Convince Me to Switch to Fantasy Grounds

[GavinRuneblade]

Yeah, I can't speak on Foundry's community, that's for sure, just having looked into the VTT today.

As for FG's community, I must be more lenient than most in that regard. I was on Roll20 and active in the community for over 5 years and only saw what I would consider a few 'bad apples'. I've seen as many here in the last 2 years or so, and it's a smaller community. That said, the number of helpful ppl are about the same as well. So to me, they're about the same. (Unless you take moderation into consideration, in which case Roll20's censorship and community is vastly worse.)

Heh, can't forget the big drama from last year. The owner of Roll20 still has the third most downvoted reddit post of all time.

But what I found in my years on Roll20 (admittedly, quite a while ago now) was asking for help for the trickier stuff (like macros) got you mocked and teased and variations of "it's not that hard, what's wrong with you". Ask anything here and you'll get help. Share a game experience over there and everyone piles on with compliments and their experience of the same adventure. Look for a game and get tons of pointers and excited DM's telling you their story. Roll20 was great for that. But if you need help, no one beats this community in my experience.

[GavinRuneblade]

Once you get your head around how it actually works and start to use it to run games and even more so write scenarios, running games in Roll20 feels like having one arm tied behind your back. I don't want to live without effects and condition tracking, auto-inflicted damage including saves made automatically when targeting big groups of enemies, pins for hyperlinks, the parser that turns English-language monster descriptions into rollable stats that automatically come up in the combat tracker, a built-in calendar system, etc.. I do all my game prep on FG and can access everything with a few mouse clicks.

Honestly, once we can play face to face again I'm going to find it very hard to let go of these GM support features.

I hope that helps some people who might be looking at which VTT to choose.

Best regards,

Hywel

Thanks for the three, especially Astral that was great info.

Just a heads up that I know a lot of DMs, myself included, who use FG face to face. Cody from Taking20 even has a guide on how to make a game table that uses FG for the battlemap and is linked to your laptop as the DM screen so you can use it face-to-face.

[Larsenex]

Celestian nailed it. > Automation. Hands down makes this a complete and total win over Roll20.

I was a subscribed user with Roll20 for a year. I had to learn how to write scripts! I had to plead on thier forums how to do stuff and wait until I'd get a response (which usually happened) and follow the instructions.

All of this is done in FG. Once you learn how FG works it is amazing. Player targets mob > rolls to hit..FG calculates everything, hit or miss? Roll dmg > got damage resistance to slashing but its a flaming sword? > FG calculates (correctly every time) the damage as to be applied.

This alone is a time saver. Aligning maps is easier if you use the map align tool OUTSIDE of FG first and get it properly scaled.
Some maps > you just cant win (I'm looking at you Droskar's Crucible).

The Second but is likely really the best reason is the folks here on the FG forums are NICE! NOT CONDESCENDING, will answer (VERY FAST) any question and of course there is Fantasy grounds college >>> Laerun and Lady Shel the "help desk for FG", always (it seems like) available for questions!

[Mytherus]

I‘m not that satisfied with the FGU UI and performance and switched to Foundry VTT from FGC/FGU. My players like it much more, as I do.

Your choice but foundry isnt a full featured vtt for specific rulesets. I could be wrong but what i know of it there are no wotc or paizo content made specifically for foundry and there's no automation. That said if you and you players like it much better...you never gave fg a shot to experience its features. Fgc runs like butter for my games a crash happens maybe once every couple months (and i host 7 to 9 hrs of games per week). But i digress...you like foundry cool. But its not a real vtt.

[arkanis]

The Second but is likely really the best reason is the folks here on the FG forums are NICE! NOT CONDESCENDING,...

I'm not sure if your appreciation fits well with this statament below ;p

But i digress...you like foundry cool. But its not a real vtt.

[LordEntrails]

I'm not sure if your appreciation fits well with this statament below ;p

Statements made by different people. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions. Hopefully each person expresses them respectfully, but that doesn't always happen. Though I always assume people have the best intentions and simple don't express themselves on the forums with all the nuance they intend.

[OverCriticalHit]

I haven't delved that deeply into Roll20, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you have access (or at least easy access) to things like Tables and Story Templates. With FG and 5e as an example, the entire DMG's "roll an adventure" sequence of tables is baked right in, making it a one-shot process to generate the skeleton of a credible adventure in seconds, as well as dice up a dungeon on the fly. Obviously you'll have to flesh out details, but FG gives you the tools to do stuff in the client that can make a GM's life very easy while still allowing for creativity and flourish. Once set up, it subordinates the fiddly bits and leaves you free to concentrate on the things computers can't do, which is be inventive. I'd actually say it can do this better than the tabletop experience, because you're not so bogged down in accounting.

The depth in FG is incredible. That obviously comes with a learning curve, but the product isn't just about flashy graphics (and it is probably the least flashy), it's about the engine under the hood. From what I can see, FG is and will likely remain streets ahead in the horsepower department, and will reward those who put in the effort to come up to speed with the system. Once the fundamentals have been grasped, the "Prep less. Play more." promise really kicks in. And if you get stuck, there's a lot of documentation and people to help you out.

Admittedly I've had nothing to do with support here or anywhere else in the VTT biz, but you just get the impression that FG is made by people who really care. When you have a look at the official team's videos, that shines through. I feel good spending money with people who care.

That's my 2% of a dollar.

[LordEntrails]

I haven't delved that deeply into Roll20, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you have access (or at least easy access) to things like Tables and Story Templates. With FG and 5e as an example, the entire DMG's "roll an adventure" sequence of tables is baked right in, making it a one-shot process to generate the skeleton of a credible adventure in seconds, as well as dice up a dungeon on the fly.

I suspect limited table and template functionality in Roll20 is one of the reasons they have never released the 5E DMG.

[OverCriticalHit]

I suspect limited table and template functionality in Roll20 is one of the reasons they have never released the 5E DMG.

See, I didn't even know that. That's the beauty of FG -- it takes the rulebooks and makes them into tools rather than mainly reference material. The one downside is that READING the rulebooks as reference material is not the easiest on FG, and if I could wish for anything it would be some kind of integration/discount program with D&D Beyond. Duplicating the purchases to get the ideal combo of reference and tools is a pretty massive hit to the wallet. By somehow sharing that, I reckon that both FG and Beyond would come out ahead in the end.

[Imagix]

As mentioned elsewhere, D&D Beyond is run by yet another company, and that would require prices to rise in order to cover their licensing and operating costs. Really, this is something you should take up with Wizards of the Coast.