I need help sorting thru the software use to conduct a campaign 100% online with no possibility of meeting in person because of distance separating group members. I have several questions in a couple of different areas that I could use some help with. So here it goes. What is the best online or electronic only format to do the following:
1. Campaign management and Encounter building?
2. Character sheet management by players that integrates easily back to campaign manager and encounter builder.
3. Combat management including character stats, monster stats, initiative tracking, and automated dice rolling for both players and DM
4. Platform for virtual table top for maps, miniatures, and round by round updates in combat
5. Online platform to host the virtual meeting that includes audio, video, and chat feeds and can easily import maps, miniatures, artwork, and automation of Combat management or campaign management.
6. How do do all this without having each player and DM having a dozen subscriptions to pay for monthly.
Any help that someone can give me that is doing this currently online for a long term homebrewed campaign setting with new to D&D players on very limited budgets would be highly appreciated.
- Discord for audio and video, as well as sharing images, handouts and such. It's free.
- D&D Beyond. Master subscription and a bunch of books. Well worth it for both players and DM, and if the players chip in it's not too expensive.
- AboveVTT or Owlbear for VTT and actual play. Owlbear is free and supereasy to use. Barebones but amazing. AboveVTT is free (with Patreon options etc) and transforms Beyond to a fullblown VTT. You gotta see it to believe it, very easy to use and the Beyond integration works like a charm.
So as DataDwarf, the only thing I spend money on is D&D Beyond, which you probably want to do anyway if you are playing online, no matter what VTT you choose.
Separate these out. Campaign management using your favourite word processor, or specific tools like Realm Works or World Anvil if you want more detail.
Put links to the Encounters that you create on dndbeyond, or create the encounters in your favourite VTT.
2. Character sheet management by players that integrates easily back to campaign manager and encounter builder.
Sheets manage on dndbeyond - you can add links to your campaign manager. Roll20 and Foundry allow you to use your character on dndbeyond with the player's token on the VTT.
3. Combat management including character stats, monster stats, initiative tracking, and automated dice rolling for both players and DM
Your VTT will provide combat management, players will typically click on their requested attack and the VTT will tell you the results of the simulated dice rolls. Roll20 with paid for API access, or Foundry will automate any number of things for you. (I have no idea if Fantasy Grounds provides the same level.)
4. Platform for virtual table top for maps, miniatures, and round by round updates in combat
VTT - Roll20, Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, etc. (Fantasy Grounds requires everyone to have the software installed; Foundry requires only the DM to have software installed with players using browsers, roll20 uses browsers).
5. Online platform to host the virtual meeting that includes audio, video, and chat feeds and can easily import maps, miniatures, artwork, and automation of Combat management or campaign management.
Probably Discord, since it provides both audio and video (video is an option) as well as multiple text chat channels. I'm in a game at the moment with some of the text channels locked by the DM to be read-only where she posts images (maps) and documents.
6. How do do all this without having each player and DM having a dozen subscriptions to pay for monthly.
Only one person needs a master subscription to dndbeyond, and only one person needs to pay for the VTT (roll20 can be used without anyone paying a subscription, but "good" features require DM to pay a subscription).
Note that master subscription doesn't provide access to the books which you (or other members of your campaign) have to purchase separately; but it DOES provide that if ONE person in the campaign owns a book then EVERYBODY in the campaign gains access to the book (unless the campaign owner specifically disables access, e.g. to stop all the adventure books being read by players).
----
My personal preference is Master subscription on dndbeyond, Discord and Foundry VTT.
Another plug for AboveVTT, its integration into DnDBeyond via a Chrome Extension is excellent - my groups exclusively use this now.
That being said, if you love playing with coding and the such (I do), MapTool is a free option for a VTT. It very powerful, but requires a lot (as in, no pre-built modules, its totally free-form) of work on the DM's side.
We're do I find the Owlbear pugin or the AboveVVT app and what platforms do they run on? Android or windows? And what is Patreon options? So to drill down to nitty gritty. But this is where I'm having trouble executing this.
We're do I find the Owlbear pugin or the AboveVVT app and what platforms do they run on? Android or windows? And what is Patreon options? So to drill down to nitty gritty. But this is where I'm having trouble executing this.
Owlbear is a webpage, not a plugin, you find it on owlbear.rodeo. It's amazing :-)
AboveVTT is a plugin for the Chrome browser, just google it. There is an excellent Discord server for it, don't have the link at the moment. There you find more about patreon etc, but the patreon is just for supporting the fantastic devs, not any extra options etc.
I do want to throw in a bit more support for Fantasy Grounds. If you use that and Discord for the audio/video it's a great combination.
Fantasy Grounds has a bit of a hard learning curve but pays off in terms of raw power, convenience, and the ability to make things custom to an individual campaign. There is a FG University group that will walk you through the learning curve for free, so there is a way to learn that's not as painful.
As a DM I love that it automates so much for me in the play of a live game. If I've got my adventure ready to go the "maintenance" of it all is smooth. As an example, if a character drops a Fireball on a group of enemies the FG software will automatically roll their saving throws and apply damage appropriately (full, half, or no damage). The player gets to target the spell, roll the virtual dice for damage, and everything else is done in a second.
Which means I'm not rolling a dozen saving throws and applying appropriate damage - I'm making a check to see if the enemies who lived turn and run, surrender, or charge the spellcaster! It's really great for speeding up my live games.
If you want an all-in-one solution you'll need to look at or Roll20. FGU has all the features except the meeting features. The 3rd Party browser extension AboveVTT might be an option also. But again you will need meeting software. And I understand that the Foundry VTT has a plugin that provides importing from DnDBeyond and one for Audio/Video Chat Integration.
Personally, I just use DnDBeyond (free for the players) with a masters subscription for character/campaign/encounter/combat management. With the masters sub I can share all of the content I have purchased on DnDBeyond with the players in my campaign, meaning only I have to spend any money (Sub cost + content cost on DDB). Owlbear.rodeo (free) for map sharing and basic VTT functionality. And Discord (free) for voice/video.
You don’t need a map system I have run online campaigns entirely using theartre of the mind, or alternativly just showing a static picture of the map.
All you need is a way to communicate (Google meet, or discord or equivalent) and then everyone a set of dice.
Everythibg else is an extra which really isn’t necessary
But i will say very recently I have started using above VTT but half my group dial in on mobile phones so I still largely use theartre of the mind.
I do want to throw in a bit more support for Fantasy Grounds. If you use that and Discord for the audio/video it's a great combination.
Fantasy Grounds has a bit of a hard learning curve but pays off in terms of raw power, convenience, and the ability to make things custom to an individual campaign. There is a FG University group that will walk you through the learning curve for free, so there is a way to learn that's not as painful.
As a DM I love that it automates so much for me in the play of a live game. If I've got my adventure ready to go the "maintenance" of it all is smooth. As an example, if a character drops a Fireball on a group of enemies the FG software will automatically roll their saving throws and apply damage appropriately (full, half, or no damage). The player gets to target the spell, roll the virtual dice for damage, and everything else is done in a second.
Which means I'm not rolling a dozen saving throws and applying appropriate damage - I'm making a check to see if the enemies who lived turn and run, surrender, or charge the spellcaster! It's really great for speeding up my live games.uo
First of all, I don't want to start a hot debate, just point to the two schools of digital tools. First you have Fantasy Grounds, heavily scripted Foundry and such. You can make almost everything automated, play with field of vision etc, and focus on story and fun during actual play.
Then there's AboveVTT and - even more so - Owlbear rodeo, where the VTT's basic function is to provide a shared map and tokens. AboveVTT obviously takes this a step further by integrating Beyond, but the basic function is the same.
For me and my table, Above and Owlbear is a much better fit. Actually rolling for everything is part of the fun, where every roll adds drama, excitement and positive tension. It may take a tad longer than a fully automated game. On the other hand, for me as a DM it's much easier to prep for sessions and handle inevitable party side treks, and I can prep in a traditional way rather than struggle with tech. With that said, I have my degrees in soft human sciences and suck at scripts and programming, so the learning threshold felt gigantic when I tried roll20 etc. Different strokes and all that.
My point is that when choosing platform for digital play it may be wise to think about how you want the actual play to be - more computer gamey automation or more emulating an old school traditional play style.
And again, I respect all of you folks who loves the heavier automated VTT's, it's just a matter of taste and individual fit. All tools that create fun roleplaying are good tools :-)
It's really hard to beat Discord for audio and out of character discussions (both during the session and during the week).
DNDBeyond should be used for the encounter builder and for all the characters in a campaign environment as it can all link together and easily links to a VTT. As long as someone has a Master Subscription then anything purchased is sharable. (I'm not the DM on all of my campaigns, but I always share since I have the Legendary Bundle). If you want to add a lot of extra layers (and time) to your prep, there are certainly other ways to do it (WorldAnvil, etc.)
Beyond20 is the glue that makes everything work seamlessly between DNDBeyond and the VTT. So that you click on something in the Encounter Builder or on a Character Sheet and it kicks off the rolls (on either side, your choice) and streamlines the game. When we first started, we had multiple character sheets in the different places and it caused much confusion. These days, this one add-on has changed all of that for us. And everyone reading this that enjoys it should take a moment and throw a cup-of-coffee's worth of money at the developer. It really is the best investment for the whole table.
As we've been playing online for a long time now (years before we were all forced to), we have used Roll20 with great success. I am sure there are others that work well, so pick your poison appropriately. If you play with modules a lot, being able to easily pick up a module and have everything pre-built for you is a great time saver (also if you play in a lot of campaigns and revisit many of these regularly). There is a lot of functionality, and yes that comes with a price.
Regardless of where you are playing D&D, there is a price associated with getting together. When we played in high school (for me that meant AD&D) there were no fancy apps for rolling dice on phones. Heck, a phone back then meant something that was plugged into the wall at home or one you used a quarter at if you were in public. We didn't have stores, so if someone had a full set, they usually got to share dice. The ugly dice that came with the box set were what most of us had and if you lost one, woe be unto you. When I played in college, we at least had a bookstore that had dice and books (AD&D 2nd Edition! WooHoo!), so it started being more common for people to have more than one set of dice, but many still borrowed from the DM (who was expected to have extra). D&D nights were kind of a potluck event too, where different people brought different foods. Mostly finger and fast foods, but you get some variety. During 3rd Edition we settled into more books, more dice and way better foods. We started playing in homes and some people had dedicated rooms. Then people had children and there was time where D&D was forgotten. 4th Edition started out with younger people at work that had never played and we realized how much miniatures helped shape the battlefield. It was a good thing that many of us were dice hoarders, because suddenly we were playing with people that had never seen a set of polyhedron dice and didn't own a player's handbook. We shared. 5th Came and the Glory Days were upon us. Things were simplified. We bought more dice. We added more miniatures. We added custom terrain instead of cardboard. We bought extra Player Handbooks for other players. There were shows that appeared on the Interwebs that had constant campaigns. There digital toolsets that we could use at the table instead of a bunch of books. The older crowd brought better food, but chips and drinks were also included with younger players. And then, for one reason or another, we were forced away from the table and we learned to take it online. There was, generally, a steep learning curve, but we had learned to sharpen our Google-Fu in other arenas and brought our skills to bear. And we conquered it and still meet together. Sadly, the dice sit in bags, the miniatures collect dust on forgotten terrain. The books line the shelves and are rarely opened. No one brings food anymore, or if they do, we can't tell. But the game is still as great as it ever was and the storytelling continues. Over my career, I have had times where I spent less than $5 a year on D&D, and I have had years where I spent $500 or more. As you progress through stages in life, you'll have opportunities to play with more convenience, and times where you'll have to find a new way to play it. When you experience a new phase, just look at the available options and where you are at that moment, make a choice and get in the game. Don't get caught up in what this costs or that costs or how much someone spends to play. We have all played at different levels and continue to do so. In the end, it is about the story and the interaction and the people at whatever table you happen to be able to play at. The rest of it is just a convenience in experiencing that magic.
I need help sorting thru the software use to conduct a campaign 100% online with no possibility of meeting in person because of distance separating group members. I have several questions in a couple of different areas that I could use some help with. So here it goes. What is the best online or electronic only format to do the following:
1. Campaign management and Encounter building?
2. Character sheet management by players that integrates easily back to campaign manager and encounter builder.
3. Combat management including character stats, monster stats, initiative tracking, and automated dice rolling for both players and DM
4. Platform for virtual table top for maps, miniatures, and round by round updates in combat
5. Online platform to host the virtual meeting that includes audio, video, and chat feeds and can easily import maps, miniatures, artwork, and automation of Combat management or campaign management.
6. How do do all this without having each player and DM having a dozen subscriptions to pay for monthly.
Any help that someone can give me that is doing this currently online for a long term homebrewed campaign setting with new to D&D players on very limited budgets would be highly appreciated.
Thanks
I use:
- Discord for audio and video, as well as sharing images, handouts and such. It's free.
- D&D Beyond. Master subscription and a bunch of books. Well worth it for both players and DM, and if the players chip in it's not too expensive.
- AboveVTT or Owlbear for VTT and actual play. Owlbear is free and supereasy to use. Barebones but amazing. AboveVTT is free (with Patreon options etc) and transforms Beyond to a fullblown VTT. You gotta see it to believe it, very easy to use and the Beyond integration works like a charm.
So as DataDwarf, the only thing I spend money on is D&D Beyond, which you probably want to do anyway if you are playing online, no matter what VTT you choose.
Separate these out. Campaign management using your favourite word processor, or specific tools like Realm Works or World Anvil if you want more detail.
Put links to the Encounters that you create on dndbeyond, or create the encounters in your favourite VTT.
Sheets manage on dndbeyond - you can add links to your campaign manager. Roll20 and Foundry allow you to use your character on dndbeyond with the player's token on the VTT.
Your VTT will provide combat management, players will typically click on their requested attack and the VTT will tell you the results of the simulated dice rolls. Roll20 with paid for API access, or Foundry will automate any number of things for you. (I have no idea if Fantasy Grounds provides the same level.)
VTT - Roll20, Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, etc. (Fantasy Grounds requires everyone to have the software installed; Foundry requires only the DM to have software installed with players using browsers, roll20 uses browsers).
Probably Discord, since it provides both audio and video (video is an option) as well as multiple text chat channels. I'm in a game at the moment with some of the text channels locked by the DM to be read-only where she posts images (maps) and documents.
Only one person needs a master subscription to dndbeyond, and only one person needs to pay for the VTT (roll20 can be used without anyone paying a subscription, but "good" features require DM to pay a subscription).
Note that master subscription doesn't provide access to the books which you (or other members of your campaign) have to purchase separately; but it DOES provide that if ONE person in the campaign owns a book then EVERYBODY in the campaign gains access to the book (unless the campaign owner specifically disables access, e.g. to stop all the adventure books being read by players).
----
My personal preference is Master subscription on dndbeyond, Discord and Foundry VTT.
Another plug for AboveVTT, its integration into DnDBeyond via a Chrome Extension is excellent - my groups exclusively use this now.
That being said, if you love playing with coding and the such (I do), MapTool is a free option for a VTT. It very powerful, but requires a lot (as in, no pre-built modules, its totally free-form) of work on the DM's side.
Thank you so much for all the input. I have to take the time to sort thru it all, but I appreciate all the help. Thanks again.
We're do I find the Owlbear pugin or the AboveVVT app and what platforms do they run on? Android or windows? And what is Patreon options? So to drill down to nitty gritty. But this is where I'm having trouble executing this.
Owlbear is a webpage, not a plugin, you find it on owlbear.rodeo. It's amazing :-)
AboveVTT is a plugin for the Chrome browser, just google it. There is an excellent Discord server for it, don't have the link at the moment. There you find more about patreon etc, but the patreon is just for supporting the fantastic devs, not any extra options etc.
Thank you for the clarification of those point for me. I really appreciate it.
I do want to throw in a bit more support for Fantasy Grounds. If you use that and Discord for the audio/video it's a great combination.
Fantasy Grounds has a bit of a hard learning curve but pays off in terms of raw power, convenience, and the ability to make things custom to an individual campaign. There is a FG University group that will walk you through the learning curve for free, so there is a way to learn that's not as painful.
As a DM I love that it automates so much for me in the play of a live game. If I've got my adventure ready to go the "maintenance" of it all is smooth. As an example, if a character drops a Fireball on a group of enemies the FG software will automatically roll their saving throws and apply damage appropriately (full, half, or no damage). The player gets to target the spell, roll the virtual dice for damage, and everything else is done in a second.
Which means I'm not rolling a dozen saving throws and applying appropriate damage - I'm making a check to see if the enemies who lived turn and run, surrender, or charge the spellcaster! It's really great for speeding up my live games.
You don’t need a map system I have run online campaigns entirely using theartre of the mind, or alternativly just showing a static picture of the map.
All you need is a way to communicate (Google meet, or discord or equivalent) and then everyone a set of dice.
Everythibg else is an extra which really isn’t necessary
But i will say very recently I have started using above VTT but half my group dial in on mobile phones so I still largely use theartre of the mind.
First of all, I don't want to start a hot debate, just point to the two schools of digital tools. First you have Fantasy Grounds, heavily scripted Foundry and such. You can make almost everything automated, play with field of vision etc, and focus on story and fun during actual play.
Then there's AboveVTT and - even more so - Owlbear rodeo, where the VTT's basic function is to provide a shared map and tokens. AboveVTT obviously takes this a step further by integrating Beyond, but the basic function is the same.
For me and my table, Above and Owlbear is a much better fit. Actually rolling for everything is part of the fun, where every roll adds drama, excitement and positive tension. It may take a tad longer than a fully automated game. On the other hand, for me as a DM it's much easier to prep for sessions and handle inevitable party side treks, and I can prep in a traditional way rather than struggle with tech. With that said, I have my degrees in soft human sciences and suck at scripts and programming, so the learning threshold felt gigantic when I tried roll20 etc. Different strokes and all that.
My point is that when choosing platform for digital play it may be wise to think about how you want the actual play to be - more computer gamey automation or more emulating an old school traditional play style.
And again, I respect all of you folks who loves the heavier automated VTT's, it's just a matter of taste and individual fit. All tools that create fun roleplaying are good tools :-)
It's really hard to beat Discord for audio and out of character discussions (both during the session and during the week).
DNDBeyond should be used for the encounter builder and for all the characters in a campaign environment as it can all link together and easily links to a VTT. As long as someone has a Master Subscription then anything purchased is sharable. (I'm not the DM on all of my campaigns, but I always share since I have the Legendary Bundle). If you want to add a lot of extra layers (and time) to your prep, there are certainly other ways to do it (WorldAnvil, etc.)
Beyond20 is the glue that makes everything work seamlessly between DNDBeyond and the VTT. So that you click on something in the Encounter Builder or on a Character Sheet and it kicks off the rolls (on either side, your choice) and streamlines the game. When we first started, we had multiple character sheets in the different places and it caused much confusion. These days, this one add-on has changed all of that for us. And everyone reading this that enjoys it should take a moment and throw a cup-of-coffee's worth of money at the developer. It really is the best investment for the whole table.
As we've been playing online for a long time now (years before we were all forced to), we have used Roll20 with great success. I am sure there are others that work well, so pick your poison appropriately. If you play with modules a lot, being able to easily pick up a module and have everything pre-built for you is a great time saver (also if you play in a lot of campaigns and revisit many of these regularly). There is a lot of functionality, and yes that comes with a price.
Regardless of where you are playing D&D, there is a price associated with getting together. When we played in high school (for me that meant AD&D) there were no fancy apps for rolling dice on phones. Heck, a phone back then meant something that was plugged into the wall at home or one you used a quarter at if you were in public. We didn't have stores, so if someone had a full set, they usually got to share dice. The ugly dice that came with the box set were what most of us had and if you lost one, woe be unto you. When I played in college, we at least had a bookstore that had dice and books (AD&D 2nd Edition! WooHoo!), so it started being more common for people to have more than one set of dice, but many still borrowed from the DM (who was expected to have extra). D&D nights were kind of a potluck event too, where different people brought different foods. Mostly finger and fast foods, but you get some variety. During 3rd Edition we settled into more books, more dice and way better foods. We started playing in homes and some people had dedicated rooms. Then people had children and there was time where D&D was forgotten. 4th Edition started out with younger people at work that had never played and we realized how much miniatures helped shape the battlefield. It was a good thing that many of us were dice hoarders, because suddenly we were playing with people that had never seen a set of polyhedron dice and didn't own a player's handbook. We shared. 5th Came and the Glory Days were upon us. Things were simplified. We bought more dice. We added more miniatures. We added custom terrain instead of cardboard. We bought extra Player Handbooks for other players. There were shows that appeared on the Interwebs that had constant campaigns. There digital toolsets that we could use at the table instead of a bunch of books. The older crowd brought better food, but chips and drinks were also included with younger players. And then, for one reason or another, we were forced away from the table and we learned to take it online. There was, generally, a steep learning curve, but we had learned to sharpen our Google-Fu in other arenas and brought our skills to bear. And we conquered it and still meet together. Sadly, the dice sit in bags, the miniatures collect dust on forgotten terrain. The books line the shelves and are rarely opened. No one brings food anymore, or if they do, we can't tell. But the game is still as great as it ever was and the storytelling continues. Over my career, I have had times where I spent less than $5 a year on D&D, and I have had years where I spent $500 or more. As you progress through stages in life, you'll have opportunities to play with more convenience, and times where you'll have to find a new way to play it. When you experience a new phase, just look at the available options and where you are at that moment, make a choice and get in the game. Don't get caught up in what this costs or that costs or how much someone spends to play. We have all played at different levels and continue to do so. In the end, it is about the story and the interaction and the people at whatever table you happen to be able to play at. The rest of it is just a convenience in experiencing that magic.