Ugggg I'm so tired of hearing people say that DND Beyond isn't owned by WoTC...
You're right DndBeyond is Twitch/Amazon etc... however it's the officially licensed online resource for D&D. WoTC contracted it's creation and licensed it... As such D&D is the online "Ambassador" of D&D. They did this because they saw value in pushing the Online space with Twitch streams etc... It is in everyone's best interest to have a VTT integrated into DNDBeyond officially so that it could be seamlessly integrated into twitch streams. Right now it is a mess, and it's completely ludicrous that Beyond was ever launched without a basic VTT. As far as twitch is concerned it should have been a design requirement from day one.
If you look at DndBeyond's original launch info, it was never stated that it was intended for online streaming. It was intended to be an online tool for in-person table games, which was part of their announcement. Over the past few years, the vast majority of their upgrades have continued to be focused on that...in person play and a information resource between sessions, as stated in their original launch info. I'm sure they are looking at VTT and streaming now, especially given their increased visibility in that space from their partnership with Critical Role, but from everything I see they appear to still be focused on being an in-person digital tool.
Ugggg I'm so tired of hearing people say that DND Beyond isn't owned by WoTC...
You're right DndBeyond is Twitch/Amazon etc... however it's the officially licensed online resource for D&D. WoTC contracted it's creation and licensed it... As such D&D is the online "Ambassador" of D&D. They did this because they saw value in pushing the Online space with Twitch streams etc... It is in everyone's best interest to have a VTT integrated into DNDBeyond officially so that it could be seamlessly integrated into twitch streams. Right now it is a mess, and it's completely ludicrous that Beyond was ever launched without a basic VTT. As far as twitch is concerned it should have been a design requirement from day one.
Few corrections:
D&D Beyond is the official toolset of the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, not the officially licensed online resource. There are other online resources (roll20 and Fantasy Grounds being two), but they're not official toolsets
WotC didn't contract it's creation, Adam Bradford approached WotC with the idea.
WotC already had an online presence in the twitch sphere with the roll20 presents series on twitch before D&D Beyond launched.
Ugggg I'm so tired of hearing people say that DND Beyond isn't owned by WoTC...
You're right DndBeyond is Twitch/Amazon etc... however it's the officially licensed online resource for D&D. WoTC contracted it's creation and licensed it... As such D&D is the online "Ambassador" of D&D. They did this because they saw value in pushing the Online space with Twitch streams etc... It is in everyone's best interest to have a VTT integrated into DNDBeyond officially so that it could be seamlessly integrated into twitch streams. Right now it is a mess, and it's completely ludicrous that Beyond was ever launched without a basic VTT. As far as twitch is concerned it should have been a design requirement from day one.
That is because ownership is a big deal in business. It affects taxes, profits, rights, and a whole lot of things. Beyond is not owned by Twitch and Amazon anymore either.
Beyond is not the only online ambassador of D&D. Beyond was not even meant to have that role in the first place. Beyond's original vision was to be a supplement to and enhance real life, in person, face to face, table top play.
VTT was not part of the original vision, and I do not think focusing on online play is in everyone's interest. While I do not mind them working on a VTT, I prefer Beyond to focus on and prioritize real life play. I did not sign up for Beyond to play D&D online with my friends; if we are going to play something online, we much rather play videogames with online co-op instead. In my opinion, Beyond has the easiest to use and most aesthetically pleasing character sheet. Its database is pretty good too to search things on the fly. I prefer Beyond to focus on its core strengths rather than trying to chase an industry trend to try to be like everyone else. What differentiates Beyond from other VTTs is its focus on real life play, and it is that niche that I am interested in.
While some D&D fans may buy into a Beyond VTT, I am not sure if that market is big enough support a Beyond VTT to cover the cost and maintenance. VTTs are capital intensive to develop. Since Beyond's original vision was focused on real life play and did not include VTTs, Beyond would need to dump a lot of additional capital into their business that may or may not give them a good return. I think it is risky for Beyond to dive into VTTs right now due to being in direct competition with other companies, and Beyond will have difficulty distinguishing itself from VTT competitors. While Beyond has an edge in tems of having a pretty looking character sheet and a nice simple database, I do not think that would be enticing enough for most consumers since VTT competitors can handle more than just D&D content.
Right now, Beyond has practically no significant rivals that focus on real life D&D play. Beyond probably has a good, but not strong enough, monopoly over this niche. I think the best thing for Beyond to do is to secure and tighten its monopoly on this niche first before foraying into the VTT space. Beyond still has plenty of work to do on its character sheets and other features. By making the barrier of entry into this niche as high as possible, Beyond's financial future would be more stable and secure from rivals. Once Beyond has secured its monopoly over real life play, I think only then should Beyond ponder whether it is a good idea to go into the VTT industry.
Recently moved all my D&D online - will be hard to go back to full paper. Started with Roll20, dropped it for Foundry VTT which I've found to be far better. Links to DDB are a great asset for any VTT - TBH I wouldn't be here if not for those links.
Gamma, i agree with you, i did not buy into DDB for VTT but to play with my friends at a table. However, i really enjoy using Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU) adventures integration. There are a few bugs in FGU, but i i think it is worth the price. I would recommend if you are running more than one DM session or want to keep past/previous ones. I have used Roll20 for almost 2 years (free) and i am hitting a lot of data caps now, and i do not want to pay monthly
I can see myself doing a hybrid in the future. DDB for source and FGU for pre-made adventures and homebrew, while sitting around the table. So if DDB went VTT i would definitely buy it. FGU streamlines the adventure so much, and dynamic light is very cool.
So this is also my review of FGU, it is really solid, for adventuring, and even source materials. My only gripe is NPC (Monsters) and combat some of the spells and effects are not included and require some DM & user intervention or $$$ for modules that create scripts to do this for you. Also some player stuff that is lacking, but mostly very minor. There is some lag on the DM host side sometime, but it is still in early access, so i am confident it will be fixed and again for $35 it is worth the risk to me.
BTW Foundry i did not have any router issues, initially i thought i did, but it was user error, i was able to host and join with no port forwarding. So it actually worked really well. I want to add that the FGU community was super helpful. My issue was i was running another VPN for work, and i needed to make sure it was off (duh, user error like i said), and everything worked fine. So hopefully FGU for you works better now.
I can't recommend Foundry VTT enough. Quality software, one-time payment, host however you want, constant updates, great community… the list goes on.
Thanks for your perspective, I have not played on it but it does look cool and it has a lot of add-ons, and great community involvement. I think the guy who wrote Beyond20 is either an own or content creator for the site, which is super cool and I love that tool. So good luck with that VTT, keep us posted about how you like it pluses and minuses. Also as it develops i would love to hear more about it.
I think for me i really enjoy the WoTC pre-mades, because i do not have time create my own stuff which is why i was drawn DDB & now FGU, it makes my life a lot easier. I asked Foundry if they are going to offer an WoTC materials. They said, "I hope that eventually that will be something we can offer, but there are not any current plans on that front that I can share at this time. It's a goal for the future!" So when they get that WoTC content, i will definitely check them out again.
Another cool site i found is call Dungeon Masters Guild that offers a lot 3rd party DM stuff, maps modules, and various digital content. A lot of the content is either in PDF or VTT.
Foundry VTT is so far the better vtt out there in the market. The community is open source and there's a lot of module that improves the quality of life for both players and the GM. However I do state that the vtt is not for everyone. If you're not tech savy and doesn't know how to port forward your router or hosting through virtual cloud server I wouldn't recommend it to average joe that just want to plug and GM a game. If you're tech savy and knows how to code it's really good product to you since everything could be customized and added into the vtt.
If you want to do plug and play I would recommend roll20 since it's free and easy to use but they have significant issues these days from server lagging and not to mention cancel culture and using social justice and diversity token as their marketing strategy. I feel no regret jumping ship from roll20 to Foundry VTT.
Foundry is quite good. I have not used Roll20, but between Foundry and Astral... the only thing going for Astral is that you don't have to self-host it. But Astral is more expensive in the long run (subscription vs. one-time-fee) and the Foundry interface for just about everything is better.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I've been playing on roll20 for the last six months or so (started as a thing we were trying, and then COVID...). It's clunky but functional, and it has a good library of stuff you can just buy, pick up and start running (I'm running Curse of Strahd at the moment); trying to use it for homebrew would be a lot of work building maps.
After doing a lot of research on my own, and based on some of your feedback I wanted to give you an update. I think Roll20 if I’m using the free version which I have used simply for like maps and tokens works great.
However I think that if I’m going to spend money on premade modules and dynamic lighting it seems that fantasy grounds is the best bang for the buck.
With that said I wanted to know if anybody can give me any tips and tricks to go from roll20 to fantasy ground. As well as what is the best way to integrate DND beyond into fantasy grounds?
Secondly, what money should I invest into fantasy grounds besides purchasing the ultimate edition. Are there must have rulebooks right away if I’m running a premade adventure by wizards? Or can I just buy the premade adventure and then just run it without any rulebooks?
In addition for my players they’re only using roll 20 with the beyond20 extension, for all intents and purposes will it FG be the same experience for them or should I just go full on fantasy ground characters?
lastly any advice on running fantasy grounds, tips and tricks that will make me using it less painful?
thanks again for your input and suggestions as well as filling out my poll
You should check out fantasy grounds college. They will give free sessions over discord and fantasy grounds to learn you the basics. The program is really easy to use once you get going into the right direction.
Foundry is quite good. I have not used Roll20, but between Foundry and Astral... the only thing going for Astral is that you don't have to self-host it. But Astral is more expensive in the long run (subscription vs. one-time-fee) and the Foundry interface for just about everything is better.
There is already a great hosting provider for foundry built by same fellow who made Beyond20. https://forge-vtt.com/
I've figured out how to self-host by now so I don't really need that.
Although if DDB keeps it up, I might move to remote hosting so that the "world" can be up 24/7 and my players can log in to make changes when we are not in session, because I may just move away from DDB entirely with the whole /json issue and their refusal to even comment on it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I've figured out how to self-host by now so I don't really need that.
Although if DDB keeps it up, I might move to remote hosting so that the "world" can be up 24/7 and my players can log in to make changes when we are not in session, because I may just move away from DDB entirely with the whole /json issue and their refusal to even comment on it.
I've figured out how to self-host by now so I don't really need that.
Although if DDB keeps it up, I might move to remote hosting so that the "world" can be up 24/7 and my players can log in to make changes when we are not in session, because I may just move away from DDB entirely with the whole /json issue and their refusal to even comment on it.
Would you mind enlightening me on the Json issue?
All the data you entered into your character sheet was available as a structured JSON file by adding /json to the end of the URL for your character i.e. https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/<your username>/characters/<your character id>/json
Third party tools like the foundry import used it. They recently added website code to try to prevent external tools from touching anything and they completely disabled that JSON url so it is no longer available.
My guess is this is also an unsupported way of scraping the data and as soon as they realize we are doing an end run around their attempt to stop us from scraping it, they will stop that too.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Well, it's pretty clearly intended for application access to characters so that's not really scraping, but they might want to apply access controls so only authorized applications can get at it.
That is unfortunate that they are making it harder for us to use the data, to me that is the beauty of DDB is the ability to create characters so easily. Why do they care if we want to export it? How is that affecting there revenue?
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If you look at DndBeyond's original launch info, it was never stated that it was intended for online streaming. It was intended to be an online tool for in-person table games, which was part of their announcement. Over the past few years, the vast majority of their upgrades have continued to be focused on that...in person play and a information resource between sessions, as stated in their original launch info. I'm sure they are looking at VTT and streaming now, especially given their increased visibility in that space from their partnership with Critical Role, but from everything I see they appear to still be focused on being an in-person digital tool.
Few corrections:
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
That is because ownership is a big deal in business. It affects taxes, profits, rights, and a whole lot of things. Beyond is not owned by Twitch and Amazon anymore either.
Beyond is not the only online ambassador of D&D. Beyond was not even meant to have that role in the first place. Beyond's original vision was to be a supplement to and enhance real life, in person, face to face, table top play.
VTT was not part of the original vision, and I do not think focusing on online play is in everyone's interest. While I do not mind them working on a VTT, I prefer Beyond to focus on and prioritize real life play. I did not sign up for Beyond to play D&D online with my friends; if we are going to play something online, we much rather play videogames with online co-op instead. In my opinion, Beyond has the easiest to use and most aesthetically pleasing character sheet. Its database is pretty good too to search things on the fly. I prefer Beyond to focus on its core strengths rather than trying to chase an industry trend to try to be like everyone else. What differentiates Beyond from other VTTs is its focus on real life play, and it is that niche that I am interested in.
While some D&D fans may buy into a Beyond VTT, I am not sure if that market is big enough support a Beyond VTT to cover the cost and maintenance. VTTs are capital intensive to develop. Since Beyond's original vision was focused on real life play and did not include VTTs, Beyond would need to dump a lot of additional capital into their business that may or may not give them a good return. I think it is risky for Beyond to dive into VTTs right now due to being in direct competition with other companies, and Beyond will have difficulty distinguishing itself from VTT competitors. While Beyond has an edge in tems of having a pretty looking character sheet and a nice simple database, I do not think that would be enticing enough for most consumers since VTT competitors can handle more than just D&D content.
Right now, Beyond has practically no significant rivals that focus on real life D&D play. Beyond probably has a good, but not strong enough, monopoly over this niche. I think the best thing for Beyond to do is to secure and tighten its monopoly on this niche first before foraying into the VTT space. Beyond still has plenty of work to do on its character sheets and other features. By making the barrier of entry into this niche as high as possible, Beyond's financial future would be more stable and secure from rivals. Once Beyond has secured its monopoly over real life play, I think only then should Beyond ponder whether it is a good idea to go into the VTT industry.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Recently moved all my D&D online - will be hard to go back to full paper. Started with Roll20, dropped it for Foundry VTT which I've found to be far better. Links to DDB are a great asset for any VTT - TBH I wouldn't be here if not for those links.
Gamma, i agree with you, i did not buy into DDB for VTT but to play with my friends at a table. However, i really enjoy using Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU) adventures integration. There are a few bugs in FGU, but i i think it is worth the price. I would recommend if you are running more than one DM session or want to keep past/previous ones. I have used Roll20 for almost 2 years (free) and i am hitting a lot of data caps now, and i do not want to pay monthly
I can see myself doing a hybrid in the future. DDB for source and FGU for pre-made adventures and homebrew, while sitting around the table. So if DDB went VTT i would definitely buy it. FGU streamlines the adventure so much, and dynamic light is very cool.
So this is also my review of FGU, it is really solid, for adventuring, and even source materials. My only gripe is NPC (Monsters) and combat some of the spells and effects are not included and require some DM & user intervention or $$$ for modules that create scripts to do this for you. Also some player stuff that is lacking, but mostly very minor. There is some lag on the DM host side sometime, but it is still in early access, so i am confident it will be fixed and again for $35 it is worth the risk to me.
BTW Foundry i did not have any router issues, initially i thought i did, but it was user error, i was able to host and join with no port forwarding. So it actually worked really well. I want to add that the FGU community was super helpful. My issue was i was running another VPN for work, and i needed to make sure it was off (duh, user error like i said), and everything worked fine. So hopefully FGU for you works better now.
I can't recommend Foundry VTT enough. Quality software, one-time payment, host however you want, constant updates, great community… the list goes on.
Thanks for your perspective, I have not played on it but it does look cool and it has a lot of add-ons, and great community involvement. I think the guy who wrote Beyond20 is either an own or content creator for the site, which is super cool and I love that tool. So good luck with that VTT, keep us posted about how you like it pluses and minuses. Also as it develops i would love to hear more about it.
I think for me i really enjoy the WoTC pre-mades, because i do not have time create my own stuff which is why i was drawn DDB & now FGU, it makes my life a lot easier. I asked Foundry if they are going to offer an WoTC materials. They said, "I hope that eventually that will be something we can offer, but there are not any current plans on that front that I can share at this time. It's a goal for the future!" So when they get that WoTC content, i will definitely check them out again.
Another cool site i found is call Dungeon Masters Guild that offers a lot 3rd party DM stuff, maps modules, and various digital content. A lot of the content is either in PDF or VTT.
Foundry VTT is so far the better vtt out there in the market. The community is open source and there's a lot of module that improves the quality of life for both players and the GM. However I do state that the vtt is not for everyone. If you're not tech savy and doesn't know how to port forward your router or hosting through virtual cloud server I wouldn't recommend it to average joe that just want to plug and GM a game. If you're tech savy and knows how to code it's really good product to you since everything could be customized and added into the vtt.
If you want to do plug and play I would recommend roll20 since it's free and easy to use but they have significant issues these days from server lagging and not to mention cancel culture and using social justice and diversity token as their marketing strategy. I feel no regret jumping ship from roll20 to Foundry VTT.
Roll20 is awful. Try Foundry. The perfect partner with DnDBeyond.
Foundry is quite good. I have not used Roll20, but between Foundry and Astral... the only thing going for Astral is that you don't have to self-host it. But Astral is more expensive in the long run (subscription vs. one-time-fee) and the Foundry interface for just about everything is better.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I've been playing on roll20 for the last six months or so (started as a thing we were trying, and then COVID...). It's clunky but functional, and it has a good library of stuff you can just buy, pick up and start running (I'm running Curse of Strahd at the moment); trying to use it for homebrew would be a lot of work building maps.
You should check out fantasy grounds college. They will give free sessions over discord and fantasy grounds to learn you the basics.
The program is really easy to use once you get going into the right direction.
Linkie link below:
https://discord.gg/Ew6nYyw
There is already a great hosting provider for foundry built by same fellow who made Beyond20. https://forge-vtt.com/
I've figured out how to self-host by now so I don't really need that.
Although if DDB keeps it up, I might move to remote hosting so that the "world" can be up 24/7 and my players can log in to make changes when we are not in session, because I may just move away from DDB entirely with the whole /json issue and their refusal to even comment on it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Would you mind enlightening me on the Json issue?
All the data you entered into your character sheet was available as a structured JSON file by adding /json to the end of the URL for your character i.e.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/<your username>/characters/<your character id>/json
Third party tools like the foundry import used it. They recently added website code to try to prevent external tools from touching anything and they completely disabled that JSON url so it is no longer available.
I would imagine Beyond20 will be next to go.
Never mind, looks like it moved to https://character-service.dndbeyond.com/character/v3/character/<character id>
My guess is this is also an unsupported way of scraping the data and as soon as they realize we are doing an end run around their attempt to stop us from scraping it, they will stop that too.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Well, it's pretty clearly intended for application access to characters so that's not really scraping, but they might want to apply access controls so only authorized applications can get at it.
That is unfortunate that they are making it harder for us to use the data, to me that is the beauty of DDB is the ability to create characters so easily. Why do they care if we want to export it? How is that affecting there revenue?