Holy Goat
2020-05-08, 08:55 PM
Hello all! I am hoping to pick y'all's brains about whether Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds would be better suited for my needs as a new DM. I know that this sort of question can be a bit like asking whether I should get a PlayStation or XBox, the answer really depends on the situation and what I want out of it, I have done enough research to know that much. But I am hoping to get some more specialized advice from people who have used them. So here is a bit of background info to help you understand where I am coming from.
I have a group of online friends who have been throwing around the idea of starting a D&D campaign online, but no one ever took the initiative to start it, so I decided that despite not having any actual DMing experience, I would just bite the bullet and do it. I know quite a bit about 5e (that's the system I'll be using for the foreseeable future), but I have never actually DMed before. Because of that, I decided to start off easy and run Lost Mines of Phandelver (which is free on both platforms) to get my feet wet and then go on from there, hopefully designing my own campaign at some point.
I have played on Roll20 a couple of times as a player, and I do find the interface pretty confusing. That's probably a matter of just getting used to it, and I understand Fantasy Grounds will probably be equally as confusing as I learn it.
I understand there is a lot of discussion surrounding the different prices for each platform as well, and the consensus seems to be that Roll20 has better totally free options but gets more expensive down the line. Whereas FG is more an upfront cost, but cheaper over time. Money isn't a huge issue for me at the moment (I am incredibly lucky to still be working full time and not a lot of ways or reasons to spend). So I don't mind some upfront cost. Also on that note, I would definitely be getting the Ultimate version of FGU so none of my players incur any costs. I also would probably be buying the core modules for whichever I chose because time and convenience is a lot more valuable than the cost right now.
I did go ahead and download Fantasy Grounds Unity and play around with it a little bit to see how it felt and honestly, I was pretty dang confused by it as well. Like I couldn't even figure out how to open a battle map and add tokens to it. Again, this might just be something I have to get used to. But the confusingness of it did put me off a bit. Though like I said, Roll20 seems like it could be pretty confusing as well.
I also understand that Roll20 is more versatile in regards to different systems or even homebrew content. I don't think I really plan on doing too much else besides 5e, maybe down the line tweaking or houseruling somethings, but I don't expect to go in and tinker too much with the core rules.
I did see that Fantasy Grounds has some really interesting fan modules, which is a real plus to me I think. Not really sure how Roll20 operates or if there's as much of that sort of thing for it.
Ultimately I think what I am mostly wondering is which one makes putting down a battlemap and moving things around on it best? I don't really care too much about being able to just click a box and have it figure out what all dice to roll and whatnot. Part of the fun of tabletops for me is going through the process of thinking "Ok, I need to roll a d20 with disadvantage, and if successful roll 1d10+2 plus 1d4 necrotic damage". But maybe having just one button to click to do a lot of that work for you is the sort of quality of life my players, and even eventually I, would appreciate?
Part of me is leaning toward Roll20 because that's what some f my players are already used to and I've used it a little bit, but I am a little concerned that down the line I might get tired of some of its quirks. But I am really hesitant to make a decision, because I know that with the upfront cost of both of them, I'm going to have to just stick with whichever I choose. Because of some personality flaws/quirks of mine, if something becomes too tedious or frustrating, I'm likely to burn out on it, and I *really* want to be playing D&D consistently.
TL;DR: Help! I can't decide if I should pull the trigger for either Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds Unity as a new DM and it's holding me back from getting stuff prepped for my campaign.
I have a group of online friends who have been throwing around the idea of starting a D&D campaign online, but no one ever took the initiative to start it, so I decided that despite not having any actual DMing experience, I would just bite the bullet and do it. I know quite a bit about 5e (that's the system I'll be using for the foreseeable future), but I have never actually DMed before. Because of that, I decided to start off easy and run Lost Mines of Phandelver (which is free on both platforms) to get my feet wet and then go on from there, hopefully designing my own campaign at some point.
I have played on Roll20 a couple of times as a player, and I do find the interface pretty confusing. That's probably a matter of just getting used to it, and I understand Fantasy Grounds will probably be equally as confusing as I learn it.
I understand there is a lot of discussion surrounding the different prices for each platform as well, and the consensus seems to be that Roll20 has better totally free options but gets more expensive down the line. Whereas FG is more an upfront cost, but cheaper over time. Money isn't a huge issue for me at the moment (I am incredibly lucky to still be working full time and not a lot of ways or reasons to spend). So I don't mind some upfront cost. Also on that note, I would definitely be getting the Ultimate version of FGU so none of my players incur any costs. I also would probably be buying the core modules for whichever I chose because time and convenience is a lot more valuable than the cost right now.
I did go ahead and download Fantasy Grounds Unity and play around with it a little bit to see how it felt and honestly, I was pretty dang confused by it as well. Like I couldn't even figure out how to open a battle map and add tokens to it. Again, this might just be something I have to get used to. But the confusingness of it did put me off a bit. Though like I said, Roll20 seems like it could be pretty confusing as well.
I also understand that Roll20 is more versatile in regards to different systems or even homebrew content. I don't think I really plan on doing too much else besides 5e, maybe down the line tweaking or houseruling somethings, but I don't expect to go in and tinker too much with the core rules.
I did see that Fantasy Grounds has some really interesting fan modules, which is a real plus to me I think. Not really sure how Roll20 operates or if there's as much of that sort of thing for it.
Ultimately I think what I am mostly wondering is which one makes putting down a battlemap and moving things around on it best? I don't really care too much about being able to just click a box and have it figure out what all dice to roll and whatnot. Part of the fun of tabletops for me is going through the process of thinking "Ok, I need to roll a d20 with disadvantage, and if successful roll 1d10+2 plus 1d4 necrotic damage". But maybe having just one button to click to do a lot of that work for you is the sort of quality of life my players, and even eventually I, would appreciate?
Part of me is leaning toward Roll20 because that's what some f my players are already used to and I've used it a little bit, but I am a little concerned that down the line I might get tired of some of its quirks. But I am really hesitant to make a decision, because I know that with the upfront cost of both of them, I'm going to have to just stick with whichever I choose. Because of some personality flaws/quirks of mine, if something becomes too tedious or frustrating, I'm likely to burn out on it, and I *really* want to be playing D&D consistently.
TL;DR: Help! I can't decide if I should pull the trigger for either Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds Unity as a new DM and it's holding me back from getting stuff prepped for my campaign.