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Originally Posted by
SilentRuin
I think people don't like Fantasy Grounds because of the "bling" factor. Other apps have more flash and simplicity with basic simple things.
Both of which are important, because "flash" is what you look at for hours while sitting alone in front of a screen and "simplicity" lowers the bar to get things rolling.
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However, FGU is the only app I use to run my campaigns. I like it because I can be ultimately lazy in how I run the game.
This is the strongest point in favor of FGU, at least when you throw money at it to buy ready-made content.
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I can actually spend time crafting the experience rather than constantly managing every little roll with all that can effect those rolls.
This is somewhat debatable. Not all automation is equal in any of these VTTs, but mostly depending on which system you play. And even with all its automation I often find having to handhold my players to accomplish mechanical tasks in FGU, because of the missing "simplicity" and the mechanics often taking a front-seat.
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I like the fact the LOS/Lighting is completely flexible (albeit new and still under development) and I can design/add/change things on the fly as I need them on the map during actual game play.
Which at least Foundry offers, too, no idea about Roll20. And since Foundry's lighting and walls are more powerful one could argue that it offer even more flexibility. Foundry especially offers light cones and copy & paste of light sources. It does not offer changing multiple lights at once, though, which FGU does. Theoretically you could emulate copy & paste via layer duplication in FGU, but merging layers doesn't seem to be offered (and UNDO of light layers fails, while undo of wall layers works).
You cannot do this kind of lighting in FGU:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...3cd37412f2.gif
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I like my players can play for free with no costs - as host I've bought the ultimate license and all the books.
Same for Foundry, one-time purchase for the GM, no costs for the players. Not even the need to create an account or install software. This is the lowest possible hurdle for players.
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I ESPECIALLY like that anything annoys me in the app I can override by writing my own extensions (note: EXTENSIONS = RISK) to make it do what I want to do in my games. Nothing has this kind of flexibility or power.
Again, same for Foundry. And since it uses Javascript and offers direct connection to other developers in real-time it is even easier to start writing your own extensions. I published an extension for Foundry (Token Elevator) in short time, because it was easier and more motivating to get there compared to FGU's Lua 5.1.
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Granted, I don't do DATA and pretty much bought the FGU modules for PHB, MM, and DMG and supplemental data from DMsG to make my life even lazier with extensions.
And this is where systems matter. Can you even buy any kind of digital image/PDF maps for original 5E adventures outside of FGU or Roll20? This seems more a limitation of the DnD license than a limitation of each VTT system, though.
With PF2 in Foundry it is as easy as importing the adventure PDF file via PDF Importer module (only paying for the Paizo PDF). Both FGU and the PDF importer suffer from the walls not always been drawn properly. This is most problematic when wall lines are put exactly on the outer edge of map walls, so all players get to see is blackness instead of the wall texture, often also not revealing doors properly. And for some reason these pre-made maps always use sight-blocking walls at the outer edges of maps, instead of using see-through walls that allow players to see the map graphics around caves/ships/extra-dimensional pockets that add to the mood of a map.
With Foundry Starfinder GMs have to export the map images from the PDFs manually and then draw their own walls and lights. Theoretically only one person in the world would have to do that and then could share their JSON export file, so anyone with the same PDF based map can use the same walls and lights (regardless of resolution). Practically there is no place where these are shared even though a Discord thread was started lately and would be minimal work do export and upload them.
Encounters outside the Alien Archives need to be imported via Statblock Importer module (works well) or manually entered. But FGU offers the additional option to throw money at the problem and get ready-made maps and encounters from their shop. I also expect FGU's implementation to have hit vs. AC automation, which the Foundry implementation of SF does not (yet) offer.
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So in a nutshell, people don't like FGU because of the learning curve and overhead in mastering it.
On top of the necessity to successfully create an account and install the software. The software also is more restricting to use (no multi-window option for multiple screens), harder to configure (obscure chat commands to change graphic settings) and quickly disabling problematic extensions or reloading the session because of performance problems takes much longer.
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Was not easy to get to that point. And if you don't want that level of power and control - stick to the simple apps. In the end, the game is what you and your players make of it. These "apps" are just tools and can only provide as good an experience as the people that are running them.
What kind of power are you missing from Foundry then? It's much more extensible via modules than FGU is via extensions and even systems can be modified by users, too (not so in FGU for anything bought via shop). So one could argue that it is even more powerful for a uses who like to take that kind of control.
