Newb to Virtual Gaming: Require Assistance

[BrokenWolf]

Hello All,

I am a long time lurker on the forums and have been running a D&D 4e game with my friends for a few years. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 concerns, we are going to have to switch to virtual. I have been looking at Fantasy Grounds and Roll 20 and both seem pretty overwhelming. But the question I have is which system would be the best to run a 4e game. Especially if the DM (me) is not very tech-savvy.

Thank you again for your help.

[Dimers]

I am a long time lurker on the forums and have been running a D&D 4e game with my friends for a few years. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 concerns, we are going to have to switch to virtual. I have been looking at Fantasy Grounds and Roll 20 and both seem pretty overwhelming. But the question I have is which system would be the best to run a 4e game. Especially if the DM (me) is not very tech-savvy.

Hi, BrokenWolf.

I've found this forum pretty good for play (aside from that month-long crash, of course). It's reliable, quick to load pages, able to handle images if desired ... the die roller is fine and very flexible ... it's completely free of charge ... there's very little that players would need to learn. Moderators do a good job of keeping things clean, too.

For mapping, I just use Google Sheets. I don't benefit from nice visuals like you can easily put into Roll20, so putting colors and letters in squares to show terrain/creatures works fine for me. Auras are a bit of a pain to show, but whatever.

And I prefer myth-weavers for character sheets. Like GitP, it's pretty reliable, quick-loading, free, not a big strain to learn.

[Anxe]

Roll20 works fine. It only gets technical if you rely on the 4e character sheet's inbuilt system for rolling your powers. That becomes a huge mess. If you have a method you're used to from playing in person, just use whatever that is without trying to puzzle out the Roll20 charater sheet's method. Aside from that, I don't know of a system that's less intimidating than Roll20, besides the forums as Dimers said. Roll20 as a virtual tabletop is meant to be very easy to pick up. The character sheet... not so much.