Well met!

I'm an oldtimer, been gaming most of my life. Back in the day, we had to walk uphill and barefoot through the Bog Of Stench while passing through the radius of a blizzard spell. And we liked it like that, mainly because we were under the effects of a charm.

Nowadays, though, the members of my gaming group selfishly went and got themselves lives and families and such. We're lucky if we get together once a month. I am a gamer bereft of a game.

Therefore, I guess I'll join you younger, hipper gamers and try joining an online campaign. I'm looking for advice on which app or program would be best for my primitive grognard brain. Preferably something with virtual dice and perhaps online maps that I can use for strateramagizing in combat. I don't mind if it is something that requires a purchase or paying for a subscription, gaming is well worth the price.

Help me, Beyonders, you're my only hope!

I too am one of the old timers who had to walk to my DM's house barefoot, in five feet of snow, uphill, both ways.

In terms of online... it depends on whether you want to buy WOTC products directly in your virtual table top and have them there, or whether you want to buy them here, and maybe find a way to copy or import them.

If you want to buy in the VTT, your best bets are Roll 20 or Fantasy Grounds. Fantasy Grounds is available on Steam. R20 is just done via a web interface, so is probably less of a steep learning curve. You can (re)buy all of your D&D books in either platform and get all the maps, and so on, right there.

Alternatively you could go for something like Foundry, which is a one-time purchase rather than a sub, and is fairly cheap for that one time purchase ($50), but only includes the most basic D&D stuff. For anything interesting you would need to import or make your own versions of things. I use Foundry, and like it... but I also homebrew almost everything. If I were going to try to play an existing D&D book, I'd probably use Roll 20 just so it has all the monsters, magic items, etc, already in place with a single purchase.

Yeah, I should have clarified. I have a bunch of the 5E books. I prefer physical books, but if I had to buy online versions, I would be willing to do so.

I've been looking at Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, but didn't know which of them was more caveman friendly.

Thanks for the help!

Fantasy Grounds has certain minimum requirements. Make sure your computer can handle it before you buy in.

I use google docs as I'm not ready to purchase anything yet. 

I can speak to using Fantasy Grounds as I have used it for nearly 4 years. 

There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to using it at first.  There is an amazing amount of automation for rolling but learning the syntax can feel daunting at first.  There are several tutorials and a wiki to help learn the tools.  Once that is overcome, the program allows for great diversity in play styles and automation.

Firstly, it is fully licensed from WOTC so all modules are able to be purchased (lower then book SRP) so all of that books content is automatically loaded and available. If you are more inclined to, you can manually enter any information you want and not purchase the modules. 

The recent upgrade in software to unity now allows for Line of Sight on maps and maps built by tiles within the software. 

That said there are some downsides to it. To host a game you need at least an Ultimate license to host free users or a regular license to host other regular license users. This is a big reason why the community is smaller than roll20.  Any purchases can only be viewed within the FG program. That learning curve I mentioned. 

All the VTTs have their ups and down sides and different people appreciate different things... so you probably will need to try them out for yourself. Unfortunately not all of them have free trials and not all free trials are fully featured.

Thanks for the feedback, all. Most seem to suggest either Fantasy Ground or Roll20. Which has the bigger community, do you know?

Don't get sucked in by all the virtual tools. Back in the day(TM) we played with nothing more than pencils, paper, dice, and an imagination. You can do same today with nothing more than a Skype, Teams, Zoom, Discord, or some other audio- or video-conferencing tool. Maybe have a webcam pointed at a whiteboard where the GM can scribble maps.

Having tokens and maps and initiative counters is nice, but not necesary. Sometimes they are counterproductive, because you spend hours setting them up. That's time you don't get to use on planning for the game. There is also a faily major financial investment in these tools. The free accounts are often very limiting.

Don't pay money for any of the tools unless you are certain you will be doing a lot of gaming online (like one of my players, who has a couple of thousand hours in Roll20).

One thing that is very important is mic etiquette.

Around a table, players can have side conversations with each other without impacting the game too much. Online, there is only one voice channel and everyone has to share it. Sometimes you will have to enforce a "no talking unless it is your turn" policy.

Related to this, don't use background music. Its nice around a table but impractical over audioconferencing.

Having tokens and maps and initiative counters is nice, but not necessary. Sometimes they are counterproductive, because you spend hours setting them up. That's time you don't get to use on planning for the game. 

All of this is strictly true. However, some of the virtual tools, after you have made the investment, can make things much quicker and easier for you. Yes, sure, I had to learn how to use the initiative tracker in Foundry VTT, but once I got the hang of it, I find it to make my life much easier than if I were tracking initiative on paper. So you lose time up-front, but you could potentially gain time down the road. If you stick with it long and, as you say, use the thing enough to make it worth while.

Also some of us like fiddling with tech stuff, scripting, etc.

If you're trying to run a game online DO NOT use a virtual table top for your first game. Crank up a voice or video chat app and play as you always have. After you've played a few sessions then think about what you're missing from a face to face experience and see how (and IF) a VTT can help and choose one that fills in the gaps.

Personally I've never found one that was worth the farting around yet but your experience may and probably will vary.

I don't agree with any of the "beware of VTT" statements. As soon as my group stopped playing in person, we went to Roll20 and have had very little problems making the adjustments necessary to enjoy our games. If you are a player, you will only need the free version. If you DM, paying is a great time saver but, not required if you are creative and willing to put the time in for maps, tokens and such. Our Caveman ages range from 30s to late 40s so, if we can do it, you probably can too.

VTTs are basically the equivalent of maps and minis. If your F2F games are theatre of the mind then you might be happy to just use zoom or something. Discord has the abilty to roll dice so that might also help.  If you are used to maps and minis then you will probably find something missing if you don't use a VTT.

I am used to roll20. Of the points below will apply to other VTTs but some might be specific to roll 20.

• I would recommend having a couple of one-shots as a player on roll20, to ease yourself in. As a DM there is a lot to learn with roll 20 but only a subset of that is required as a player . If your players are also new to roll20 they might ask you as DM how to do things expecting you to be the fount of all knowledge
• The main advantages of subscribing on roll20 are extra DM features (such as improved dynamic lighting) and being able to import characters from a vault. The later is very useful if you are in a (usually discord) server based group where you play the same character in a series of games with different DMs (if the DM is a subscriber anyone can import into the game if the DM sets it up to allow it).  Regarding the advanced features I would get a few games under your belt before progressing to the advanced features (if you think they would improve the game)
• Roll20 has a compendium  of the SRD material you can click and drag things like spells and items from the compendium into character sheets, (or as a DM monsters into an NPC character sheet).  Anything outside of SRD you can either but the content or manually put in the details
• If you use D&D beyond, Beyond20 is a great tool for linking your DnD characters, or monsters you have access to in DnD beyond into roll 20. You can just open them up in DnD beyond and clicking on an attack or skill check etc will send the roll to roll20.

Hi @Mike_Morbid and welcome online.

I'm an oldtimer myself, and was forced online by some kind of virus this spring. Here's my advice based on my experience the 6 months I've been an online player :-)

I don't use Roll20 or other such simulators. Basically because I never cared to sit down and learn the tools. Zoom and share screen function works fine. I've tried a few online dice roller apps, but actually it works best to just allow players to roll themselves and trust them (if you trust your players). Basically a lot of those online tools are probably great if you care to take the time to really learn them, but truth is that too me, I'm quite sure they wouldn't be worth the extra effort. Do it simple! I've spent a long time trying to find fancy solutions, I've ended up with allowing the players roll the dice themselves, and share my iPads screen in Zoom, and simply draw "maps" on that when I need them (should be said that we never have used a lot of battle maps, but played quite free form).

DnD-beyond works, we use that for characters and dice rolls. You have to "rebuy" the books whose rules you will use here, but I would say that it's worth it.

You need to keep the players on a little "tighter" leash. Dialogue and discussion between more than two persons at the same time is more difficult than around the table. I experienced I had to spend a little more time making sure all the players got their place in the "spotlight".

But over all - it works, not as good as good ol' table top, but decent enough :-)

I just went through this process myself. My first time DMing, my wife and her friends, all seasoned gamers and I am brand spanking new to DnD. Oh and none of us have ever used a VTT before.

So. No pressure right?

I investigated fantasy grounds and Roll20, even made a roll20 account. I hated Roll20. I went with Foundry. Everyone loves it. For a bunch of crusty vets that I’m trying to impress, I was relieved.

Setup was easy. It integrates with DungeonDraft and really any mapmaking software, or just import a random jpg for a map. Dynamic lighting and line of sight are really fast to set up, the community is VERY robust. And foundry even links to DnDbeyond to pull in statblocks, spells, and even encounters/scenes from published adventures that you own on here (done via a module created by a community member).

11/10, would buy again. Twice. 

And foundry even links to DnDbeyond to pull in statblocks, spells, and even encounters/scenes from published adventures that you own on here 

Just be careful using Foundry for this reason. Yes, this works now. But we can be certain that if DDB ever does get itself a VTT, Fandom will do their utmost to break such compatibilities with other VTTs to force you to use theirs. The method the mod author is using is "unsupported" and Fandom "cannot promise it will continue working."

They already broke it once, and the mod maker created a work-around, but if it is at all possible, and they have their own VTT, they absolutely WILL try to break this feature, and if they can't break it, they will, at minimum, declare it to be a TOS violation. 

So... go ahead and use it but just be aware that this could happen, and don't use Foundry primarily on the basis of this interface function. Use Foundry for all the other things that make it good (which I agree with -- I am a Foundry user myself). Because the import feature might go away some day.

Quote from BioWizard >>

And foundry even links to DnDbeyond to pull in statblocks, spells, and even encounters/scenes from published adventures that you own on here 

Just be careful using Foundry for this reason. Yes, this works now. But we can be certain that if DDB ever does get itself a VTT, Fandom will do their utmost to break such compatibilities with other VTTs to force you to use theirs. The method the mod author is using is "unsupported" and Fandom "cannot promise it will continue working."

They already broke it once, and the mod maker created a work-around, but if it is at all possible, and they have their own VTT, they absolutely WILL try to break this feature, and if they can't break it, they will, at minimum, declare it to be a TOS violation. 

So... go ahead and use it but just be aware that this could happen, and don't use Foundry primarily on the basis of this interface function. Use Foundry for all the other things that make it good (which I agree with -- I am a Foundry user myself). Because the import feature might go away some day.

 
You might be right.  However as I understand it, the module works by just “scanning” the webpage and automating things that you can already do yourself.  It is possible that it is found to be in violation of TOS at some indeterminate point in the future, though considering foundry is a one time purchase and an inexpensive one at that, in the unlikely event that I only get two years out of it... still worth it.

I use Foundry and import character sheets into it using the Beyond 20 app also. Just stating that we know it is possible for Fandom to do things to this site that break its functionality, because they've already done it once (not on purpose).