How does fantasy grounds compare to roll20?

[Yzrahad]

Hi, homebrew dm here. I have a large group I've been dming in roll20 for about a year and a half now, and one of the issues I've run into at this stage of the campaign is memory usage. With eight players viewing the map, monster tokens abound, lighting and everything else inbetween it drastically slows down game performance just to do basic things like rolling dice.

I'm fielding possible solutions and I was curious how fantasy grounds handles resource usage in comparison?

[JohnQPublic]

The only two things that Roll20 does better than FG are: 1) The map interface. It's easier to make changes on the fly with R20 and R20 has dynamic lighting. 2) Marketing.

That is all. Fantasy Grounds does WAY more than Roll20 has WAY more content than Roll20, etc. There are some memory usage issues with Fantasy Grounds but there are work arounds and there is a 64bit version that is being released with limited support (no support?) to try to bridge the gap between the current incarnation of Fantasy Grounds and the vapor ware version (FGU) that will fix the memory issues and add a bunch of other features (allegedly).

Our game has 6 of us and never any problems except when I tried to share a map that was about 6 times larger than it should've been. You'll have fewer problems with FG vs R20. When I was using R20 I kept getting angry because they don't seem to really test anything before release and they dump the heavy lifting (script/macro writing) on the user base which results in a less-than-consistent product. They often had server issues (I assume it's gotten better, but haven't bothered to check) that resulted in our game being unplayable.

I made the jump a couple years ago and my players and I both love FG.

[Skillkoil]

Welcome to the forums! The good thing about Fantasy Grounds is that after your done using an image/map you can unshare that image and it quits using up prescious memory. Lighting is handled via simple hexcode colors that you can tweak however you like. Lighting has never caused me any memory issues inside FG. As for tokens, I run a campaign with 6 players and they have been on a map with 16 other NPC tokens (22 total) and there is no issue. FG doesn't share a bunch of tokens that aren't being used, IE loaded into the combat tracker and then maid visible to the players. If you remember to unshare all the images/maps you have already used and to preload large images that you know you will be using on any given session. Life in FG is pretty stable. The one thing that eats up the most memory when first joining a game is loading of modules like rulebooks, adventures etc.. I usually let my players connect 15 to 20 minutes before the session starts just to allow them to get that "loading lag" out of the way.

Hopefully many of these issues will be solved with the upcoming Unity version of Fantasy Grounds. As a previous Roll20 user, FG is above and beyond a better experience for me as a GM and Player.

Hope this helps!

[Yzrahad]

Thanks for the info, both of you! A follow-up question, then - I assume this is a pipe dream, but there's no kind of connectivity between FG and dndbeyond licensing, is there? I own all the handbook content over there and if I could just, y'know, unlock that here without having to buy it all again that would be a guaranteed sell, haha

[Skillkoil]

I know there is linking for a lot of stuff on DM's Guild but FG and DnD Beyond don't share content. The thing about FG is that if you buy a product here it is packed with features that you don't get anywhere else. The functionality and feature coding are top notch. Sorry.

[Yzrahad]

Yeah, that's about what I expected. I'll have to download the demo later today and play with the UI, but if memory usage is that much better I may attempt to make the switch. Thanks again!

[Skillkoil]

Good luck, if you need any help there is a great forum community where you can ask questions or you can join the FG Discord: https://discord.gg/Xt4vqCu

[Zacchaeus]

Comparison of FG and Roll20 here

[Three of Swords]

I started DMing on Roll20 several years ago. Around 6 months ago, my group switched to FG to test it. Since that time, 1 player prefers Roll20, 2 players prefer FG (as DM I'm mostly neutral). So we're still here for now.

Another person I know asked what I thought about FG compared to Roll20. Here is how I responded:

Fantasy Grounds advantages

1. Cheaper long term (compared to a Pro sub on Roll20). It's expensive upfront. Either one player has to pay for an Ultimate license ($149) or all players have to pay for the standard license ($39). But once you buy the software, it's yours. No monthly charge for full functionality of the platform (unless you choose to go the subscription model). Plus books and modules are cheaper and go on sale (Volo's guide is currently on sale for $24 rather than the usual price of $30, whereas on Roll20 it's always $50).
2. Can easily place links and 'pins' to practically anything in the game. Just drag an image, character, map, npc, spell, item, rollable table, skill, feat, race, etc to a hotbar slot, handout, map, or image, and it makes a link there.
3. Combat automation. Players can select single or multiple targets, use their attack or spell, then once the attack hits or spell saves have been resolved, the player can apply damage, which is automatically calculated, including resistances, saves reducing damage, etc. Things like conditions (blind, prone, restrained, etc) are automatically factored in as well. Concentration spells are automatically checked and the effect removed when damage is taken. It doesn't do everything. It can't do paladin auras, for example. But it does a lot.
4. Better combat tracker. While this is part of #3, I list it separately because it's so powerful. The combat tracker in FG is more than just a turn tracker. It lists NPC's traits, actions, reactions, spells, etc, as links that you can pop out and read. And you can use the attacks/abilities/spells right from the combat tracker. Stats like AC, HP, temp HP, current conditions, can all be seen and changed there. As DM you don't even use monster character sheets in combat--just the combat tracker. The Combat Tracker is the core of FG.

Roll20's advantages

1. Better interface (not more powerful, just easier to use).
2. Incredibly better map system. I hate FG's map system! (Though eventually they are changing, so then Roll20 will lose this advantage.)
3. Dynamic Lighting and advanced Fog of War (that FG is eventually getting as well).
4. Card decks. You don't realize how useful this can be until it's gone.
5. Rollable table tokens. A very powerful tool when used well.
6. Integrated images (though Roll20's selection is more limited than they used to be, still nice to have some around)
7. Integrated Video/Audio. (That my group doesn't use.)
8. Integrated sound clips. (That my group doesn't use.)
9. Better marketplace. (That I still buy things from and use in FG.)

Everything else is equal, just different. It takes roughly the same amount of time to prep once you get used to it. The community in FG is smaller, but there are roughly an equal number of extremely helpful individuals on both platforms.

[Yzrahad]

So speaking of automated damage, actually, how does the game handle the creation of homebrewed items? There were many macros and automations I wanted to build in roll20, but the time it would take to get the items working was astronomical (just to do something basic like make a magic shield that has a charging attack hitting multiple enemies in a line was easily a few days of dedicated work getting it to function). Each item not only had to be scripted individually but then had to be scripted per-character, which basically meant that I just couldn't do it unless I found someone willing to use all their free time to help code all of it.