Like the title says. I don’t like roll20 as a company, but I use their tool because it’s the best free option that I know about.
Any suggestions on other free tools that can compete?
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Foundry is probably the most powerful, but it is also far more technical and enthusiast focused. The community contributing modules and features is pretty robust, but is also dependent on said community support to handle updates, etc.
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If you and your players can afford the $19.99 I recommend Tabletop Simulator since it is 3D virtual tabletop. It has a very healthy community of workshop mods for miniature wargaming, RPGs, card games, and board games. You can import the books for your RPG as pdfs plus you can make your character sheets. There are mods for miniatures, terrain, etc… It does have built in voice chat as well.
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Agreed, I really like Foundry VTT. It’s also a one time investment for the GM of $50. That said, if you want it hosted, it is way more complicated to setup, unless you go with a paid service like The Forge. The awesome thing about Forge is that you can automatically install updates and modules with minimal effort on your part.
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Since you mentioned “free”, I’d suggest Owlbear Rodeo
It looks like they’re really beefing up the capabilities of the app, while not bloating it up.
TTS is fun, but everyone has to have a pretty good computer to run it smoothly. Fantasy Grounds’ interface just seems. . . dated. . . and kinda clunky to me. And this is using the latest version. But their non- 5e support seems legit.
I’ve been using Foundry, because of it’s power and the one-time purchase fee (unlike Roll20)- but there’s a pretty steep learning curve. AND system support seems iffy, unless you play 5e. BUT I’ve been thinking of giving Owlbear another try.
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There are a few new VTTs coming out Scene Grinder I just backed them and it looks pretty cool. I still use Roll20 as well even though I am not a fan of some things the owner has done in the past. There are more upcoming that will eventually push it out of the way due to so many issues. Tailspire is really nice. All of the players have to pay though $20 and it takes some setup time. It’s like setting up a Dwarven Forge set on computer.
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I haven’t had too much trouble with Savage Worlds on Foundry. The dev seems fairly engaged.
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Great! I was already aware of some of these paid options, but I might check them out anyways. I have a pretty tight gaming budget, and I like to make it stretch as far as possible by using free tools and assets whenever possible. I’ll definitely check out this rodeo thing.
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TTS might be on sale for Christmas. It usually does. Also, Humble Bundle has it regularly. Currently, Kinguin has it for $4.76 as a Steam Gift. Eneba has it for $17.79.
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The others I know of have been mentioned… these might be worth a try, too:
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… and possibly this one. It’s a chrome extension and I haven’t checked it out yet, but…
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I’ve personally used two others as both gm and player.
Maptools which is a free Java based vtt. It works really well. If a bit basic. I does have player vision, lighting, and fog of war. Map making is very serviceable.
The downside is it’s interface. You’ll either need to design all the macros and framework yourself (if you know how to program in Java) or download/ get help from the community. My group used it for years.
The new kid on the block is Foundryvtt while it’s not free. Coming in with a $50 price tag.
It has a lot more features. Allowing you to incorporate music, visual anf audio effects. Is highly customizable with modules you can download to make your game unique to your play style. The vast majority of these are free to use. With my game a have over 50 such modules and all of them are free. They are created be the community.
It does have a bit of a learning curve. But fortunately they have a very active discord to help anyone with questions.
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Another one to look at that seems to have an active Discord community is Lets-Role. It is quite pretty, but like most of them it takes some getting used to. https://lets-role.com/ I also would second Owlbear Rodeo. It’s basic, and simple to use but it looks like a labor of love project.
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I’m still roling D20 Pro. It’s basic, but serviceable, for my needs (I don’t use the VTT for anything except mapping and hit point tracking).
All dice rolls are accomplished within in the traditional range of the Vogon Blurglecruncheon.
I’ve used MapTools. Very flexible to build your own macro setups, but a bit clunky.
If you get deep enough into the calculations for damage reduction and armor wear, she bucks like a mule.
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I forgot all about Maptools! I used to use it many, many years ago, but if I recall, it ran into some issues with Java? After that I looked for other options. Glad to hear it’s still up and going strong.
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I would also suggest considering:
Shard Tabletop: https://www.shardtabletop.com/
Mythic Tabletop: https://www.mythictable.com/
and possibly Kanka: Kanka - Online tabletop RPG campaign manager and worldbuilding tool
…though Kanka has morphed into something more akin to World Anvil , so maybe not as pertinent in this context.
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A lot of great suggestions here. I briefly played in a 3.5 game that used map tools. It seemed pretty cool to me back then. Everyone had to bring laptops back in 2008 and I didn’t have one, so I only managed to weasel my way into one game, haha.
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Heh. My online VTT game got together in person last year when our two remote players were in town. We didn’t want to give up the functionality of the VTT, so everyone at the table was huddled around a couple laptops.
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I just learned of one today called MasterScreen https://run.masterscreen.app/. Stores all files as Markown and runs in the browser similar to Owlbear Rodeo.
I haven’t had time to really dig into it, but it looks interesting.
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