Sell me Fantasy Grounds!

[charby117]

I'm on Roll20 since march 2020 and i'm thinking moving to Fantasy Grounds except my players don't want to buy it and I already own some modules on Roll20.

Why should I move to Fantasy Grounds? It seems great but I really don't know why I should buy another app for 120$.

What are the advantages? All the post I see are about older versions. Is it great for homebrew world?

Thanks :)

[Sulimo]

Yes, it will work for Homebrew worlds.

I cannot speak to the advantages of FG over Roll20 (never tried Roll20).

I have heard that in certain cases, FG does out perform Roll20, especially on heavy gaming days (weekends).

The main advantage for me with FG is that it is an installed application, not cloud hosted. I don't particularly care for subscriptions where I lose access to my content when I cancel.

If you purchase FG Ultimate, only you have to purchase it, your players just need the Demo (free) version.

Of course, modules are extra, so be aware of that. There is a mechanism within FG to share content with your players.

I would highly recommend if you can to perhaps join a game, or have someone demo for you.

You could check out Fantasy Grounds College (https://fgc.fantasygroundsuniversity.com/) to see if someone would not mind walking you through the basics.

What ruleset are you using?

That will help people chime in and answer the more specific questions you might have.

[charby117]

I'm using D&D 5 ruleset. I check a little bit the demo a long time ago but I was a little bit lost.

Do you recommend any Youtube Video to show tutorial?

[amerigoV]

30 day month back guarantee to try it.

What games do you play? That can be a factor. FG generally has much better rules automation than other platforms, but that is not always true depending on the game. I can attest the Savage Worlds is awesome on FG and is well supported across its various settings.

[charby117]

30 day month back guarantee to try it.

What games do you play? That can be a factor. FG generally has much better rules automation than other platforms, but that is not always true depending on the game. I can attest the Savage Worlds is awesome on FG and is well supported across its various settings.

D&D 5e, maybe some older games.

[Sulimo]

I'm using D&D 5 ruleset. I check a little bit the demo a long time ago but I was a little bit lost.

Do you recommend any Youtube Video to show tutorial?

Here is an introductory video series for Fantasy Grounds Unity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbN8DuNdswo&list=PL3h0dIaiayC9tC2khAOXr0bxNqQv1Ni0w).

Here is another video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU6OlMAgGQg).

They give a basic overview of the software, and how it is used.

[Zarestia]

This is from my own experience, some information may not be 100% correct.

"Worse" things:
- Fanatsy Grounds is hosted on your computer in 99% cases, so players can only access the campaign when you open it
- Less players, so harder to find players / GMs
- Harder to learn/master
- If you have really bad internet and upload speed, things will be slow
- Some people don't like the UI.

"Better" things:
- If comparing to R20 Plus or Pro you pay less after a bit more than a year (for Pro)
- Way more stable
- Prepping is fun
- Effect System for really nice automation if you want
- Party Inventory with real items
- You can easily build modules for homebrew adventures, items, classes, etc.
- You can edit and access your campaign offline as it's on your computer
- As much space as you have on your disk
- Active development and developers engaging with the community!
- much more ...

Personally, I would never go back to R20.
My advice would be to go to the already mentioned fantasy grounds college (they'll probably also post here) and take a free lesson there.

[Fear Grounds]

Welcome to the forums Charby117,

Short answer: Functionality and Organization.

Long Answer:

Having Images stored neatly in their own folders, makes it easier to find what you need, when you need it. You can even search by file name to find your image faster. Any tokens or maps purchased from Roll20 also work in Fantasy Grounds by the way. Easily add images from the internet and keep them organized as much or as little as you prefer.

Tables are easy to use, easy to make, and can make game prep/running easier than ever before. "Random" tables can really fill in the guess work for things like names, treasures, rewards, etc. Never have to worry about that strange person sitting in the corner of the tavern, and if your players are going to befriend them or not. Makes it so you don't necessarily have to prep every single thing about your adventure.

Stories are pretty self explanatory, the story you are telling as a group. In purchased Modules, this is where you'll have constant access to the story outline, to make sure things are going where they need to. In homebrew campaigns, this is where you keep all your story notes on everything that has been created and everything that you are still working on.

Organize NPC's by: Challenge, Environment, Name, whatever helps you find them quicker. Search NPCs by Challenge Rating, Name, or Type.

Set up encounters, usually prior to game sessions. Then you can add them at any time during play. You can use them multiple times, or as one time events. Encounters easily scale up or down by adding and subtracting opponents. You can assign tokens to NPCs in encounters and pre-place them on battle maps, when the encounter is triggered everything can be added to the combat tracker and the map with one click of a button.

I could seriously go on and on about all the great ways to use the Software, but you really need to try it for yourself.

[Three of Swords]

Several years ago, my players and I came from Roll20 to Fantasy Grounds to test it for a single campaign. After about 6 months of using FG I was neutral between the platforms, with each platform being better than the other in several important ways. I posted as much in a thread I linked below.

Since that time, FG has gotten a lot better but Roll20 hasn't changed much and is still struggling to fix features they introduced years ago. So now I find FG as superior in almost every way. I'm glad we switched.

Link to old post: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?45523-How-does-fantasy-grounds-compare-to-roll20

All of the Advantages I listed at the time for FG are still true today. Roll20 has lost most of its advantages.

Edit: I still really miss a good card deck system and rollable tokens...

[charby117]

I think that it makes me afraid to learn everything from scratch.

[Three of Swords]

I think that it makes me afraid to learn everything from scratch.

I won't lie, many ppl (me included) find learning Roll20 easier than FG. But once you learn FG, it's as easy, or easier to use.

[MassSailor]

I think that it makes me afraid to learn everything from scratch.

There’s some learning curve to DMing, but I found it only took a few sessions to get comfortable with FG and that was coming fresh to both FG and 5e after a 30+ year hiatus from RPGs. I’ve been running a campaign for over a year now that includes my 10yr old son and 70yr old father - they both run their own characters on their own computers. Teaching them the rule system (5e) was more of a challenge than getting them going with FG.

Like amerigoV mentioned - 30 day money back guarantee if it doesn’t work for your group.

[The Decepticon]

I DM 2 campaigns on FG and am a player in a campaign in Roll 20.

The combat tracker to me is everything in FG. It is so easy to use, keep track of everything and battles don't take 2-3 hours. Roll 20 battles literally take 3 hours for a few rounds (the DM is always trying to add an effect or needing to find something).

The kicker for me after watching a few videos, and it was daunting especially with the coding as I am not a coder by any means, was the price. The $120 one time price was what I was looking for. I don't have to worry about a monthly subscription.

Other than the long battles on Roll 20, I don't have anything to say bad about it. It works, as I have rarely have had an issue. I would listen to the others on this post and have someone "show you around".

[charby117]

I DM 2 campaigns on FG and am a player in a campaign in Roll 20.

The combat tracker to me is everything in FG. It is so easy to use, keep track of everything and battles don't take 2-3 hours. Roll 20 battles literally take 3 hours for a few rounds (the DM is always trying to add an effect or needing to find something)..

Look, if it's true, I'll try to understand FG. I have the impression that all my battle are far too long on Roll20. Some of them should take 15-20 minutes max if we were playing in person... I'll check some YouTube tutorial to try to understand everything.

Thanks everyone!

[JohnQPublic]

My group started on Roll20 11 years ago. We used Roll20 for, I think, 4 years. It worked fairly well. It was clunky and ugly, but with a fair amount of work, it would do what you needed. (Just FYI I invested about $500 in Roll20, not counting the license). The devs there are/were terrible people. They are douche bros who have nothing but disdain for their customers. They were hostile toward any suggesting that their way of doing things could be improved and they mocked legitimate questions and requests.

So we tried FantasyGrounds. There is a learning curve, for sure, but once you are past that, it's great. Amazingly easy to do everything you need. Stable. Excellent support. Great community. Etc.

Around that time the douche bros in charge at Roll20 did something new that was monumentally stupid. I don't even remember what it was exactly that they did, but I closed my account - as in burnt it to the ground. I didn't just stop using it, leaving my account there, I purged it all. It was just another in a loooooooong line of PR disasters for the douche bros.

Don't give your money to the douche bros. If you don't like Fantasy Grounds, look at Foundry VTT. Never ever go back to Roll20, it's bad software owned by a crappy company and written by an absolute ***-hat.

[*Neuro*]

Roll20 is for unskilled monkeys, Fantasy Grounds is for nerdy skilled monkeys.

The systems are very different: Roll20 is more for the people that usually would not play online.

Fantasy grounds is an absolute beast if you want quality, but expect some learning curve.

It depends if you play with unskilled monkeys or skilled monkeys.

P.s. FG is technically now far superior to Roll20, but is less accessible.

I would say if you have mostly casual one shots with new people and you play many different rpg maybe stay on Roll20, otherwise if you want something more professional go Fantasy Grounds.

[Nylanfs]

Don't forget that the community as a whole is MUCH nicer than anything I've experienced in roll20's forum.

[Dudin]

I bought FGU back in May of 2020 when I wanted to keep up D&D with friends despite quarantine, but did not like Roll20. It took me a couple of weeks to truly understand what I was doing with FGU. As with any great software, there is a learning curve. I think FGU is a manageable one especially if take the time to watch/see the tutorial services/videos out there to help. There is an entire discord channel, Fantasy Grounds College, dedicated to helping teach people how to use the software. They offer classes for getting started as players or DMs for many of the rulesets FGU supports. If and when you do get stuck or confused, people on forums or discords will always be able to help.

There are some common things you should be aware of before you jump is in that many people don't realize/understand at first. If you plan to DM a 5e campaign, then you will likely want to look to buy the 5e source books on the FGU store. The basic FGU license just comes with the basic 5e SRD info. It won't have the full player's handbook, DM's guide, Monster Manuel, etc. You will have to purchase those separately if you want to save yourself the time of adding it in yourself. The vast majority of users purchase the content as the amount of time it would take to add it in yourself justifies the purchase. Same thing with adventures. If you buy say Curse of Strahd, it will come with all the info published in the adventure. That means all of the maps, story entries, images, NPCs used in the book, and items. The maps will now have LOS and lighting already built in and completed for you. You can of course modify/change it as you see fit. Also, keep in mind that only the DM/host of FGU can share data/modules. Modules are the data packs that you can purchase for FGU like the Monster Manuel or an Adventure. So if you buy the things you want, then only you have access to them. If your friend wants to DM for a change, they won't be able to use the modules you have when they are the DM/Host. So they would need to purchase the same modules and FGU license if they wanted to host/function as DM in a similar way.

My favorite part of FGU is still the community :)

[Jiminimonka]

I think that it makes me afraid to learn everything from scratch.

Its not hard to learn, just different. Lots of help on the forums, discord and Fantasy Grounds College if you get stuck.

[Trenloe]

Also, you don't need to learn *everything* before you start playing. This can be a trap that some users fall into - they want to have as much automation as possible running before they start playing - and that just turns into lots of work, for maybe little gain (depending on your play style). Start with the basics, do a lot of stuff manually; then, as you get used to FG, start using functionality that improves your game...

[LordEntrails]

And don't just limit yourself to YouTube videos. Their is a user manual, and their is www.fantasygroundscollege.net that offers free instructor led classes.

[charby117]

And don't just limit yourself to YouTube videos. Their is a user manual, and their is www.fantasygroundscollege.net that offers free instructor led classes.

Thanks! I'll check it but i'm not that good in english so I don't know if I'll understand everything. I bought FG (but not the ultimate) to try to understand it. I'll upgrade when I'll be comfortable with it.

[LordEntrails]

FG College has instructors in other languages than English. Not sure about French (?), but I assume there is a chance. You can always ask for a class in your native language and they will try to find an instructor for you. https://fgc.fantasygroundsuniversity.com/assistance-request/

[charby117]

FG College has instructors in other languages than English. Not sure about French (?), but I assume there is a chance. You can always ask for a class in your native language and they will try to find an instructor for you. https://fgc.fantasygroundsuniversity.com/assistance-request/

Thanks a lot! Maybe in a few years i'm gonna be a french instructor ��

[Pigger]

Agree with earlier posts about Fantasy Grounds College......You need to sign up for their site and discord channel. They are not affiliated professionally with Fantasy Grounds/Smiteworks but are gamers who love to help others learn/use the software. I’m a fairly new user and it’s amazing what you learn just by reading posts. Can’t rave enough about how friendly and helpful the folks are there.

[spoonhead]

There’s a great EU Discord channel for FGC run by a mad Frenchman :)

Join and have a chat with us

https://discord.gg/Ew6nYyw

[Mytherus]

My exp with roll 20 is largely academic..i was going the r20 route as my first vtt..mostly because of the hype train around it. My interest lasted a month. Then i discovered fantasy grounds. I am different than most in that i find browser based vtts to be less appealing. Im sure its just preference but i like that fgu is a dedicated application.

Anyway i dove head first into fg starting with fantasy grounds college...i jumped into every class i could get into that worked with my schedule character creation dm 101 dm 102 there was some player overview class...i then found a game and also watched a bunch of YouTube vids...thats how i learned. Within 2 weeks of learning about fg i spent about 300 bucks (this is more impactful if you knew me...im cheap..dont normally spend alot) .

Its three years later and ive surely,invested another 300 by now with fg store and dms guild purchases.

Its true FG takes a little more to learn than other vtts. But based on videos and lots of reading about the various vtts..it still seems fg offers better 5e support than seceral others and pound for pound has more,automation than others.

Finally Smiteworks are good people. R20 are jerks. Seriously more than one story or example you can find that doesn't put the R20 folks in a good light.

[*Neuro*]

I would say especially if you play D&D 5e I would consider strongly FGU, for the strong support.

if instead you play some strange "RPG of Timbuctu Aliens in deep forests of blabla bla" then consider Roll20 or other VTT.


FGU is very strong on D&D 5e. Also there is a huge support of third party extensions and modules (paid or free)

[Jiminimonka]

I would say especially if you play D&D 5e I would consider strongly FGU, for the strong support.

if instead you play some strange "RPG of Timbuctu Aliens in deep forests of blabla bla" then consider Roll20 or other VTT.


FGU is very strong on D&D 5e. Also there is a huge support of third party extensions and modules (paid or free)

I play RPG of Timbuctu Alien Velociraptors from Mars on Tripods on FGU.

Its the best VTT hands down. Out of the box it does more than Foundry or Roll20 and with content blows them away.

[Trenloe]

Because Fantasy Grounds can do so much in the well supported rulesets, it's very often overlooked for running unsupported rulesets - some users get familiar with the automation and kinda think FG doesn't work well without it. FG is a good VTT without all of the automation - share maps, images, stories, roll dice, make notes, etc., etc. - the hotkey bar is very handy to setup the equivalent of "macros". With CoreRPG and MoreCore you can also quickly set up frequently used rolls within a character sheet - if that's they way you want to go.

[HywelPhillips]

Late to the party, but for me the critical difference is that Roll20 (and to large extent Foundry) are built around maps and tokens. They have grown into great support for actual game systems, but they don't understand the game system, because that's not what they are meant to do.

Fantasy Grounds is built around table-top RPG systems. It supports maps and tokens because those things are useful playing tabletop games, but the software is built to understand the game on a much deeper level.

Every Roll20 campaign I've ever had someone in the party gets lumbered with maintaining the party "loot list" or "bag of holding". By hand, they have to add items into a text document and do the math to add up gold pieces and keep track of it all. Seriously? Maintaining a list and doing integer maths is what computers are good at. Why on earth doesn't the software provide that? It doesn't provide that because that's not what maps-and-tokens requires.

Fantasy Grounds has this functionality built-in, with the party sheet, parcels, items, coin maths, distribution of items to the party, splitting party coins equally, etc.. It does that because this functionality is an essential ingredient of many roleplaying games (especially D&D).

Everywhere you look, you see this same difference in software philosophy. Even as simple a thing as moving to a different map can be a pain in Roll20 because it doesn't understand the higher-level organisation of stories, scenarios, map pins, encounters and so forth that FG provides.

The thing that really made the decision for me was armour class. One of the most fundamental operations in combats is comparing a roll to an armour class to see if you hit. As the GM you need the armour classes of all combatants at your fingertips... or you want the computer to do it for you. Again that's exactly the sort of job which computers are really good at. Compare this number I just generated with my random number generator to a statistic of a character. In Roll20 you can't even add that information to the initiative tracker. I literally used to have a yellow sticky note stuck under my monitor with AC stats. BUT ALL THOSE NUMBERS ARE STORED RIGHT THERE IN ROLL20. It's just that Roll20 doesn't understand what to do with them. It will show you the creature's stat block, but it doesn't understand what AC means.

Fantasy Grounds DOES understand what AC means. If you roll to hit against a certain opponent, it knows how to look up their AC and tell you if you hit. No more yellow stickies. Furthermore, it understands Mage Armour, and knows that if you've got Mage Armour up, your AC should be increased by 3.

FG provides virtual tabletop functionality (maps and tokens) pretty much as well as Roll20. They have strengths and weaknesses. Foundry is probably still a bit ahead in terms of ease of use and prettification, but FG is catching up fast.

But FG is a full-featured GM assistant suite that "speaks" multiple game systems and assists in running games in ways that Roll20 simply cannot touch. You can use it as a pure VTT, and it still has IMO superior organisational features even for unsupported systems. For systems with official support, it offers significant automation. Some of the older rulesets are creaky - basic roleplaying could really do with a ground-up rebuild- but stuff like Vaesen and Alien are much easier to run in FG in my opinion. Every bit of automation is one less thing for me to remember.

For the systems it "speaks" really fluently, like D&D, SWADE or Pathfinder, it does so much more than the other software offerings that it is barely in the same category.

Cheers, Hywel

[Jiminimonka]

Yeah. Just buy it. It's a no brainer.

[Dudin]

Very true. I do not miss at all tracking individual initiatives of every creature. I don't miss having to for sure tell people that attacks hits. I don't miss needing to pull up a browser or a book to look up info about a spell. The combat tracker helps DMs and PCs not forget about ongoing affects and abilities. For all of FGU's learning curve, it more than makes up for it for how much mental power it saves the DM from having to keep track of the unfun parts of DnD.

[Nylanfs]

Heresy, all parts of D&D are fun, especially the grappling rules.

[Milke]

FGU is super customizable. And the customer support is SUPERB.
They are constantly updating it with new features.
And, I don't know about D&D, but with Pathfinder, if you own the PDF from Paizo, you get it as a discount on your purchase from Fantasy Grounds.
It's just a great VTT.

[damned]

If you own the 5E PDFs you also get a discount :pirate:

[charby117]

If you own the 5E PDFs you also get a discount :pirate:

I only own the hardcover. :o

[Dudin]

Is that true? I thought that was only a PF thing. If so, can you please point me to where the details of that discount are? This is the first I am hearing of it.

[damned]

Is that true? I thought that was only a PF thing. If so, can you please point me to where the details of that discount are? This is the first I am hearing of it.

Do you have any 5E PDFs?

[Dudin]

Yes, though I have already purchased the FG modules of the books I have the PDFs of, so it wouldn't save me anything at this point. I am looking to understand for future products.

[damned]

There are no 5E PDFs.
The comment was tongue in cheek.

[charby117]

There are no 5E PDFs.
The comment was tongue in cheek.

10/10

Would read again.

[Mytherus]

There are no 5E PDFs.
The comment was tongue in cheek.

Well...no LEGAL 5e pdfs....not saying i support the shenanigan sites that offer 5e pdfs...but they exist.

[Trenloe]

No legal WotC 5E PDFs. Plenty of 5e compatible PDFs from third party publishers.