Owlbear is just so simple. The 80-20 rule basically means that you’ll never use 80% of a website, but I’m a firm believer that you use 100% of Owlbear, and you’ll always understand it. Just find a free map maker, and you will have everything you need.
So as someone who uses R20 Premium now, the lighting and tools/space are good for myself buuut I now have a different problem. I make Roll20 cry, my players have no lag but I as the DM have 10-14 seconds of lag when I try to Edit HP values because it's super slow. That being said I am asking R20 to do a lot more than I feel it was developed for.
@@voidtalongaming4637 make sure everyone has their hardware acceleration on. Roll20 needs it on if you're using dynamic lighting or it slows the browsers to a crawl
@@facelessvoicesvo I actually discovered it's because my campaign got too large. R20 doesn't actually cache very well so effectively all my old pages were 'loaded' and this measured in the hundreds of tokens/assets and dozens of pages. Making a new campaign for the new arc helped a ton.
Dear Everyone, I'm incredibly aware that the background music is too loud in this particular video. Not a mistake I am proud of, being that I literally work in audio, but my excuse is I work almost strictly in voice work. Music hard. Also, I am just honestly baffled at how I didn't notice it. But I promise, it is not an issue in the rest of my videos. You can stop commenting. PSST, also, I have an updated video called Best VTTs of 2022 that covers WAY MORE VTTS!
@@Tsequiri Well, on one hand, I don't want to, on account of the external hdd the original files were on crashing and burning, so it would be quite the effort. And in that same hand, comments are great for that dumb RU-vid algorithm stuff, so if you keep commenting I guess that's good? Not really anything in the other hand. Shucks.
LOL.... Great comment TBH....got a chuckle out of me. So many other things to get worked up over. But yeah, it is a bit loud, just in case you did not know by now....
I understand the comments on tabletop simulator it’s very hard to learn at first but I absolutely love it and don’t know of anything that comes close in terms of actually being able to convey the ideas in your campaign to the players effectively and have them actually experience what you want them to experience. It takes a lot of effort from the DM but I think the potential for an amazing, immersive and fun experience is at least 10 fold of anything else out there but everyone is different and wants different things out of a game of D&D and that’s okay 😁
Late to the party and very late to respond, But i second this, I have yet to run any long form campaign in Tabletop Sim, and i'm coming from foundry, it was incredibly clunky at first but I've quickly gotten use to it, especially with the mods like Oneworld and the fantastic DnD table that has legit every single bit of released 5e content, its been relatively easy to prep and assemble, I run all my encounters/enemies through Dnd Beyond, while my players can focus on having fun in tabletop itself
I play with table top, and yes, its horrible try to do a dungeon with 3d objects. But if you forget this idea and you only import a floor with tile texture, you could paint the dungeon like in real life. And you could import 3D figurines for heroes and enemies. 3D dices with scripts and a lot of auxiliar tables for help. For me it is the closest experience to playing dungeons and dragons in real life. You can combine it with character managers and campaigns like nivel 20 or an other manager.
I have probably watched hundreds of hours of DnD content on YT and I can honestly say this is the most helpful and entertaining channel out there! Love the videos, see you at 1M subs! :)
When I had to make the decision a few years ago on what VTT to use, there really only were 2 to choose from, R20 and FGs. If Foundry had been in the game at the time I may have gone with it, but I went with FGs. This is a decision that I am very glad I made, because although FGs was good, FGU is fantastic and keeps getting better. I like to check out Foundry to see how it is looking, and I hope it does well as a little competition helps push FGU. FGU does not have everything, integrated sound would be nice, but when it introduced the effects and lighting system, which it really needed, I think it became the best. However, it is not cheap, which for me is fine as when I pay more for something, I expect more from it.
Yes, doing like 2 sessions of dnd on tabletop simulator was fun and also took like 5 hours just to get correct tiling to fit in the auto placement. It helped me visualise and stuff and basically is like doing it in real life but cheaper and slower. Things fall over and you know what, the maps can be really good. You just have to learn to use it by using it a lot. I also don't recommend it.
Yeah, I did want to make it clear that I still think TTS is fun, but it can be...rough in the beginning. I would love to see some much more complete packs released with it to help it function even better as a vtt for RPGs, especially when it comes to customizing your games and setting things up quickly. Though I suppose with the right combination of workshop stuff and some dedication you can make something pretty darn good.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide there's this Brazilian youtuber called Cellbit who runs multiple campaigns on tts, and it is done masterfully, I mean, he even sets up dynamic lighting, hands down, tts is the best vtt if you have the patience to learn it, and I mean, a LOT of patience
I use Tabletop Simulator and making maps is actually pretty easy. I use Dungeon Painter Studio to make the map and import it onto a 'game board' and boom your done. I got a little chest that where I have like 20 maps for random encounters and I'll make custom ones for the main encounters. I do agree Tabletop has some room for improvement and the flicking mechanic makes it easy to distract players. I think if they made a game that was like Tabletop but optimized it for DnD (and other RPGs) that would be better though.
Theres an Arma mod where you can become a "game master" and make scripted events and what not and the players actually control their characters while you as the "GM" fly around using a noclip style cam and you can take control of npc's at will. spawn npcs/enemies in. I would pay top dollar for a fantasy rpg version of a software like that so that you can play through a campaign you came up with with your friends.
It's now 2024 and all these VTTs having improved significant. I still use Fantasy Grounds as my main VTT, I took the plunge and am now very versed in using it. For my in person games I use Owl bear rodeo to put maps on the table. Hope everyone rolls 20s and Happy Gaming.
Please check out Astral tabletop because it has a free service has all the things that you're recommending and it has a paid service also for things that are largely cosmetic. I wish Astral tabletop got more recognition.
Astral is definitely on my radar and something I want to include in a future video. Right now I'm just juggling so many other projects and video ideas that I've been putting it off. But I do promise, I will be giving it some attention, especially with how many great recommendations folk have been giving!
Would love to see an updated video showing foundry now, is it better, and one comparing tailspire maybe? This is my first video, this comment may be redundant
heyyy, tabletop sims not that bad. lol. ig for my use case it's a lot better since i only really ever draw/use static pngs for my maps, and there's pretty much no additional setup that other VTTs have for that. (also being able to play jenga when the party splits is priceless)
i f'in love tabletop simulator. yes yo basically need a phd in it as a dm but i know of no other vtt to date that is able to catch the "sitting at a table with friends playing a game" even close to the level that it provides. also must have mod is the oneworld addon which takes over a loot of the map building for you.
Literally just heard about this one a few days ago and have been looking into it a little. From what I can tell, I think there are a LOT of quality of life things that Astral does that Roll20/Foundry don't, like with tracking npcs, bringing in quick enemies, stuff like that. It doesn't appear to have video chat yet, which I would really miss, but honestly, I can use discord if I need to. I would want to spend some real time with it, seeing how smoothly it all works, but I feel pretty safe in saying that it would definitely give Roll20 a run for its money. Compared to the very basic version of foundry, it is hard to say, but the mods for Foundry give it a leg up...you know, when they are actually working. Overall, I really like the look of it. This is absolutely one I would recommend.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide I only just found out about Astral and Owlbear a few days ago as well and trying to decide which I want to learn to utilize more. Probably will be Owlbear for simple things and Astral if I decide to learn it's depths.
@@igromad yeah, cost is a factor for me. I don't mind paying into a VTT once I find one I like, cause I want to support the program so I can use it. But I want to test it first, right now Astral is most tempting to me because I could easily switch systems since they already have character sheet support (never really liked the roll20 sheets). I would prefer if they had a one time payment option if I do decide to support vs a subscription
Foundry is $50 and ONLY SRD books so if you want more you have to do it manually roll20 buy the books and you have them for life. Foundry has a STEEP learning curve
That's totally fair. I would say that is wasn't too steep to learn. After years of Roll20 I managed to learn Foundry pretty quickly, though I suppose someone who doesn't know either might have a harder time. You are right about just SRDs, but the community support and modability really make it a winner for me personally. It was definitely a much bigger initial investment of my time though, but I like the increased functionality. Still, I think either option is great!
Very well done! You deserve more subs. Just got one more! Some (subjective) feedback: the music at the start does not connect with the subject material at all (imho). I found it annoyed me and got in the way of your narrative, which I was enjoying. Also it reminded me of old school PSX menu music :D
Thanks much! And yeah, the music I used as the intro here (and in the episode I just did about house rules) has a tone that I've been realizing doesn't exactly go with the feel of my videos. I need to experiment with that more and find something a little more...me.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide considering the size of your channel I figured you’ve “just started out” so that makes perfect sense. Considering the overall production value and quality of presentation I have no doubt you’ll figure it out sooner rather than later. Edit: will you be putting up DnD sessions? I think people would enjoy watching/hearing you DM. You have a good voice for it.
@@juice2090 I have a good deal of experience with video editing and audio production (my main job is actual voice work) but if there is one area I've always struggled with it is music. As far as putting up DnD sessions, I am certainly kicking around some ideas to put up stuff like that, and stream it as well. However, I want to make sure I do it right, and in a way that everyone will enjoy. I live streamed some DnD games a few years ago for Loot Crate on their twitch channel, back when I helped head that up. They were [relatively] popular streams, but my players were...kind of all over the place, I was too focused on keeping things on track, and overall I didn't enjoy the end product. So as much as I do want to try again, I want to make sure I do it right, and with the right people.
Hey thank you so much, this video convinced me to start a campaign with friends through discord and we can all try it out and learn together And we are all newbies so what if we wont remember something or whatever, we are all learning together lol😅
Agree with Tabletop simulator, as a long time DM it's definitely annoying and bugging when interfacing with the 3D models and weak GUI. Fantasy Ground is too expensive for all the features and some users don't like the UI. Roll20 is our backup app, but once our group goes over 6 players, we have a habit of restarting the session every 2-3 hours to avoid surprise freezing and the app kicking people out. We found that Epictable is our mainline 2D VTT to use. We have started using Talespire (3D VTT) and we are loving it, and even with 6 players the app is very stable even past 6-8 hours of continuous use.
I do actually have a video on talespire, and the other two are on my list to check out. I love showing off VTTs for folks, they just take time to get familiar enough with
I have Foundry and I love the robustness, but that learning curve is pretty egregious and only get’s harder when you have kids and no time to prep as much.
Yeah, it is definitely a lot of work to learn and can be a good bit of prep. It's nice if you prep the vast majority of the materials you'll need for a whole campaign, because then it's just a bunch of work beforehand, and then smoother sailing during; however that's asking a lot. Honestly, I've started to stray from it a bit recently just to make life easier on myself, though I still love it for certain games.
Quick question: I know someone that’s GMing a PbtA session for a bunch of live streamers. They want some sort of basic visual representation of the world, so there’s something happening on-screen for their viewers to connect with. What would be the best virtual tabletop for this? They’d essentially just need tokens and maps, as PbtA isn’t exactly crunchy. Tabletop Simulator?
Tabletop Sim will definitely have a fun visual flair, but can be a little distracting for players (at least that's been my experience). I would say if they are doing a session for live streamers and have facecams and all, Role might be a good way to go. Nice clean webcam interface, simple map sharing with tokens, and the ability to share assets quickly. Or Owlbear if they don't want to use Role's webcam feature. Super easy map and token integration
That is such a good question, and something I am putting on my list for my next VTT roundup! Didn't even think of including that info, but dang is it important. Foundry works on a tablet...sort of. You can access it, open character sheets, click on rolls and stuff, but some functionality (moving the map and token) doesn't seem to work on all devices. Not great. Role works surprisingly well on a tablet for rolls and video chat, buuut last I tried, you couldn't move anything around on the map. (a running theme, it would appear) Owlbear.rodeo is actually the most function, because you can totally use the map on a tablet, roll the dice, everything.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide thanks and yes, i used One old telephone with 4g line and yes owlbear rodeo work very, very well :) thanks for this help. The only problem with owlbear is for the charachter sheet. Do you now another site/app for the charachter sheet ? The only motivation most people use roll20, for manage sheet free(payment is still better foundry)
I'm looking starting a solo campaign and want to possibly record for sharing. VTT might be a way to go for the visuals as opposed to having the camera solely on me. After watching this vid, I've come to the conclusion that Foundry might be the best option. Thank you for your help, sir!
At 0:52 seconds in, we see a screen with a video of the actual game board along with the video of the players. That plus a built in dice roller is what I want. What system does that? I didn't see that on any of the systems on this video?
That is a stream of Matthew Colville's 5e game (the Chain of Acheron) from last year. They spent a bunch of money on cameras and equipment to stream the game on Twitch. The players are still all in person. That said, you could achieve this if you have a second computer, and just use discord to run a video chat, pointing your extra computer's camera at the game board. Quality will vary. There are bots you can install for discord that let you roll dice using commands. That said, the reason so many people use the VTTs instead of the above mentioned option is because it is very challenging to get the video stream of the table to look good, and because it is a static video feed, players can't interact with it. VTTs, meanwhile, allow players to really zoom in on their own, and get a clear picture of what's going on. They can then move their tokens, instead of asking you to do it as the GM. I tried the physical board for awhile, but we ended up switching to VTTs for our online games. Hope this helps.
I have! I even have a video that focuses specifically on it! Though it's a little outdated with all of the updates they've released. Still, probably my favorite way to play D&D these days!
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide Thanks for the response. I found your video later that day when I subscribed to your channel. My only issue with Above VTT is not an issue with Above VTT but with Chrome. For some reason, digital dice rolls on Chrome are slow like 30s to a minute to complete a roll. This is not the case on any other engine ie Safari, bing, Firefox.
I played Roll20 for years but wasn’t happy with the overall experience. It took me hours to set things up. Plus if your weren’t computer savvy like me. There was so many technical issues like glitchy controls and things not working the way I wanted. I finally gave up and went to running games on Discord in conjunction with D&D Beyond. So much better as I was playing D&D they way it was meant to be played. The theater of the mind. Something VTT took away from me.
O_O I had no idea that Dungeon Alchemist was out for early access purchase until reading this comment. How the hell did I sleep on that!? You may have just made my day. Thank you!
No wrong VTT, lol, as someone who DM'd for years in Roll20 then left because Roll20, I can attest that the grass is way greenier and happy elsewhere. Foundry in my case and I will never stop praising it. Roll20 was the first and greatest VTT, but it's like that old hotwired rusted station wagon that use to be the king of the show room floor but now just needs to be put out of its misery. Foundry is just better in every sense, and you shouldn't have any problems as long as you go easy on the mods. Less is more with mods. Remember this and you will be fine.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide So did I, but nowadays it seems that some foundry mods are getting absorbed into the main system....which is a great improvement. I also bought Fantasy Grounds when it was on sale on Steam but just never liked the format. Found Foundry and frankly cant understand why people are still on Roll20 lol
My group has been looking to get away from roll20 for a while. Feels and looks like it was made in 2005 or something, doesn't seem to get updated regularly in any appreciable way. Among other reasons. I've been torn between trying out Foundry, and just blowing out my wallet and going full in on FGU. There was also Astral, which looks pretty slick and felt good, kind of like a not shitty version of roll20, but unfortunately it kept crashing for me. Also I've been keeping an eye on another one called Talespire which has a lot of potential and smashed its funding goal.
I actually have a video looking at TaleSpire, and I'll say it is visually awesome, but really lite on features right now. Still, for some stuff I really love it. Astral is one I plan on looking at soon, but couldn't say much about. Foundry is the one I've invested the most in just because I can modify it and I have mods that allow me to import my stuff from D&D Beyond, which is great because even if I stop using it (which I might for some gmaes) then I still have all my books on D&D Beyond. If I buy them on FGU, then it isn't so easy to take those resources elsewhere. Also did a recent video on AboveVTT, which is totally free and basically an overlay/integration with DNDBeyond. Doesn't do as much stuff yet, but I recommend giving it a look, as the devs are adding more at a pretty rapid pace.
I've been playing on fantasy grounds. So far neither DM knew how to fully operate it, and it felt a little clunky to me as a player with having to resize everything. But after 2 sessions I'm getting it.
Fantasy grounds is the best by far. I have played in games and DMed in roll20, foundry and fantasy grounds. Nothing compares to the ease of use of fantasy grounds. It's cheaper than Foundry and you don't have to rent a server or pay for Patreon to easily make a character
I absolutely get that. When I used it I had a lot of struggled, as did my players. It is fun in a certain way, and helps replicate that tabletop feel...but it lacks a lot that others provide. So I'm with ya.
Definitely one I'm looking into. I've constantly got about 4 or 5 plates in the air for video ideas, and taking a look at Astral is definitely one of those plates! It just keeps getting put off because I keep doing way more complicated videos that eat up all my time, but I promise it is coming
I know TTS has a big learning curve but it looks good and is mod friendly when you master it you can really get lots of fun and that's just the tip of the ice berg you can pretty much never have to buy anything thanks to mods, you will never get harassed to become premium there is no premium just free mods, I think you were a bit unfair describing it. I would totally have a long running campaign because I got used to the system and like it although your right they could have made it easier to learn and master but if you give it time it outmatches most of the others you described in the video
Having used it a lot in the past, it definitely has its benefits. The simulated feel of the tabletop and the mods are good. Buuut compared with the detailed functionality of the others, especially when it comes to the mass of mods on Foundry, I wouldn't say they quite compare for me. I'll admit I was a bit unfair to TTS in this video, which something I'm working to correct in the 2022 VTT Rundown video I'm currently working on. However, I still personally find that it really does fall short in a number of areas, depending on the game I'm running. TTS it solid for some games (especially D&D with all the community support for that system), but for a lot of other games (Ironsworn, Sentinel Comics, various PbtA games, etc) there just isn't any comparison. The sheer volume of things I can automate and accomplish with Foundry, or even Roll 20, compared to TTS is like night and day. Again, TTS isn't bad, and I do want to show it more love in my updated VTT video for sure! The time I've spent really digging into it has shown me there is more to it than when I used it years ago. But aside from the fun-factor of feeling the most like a tabletop you're sharing with friends, it falls short, and for the simple, streamlines options like Owlbear, it is just too much of a learning curve for what those folks would want. Sorry for the text-wall response, but I really did appreciate our perspective and wanted to give it the attention it deserves!
Actually just finished scripting my 2022 VTT Rundown video TODAY, and Shard is indeed on there...along with 20 others lol! Look for it soon (within the next week is what I'm aiming for)
MapTools (and the frankly even more useful TokenTools) will be getting a section in my upcoming 2022 VTT Rundown videos that I'm currently working on! Can't believe I forgot one of (if not THE) original vtt!
I tend to run games like Torg Eternity or Savage Worlds, which require decks of cards. From what I can see, most VTTs do a pretty bad job of handling cards, particularly special decks you have to create or import yourself. I have been able to make my own decks easily enough with Tabletop Simulator, but one of my players has problems with the game constantly crashing on him, so we've moved to Roll20. Is there another VTT that handles special decks of cards better than Roll20?
Sadly, not in my experience. There is at least 1 playing card Mod for Foundry that I grabbed once, but I would describe it as...just ok. At least a few months back when I tried it out. If you don't mind dealing with an extra window, playingcards.io is a browser-based card table, and allows for a huge amount of customization, card flipping, card angling, hiding players hands, all that jazz. It is weirdly robust for a free browser program. But of course, if you are using Roll20 or anything for maps, then you're dealing with another window, and frankly the fewer windows the better... I'll come back and comment or post a video when I find a good one, I can promise you that!
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide I'll check PlayingCards.io out! Honestly, the card handling is why I keep coming back to Tabletop Simulator as my go-to, because games like Torg Eternity and Savage Worlds just aren't the same without robust card-handling tools. As buggy and quirky as TTS is, it's the only tabletop I've found that actually gives me the tools I need to run the games I play.
I'm extremely excited for TaleSpire and really hope it lives up to expectations. My biggest concern is usability and ease of creating and running games with it, but sadly I haven't had a chance to really check out enough about it. It certainly looks like it is going to be taking things to another level, and I guarantee I'll be covering it in depth when it releases!
No it's not. Making stuff 3D looks great for marketing but asset creation will take much longer and most people don't even have skills for it. It also makes modding harder (ever tried scripting something like tabletop simulator?). Foundry uses Javascript with built-in developer tools which makes testing and debugging so much easier than the Lua-based system Talespire uses.. and the final nail is no cross-platform support. Talespire looks cool and some people are going to have fun with it but it's very unlikely to ever match Foundry with the breadth and depth of the systems support.
I like roll 20 but there is so much wrong with it and trying to make your own map that works with the parameters that d20 uses is hard on the best of times especially if you don't have some of these pay for programs I've tried a lot of free maps and if you tried doing a grid over it so that everything locks into place when you move it the grits never line up and if you want anything specifically made for it you have to spend money oh and if you already have the hardback book of it what you want the monsters that come in the book like example the monster manual you have to rebuy the book for $60 in roll20 just so that you have tokens with all the info on it or you can make your own tokens and have to sit there and do math and keep track of everything and ask somebody who went from tabletop simulator D&D (dungeon master) to roll 20 dungeon master if you're new to the program and you don't have somebody that can tell you it's a little confusing and overwhelming when you start and you have like 80 tabs of options you can do but then again every system has pros and cons
I went from Fantasy Grounds to Foundry because I even backed the Kickstarter for FG: Unity and the only thing Unity did was slap some lipstick on FGC and didn't fix any of the issues I had with Fantasy Grounds, the biggest of which is how much of a screen real estate hog, which is the deal breaker for me
You ok there, champ? Need a little help understanding basic subversion and how certain things offer different advantages that will be beneficial to different people to varying degrees? Or did you just want to tell me your favorite so I can give you validation and tell you "Oh, that is the secret right answer, good job buddy."
Tabletop simulator is the ultimate option if you have about 15 hours to really learn it, and more than two brain cells to run together. At this point, there are more than enough resources to create fantastic 3d maps and minis and have every tool you could ever need including floating health bars, initiative trackers, spell templates that look amazing, automatic distance calculations for minis, and every single official spell, class features, and book, all conveniently on the table and save able and copy able and flippable and shufflable and containable. It is hands down the BEST VTT by about ten light years. It just takes a little effort to get in to. Not for the lowest common denominator GMs. And also you can play risk, or monopoly or one of over 100 fully fleshed out board games, even some made exclusively for TTS. EVEN A FULL 40K WARGAMING LIBRARY. All this for $20 or $5 on sale
Hey, any chance you can share all this? Or what I should look? I've seen floating health bars, but a lot of initiative trackers I wasn't a fan of, and I've never seen an automatic distance calculator. Maybe a list of recommended workshop items?
It is certainly better at certain things! Though at the time this video was made it wasn't out for open beta, so I didn't get a chance to show it off! Thankfully it is featured in my recent 2022 VTT video!
@@LotusCain Foundry. I played 2 years on Roll20 before moving to foundry. So many things on r20 irritated me, from having to buy constant books, to having technical limitations, the janky interface, bugs---on and on. Foundry is where its at.
That was probably the single-most biased and ignorant review of Fantasy Grounds I've ever seen. "I'm sure it's better than Foundry at this time." Just... wow. You should put up a disclaimer at the start of the video indicating you've never USED these, just watched a couple videos and called it a day. The purpose of a VTT is to facilitate *actually playing* an RPG online. Fantasy Grounds is hands down, no contest, the best at doing that. The only VTT that even comes CLOSE to providing power of the FG rulesets is Roll20.
I've used Roll20 for years, used Foundry heavily since its public early access launch, and played a number of games on literally every other VTT I covered, aside from Fantasy Grounds. I brought up Fantasy Ground because I've had friends show it to me and try to get me to move over to it, and despite my reservations about it still thought it deserved attention because I truly believed a lot of people would like it. Yes, I wore my biases on my sleeve. And as I stated in the end, this video was to show the range of capabilities of all of these vtts, and to encourage people to check out the one that best suits their game/style. I know I was pretty harsh on FGs DLC model and I certainly wasn't able to cover it in depth, but I hope that I gave it enough props and praise that anyone who might have been looking for something like it would give it a try. I wore my biases on my sleeve, yes, but tried to make clear that no one vtt is right for everyone. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the video, Jason. I admit I may not have done the best job covering every one of these in the time I gave myself, but I have to say, you could stand to cool it with the "ignorant" stuff. I'm just trying to help more people access a hobby we both clearly care about. I am happy to hear more about why Fantasy Grounds is better than all the others, and even possibly do a video on it, if you would maybe stop making assumptions about me and calling me ignorant. Thanks.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide Buying material on FG vs DNDB is a wash. You're buying it somewhere. There difference never, ever mentioned is it's incredibly easy to just make your own modules in FG. Each ruleset contains all the templates. I make no assumptions about whether or not you shit all over FG in your video--why would ANYONE watching your video try it, or Tabletop Simulator?
@@EugeeFGII If I buy the material there, then I'm kind of stuck using it there. If I buy it on DnDBeyond, it has a bit more portability. I can easily use my DND beyond stuff in person, on Role, import it into Foundry with mods, etc. And I can share it with anyone in any of my various campaigns on DnDBeyond, which I use as a hub for all of the various vtts I use. Harder to use FG as a hub for everyone. So I wouldn't call it a wash for everyone, but I imagine that for some players out there it would be. And you are right, I did not mention that you can make your own modules on that, or really any of the tabletops. I assumed that was something people would automatically know, but that is presumptuous of me. Something I will keep in mind for the future. I did mention the stability of FGs, the polish, and the fact that everything is going to work, which will appeal to some. But I admit I was overly critical and biased. I still stand by the Foundry offers more, but at the moment with less stability and no real official modules for those who want them. Still, that is a fair point. As far as Tabletop simulator, I mostly brought that one up because I know a LOT of people I've talked to seem to think that Tabletop Sim would be the logical choice. And frankly, as I said, it CAN be fun, but it is not a very friendly or easy to manage system for most folks out there. But if people saw it, saw what it IS capable of, and thought that looked like fun for them I trust those people to take what I presented to them and make their own decisions.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide I have not used any VTT to play 5e so can't comment on the deal there, but as a side note, for Paizo stuff, ie Pathfinder 1e / 2e / Starfinder: If you buy on Smiteworks FG you get the pdf over at Paizo. If you bought the pdf / book from Paizo, then you get the cost of that taken discounted if you buy the same thing on FG, so it's not really paying for it twice. Ultimate FGU is $150, not $180 as, often on sale for $120 or you could also take the subscription option which is the same DM cost as R20.. All the game material is often on sale either on site or on Steam, unlike say Roll 20 and you don't have to deal with R20's storage allowance. Foundry I have no experience of, so again, can't comment. But for me having used TTS, R20 and FGU, the latter suits me just fine and I find far more powerful.
@@vonBlashyrkh Solid info to have about the PDFs and all! I may have to really take a more in-depth look at FGU in the future. And yeah, I have realized that I got the price of the Ultimate FGU wrong, and was looking at Steam's "Upgrade from FG Classic to FG Unity (Ultimate license)" bundle, which is listed as $180, I assume because I don't have FGC to upgrade from. Wish YT still allowed annotations so I could put that on the video easily, as that is definitely my bad. I will say, I think Foundry is quite possibly the most powerful of the bunch due to the surplus of mods that allow you to do things with it that are pretty incredible. Just, as I said, it is still Early access, and the relatively steady updates to it can make some mods outdated a little too fast. I love it, but umtil it has a really solid, stable version released, it can be a little bit of a roller coaster ride.
Agree. I don't understand the obsession with having a VTT replace everything. Players can still have character sheets, dice, etc. You need a shared map... Like you put out on a tabletop... Simple.
I'm about to be a first-time DM for friends who are playing for the first time who live thousands of miles away. I agree. My takeaway is the same. Share the map, add the minis. Fog of war is a nice little bonus. And the dice simulator is great. This is the simplest, lowest cost barrier to entry. All I have to do is send them character sheets over email or in a letter and then we're golden.
To be fair, I released this before Above was really all that known...aaaand do I have a video that focuses completely on Above VTT ;) Plus I'm working on my 2022 VTT rundown, which features a LOT more vtts!
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide i just watched that above VTT vid! honestly these are probably the best guides available in my opinion please keep this stuff coming
0:00 Intro Discusses the growing popularity of tabletop RPGs and the shift to virtual tabletops as a response to the inability to gather in person. 1:50 Owlbear Rodeo Praises Owl Bear Rodeo for its simplicity and ease of use, highlighting its straightforward setup process and basic functionality suitable for beginners. 4:10 Role Commends Role for its focus on video chat, enhancing personal interaction in games. Acknowledges its useful RPG tools like character sheets and maps, albeit with some limitations. 7:12 Tabletop Simulator Notes Tabletop Simulator's impressive 3D models and immersive experience but critiques the complexity of its setup and navigation, which can be overwhelming for both players and DMs. 10:28 Roll20 Highlights Roll20's extensive features and popularity, emphasizing its versatility and free-to-use model. However, mentions issues with video chat reliability, especially with larger groups. 13:28 Foundry VTT Appreciates Foundry VTT for its comprehensive features and modding capabilities, but mentions challenges related to balancing updates with mod compatibility. 17:40 Fantasy Grounds Unity Points out Fantasy Grounds Unity's robust built-in features and stability, but criticizes its pricing model and the additional costs for accessing full functionality. 19:55 Conclusion Concludes by emphasizing the importance of choosing a VTT based on specific game needs and preferences, acknowledging that each platform has its unique strengths and limitations.
I'll be honest, I had completely forgotten about MapTool! I remember trying to get some fiends to use it yeeeaaars ago...criminy, no joke I wanna say 2014 or 2015 because of where I was living. Unfortunately, at least at the time, friends weren't interested in learning it, and we ended up sticking with Skype and theater of the mind. I am shocked to hear it is still around after all this time. I'd be interested to see just what they've improved and how it looks after all this time. Thanks for the reminder!
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide Definitely check it out. If the GM knows how to control it then the users don't really have to learn much and its had line of sight forever!
Agreed. It's insane that you're the only one mentioning it. It might not be the most pretty or user friendly, but it's been around for a long time, lets you do pretty much anything and is completely free.
Came here to say this. It has a lot of excellent features including fog of war. But it has a bit of a learning curve if you plan to run it online using port forwarding and such. I just use MT for in person VTT connecting my laptop to our flat screen gaming table.
The content is such high quality. All useful information, some nice jokes here and there, awesome audio and on point visuals. You send other creators' first videos to school.
My use case is this. Players are all physically together. We have paper, dices, belgium beers, chips, books and pens. What I am missing is a D&D map assistant for me as a DM that started in 1982. My young players are not keen on drawing maps based on descriptions. I don´t want them on their laptops or phones because the purpose of D&D is to get them OFF the virtual digitalized world... Hence I want a tool which I DM manage to deliver the map and eventually give me access to rules and stats. Not something that 4 or 5 players need to log into. Any advice? For now I am using a printer...
I did try to cover it a bit more fairly in my more recent Best VTTs of 2022 video. And even after that I had folks take me through all the mods that people love about it. I definitely can see why some folks like it, but personally I still don't care for it at all, even after all that. I did my best to keep my personal biases out of the 2022 video, but I'm only human so I'm sure they still affected how I presented it.
So funny enough table topbsim is great for old fashion mega dungeon games due to turning on the snap to grid function and the base games floor and wall dungeon tiles snaping easy together like working with legos.
Only thing keeping me from using Foundry instead of Roll20 is lack of support/character sheet for the Storypath games Scion (2nd Edition) and Trinity Continuum. Otherwise, it looks nice. Roll20 just has more games compatible at this point. Looking forward to a hopeful future where that is no longer a barrier.
Yeah, a lot of that is so dependent on user created mods, many of which don't even seem to get listed in the Foundry search. I know for Chronicles of Darkness I had to go searching the internet to find the system for Foundry, and it isn't even complete. So I would like to imagine one day user generated content will fill all those gaps, but who is to say, sadly.
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide Yeah, the only WoD/CoD sheet I found readily available was Vampire The Masquerade 5th Edition, which I like, but sometimes I just wanna play Chronicles Of Darkness instead. I hope more systems become compatible in the future, cause it looks great!
I did cover it a little better in my more recent 2022 VTT Rundown video, but even there I was still not a huge fan personally. I've had folks now show me all that it is capable of, so I can certainly see how it is more functional and not as rough as I give it credit. However, I still person just do not like the interface or functionality, but that is all down to preference.
hey man there's grid snapping for tabletop sim, and you don't have to use workshop presets, you can just import custom pieces and set it up however you desire, I think you're making things harder than they need to be
To be fair, I was a little unfair to TTS. And if your GM is using the OneWorld mod that really helps. I still personally don't enjoy it, but I know many who do, so take what I say in this video with a grain of salt 😁
@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide That's a bit relieving. I think the main reason we are using TTS is because we are playing the cyberpunk red campaign, not sure if that is available elsewhere
