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Author Topic: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform  (Read 3141 times)

oggsmash

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   I was curious how many folks here have ever played in or run a game on roll20.   It seems to support a couple of rulesets I like quite a bit there and I was wondering how performance is online.  I read some people feel the audio and video are better with a third party.   I personally prefer to meet my group in person, but I am really busy now, and getting that gang together is like herding cats.  I feel roll20 might give us a good bit of consistency with actually finishing a campaign or two.

Shrieking Banshee

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2020, 08:20:23 PM »
Worse then in person but the most hassle free of the online game hosting things even if the owners are utter shits.


Audio is indeed better 3rd person.


Its in part customizable so thats a plus.

GameDaddy
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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2020, 08:25:35 PM »
Roll 20 works just fine. There are a few small improvements it could use. It's functional, you can create dice macros on the fly.

I use Discord for audio, and don't usually use video, just the VTT so it minimizes any lag.

My experience has been good with the software and mediocre with the Roll20 design team.

Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

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lordmalachdrim

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2020, 09:51:14 PM »
Tried it years ago when it first came out. Had nothing but issues so we went back to Fantasy Grounds and haven't looked back.

spon

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2020, 05:20:04 AM »
I use roll20 for maps and die-rolls and discord for chat and audio. It can be a bit laggy when it's busy but it's pretty handy whilst we can't meet face-to-face.

S'mon

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2020, 05:27:51 AM »
I use the VTT along with text chat - the audio/video is terrible but I've come to love the VTT. With a Pro account I can use the Transmogrifier in Settings to build maps in one game and export them to my other games, so eg the work put in to making a cool castle isn't wasted. It has definitely given back the more I've put in to it - getting to know it was my summer project and I have got quite hooked on building my virtual worlds and letting my players loose in them. I'm very much a sandbox GM and the Roll20 VTT setup is really good for this IME. I bought a few premium assets - Slap Down Towns, Slap Down Fortress, and the WoTC tiles set. The former two at least have been great value. But there are a ton of free web assets you can access directly from within Roll20.

mAcular Chaotic

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2020, 10:29:07 AM »
I’m a big r20 guy. I’ve used it over 5000 hours over 5 years. I’ll drop my take soon when I get a chance.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.

KingCheops

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2020, 12:00:34 PM »
I play in roll20 but have been running games in Tabletop Simulator.  I love roll20 and find it very powerful.  But as a couple other people have said you do need to put time into a) learning it, and b) setting it up.  That being said it is so much more powerful than TTS where I spend a TON of time trying to set things up but don't get nearly half the payoff I do in roll20.


For instance I had to put my map on game tiles, arrange them on the table top and then apply black stamps to every part of the map so that I could remove them as needed.  If this were roll20 I could load a map and then add fog of war and trace the map.  Then as the players explore they just naturally see what they see -- including only illuminating what they can actually physically see.  I'm trying to fiddle about with templates in TTS to try to figure out how to show who can see what.  Very fiddly.


But a couple of people who require the more "sensory" feel of TTS now feel better about playing online.  FML.

Steven Mitchell

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2020, 01:08:43 PM »
KingCheops,
As soon as I can scrape together some time to do it, I'm going to try a game in TTS.  Already bought and downloaded, just life getting in the way. 

After reviewing all the platforms out there, I think it might work better for my style of "mostly no grid", strangely enough.  Have you done much with that where you don't even use the tiles?  Maybe sketch a few wall like on a battle mat?

KingCheops

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2020, 03:07:35 PM »
KingCheops,
As soon as I can scrape together some time to do it, I'm going to try a game in TTS.  Already bought and downloaded, just life getting in the way. 

After reviewing all the platforms out there, I think it might work better for my style of "mostly no grid", strangely enough.  Have you done much with that where you don't even use the tiles?  Maybe sketch a few wall like on a battle mat?


I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage so I'm not doing gridless.  They had a patch back in like May where they got rid of the Pixel Paint and replaced it with a Vector Paint.  Unfortunately that means they've limited the amount of lines you can draw and made it harder to erase.  It might be okay for your purposes if you aren't trying to keep a map up permanently.  I'd been hoping to just paint over my map and slowly erase as they discovered stuff.


Oh I did try to use it to draw some of the Elder Runes on the table top but I already suck with paint anyway so didn't work hot for me.  But it does work.  Also my group gets a kick out of the Blindfold feature I use to cover their eyes while I make sure I don't show secrets while unstamping my map.


Just as a virtual table top it is very pretty.  We play in a tavern and we have chairs at the table and our avatars at the table.

Dropbear

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2020, 04:39:57 PM »
I was using R20 while our city was on lockdown in March-April. Our group meets on Fridays every week, and we were unable to during that time. No one could get the audio working properly, although the proper instructions were being followed (I think). Only myself and my fiancé could regularly make conversation using R20, so we moved to Discord. other than that, it seemed to work very well for dice rolling and character sheets. I was impressed, and I still think it’s likely issues with group members’ equipment that caused a lot of the issues. Two of those who had issues were using $40 Android tabs on 6 or so year old versions of Android trying to use R20, and those same folks had issues with Discord frequently just shutting down.

rocksfalleverybodydies

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2020, 09:09:54 PM »
Roll20 is good for setting up quick maps and grid-based combat.
It's popular so a lot of YT tutorials on how to set it up and most VTT players are at least familiar with it to some degree.


That being said, if a new user looking for a VTT purchase, I would not invest any serious money into it as you're then locked in, paying your subscription fee just to use all the stuff you purchased.


For the basic, free option it's fine.

mAcular Chaotic

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #12 on: September 02, 2020, 09:57:40 PM »
roll20 is great. It's easy for your friends to jump in because they don't need to download anything -- all they need to do is make an account and use their browser.

The one caveat I would add is that using it is like learning its own separate game. Running D&D on roll20 isn't just running D&D, you have to learn roll20 on top of it completely separately. So it adds to the overhead. But once you learn how then it's smooth sailing.
Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don't ask why I fight.

Libramarian

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #13 on: September 03, 2020, 12:08:15 AM »
Their twitter feed with its upsidedownland picture of roleplayer demographics is kind of annoying, but the product itself is quite nice and my campaign there is going great.

I didn't have too much trouble learning how to use it. I think the most difficult thing was aligning the grid to the maps. Just have to start in the middle and make adjustments to every side of the image.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2020, 12:10:12 AM by Libramarian »

spon

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Re: Roll20 experience out there? Curious about experiences with the platform
« Reply #14 on: September 03, 2020, 05:36:44 AM »
I think the most difficult thing was aligning the grid to the maps. Just have to start in the middle and make adjustments to every side of the image.


Tell me about it! One of the things I didn't realise initially was that when you stretch out/enlarge any picture using the mouse, it doesn't necessarily keep the aspect ratio the same. You can stretch in one direction only, but it takes a bit of practice and until you realise it's possible, it's pretty frustrating when your square map only aligns to the grid in one direction!