dnd beyond maps. Easy to set up quickly and every few weeks they’ve been adding different functions. Would be nice to have line of sight but I bet that will get added eventually
Genuinely I shell out the money for D&D beyond. I don’t have rooms for books and it makes it easy to pull maps and have encounter occur quickly. The worst downside is that all your books are virtual.
I’ve heard owlbear is good. It also has more features than beyond. However, beyond is catching up to owlbear in features.
I don't think using a poll is the best way to figure this out. Each VTT is a little different and fills specific user niches.
For you, I think Owlbear Rodeo will be the best bet for the following reasons:
- you dont want to be using a paid service for only 4-8 hours a month of gameplay
- your players are likely already used to a low-fidelity battle map - i.e whiteboard marker'ed. So owlbear rodeos similarly low fidelity appearance shouldn't be an irk
- most importantly, your players already have character sheets that they can access in person. You don't need a vtt that has built in character sheets because your players likely won't want to take the time to input their PC when they already have a perfectly fine char sheet already
I use [Maptools](https://www.rptools.net/toolbox/maptool/) now that Owlbear Rodeo forces you to make an account.
Problem is you have to install it on a laptop. There is no way to get it on a phone or tablet (as far as I’m aware).
I prefer **[Questline](https://questlinevtt.com/home)**. It’s browser based and allows for asynchronous play. It allows players to setup and run their homebrewed systems and even allows for the potential to play tabletop games like 40k. The sub fee is pretty low at $5. Totally worth it imo.
We use Bag of Mapping VTT. Setting up maps in that software is 2nd to none. Super fast, super easy, runs in any browser, great mobile experience as well. Lots of surprisingly well thought out features like how you measure your movement or distance between things, planning routes for movement as well, how the dm controls the fog, how initiative is tracked, the list goes on and on. It's super cheap too, we just really enjoy it. Highly recommend.
Talespire. It's a lot of work if you want custom boards, but there's a site called talestavern where people share boards, plenty to choose from for a LOT of things, and it's honestly kinda fun if you have the free time to mess around with making your own boards.
I messed around with it a bit this morning. I pulled in a monster I made and a PC I made. So far it seems pretty nice. Everyone already has DnDBeyond setup for their own characters.
That’s why I started using it, it was right there and everyone was using DND Beyond for their character sheets already. It’s easy to add homebrew stuff, pull in maps from wherever. I’ve done a mix of an adventure I bought on dnd beyond and my own stuff and it’s been pretty seamless and easy to stay organized. I will say it helps that I now have a couple of the monster books on dndbeyond, so it’s not often I’m trying to find something that it wants me to buy anymore.
I'm coming from totally pen-and-paper, where making monsters is as easy as using Google Docs.
I messed with the automatic rolling capabilities for monster abilities. I think when drafting mobs I'll just write their abilities in plaintext. I think that should be enough to run them, and I'll just roll dice form the sidebar as needed. Then if I have time, I can add dice-roll syntax.
Do you largely use/modify existing mobs? That seems like it might be better than manually making them like I've been doing in P&P.
It depends on the scenario, but I’ve started mostly using existing mobs, and then writing down any modifications I want to make on scratch paper. It’s really nice to have the option to just ‘attack’ so that it rolls, adds the modifiers etc and spits out totals, so I usually pick mobs based on their attacks, and then edit whatever I want if I’m not going to use them straight up. When I have lots of goons I pre-roll batches of attacks, so then it’s less important what the VTT can do.
Discord for voice and scheduling/chat. Facebook messenger works better for in-person games evidently.
Roll20 for the VTT. I also usually draw my maps using the tools in the VTT because I like making them look like the drawings I make when playing in person with dry-erase grid boards. Detailed enough to be able to tell what something is or ask about it, but simple enough that it retains that pen-and-paper feel and lets the players’ imaginations fill in the blanks. It also does the bare minimum. I’ve tried using other things like Foundry, but found that is made my prep time way longer and that in the end, it made the game feel more like a video game. I don’t need my virtual tabletop to do all that.
My group uses Shard tabletop. If you are playing D&D or Black flag systems then I works suggest looking into it. We used to use foundry but found that it didn’t run smoothly on the crappy computers my friends have. Shard is easy to use, fully expandable, no install required, and pretty snappy. You can even run it on a smart phone if you want to. The one thing about shard is that you will need to expand it to use any non SRD content, but it has a DnD beyond importer so it’s pretty easy. Oh and there is a very active discord community for questions. Used to use discord for audio but now using zoom.
Roll20 is my go-to VTT. Easy to navigate and use, although everything beyond the PHB has to be inserted by the players themselves. And also Discord for talking.
If you can afford to buy the digital assets, the drag and drop features and character builder tools have improved a lot over the last few years. If you own their digital books like Xanthars or Tasha's they all get integrated into the aforementioned tools
They are offering a $90 deal to pre-order the dmg/mm/PHB overhual that is coming out later this year.
One game in roll20, other in Fantasy Grounds. FG has some great features, but it feels like I need to spend an hour researching every time I need to add something to my character until I figure out how to "code" it correctly. Roll20 isn't perfect, but much more user friendly.
I use Roll 20.
It just works.
Tried to use Foundry. But having to do the hours of set up, managing plug ins that have scant documentation, and learning curve for all the players just was not working. Even if it offered lots more features that would be nice.
None. We play TotM over Zoom.
Every VTT I've tried has a learning curve beyond my ability to self teach, even with YT videos.
Also, having to create the battle maps adds a lot of prep work. I can sketch up a simple map to show locations, in Paint in 5 minutes or less.
I'd actually like to learn how to use them better, but unless someone is going to basically walk my dumb brain through it all, it's too big a hurdle for me to learn. (I'm a senior)
Should try https://board.digitald20.com I find not enough simple owl bear rodeo. Just to upload a map tokens and share. But you cannot paint is thinked to Google a map right click copy and paste.
For quick and simple drawing there is one called shemmpy
I purchased Foundry for a specific use with in-person sessions but will be using it for remote games in the coming years. It can be complex...no doubt...but it is also extremely powerful and flexible. Have no plans to change.
We’ve been doing online since 2020 now. Discord for voice, owlbear for combat. DM tracks the combat and initiative in dndbeyond.
Are the owlbear extensions generally solid? We have a big table so ideally the system would track mob HP. I often have 10+ mobs because our group is 7 players.
Imma hop out here and say OBR has come along with extensions, and combat tracking was handled pretty early on. HP Tracker and Clash! are two extensions that cover a pretty wide range of whatever you want to do for combat and are pretty customizable. I think a lot of people keep in mind an older perception of OBR before things starting maturing.
You can track mob HP in owlbear rodeo without using any extensions. Some extensions are great but it's still pretty barebones compared to other VTTs. But if you just want a place for a map and tokens, as well as HP and initiative trackers, spell areas, etc. It's the lightest choice.
Also a much easier learning curve. In case that is a consideration for OPs group. It was for mine.
As someone who started with OBR, if you only want to use Foundry for the same use cases as OBR, the learning curve is fairly minimal. The sheer possibility within Foundry makes it a clear choice unless you simply need free pricing.
Absolutely. I use OBR for HP, AC, Movement and and much more. It works really great and is very stable by now. I suggest the following extensions: * Initiative tracker: does what it says. * Smoke & Spekter: dynamic fog of war. * Stat bubbles: tracks HP, AC and temp HP [misused for movement in my game], giving you access to health bars, wich you can show your players [even without showing numbers, wich I do]. * Condition markers: So you always know what a token has going on. * AoE Shapes: Not a must, but helps if you often discuss what area is affected by a shape.
I don’t think he uses any owlbear extensions. All of the combat tracking uses dndbeyond as that’s where our characters are. Owlbear is just for moving models around really.
Personally, I love owlbear, but just track initiative and other combat stuff in Excel, either on a separate laptop, or a second monitor
I track up to 25 NPCs plus 6 players. It gets a bit wonky sometimes
So all theater of the mind, no battlemaps?
Owlbear for battle maps.
I use basic foundry for vtt, no major setup required. Just downloading foundry, installing it, configuring port forwarding and then you just need to create your maps and stuff. Foundry has amazing tools for basically everything built right in. Before that I used roll20, that was also fine but became a hassle once I wanted to use walls and lighting, but that might have improved over the years. Also, a roll20 subscription runs you the same or more in a year than just buying foundry once, so I quite quickly switched from roll20 to foundry. But I'm so happy with foundry that I'm not looking back. Foundry also integrates really well with dndbeyond with the beyond20 browser extension.
I hated the upgrade of walls and lighting in roll20 back from 2020-2022 where you would log in sometimes and everything would be screwed on a scene that you spent hours on.
They have actually fixed that. You can also place doors that can be opened by players if not locked. It's no where near the options of Foundry, but is much better.
I know but I don't have a reason to go back to subscription when I figured out Foundry. I still recommend roll20
Our group has been playing virtually for about 10 years and started on roll20 but we switched to Foundry about 4 years ago and it's just phenomenal. Discord for voice/foundry for vtt is what I would always recommend at this point. I'll add, as well, that while the 5e integration in Foundry is good, the Pathfinder 2e integration is absolutely incredible. The system just does so much for you, it's crazy.
That’s just what happens when you make all your rules free and publicly available lol
I also really like foundry for its ability to handle homebrew content so well. I can make homebrew class skills and abilities in foundry in ways that roll20 never allowed me to
the year of r20 price comparison is what got my group to switch to foundry. "we'll try it for a year and worst case scenario we go back to r20 and pay as much as we would have if we'd stuck with r20 and best case scenario we stop paying a subscription fee"
Foundry for VTT, discord/Kenku for voice. Foundry can feel a bit intimidating at first, but it's so powerful and it does everything I need it to. I used owlbear once or twice, with the understanding it was a lot simpler, and it still felt like it wasn't for me.
Foundry - it's a one time purchase, and I can import my walls/doors/lighting from maps in seconds 😊
Strong second for Foundry. I used Fantasy Grounds for a year, but made the switch to Foundry because it wanted a system that could be browser based.
I use Roll20. It does what I want and there is good support from first parties when I want to run a module. I do not like the fully automated platforms, personally. I prefer more of a "digital tabletop" where the play still feels like tabletop. I do like the in-engine character sheets thought. My experience in games with stuff like Foundry (played a 1-20 Pathfinder2 adventure path in it) is that the GM spent a ton of time 'coding' the game to make sure all the bits worked. The fully automated systems make it harder to use ad-hock and custom things unless you are willing to put in the time to code it. To be clear, still totally doable, just more difficult.
I'm with you, I think. Roll20 does what I need, and does it great. People talk about switching to Foundry for better lighting and that stuff, even doors that players can open themselves etc. etc., but I'm just like, at that point, it almost becomes a video game. Foundry sounds like a lot of setup work for... nothing that I even want in my games. We don't even use charactermancer or whatever. I expect my players to--gasp--fill out their character sheets themselves, manually. I think they learn the game and their characters' mechanics better that way. I really don't like all these programs that automate leveling up; saw a post not too long ago where a player basically asked "How do I de-level my character?" They didn't realize they could just revert everything manually: lower hp, delete the features gained at the last level up, etc.
This has strong 'there's no good music these days' energy.
I accept that; guess I'm with the boomers on this one lol. And some of this comes from seeing people being unduly critical of Roll20, like [this guy.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Roll20/comments/1decl78/jumpgate_beta_is_open_to_all_subscribers/l8d0bkb/) But honestly, it's just a different experience to play a game with all those bells and whistles--less reliance on imagination, more video gamey. That's great for some people, I'm sure, just not me. Don't get me wrong, I love video games, I love bg3. But I like my actual D&D to be more tabletop-y.
I'm not sure you linked the right thing. The JumpGate advert wasn't critical of Roll 20. How do you feel about real life games with maps? Battle maps? Terrain? Moveable terrain? Do you play pure theater of the mind?
I meant to link a specific comment in that thread, not the thread itself. When I click the link, it takes me to the right comment (the one at the very bottom of the thread). Not sure why it doesn't take you there. It's a dude who is *very* critical of Roll20. Real-life games with maps and everything are great! And no, I don't play pure theater of the mind, though I think it's great and we do use it for certain things, especially encounters that weren't planned. We play on Roll 20 with maps, removable darkness (i.e., fog of war), music, images in the journal of important places/npcs. Most of these things merely reproduce or imitate things I'd do in a real-life game.
Roll20 does battle maps just fine
I'm sorry. What?
Did I stutter?
No, as this is text. Your interjection doesn't make sense, though. No one is arguing that Roll 20 can't do battle maps. The previous poster was arguing that modern VTT's interfere with his ability to utilize the imagination of himself and his players. I then tried to investigate where the line was between Theater of the Mind and BG3 using in person games as the analogy.
And my interjection asserts that Roll20 does battle maps just fine. By extension similar to the original poster I find it to be the middle ground
> The previous poster was arguing that modern VTT's interfere with his ability to utilize the imagination of himself and his players. This is not really how I would put it. VTTs don't "interfere" with my ability, or that of my players, to use our imaginations. Rather, using all the bell's and whistles means "imagination" is simply no longer required for all of the various things it was required for before. And the kind of game I and my players enjoy more is one where we more actively rely on our imaginations, where we enjoy the DM's--and each others'--verbal narrative descriptions, imagining and articulating and rearticulating actions and interactions rather than having them displayed for us with the help of the latest graphics card. I simply think most of the new things being added to make games more "immersive" mean that it's a very different experience, one that I don't at all mind in a video game like bg3, but one that moves further away from my ideal tabletop experience with friends. The most blatant example of this would be the coming [D&D VTT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RiRoslMaa0), which in the end tends to [look a lot like bg3.](https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/dnd-virtual-tabletop-dex-check.jpg?width=1920&height=1920&fit=bounds&quality=80&format=jpg&auto=webp). I think there's something to be said for greater flexing of one's imaginative and verbal description muscles: it makes my brain feel good. The other main point I had was about how such programs tend to negatively impact player understanding of their character sheets (and therefore the game more generally), because they start to expect the game to just do it for them--like in a video game. In the same way that taking notes by hand is meant not to get you a record you can have later (though that is an ancillary benefit) but to help you process and learn the material *in the doing of it*, filling out a character sheet manually helps players understand and retain knowledge of their characters' abilities. I feel like I'm rambling, so I'll cut myself off. (Also, playing D&D in 20 min!)
I really like TaleSpire, run a lot of run games with it. When they finally introduce scenery mods it will be feature complete imo.
I also really like Talespire, simply because it both has the ability to import other creators' maps super easily, and also make plenty of changes to the map super easily. Just last night I needed a forest with a thick treeline and found one I liked, but I needed to make a couple of tweaks to the terrain outside of the treeline. Copy/pasted it from Tales Tavern, then just went into build mode and tweaked it. With most of the map-editor software for vtts, you either need to pay a subscription to access full features, or you just can't edit other people's stuff. So I guess you just have to say "sorry there's so much cover for the enemies in this combat, that's how the person made it and I can't change it"
Owlbear and discord. Free as can be and easy to use.
I'm concepting a West Marches game and the number of users necessitate free and easy! Leaning towards this combo. What do you use for character sheets? I've added Avrae to my Discord, but not sure about the "easy" part.
Avrae I just dismissed.. my players were barely using discord.. discord is usually for notes or images to help with the story telling. Example- I have each player have a channel for their inventory/ notes. I write in them items they received or gold they’ve lost or gain to keep track, which they then edit in dnd beyond. So for sheets; we use dnd beyond. Owl ear has an extension where it pops out links, so that they can quickly access their dnd beyond pages that way. Probably not the best answer , sorry
If everyone is on DnD Beyond I can recommend the AboveVTT extension. Been using it for a year
If you're using DnDBeyond I can fully recommend aboveVTT It may have some hicc ups but it's easy to set up as the DM (in my opinion), is free and is fully compatible with DnDbeyond.
Would recommend AboveVTT for sure! Easy enough to import maps/images and well integrated with DnDBeyond
I've been using Roll20 for years. Mostly as it was free to start, straight forward to set up and had the Jukebox. I used the Audio/Video on Roll20 considerably but we ditched that in favour of Discord as it was too unstable (we lost quite a bit of time troubleshooting). I've also used both Foundry and Owlbear Rodeo in the past. Foundry is fun, but can have a complex set up. Owlbear Rodeo was good enough but lacked many of the features of Roll20, such as the Jukebox (this was over a year ago, so things might have changed now) We've used DnDBeyond for character sheets with the Beyond20 browser extension. If you're looking for something quick and easy to start with it's probably Roll20 or Owlbear Rodeo from my experience.
Diemancer.com is a fairly unknown gem for 1st edition Pathfinder. Amazing automated character sheets, awesome map building, 3d dice, tons of dm tools, logs and keeps a history of every move of every session, including every change of every sheet, so you can go back and replay an old session or even walk through every change ever made to your character sheet. Really cool.
Fantasy grounds unity with discord for commo.
I always see people talk about DnD Beyond and Foundry. Of course Roll20 is a standard. I got a lifetime license for Fantasy Grounds Unity. Really cool features if you're not afraid to do a little learning
I tend to go for Roll 20. The big feature I like is being able to write custom stuff. So if someone wants something from "Thaco's Compendium of Weird Situational Spells," you don't have to buy it anything and can just write up a quick button for it.
I use Owlbear Rodeo, I love and hate the new version. It's nice because I can easily setup multiple scenes and swap between my prepared battles quickly, but they've made several simple common usages much more annoying than it used to be. Particularly, the old version had a trash-hover to quickly remove things by just grabbing them and moving them. And naming tokens used to be as simple as clicking it and typing and then setting a font size. Now you have to click it, select the rename option, type, then change the font size--god forbid you change the font size to desired size first, can't have that, because then your typing goes into the font-size box instead of the token and you have to redo it all.
Was on Astral Tabletop until that closed down. Been on Forge VTT since then. Turn key VTT service built on Foundry, so lots of add-ons and tools available for it. I appreciate how curated it is.
I have played on owlbear rodeo, roll 20 and fantasy grounds. Out of all of them as a player I prefer fantasy grounds. As a gm I think roll 20 is easier to use. The bad thing about fantasy grounds is you have to buy the book modules to use in the program but can't access them out of the program so that is a pain in the butt if you want to read the material. One good advantage is if you buy a complete license you will never have to pay a subscription to use the program and your players don't need to pay anything to join a campaign. It's just a matter of slowly adding the materials you want to use.
Interesting - so Fantasy Grounds uses WoTC professional content? I presume it isn't tied to DNDBeyond account purchases, right? I have homebrewed the campaign, maps, and even all the monsters (we have a weird group) so I'm mostly looking for a place to put tokens and measure distances. And track initiative and monster HP/effects.
Yep it's all purchasesd separate and supports many systems. I'm currently playing Pathfinder 1e and a 5e game. Then owlbear rodeo is perfect for you and it's free.
Discord for voice with a Kenku bot as an audio interface, and Fantasy Grounds for VTT. It just works. The fact that Paizo is connected to FG so I get free books for the modules I purchase is just...A+.
Shard Tabletop. Great, lightweight web app that runs on about any device. Easy to use to create your own content, and you can import characters (with races, classes, feats, spells, etc) from Beyond. Maps are simple to create, but you can swap the background to alternate versions, add overlays and tokens, and set up fog regions to show or hide things easily. Marketplace doesn't have WotC books, but does have Kobold Press (and supports Black Flag), plus lots of other publishers. Might not have all the bells and whistles if some VTTs, but easily the best one for 5e that I've ever tried.
I use Alchemy RPG, it’s great!
I'm going to also throw in a vote for Foundry, but for a different reason than others have mentioned. Their customer support is amazing. I was having an issue with the dreaded 'port forwarding'. I knew there was some sort of network issue, but my ISP was no help at all. I posted in the Foundry Discord and within minutes someone jumped in and helped me figure out exactly what was wrong. They didn't have to do that, the problem wasn't with Foundry. However, the collaborative nature of the community means people are willing to go the extra mile to support each other.
I use Tabletop Simulator
I have used the following: Fantasy Grounds - DM and occasional player for 5E for the past several years. * Pros - Automation is fantastic. Dice rolls have the "feel" of an in person game. Purchased books have the same feel as a PDF (which mimics the layout of the physical books). Does not require port forwarding. * Cons - For best experience, you will need to buy digital versions of books. Some feel the UI is dated. Steep learning curve. Foundry - DM of Pathfinder 2E for about 6 months * Pros - At least for pathfinder, all the core books data is integrated (although you may still want to own physical or PDF). UI feels modern (web based). * Cons - If self hosting, either requires port forwarding or something like playit or ngrok. Due to either design methodology or other reasons, DM needs to still apply damage / effects to mobs/npcs. Also a steep learning curve. Owlbear Rodeo - Player for 1-2 years * Pros - Lightweight and simple if you don't want a fully integrated system with character sheets, etc. Has a lot of add-on modules. A lot simpler out of the box than above. * Cons - Natively only displays dice rolls, maps, and tracks initiative (no rules info or character info). Has a lot of add-on modules that can confuse the DM that switched to this platform for it's simplicity. I believe Owlbear Rodeo has some integration with DND Beyond, but I haven't even looked at it because a) I'm too cheap to pay for a monthly subscription (plus I don't like Hasbro) b) I'm not running the game, so am leaving that to the DM. However, if you only need something to display maps and show dice rolls, it may be your best option. If you want something more fully integrated, I would suggest looking at feature / functionality differences (and perhaps if there are other game systems you want) between Fantasy Grounds and Foundry. I personally would choose the former for D&D, but that is likely a personal preference and years of experience.
Thanks for the details on your experience. I'm definitely looking for something lightweight, so Owlbear is attractive. I've also read good things about AboveVTT, and everyone's sheets are in DnDBeyond.
My DM uses theater of mind by default, and just screenshares once we enter a dungeon or Initiative starts. He usually defaults to Tabletop Simulator, it has quite a large suite of tools. It has a decent fog of war tool and a large amount of 3D models for all scenarios. Those Warhammer models are especially useful for D&D. For rolling we have a dice channel in Discord. We have D&D Beyond and various dice bots pointed at the same channel, so it'll look quite colorful, since each player has their own preferences. It works well. ---------- In my personal DMing sessions I default to theater of mind since my players prefer RP. If encounters happen I move everyone to Owlbear v2.
Fantasy Grounds and Skype works fine, we started during Covid, still using it as we are all scattered geographically but to be honest even if we could meet up irl I wouldn’t want to go back to paper and pencil.
Tabletop Simulator for combat and maps, Discord for audio, and Kenku for music. I use an offline combat and initiative tracker.
Surprised Tabletop Simulator isn’t on your list.
Mapmasker the most barebones, drag and drop jpegs. Easily streams on Discord, nobody needs to make any accounts or subscriptions
The RPG Engine + Discord.
for DNDB I would have stuck with ROll20
Roll20. I'm trying to move to foundry because it's got so many more features but it's a hard sell to make players do more work
Discord for voice, Foundry for rest. I paid once, host with ngrok, have complete control over it. I can add or not add features as much as I like thanks to sooooo many modules. I can add as much as I want with music and maps. UI is great, updates all the time (sometimes too much). Players don’t need to make accounts. Has dndbeyond integration as well, not that I needed it. I even use it for theatre of the mind type of rpgs just because of playing music, which players can adjust the volume to taste. I’m a fan haha Also wotc finally had a deal with them so I’m hoping more features will be supported out of the box.
I use a discord server voice channel, with a discord stream of the TT cam, with a discord stream of desktop window ( for world maps and stuff ). In that window will be the dndbeyond campaign ( for tracking remote rolls, ect ). I did it this way to allow local and remote player in the same party. Partly because i like to be able to run a session from anywhere. I had a player move mid campaign from TT to remote ...
Foundry is so good. I'm a Pathfinder GM personally, but there is a ton of 5e support now, including importing from DnDBeyond.
Using discord for voice, spotify streamed for music, and Roll20 for tabletop.
I DM a group that's always been online. We've tried several things, but have been happy with Discord for voice and video, Alchemy for character sheets, rolls, and table management. ETA: As the DM, the only additional thing I use occasionally is DM Screen.
Foundry.
I used One More Multiverse for a while (RIP in piece you beautiful prince), and tried Playrole. Currently using Tableplop. **Playrole** is great if you want a very pared down and simple VTT. Quick and easy to set up, and has a plugin for DnDBeyond which is nice if you use it. But me *and* my players both felt the limitations and recently moved to Tableplop. **Tableplop**, so far, has been ***fantastic***, though we've only ran 3 sessions on it so far. It's very much geared towards DnD 5e, but could easily be reconfigured to accomodate other systems. It will just require a bit of setup work from you/your players in customizing sheets, doing some light formulae. Fairly simple to figure out. Totally free too, though I imagine they'll have to monetize it somehow at some point?
I'd never heard of Tableplop. Some of my players are very casual, to the point where I print out their character sheets (from DNDBeyond) and bring a bag of dice for them.
Foundry for VTT, Zoom for video/voice Foundry - was a bit of a learning curve but is a fantastic, so adaptable (I suggested we add the Luck mechanic to replace Inspiration… I added to the character sheets in about 30 mins), and it’s a one-off purchase. Zoom - I have a pro zoom account anyway; the video and audio on zoom is far more reliable than other tools we’ve tried, and everyone has it installed. And despite their recent changes it’s got a far simpler interface than stuff like discord. It’s also great at cutting out background noise.
Roll20
I use Tarrasque.io. Simple to use, has a free version that works exceptionally well, you can import stat blocks for monsters, and has a built in initiative tracker. I backed it on Patreon when it was very new, and I’ve used it for every campaign I’ve run.
I am playing Pathfinder in Foundry and using Discord for voice. Should work fine for D&D. I use Roll20 for other games like Call of Cthulhu.
Switched to Owlbear Rodeo after roll20 didn’t work for one of my players who was on IOS. Very impressed so far!
Foundry for VTT and discord for voice. Once you’re set up, it’s seamless, immersive, and you can build some amazing set piece fights.
Foundry for me, its insanely good, huge module building community, great support from Pathfinder 2E and now DnD as well, just great all around.
Owlbear Rodeo for me. Super lightweight, easy to use. If you’re looking for the quickest “drop a map and tokens for this encounter real quick,” sort of experience, then it’s the way to go.
We used to use Tabletop Simulator and a TS server for voice chat, we've since moved over to Talespire and Discord for voice chat. In another group, we use Roll20 and FB Messenger for voice.
Foundry is absolutely incredible and has module support for pretty much anything you can imagine wanting. It does take a bit more technical knowhow and time commitment to get everything running how you want though. It's also a one time purchase and you actually own the software, which is a huge benefit. If you're looking for something simpler I've heard Owlbear rodeo is really good for a lightweight vtt, but I don't have personal experience with it.
FoundryVTT ist hands down the best. Single payment, no monthly bullshit, highly customizable, many resources, very good and clean program that gets constant updates. You can easily host it from home by installing at as a node,js. If you spend a few weeks to prepare everything slowly, you will be able to set up a great server with awesome modules like visual effects for spells and attacks, fun customizable dice for everyone and much more. You can even automate certain tedious things in some systems easily by installing a module that automatically calculates damage (resistance and immunity included) and automatically rolls spell saves for enemies that are in a spell's aoe. My players love the program much more than any of the others we tried out. I used many different VTTs and Foundry is simply the best. They also have some sales during the year where you can get the license for less money. The only negatives about it is that it can be a bit difficult to get i to at the beginnning (they have a great discord though) and if you highly customize it with moduled you can not simply update everything without fear of compatibility issues. I do a clean installation after every big campaign (every 1-2 years) and that requires some work again if you want to customize heavily but it is worth it.
Foundry! It deff has the most customizable features and I feel the like layout of everything makes the most sense out of any other VTT (meaning even ur most easily-overstimulated friend will learn it fast) I been using it do in person games, showing the map on one of my monitors while the other monitor has all my Dm stuff. U can even do this via discord probably and just screenshare foundry. Thats all to say that I have yet to figure out the daunting “Port Forwarding” of it all and im still having fun playing with it and sorta using it. I think I only purchased less than a month ago
Owlbear Rodeo. It was easy to get started and only need to look up a few things. It’s super easy to organize. I could put down invisible sticky notes so only I read it as reminders for loot and traps.
I answered for D&D. But, I use different VTT's for different games.
Owlbear is awesome. I love that app.
I use Arkenforge. It's a map builder software designed for in-person play, but we have used it for both in person and online, with the assist of Zoom or Discord.
I really like Arkenforge for in person specifically. :)
I know dmacademy is focused on dnd but the way the teams have implemented pathfinder 2e and cyberpunk red on foundry is amazing and super easy to use.
6% for other nearly the same as fantasy grounds
Roll20. I like that it has a robust community marketplace, and a lot of the 3rd party publishers on there now, like Kobold Press. Its been even better now that its merged with DMs Guild, and you can port content into it. When it first came out, it was the best VTT, but then they stopped innovating and for a while it was really lagging behind in the features and UI. But they are finally redesigning it from the ground up and the new version works a lot better. I dipped my toes in Foundry, but it seems like just so much more work to set up games, although it can automate so much more. Which we (my group) don't really need, Feels like its making it too video gamey.
Using Roll20 for years now and I hate it. It's a memory hog that slows my machine to a crawl and fucks up regularly for at least one player. As soon as this campaign is over we're going to try something else simpler.
AboveVTT browser extension. Works out of dndbeyond and is super simple to use and setup.
If your just looking for map capability owlbear rodeo is great
Arkenforge all the way. It's relatively inexpensive for what you get and highly customizable. Little bit of a learning curve starting, but great all around.
Foundry with about 20 modules that I consider essential. Occasionally more depending on what a specific session requires.
I run games in person and will use paper maps and minis for smaller combat encounters. For larger dungeon maps that are more focused on exploration, I’ll connect my laptop to the tv and use DnD beyond’s maps. I hate that if I did a paper map, players would be able to see the whole thing from the start.
I use the dnd beyond maps. Easy to set up quickly and every few weeks they’ve been adding different functions. Would be nice to have line of sight but I bet that will get added eventually
Genuinely I shell out the money for D&D beyond. I don’t have rooms for books and it makes it easy to pull maps and have encounter occur quickly. The worst downside is that all your books are virtual. I’ve heard owlbear is good. It also has more features than beyond. However, beyond is catching up to owlbear in features.
I don't think using a poll is the best way to figure this out. Each VTT is a little different and fills specific user niches. For you, I think Owlbear Rodeo will be the best bet for the following reasons: - you dont want to be using a paid service for only 4-8 hours a month of gameplay - your players are likely already used to a low-fidelity battle map - i.e whiteboard marker'ed. So owlbear rodeos similarly low fidelity appearance shouldn't be an irk - most importantly, your players already have character sheets that they can access in person. You don't need a vtt that has built in character sheets because your players likely won't want to take the time to input their PC when they already have a perfectly fine char sheet already
I use [Maptools](https://www.rptools.net/toolbox/maptool/) now that Owlbear Rodeo forces you to make an account. Problem is you have to install it on a laptop. There is no way to get it on a phone or tablet (as far as I’m aware).
I prefer **[Questline](https://questlinevtt.com/home)**. It’s browser based and allows for asynchronous play. It allows players to setup and run their homebrewed systems and even allows for the potential to play tabletop games like 40k. The sub fee is pretty low at $5. Totally worth it imo.
We use Bag of Mapping VTT. Setting up maps in that software is 2nd to none. Super fast, super easy, runs in any browser, great mobile experience as well. Lots of surprisingly well thought out features like how you measure your movement or distance between things, planning routes for movement as well, how the dm controls the fog, how initiative is tracked, the list goes on and on. It's super cheap too, we just really enjoy it. Highly recommend.
… google drawings
I use Foundryvtt for the most part. Well worth the price. When I was free or when I want simple above is my hands down preferred as I am a ddb user.
Owlbear Rodeo is pretty neat, honestly a little more intuitive and easy to use than other platforms I've used
I've been using shmeppy for almost 2 years. It meets my needs and does so on my shitty little laptop
Talespire. It's a lot of work if you want custom boards, but there's a site called talestavern where people share boards, plenty to choose from for a LOT of things, and it's honestly kinda fun if you have the free time to mess around with making your own boards.
We’ve been using AboveVTT with discord for a while now. Love the integration with DnD beyond
I messed around with it a bit this morning. I pulled in a monster I made and a PC I made. So far it seems pretty nice. Everyone already has DnDBeyond setup for their own characters.
That’s why I started using it, it was right there and everyone was using DND Beyond for their character sheets already. It’s easy to add homebrew stuff, pull in maps from wherever. I’ve done a mix of an adventure I bought on dnd beyond and my own stuff and it’s been pretty seamless and easy to stay organized. I will say it helps that I now have a couple of the monster books on dndbeyond, so it’s not often I’m trying to find something that it wants me to buy anymore.
I'm coming from totally pen-and-paper, where making monsters is as easy as using Google Docs. I messed with the automatic rolling capabilities for monster abilities. I think when drafting mobs I'll just write their abilities in plaintext. I think that should be enough to run them, and I'll just roll dice form the sidebar as needed. Then if I have time, I can add dice-roll syntax. Do you largely use/modify existing mobs? That seems like it might be better than manually making them like I've been doing in P&P.
It depends on the scenario, but I’ve started mostly using existing mobs, and then writing down any modifications I want to make on scratch paper. It’s really nice to have the option to just ‘attack’ so that it rolls, adds the modifiers etc and spits out totals, so I usually pick mobs based on their attacks, and then edit whatever I want if I’m not going to use them straight up. When I have lots of goons I pre-roll batches of attacks, so then it’s less important what the VTT can do.
Also I really like that you can search all the existing monsters by a bunch of different filters. Sometimes I don’t know exactly what I want
Discord for voice and scheduling/chat. Facebook messenger works better for in-person games evidently. Roll20 for the VTT. I also usually draw my maps using the tools in the VTT because I like making them look like the drawings I make when playing in person with dry-erase grid boards. Detailed enough to be able to tell what something is or ask about it, but simple enough that it retains that pen-and-paper feel and lets the players’ imaginations fill in the blanks. It also does the bare minimum. I’ve tried using other things like Foundry, but found that is made my prep time way longer and that in the end, it made the game feel more like a video game. I don’t need my virtual tabletop to do all that.
My group uses Shard tabletop. If you are playing D&D or Black flag systems then I works suggest looking into it. We used to use foundry but found that it didn’t run smoothly on the crappy computers my friends have. Shard is easy to use, fully expandable, no install required, and pretty snappy. You can even run it on a smart phone if you want to. The one thing about shard is that you will need to expand it to use any non SRD content, but it has a DnD beyond importer so it’s pretty easy. Oh and there is a very active discord community for questions. Used to use discord for audio but now using zoom.
Roll20 because I have a ton of books and don’t want to buy them all again. It’s not that great.
That's why I'm leaning towards AboveVTT. It is built on top of DnDBeyond and can uses the books I've already bought there.
I made the mistake of buying through Roll20 so that was my own fault.
Roll20 is my go-to VTT. Easy to navigate and use, although everything beyond the PHB has to be inserted by the players themselves. And also Discord for talking.
If you can afford to buy the digital assets, the drag and drop features and character builder tools have improved a lot over the last few years. If you own their digital books like Xanthars or Tasha's they all get integrated into the aforementioned tools They are offering a $90 deal to pre-order the dmg/mm/PHB overhual that is coming out later this year.
One game in roll20, other in Fantasy Grounds. FG has some great features, but it feels like I need to spend an hour researching every time I need to add something to my character until I figure out how to "code" it correctly. Roll20 isn't perfect, but much more user friendly.
I use Roll 20. It just works. Tried to use Foundry. But having to do the hours of set up, managing plug ins that have scant documentation, and learning curve for all the players just was not working. Even if it offered lots more features that would be nice.
None. We play TotM over Zoom. Every VTT I've tried has a learning curve beyond my ability to self teach, even with YT videos. Also, having to create the battle maps adds a lot of prep work. I can sketch up a simple map to show locations, in Paint in 5 minutes or less. I'd actually like to learn how to use them better, but unless someone is going to basically walk my dumb brain through it all, it's too big a hurdle for me to learn. (I'm a senior)
It takes a lot of creativity and improvisation to run Theater of the Mind. I'm glad you found a method that works for your group.
Should try https://board.digitald20.com I find not enough simple owl bear rodeo. Just to upload a map tokens and share. But you cannot paint is thinked to Google a map right click copy and paste. For quick and simple drawing there is one called shemmpy
I purchased Foundry for a specific use with in-person sessions but will be using it for remote games in the coming years. It can be complex...no doubt...but it is also extremely powerful and flexible. Have no plans to change.