Fantasy Grounds versus Roll D20 Virtual Tabletop Web

[cacotigon]

Can somebody who has experience with both Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 Virtual Tabletop explain some of the ways in which they differ?

Roll20 is a web interface for virtual D&D:
http://blog.roll20.net/

Thanks!

[Dr0W]

I've had little experience with roll20 but this is what I can tell you:
Roll20 is the best -free- virtual tabletop out there.
Fantasy Grounds is the best virtual tabletop out there.

I think the main difference are the rulesets you have on FG. Depending on what you want to play the rulesets can heavily enhance your experience with it's semi-automatisation. Not only they make the game prettier but make it much faster. If you're going to play something like D&D 4e things like this would happen on FG:
DM: "Ok, roll your attack"
Player: "Ok, I'll use my sword of the flaming god on that goblin" //just made this attack up
The player would click the targeted goblin, then he would select the power from his sheet and double click it. The software would then roll it's attack and display results. Then it would compare the player's attack result with the goblins defenses. If it hits, it would then roll damage and would apply the it directly to the goblin (the dm doesn't need to do anything). Ok, but this goblin is bathed in oil and it has fire vulnerabilty: FG knows that the attack has fire damage and that the goblin has fire vulnerability and will apply the fire bonus damage correctly. But then let's say this flaming god attack has an Damage over Time effect that makes our poor goblin go ablaze until he can succeed an resist roll and put the fires out: FG will apply the effect, which will every turn damage the goblin and make an resist roll for it. If it succeeds it removes the "on fire" effect and if it doesn't the goblin gets damaged.

Note that ALL of this would have been done with a single double click. You should also note that this level of automatization it completely customizable, you can have all of it, part of it or none of it. Some DMs don't like when the player "know" their monsters AC, for example.

Now imagine the very same situation on Roll20. Unless they have made huge updates since I last tried it you would have to do all of this manually. Rolling dices, comparing AC, remembering that the goblin has fire vulnerability and then calculating the right damage bonus, having to remember every turn that that single goblin has been lit on fire and that it has to make a resist roll or suffer damage.

Note that not all rulesets have this level of automatization either, and some of them are completely created and supported by the player community.

So if you're into something that would have advantages playing on this environment, FG2 is the best. But if you're going to play something that doesn't require many calculations, if you won't even use a combat grid and just need a place to run dices and take notes (Like playing Dungeon World) you'd be fine on roll20.

[Smiteworks]

cacotigon, I'd encourage you to play around with this some on the demo. In addition to recognizing NPC and PC attack strings very well and doing the things that Dr0W listed, there are numerous character sheet and campaign management features built-in. These are similar between rulesets, but the D&D 3.5E and Pathfinder rulesets included do it very well.

The built in Libraries are also one of the strengths since you can use all the monsters without having to enter their stats.

For many of our rulesets, we also sell fully entered and complete adventure modules that included all the GM text, boxed text, monster encounters, maps, etc. so you are ready to run from the start. A simple read-through and then you'll be ready to run the adventure for your players. When you are done, just close the module in your module activation window and open the next one or use your custom adventure from there.

[KaylaKaze]

I have to disagree with you about Roll20. Maptools is far superior.

[Pomf666]

Granted I am new to both systems, and while I definitely think Fantasy Grounds is a superior system and more streamlined, I am getting frustrated with be able to actually use it in the sense of being in an actual campaign.

Since release day on Steam, I have been posting on Steam forums for LFG, and made a post on Fantasy Grounds forums, and tried to reply to posts on those forums as well, but I have yet to be confirmed into a single campaign yet.

The Fantasy Grounds forums do not seem active at all, while one thread I created did get through, the replies I made to some of the other posts are still not posted because apparently they are "waiting approval", which it has been well over 24 hours or more for some of my posts and still not showing up.

Meanwhile, even though I don't think roll20 is as good as FG, I just wanna play some P&P RPGing again, so I just only last night started to apply to some campaigns there on roll20, and within a FEW HOURS, I had been accepted into campaigns, sure the actual campaign might not start for a week, but at least I know there will be a campaign and that I can play in it.

On the other hand, I still have yet to get much of anything from the FG community. I have got some contacts and possible leads, but as of yet I have yet to be confirmed for a single campaign for FG.

I understand it can take time to setup P&P and I am not expecting overnight responses, and I have already stated I prefer FG the program compared to roll20, but as far as activity goes, roll20 seems much more active.

[Smiteworks]

Hello Golden Vulva, we tell people that finding a good long term group could take a week or more. With the number of new users we've been adding lately on Steam, this should hopefully shorten with time.

A number of posts got flagged for moderation based on the new-ness of the accounts and keywords -- which is some feature of the latest vBulletin patch we are running and I didn't realize that was occurring. I just released everything in moderation, so your posts should show up now.

[damned]

**repost from another thread*** :)
Right now - I hardly ever see a pickup game get off the ground. That is largely due to the traditional userbase of Fantasy Grounds gamers often buying it for use with their existing group. The Steam community is a whole different type of gamer - often looking for exactly that. I think we will probably see a big pickup in pickup sessions being advertised and getting enough players because of the influx of Steam players.
That being said - MMORPG and FPS players are used to jumping into existing games and jumping out again when they have had enough. RPG games just dont suit that. RPG requires character and relationship building, longer term planning and goals and it requires the players to communicate and relate to each other.
So its going to be interesting. Im pretty tired from FG Con this weekend gone but am planning to start running a introductory session or two in the next week. The sessions ill be advertised here.

[Modnar]

Fantasy Grounds has an amazing client with some very advance and helpful features.

Roll20 has a very basic webclient, with a very simple common element, they focused on their portal for creating and hosting games.

Dr0Ws example is very true, but as a tabletop solution - DMs are pretty used to doing that so its not excessively strenous mentally to do that.

I do wish for the ability to point to location FG maps like roll20's Ping feature or their pickup game.



The thing that FG is sorely missing is a community management solution.
Their game calendar is kludgy. Look at it and you'll see 17 versions of 5e, only 2 of which seem valid - version 5e and a customized build of it.



KaylaKaze - is right - maptools is amazing, a little complicated, but amazing potential there.

[kylania]

"I do wish for the ability to point to location FG maps like roll20's Ping feature"

The DM can focus their map to look at a specific point and force that view down to the clients.

[Modnar]

Or drop a token that appears as an arrow, and then remove it, yes. (that method seems more functionally similiar if we're talking about work arounds)

[damned]

I often lose which is the current actors token in large combats. My method of locating them in these situations is to click the visibility on and off a couple of times. Crude but thats what works for me.