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Author Topic: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.  (Read 2102 times)

rocksfalleverybodydies

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2021, 11:20:37 PM »
Not to start a VTT debate but while Roll20 is fine, honestly, if you need more than free and you are looking to spend any heavy amount of money, I would not lock myself into their subscription plans.  They're falling way, way behind the competition in terms of progress and improvements.  Foundry is the real juggernaut right now and not subscription.

Either way, glad it was an online success for your group.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2021, 11:22:15 PM by rocksfalleverybodydies »

Yeti Spaghetti

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #16 on: July 26, 2021, 12:01:22 AM »
Not to start a VTT debate but while Roll20 is fine, honestly, if you need more than free and you are looking to spend any heavy amount of money, I would not lock myself into their subscription plans.  They're falling way, way behind the competition in terms of progress and improvements.  Foundry is the real juggernaut right now and not subscription.

I've heard good things about Foundry so I'll have to check them out. I like the crisp look of Roll 20 and the general ease of use, but I'm totally open to another platform.

Yeti Spaghetti

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #17 on: July 26, 2021, 12:28:23 AM »
Just tried Foundry out and frankly it seems way less intuitive than Roll 20. They certainly aren't going for the more familiar social media-style layout. It will take quite a bit of getting used to.

Zalman

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #18 on: July 26, 2021, 09:48:05 AM »
I'm always confused by people suffering through roll20 in order to use a minimal set of features, when other sites do that same minimal set so much better. http://owlbear.rodeo is my favorite. Faster, cleaner, and with all the features most people actually use at roll20.

roll20 is cool if you want to play WoTC's game and need the rules baked into your tool. I guess.

Personally, I pass on roll20 games. They just make my face hurt.
Old School? Back in my day we just called it "School."

rocksfalleverybodydies

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #19 on: July 26, 2021, 09:56:50 AM »
I'm always confused by people suffering through roll20 in order to use a minimal set of features, when other sites do that same minimal set so much better. http://owlbear.rodeo is my favorite. Faster, cleaner, and with all the features most people actually use at roll20.

roll20 is cool if you want to play WoTC's game and need the rules baked into your tool. I guess.

Personally, I pass on roll20 games. They just make my face hurt.

Owlbear is a great option.  Just wish it had customizable dice roll macros.

S'mon

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #20 on: July 26, 2021, 10:49:49 AM »
roll20 is cool if you want to play WoTC's game and need the rules baked into your tool. I guess.

Yeah, Roll20 is largely designed around 5e D&D and does a good job running it. Most other systems not so much.

I used to be subscribed but not currently; I'll resub for $5 if I really need to upload some stuff. Some of my players hate Dynamic Lighting so I stick with Fog of War.

Snark Knight

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #21 on: July 27, 2021, 12:02:53 AM »
Roll20 is serviceable if you don't want to spend a penny, but the moment you consider forking over money you may as well go to Foundry. In all of the years they've worn the 'Virtual Tabletop' crown they've pretty much added nothing, made far more problems than they've fixed and actually removed features previously available to Free users and slapped them behind their subscription. Things like their old Music search also got the chop which both hurt functionality/ease of use, but they also did this at the same time they dramatically downsized your storage. They managed to break everyone's Dynamic Lighting at least once and just shrugged, expecting everybody else to sort it out.

I paid for Foundry and never looked back. At first glance it can seem more complicated, but just watch a few tutorial videos and you'll quickly realise both how much easier it is to interface with and how nice it is not to actively fighting the fucking platform itself half the time.

Oh and Foundry's staff presumably don't care if you're "another white male", unlike R20.

Yeti Spaghetti

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #22 on: July 27, 2021, 01:20:28 AM »
I don't know, none of that is my experience. I feel I've gotten decent support at Roll 20. I guess that could change if I pay for an account and can't get the API script that I want to work, but I'm sure the other features will still come in handy, although I doubt I'll ever use dynamic lighting.

Yes it can be glitchy at times (the 3D dice seemed to be screwing up for us last week) but we're largely using chat in my campaign, so the problems that people have apparently encountered with voice and video aren't an issue for me.

Murphy78

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #23 on: July 27, 2021, 04:08:05 AM »
I'm pretty new too (started last month). At first I was opposed to 2D maps and fog of war but I've been experimenting with new features every week and it's great. I've even bought a couple things off the Marketplace and probably will buy more.

For me, Fog of war is an invaluable asset. I really like I can reveal the map as the players explore the game.
I DID buy the DnD 5e PHB, which makes the character generator actually useful.
I might buy the Monster manual and DMG at some stage, but it depends how much I run DND with Roll20.
So time will tell.

 
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As far as upgrading from the free membership, I'll probably do this soon as well, mostly because I need to be able to post more in the Join forum for my game (which is niche and doesn't have as many needy customers as 5e). But I might even get fancy enough to install an API script and macro for rolling and calculating damage. The Pacesetter system is a pretty gritty percentile table system, and apparently one of the Roll 20 script creators has one waiting for me that will roll and calculate based on the table. So, there's some great support there generally.
time will tell regarding subscription. I may if I buy a lot of books (which can be shared to players too).
I'd have to be using Roll20 a lot (pretty much replace tabletop gaming) to subscribe.

I'm not in VVT mainly out of laziness, I don't want to learn the stuff.
This is how I do fog of war (using discord for chat and video):
- I take the image of the dungeon on my tablet and I brush it black with the pen to simulate fog of war;
- as the players uncover the rooms, I just erase the fog of war with the tablet pen;
- whenever the player ask me, I copy and  paste the screenshot of the situation as is.

KingCheops

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #24 on: July 27, 2021, 12:48:25 PM »
Next time the elites lock us all down I'd take the time and money to learn Foundry instead of roll20.  Single payment, very good community support for modules, far more powerful.  More of a learning curve but if we're barred from in-person games again it's worth the time to learn.

One group I played with also explored gaming on Table Top Simulator since they're board gamers (my one buddy and I also played some Age of Sigmar on there).  That one's also pretty good for more theatre of the mind and can usually be had on sale for $20 CAD or less on Steam.  It's also very powerful for most things so you can have 3d maps and minis on there if you are willing to do the work.  I used a backdrop I got on the workshop that looked like a tavern and we used the Kraken table.  It was visually pretty cool but I did find that as DM I used my physical books more because I was encountering actual cyber "space" issues where I had to keep panning back and forth from behind my screen to the play surface.

danskmacabre

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Re: So I finally ran DnD on Roll 20 last night.
« Reply #25 on: July 28, 2021, 11:03:52 PM »
ATM, Roll20 is "Good enough" for me.
If I feel its limitations are too much of a burden down the track, I'll look into alternatives.
But it's the right price atm (free) and does the job based on my current needs.