Honored to be mentioned in this video! One update for Bag of Mapping is the recently released srd monster compendium for both dnd and pathfinder! This video rocks :)
Thank you for taking the time to include Foundry VTT in your overview of all these great options. I'm thrilled you spotlighted some really positive features and the caveats you mentioned are all really fair points. Great video!
My friend started a Pathfinder campaign in Foundry and it has been a blast. There are things that we find that took a few sessions to get used to, but the effects, music and everything that he has been able to do as well as having multiple floor levels on a map has been amazing. Foundry is definitely an awesome VTT and Im planning to use it for my Alien TTRPG. You guys have an amazing program!
Our DM switched is over to Foundry a couple weeks ago after playing on TTS for ~6 months. I'm not a big fan of VTT's in general, but Foundry does seem quite a bit better than when I played on Roll20...9 years ago 😅
Thanks for enjoying using our VTT and mentioning us amongst these great options for playing our favourite TTRPGs. We'll keep trying to show what is people for a free VTT using D&D Beyond,
And one note to all 3D VTTs. Beside building maps taking way more time than 2D battlemaps, there's tons of ttRPG players that use old PCs, macbook airs or other potato devices (even tablets) that can get slow with just the browser and discord running, so having them launch/view 3D maps will kill their performance completely. I think your scoring could use another category of hardware requirements, low quality setting in Foundry will work way better than talespire or tabletop simulator on low-end devices
THIS exactly. While I personally have quite a powerful gaming-rig, some of my players have trouble even running foundryvtt (eg. old mac book with poor webgl support), as such owlbear which even works on mobile (some of my players used their phone while on holiday) is the perfect fit.
yup. I would take 3D maps from the coolest videogames right now if my players could actually handle it. hell, having a animated maps or even just an animation often fucks them up, and that affects both connection and hardware, with them even freezing up. some people use a 2005 laptop to play and they are more than most could imagine
Not on the video but my all time favourite vtt’s is encounter plus. It’s only for MacBook or iPad but it’s really cool.theyre updating it constantly and it’s growing well. I’m running a campaign with a few friends and we are loving it so much.
It depends a bit on the game i'm playing - For longer campaigns in old-school games: Shmeppy - For oneshot in rules-light games: TLDraw - For oneshots/campaigns in more complex games: FoundryVTT
Foundry VTT also has services like the Forge, which you can pay monthly for them to host a server for you so that you don’t have to port forward and they also allow some of the mods which in my opinion is a better experience than Roll 20. Alternatively, you could use a free service such as Hamachi to imitate being on the same network, which should allow you to connect anyway. There are also TH-cam channels dedicated to making tutorials for Foundry and the mods available, some by the mod creators themselves.
As a sidenote, my favorite module creators that have subscriptions on Patreon are BaileyWiki3D, theripper93, KibblesTasty, WarHead’s software bakery, Caeora, and Moulinette!
If you search for Foundry setup in Oracle Cloud, you will get a link to a very very very very very well made document telling you how to set up Foundry on the Oracle Cloud using the free tier. Granted, I work in computers and IT so I am familiar with Ubuntu a bit, or at least enough to go update stuff and software using the terminal, but it is completely free to use. I am loving working with Foundry like this and not having to host it.
Specifically for Pathfinder 2E, no VTT comes close to Foundry VTT. It's nothing short of magical, the amount of insane integration and automation that team (of volunteers!) has done to make that VTT the de facto place to play Pathfinder. For other systems, it varies a lot, and your video breaks it down incredibly well.
Just a note for Foundry, most if not all future DND 5e/5.5e etc from now on since Wizards is finally partnered with FVTT so there will be official content. Foundry is my go-to and has been for a while, it's amazing what it can do.
dude, this rocks! there's a lot of videos about different vtt's but they're from a couple years ago so this is a very updated compilation Two things to consider: 1- Talespire has a great mod community which allows you to download even more assets and character sheets with barely any effort whatsoever. 2- for a next time, you should consider hardware requirements: In low-end/old pc's or laptops, most of them could work when designing a map, but the moment you try to share the screen throught discord it will lag the hell out of it. I know it because i have a potato laptop (2015 ideapad) and while i can design maps with talespire, dungeon alchemist, dnd beyond maps or owlbear rodeo i cant use them at the same time i have discord open.
Alchemy is my go-to VTT, as my GM style is very "cinematographic"; theater of the mind enhanced by background images. I used to do it on Roll 20, adding bunch of background images and inserting tokens on the appropiate one. With Alchemy i can do that way easily, the scenes and motion really enhance my style!
I should note that Talespire is pretty fun to use in real-life sessions as well. We have one laptop for the DM, and one computer showing on the TV screen for all the players with a wireless mouse going around the table. Also consider it's still considered pre-release. My main advantages: unlimited assets vs. real-life mini's and tiles (want to battle 100+ monsters? You can), height/line-of-sight/cover/AoE are easier to track in 3D, community content for building maps, regular progress updates by devs, esthetics The main disadvantage: often fiddly to move creatures in cramped spaces, detailed maps can take away from theater of the mind, tracking the game from DM standpoint is not the easiest with one monitor (I don't feel that symbiotes are quite there yet)
Fantastic video, thanks for making it! I'm currently all-in on Foundry. I ran the PF2e beginner box recently and I cannot express how smooth it was to run. Sound effects, music, ambience, lighting, automation, etc. Truly incredible.
Foundry has been my go to, you can pay a server to host it. I love the modules cause it lets me tailor my game to my party with useful things. I love it for playing Lancer
Concerning the wow factor for FGU for me it's a 3 : dynamic lighting and animated maps and animated tokens, FX on maps and the possibility to switch to 3D whenever you want (2.5D in fact because you use 2D tokens). 3D dices of course. And don't forget the integrated map creation tool and probably the biggest store with an incredible number of rulesets and adventure modules. The only problem: there is a big learning curve for it, but it is worth the time investment. My second VTT is Foundry which I use whenever there is no matching ruleset for FGU (i.e. Blade Runner RPG) Also a wow factor of 3 (missing the 2.5D though) and a deep learning curve.
Fantasy grounds is easily may favourite and I bought in before the fantasy grounds unity days when it wasn't nearly as good. It's the best simply because it handles the basics the best (simple 2d maps, easy to use after the initial learning curve, simple "coding" for making custom abilities and effects). The fact you can quickly and easily do line of sight and dynamic lighting and all that stuff now is just icing on the cake.
For fantasy grounds, the "no port forwarding" is probably related to how in the last version (which was windows only) you had to connect directly. They're probably mentioning it as an improvement over the previous iteration of the software. Honestly though, I just love the built in automation features in fantasy grounds. I like foundry well enough, and I pay for a vps so I can run it as a website, but fantasy grounds is my first vtt love, and there are some aspects that have yet to be beaten by any other vtt I've ever come across, such as how easy it is to group items into parcels, and npcs into encounters, and to create templates for each so you can create random encounters and random loot that exists within the game before going onto a player's character sheet. I love how the combat tracker does not require maps and tokens to work, making theatre of the mind so much easier to do, but you can use them in combination if you want to. The biggest downside to it is the price, but the price is greatly improved over how it used to be. That said, the level of automation built into all the official stuff is amazing, and while you could do it yourself for free, it would take a really long time.
Your last point is the biggest point IMO. Fantasy Grounds is a double edged sword. If you are using official content that you've bought its the greatest experience you can find. Everything works beautifully, everything is smooth. It's awesome. But when you step outside of that official content, the further away from it you go the more time consuming designing things becomes. Its a fantastic VTT when you are in the garden, but if you are trying to use it with Just the initial purchase of the system it fights you every step of the way. On the flip side Foundry at its best is just as good, or better(Looking at PF2e ruleset), but since its community driven most things don't get close to the same level of polish FantasyGrounds has, but its easier in foundry to set up your game to be functional even if you don't have everything added in and automated.
Man, this video obviously took a lot of work! It's a great overview of available VTT's and their respective strengtht, thanks for making this! There are definitely some options I'm going to be checking out!
Feel the same! At this point I think it’ll take less time for me to get used to the jank than it would to deal with the hassle of porting all the Dndbeyond material to another VTT.
If you're going to grade Roll20 on price by going with the highest tier you need to talk about it's features, the API is leagues above the macro in terms of flexibility and power to help DMs run games. On the flip side is does increase complexity and initial setup (but then you can just go watch Nick Olivo's videos).
play in foundry and a fantasy grounds game every week, foundry seems to have more problems with updates , also the note taking in fantasy grounds is sooo nice :D
Only issue I have with these ratings are the cost of books should factor into the cost score, above vtt is cheap until you realize that you need to buy all of the books if you want to be able to run it without having to swap to a different vtt
unless you're playing pathfinder, which has all of their rules for free, can just hop on Foundry, and have every class, feature, feat, item etc. all available for free. huge props to them for that
It`s like saying to play TTRPG you need books. You can use them or make thing on your own, VTT are just a way to display this things. Foundry (like other VTTs) lets you build things from scratch or copy things from your books
Hey man! I just wanted to say that I need to make time to catch up on more vids from your channel. Yours have been occasionally popping up lately, and they are all killer content with extremely helpful info. Kudos to you and your channel, and I hope others keep catching on as well.
Foundry has been my go-to since I made the switch from Roll20 years ago. If the system is well supported you will not find a smoother experience. But for something more rules lite or narrative-focused I have also used Owlbear with no issues either.
Thank you for the survey. Your selection had some eye-openers on it. TY for sharing and providing so much context and perspective to make sense of the options.
I’m pretty brainless on TH-cam- hardly like, comment, or subscribe and am always just consuming content. Had to stop and do all three for this, as this video gave awesome insight to my upcoming DnD project. Thank you for this in depth overview, and articulating so many features with transparency. I think I’ll be going for Foundry!
Wow. What a terrific walk-through and comparison of these various systems. I'm so glad you did this, because I sure don't have time to, but really wanted to know this info. Thanks so much! You've helped me make some decisions about toolsets I want to use. Also: your mustache rocks! Subscribing now.
Great video! Personally, I don't really like using VTTs too much but I've used Owlbear Rodeo before and it was always quick and easy for me and my players so I recommend it if anyone is looking for a beginner friendly VTT!
Fantasy grounds allowed me to do things that I don't think are possible in other ones due to the sheer amount of time it's been around and how much modularity. My group adapted within a couple sessions and we still talk about how great it was. I would still be using it if I didn't love playing in person so much, but even playing in person makes me miss some of the things FG did.
I'm honestly considering reintegrating Foundry into my in person games, just for all of the quality of life things it can provide. I've yet to watch this video, so I'm excited to see if a different VTT looks more appealing nowadays.
I watched a streamer running a game on Fantasy grounds and all the windows made me say "Nope!" right away. Nothing I dislike more as a DM to have to deal with than a massive amount of windows all over the place lol Headache inducing XD
I use fantasy grounds to do all the combat tracking for my in person game. My players use paper sheets, but using fantasy grounds encounters saves me so much effort.
Foundry VTT still gives its updates for free after the initial purchase. I started off on v8 and I've steadily moved up to v12 at no extra cost. It also sometimes goes on sale for the December holidays.
I went in the video expecting a perspective only focused on 5e and was pleasantly surprised. IMO you did a good job of considering the needs of both your game and other's. Since I GM Pathfinder, Foundry is definitely a no brainer. The automation features from the base module really speed up my game, which is specially appreciated in 2e since you end up having to track more stuff. Being able to customize the game to be exactly what you want is definitely the cherry on top.
This was really helpful. Glad I spend my money for Foundry VTT. I would love a rated list like this for map making tools and one for campaign managers like world anvil.
No one ever mentions AboveVTT! I started using it temporarily and it may become my permanent VTT. I’m using it to supplement my in person game, not replace it.
Thank you for the video! I've been using a vtt as a display for my in-person game. Bag of mapping is perfect for what I was looking for since I don't need a lot of the vtt tools. Just an easy setup and grid and full display. Thanks! Also, just a note on the roll 20 discord feature that has been handy for one of The players in a different game that wasn't able to be at a computern so being able to see the roll 20 on discord would have been a huge help
With tale spire you get 4 seats if you buy the full program at 25 dollars, then you can buy additional seats. All players in a session share the accumulative total seats, as in if you and a friend buy the full program at 25 dollars, between the both of you in a campaign you should have 8 seats available to the group (up to a max of 12 people, at least according to what their FAQ says). Basically if a GM and a player both bought the program you should be able to host 6 other free tier players of tale spire (I believe the seats include you so with 8 between you and the other player, 8-2 = 6 free slots). In theory it should've only cost your table 50 dollars to host everyone not 120 something....
As someone who uses D&D beyond as you said you do, I'm surprised you didn't showcase D&D beyond maps. It's very solid so far and has added a bunch of features very quickly and seamlessly integrates with your character sheets and monsters as well as all the maps released for all of the adventures.
This is the video I wish had been available a year ago when I started DM'ing. I use AboveVTT and backed DC20 as well - feels like this vid was made just for me and my group. Another great one!
It's been like 10 years - but I still absolutely love DM Tools. Getting it to work over the internet was a pain, but I just used a projector to the maps, tokens, and monsters up on the wall so that we didn't need to sit around a small table.
Foundry is the gold standard for VTTs now. Nothing comes close in terms of how much you get for the cost, and for how much community support there is. Some things you didn't mention: - The sheer level of Foundry's automation support. You mentioned that there _is_ automation, but not the scope of just how much it does. With some proper setup (which isn't really that hard, a lot of module makers have done a lot of hard work to make things easier for the end user), you can run an entire combat almost hands-off. If you want a high-automation game, Foundry can be set up to roll hits and damage appropriately, auto-rolls saves when needed, automatically roll concentration checks and end spells when concentration fails, end spells after their time runs out... it can literally do all the "busy work" for you so you can concentrate on running the game. - Foundry can be hosted remotely to eliminate you needing to do any port forwarding. (Also, port forwarding isn't that much of a security risk if you only forward the ports you need. Source: I'm the IT Director where I work, lol) - As for the "wow factor" of Foundry... You, sir, have not seen Automated Animations in action. That stuff will blow your mind. I was running a PF2e game tonight and one of my players ran into the middle of a horde of skeletons and dropped a three-action Heal. Watching the automated animations fire off green healing mist at every target in range was glorious and my players thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever seen. One last thing: I noticed you mentioned that Alchemy is getting DC20 support. Foundry is also getting an official DC20 module, which is currently in development by someone from Dungeon Coach's team and with assistance from BaileyWiki. On the overall, Foundry is far and away the best VTT out there right now. There are some VTTs that do one or two things better than Foundry, but if you have anything better than a potato PC and you're looking for something that can handle anything you want to throw at it, throw the $50 at Foundry (or wait til they have a sale, I got my Foundry license for $37.50) and you won't regret it. My entire D&D gaming group used to use Tabletop Simulator as our VTT... I've converted the whole group to Foundry now, lol.
Great points made in the comparisons. Another thing I value is homebrew-ability and how easy it is to customize things while still keeping QOL features like automation. I've had a great experience with Foundry for my needs, and use a server hosting service for $4 a month so I never had to figure out port forwarding which also helps take the load off of my mediocre internet. Also bonus points for mentioning DC20 at the end!
3d VTT's might be big on the WOW factor but honestly that isn't what makes a good VTT experience. Ultimately it's about the stories WE tell, not the pretty graphics that the DM handcrafts in these pieces of software. Maps, a little bit of dynamic lighting, and character sheets. That's all you need, and Foundry does it incredibly well. Just as a note, there are services that can host Foundry servers for you if that was the obstacle. And the further you get away from D&D, the more Foundry's different game modules shine.
A VTT in the works that I think could be a huge rival to the new WoTC vtt would be Menyr. They are aiming to make RPGs more of a Skyrim-like experience. They can procedurally generate hundreds of square miles of map that you can then go back and sculpt with mapping tools to build the world you have in your head. You can then create "scenes" in that world that bring the camera down to focus on a specific area. You can change the weather and lighting on a slider. Their ultimate goal is to have procedurally generated dungeons, cities and towns added down the road. Their road map ultimately has the ability to link in 3d assets from popular token creators like heroforge. It's in beta and has a long way to go, but it has some crazy good promise. It's free to play with paid access to beta. Ultimately their model is going to be to enable a workshop where creators can sell custom 3d models and assets for players to use in the vtt with menry taking a small percentage of the purchase to support the vtt.
The reason menry could be interesting. You can use their map to procedurally generate the land between major settlements and the settlements themselves. Then you can go back and just need to prepare specific encounters or landmarks. As a DM you can use the scenes to prepare special encounters ahead of time while the procedural generation can handle when the players are just screwing around outside your plans. Based on their road map, a great example would be a city chase scene. The dm can prepare the start and the destination, procedurally generate a city in between and then drop in small encounters for the players to interact with. It doesn't matter if your rogue takes a 3 block detour, the map made that for you. Or the party picks a fight with an npc while traveling on the trail. You can simply drop the tokens on the trail in the world and have a completely ready made and unique battlefield. And when the session or campaign is over, your players can go back and explore in first person to find all the little encounters you planned but didn't use for one reason or another.
One aspect about using a 3D VTT that can be a consideration is the ability to craft your own content. The RPG Engine is like having limitless Lego blocks with a ton of special pieces. This lets you create your own worlds to game in. While that is not important to all people, for the ones that it is, it is awesome.
Foundry is the best suited to my games. I run high-homebrew games with lots of changes to characters, so it’s convenient to have a way to keep track of that and automate things. It’s also nice to be able to drag and drop features onto monster and character sheets, so I can give a monster a feat or a spell and not have to keep track of that myself.
Talespire's community maps and the ease of copy and pasting building assets is a very nice time saving feature. I do wish they implement Fog of War into the game. Been patiently waiting for 3 years now. I do like the updates. Although I don't play currently. I made some really awesome maps/ Dungeons with it. Some on the community are on another level, which is awesome to see the commitment to the product.
You should have included a score for Ease of Finding Games (for players). There's a HUGE difference between the VTTs in this realm, and is probably why Roll20 still reigns supreme.
I've been using tabletop simulator for 2.5 years now and while it doesn't have the features a lot of others have, I've found that it's significantly more immersive than especially the browser based VTTs but than most VTTs in general. even a lot of the 3D ones just feel like a slightly higher fidelity 2D VTT, which isn't what I want. It feels the most like sitting around an actual table with my friends out of everything I've tried
The best premium option will always be foundry. Assuming you have the money it can emulate all these other products but better. Anything you want that’s missing from a VTT? A premium foundry creator will have it there. Foundry modules are like Skyrim mods. Can either make the basic experience better or it can make the entire thing feel like an entirely different game. Can even do 3D on it that’s just as good if not better than Talespire and can also do animated custom tokens.
@@redd_Jack certain modules help with that actually although not by an insane amount. In a few years I’m pretty sure this issue will be solved hopefully.
The problem with Foundry is stability. To have all of this capability you talk about, you are relying upon dozens of community developers keeping all their modules in sync and working with each other. It might happen once for a few months, but with any major revision you are then stuck not updating to get new features or updating and losing community features because the dev hasn't updated their module yet or has left the community. And every GM I've talked to says this takes them many hours every month. That's a hassle I just don't need or want.
If you play other RPGs besides D&D or Pathfinder... Foundry VTT is the choice! It has support for over 200 game systems. And if you play GURPS, then Foundry VTT is it.
Very nice to have them all compared in one video. Waht I would like to see is a table with scoring all at the same time - it would also be helpful to get an "at a glance" summary at the end of video. Or at least a link to a specific post on your patreon (because now anyone who visits the video in a couple of months will have to search for it, and patreon search engine is not the greatest).
I want something that simulates the experience of playing at a table with whiteboards as closely as possible, and that's owlbear. No fluff. Really dig it (until Draw Steel has its own VTT, that is - then we might make the switch)
As some have noted, a shout out to Maptools, a VTT you can still get, but I understand why most people have never heard of it. It's old and janky, and has been surpassed by the bells and whistles of other newer systems by now. I however, loved it for the Warhammer 40k campaign frameworks Wolph42 created. It's not exactly noob friendly in the slightest, with a ridiculous number of buttons, but it has a TON of functionality. If the GM knows what they're doing, you could also do some interesting things with the Bag of Tricks mod. It's also free. I'm not sure what else Maptools still excels at, but it might still be the relevant program to run the older 40k rpgs. I think Foundry has some of them now as well, so it might depend on which one you want.
I'm an Owlbear Rodeo guy, but I'm exploring Alchemy RPG. Tabula Sono looks interesting in the same as Owlbear Rodeo. No fuss, just some 3D tokens on a 2D map. My players will like that.
I really miss Astral. It had so many cool features and great dynamic lighting and effects, and I was gutted when it shut down. I use Foundry now, but it's not the same and the learning curve is pretty steep. Astral's UI was so user friendly.
Very nice rundown, there's probably a few you didn't catch (D20pro is one I have, but not one I would suggest for new players..."purchase once" but has seats, 2d/top-down, dated interface, obviously intended for d20 systems but can be hacked for other systems...it's not bad, just lacks a lot of extensibility provided by newer VTTs)
I dm for an in person group, but use VTTs to supplement our play. I find Talespire to be awesome for in person games. My other go-to is Arkenforge, which imo is best used if you have a tv table (or just a tv lying on its back loke I do) and play with physical minis/terrain on top.
I actually do the same! Play aboveVTT for the rules and talespire for the heroforge and map integration. You can use symbiotes to show dnd game log. I recently just switched to a combo of foundry (for shadowdark) and talespire. Great videos as usual!
Foundry for me. I run WFRP, which is a rarely supported system. Foundry has complete support for Warhammer Fantasy 4th Edition and most of it's books. There are mods that are compatible across multiple systems, and I can always build maps in something like dungeon draft and have a universal import. It's basically the "android" of VTT's - highly modular, moddable, and each person's foundry can be different. I host it on forge for a couple bucks of month so there's no need to log on, through my end - my players can access the games, books, roll tables, and inventories at any time without needing me. It's so useful and easy to use, and the moddability increases what i can do with the vtt drastically - there's even 3D modding as well, for those who prefer 3D maps.
I loved the video, it was good, detailed and informative but jeezo 17 ad breaks and two promos was a chore. I know most of that is on YT but it was a good video so go get that bag 💰
Thanks for the review! I've got (at least) DnD Beyond, Foundry, Talespire, Tabletop simulator and Alchemy, but mostly we still play locally around the table and I'm not really using these are all 😄 When you have a lot of time, you can build awesome maps in Foundry and I really like it. The UI seems a bit outdated compared to Alchemy, which is currently my number one VTT.
The biggest issue we ran into trying Aurora from Roll20 was a lack of drawing tools. Not being able to have the equivalent of scribbling on a whiteboard to visualise what someone means when describing a space was a major issue. It's now a hard must when looking at any other option.
I also backed DC20, and use AboveVTT currently. I hope you do a rundown of what VTTs you think fits bests for DC20 since AboveVTT will not work. Great video!
I was so hoping you would try Vorpal Board. It apparently is good at using Dwarvenforge or homemade tables. Doing this to really drive home that “you’re at the table” feeling as much as I can.
Great video overall, but you should've mentioned symbiotes for Talespire! They are a great way to have char sheets inside the VTT and a lot of other stuff made by the community. Also, there's Heroforge integration
Great video. Personally, anything that only has a subscription and no one-time-purchase option is eliminated by default. I do not even start using those, no mater how good it is or how good the free version is.
Foundry is my go to for anything I want a map for, so, mostly PF2, but also Lancer. I also used it for Mage: The Awakening, but I kinda feel like it was a bit overkill there since I wasn't making any maps, just using it as a character sheet and dice roller. I actually use Forge for Foundry cuz it's pretty cheap and has a better player experience than running from my pc.
Just stumbled on this channel and loved the content, the presentation, the quality, and the honest evaluation. Now, if I could somehow find a way to not focus entirely on the moustache while watching I might be able to see other things that I'm sure are important... ; ) Cheers!
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Honored to be mentioned in this video! One update for Bag of Mapping is the recently released srd monster compendium for both dnd and pathfinder! This video rocks :)
Awesome! Ill have to go check it out!
You've definitely earned a look from me too!
Me and my group are now looking at using @bagofmapping for our GooeyCube games. Loving it.
Thank you for taking the time to include Foundry VTT in your overview of all these great options. I'm thrilled you spotlighted some really positive features and the caveats you mentioned are all really fair points. Great video!
Foundry is just absolutely amazing, you guys rock
My friend started a Pathfinder campaign in Foundry and it has been a blast. There are things that we find that took a few sessions to get used to, but the effects, music and everything that he has been able to do as well as having multiple floor levels on a map has been amazing. Foundry is definitely an awesome VTT and Im planning to use it for my Alien TTRPG. You guys have an amazing program!
Our DM switched is over to Foundry a couple weeks ago after playing on TTS for ~6 months. I'm not a big fan of VTT's in general, but Foundry does seem quite a bit better than when I played on Roll20...9 years ago 😅
I've used fantasy grounds, roll 20 and Foundry. Foundry was easily the best experience of the three
Foundry is amazing! I'm so glad I picked it up.
Thanks for enjoying using our VTT and mentioning us amongst these great options for playing our favourite TTRPGs. We'll keep trying to show what is people for a free VTT using D&D Beyond,
We have used AboveVTT weekly for years. Absolutely love it! Bravo and Thank you!
And one note to all 3D VTTs. Beside building maps taking way more time than 2D battlemaps, there's tons of ttRPG players that use old PCs, macbook airs or other potato devices (even tablets) that can get slow with just the browser and discord running, so having them launch/view 3D maps will kill their performance completely. I think your scoring could use another category of hardware requirements, low quality setting in Foundry will work way better than talespire or tabletop simulator on low-end devices
THIS exactly. While I personally have quite a powerful gaming-rig, some of my players have trouble even running foundryvtt (eg. old mac book with poor webgl support), as such owlbear which even works on mobile (some of my players used their phone while on holiday) is the perfect fit.
Yeah, my old laptop struggles playing Roll20 on the browser! I can't even dream playing on any 3D VTT
I open a Roll VTT and the performance was to the floor
yup.
I would take 3D maps from the coolest videogames right now if my players could actually handle it.
hell, having a animated maps or even just an animation often fucks them up, and that affects both connection and hardware, with them even freezing up.
some people use a 2005 laptop to play and they are more than most could imagine
2 of my players don't have a PC in any form, just phones and/or tablets. So anything that doesn't run on those are immediately no go for me.
I came for the VTT info and stayed for the mustache.😀
Yes. His mustache is on a whole new level. I agree. 😊
I forgot to say it in the video, but I'm not affiliated with any of these VTTs and I paid for them all with my own money. What's your favourite VTT?
Not on the video but my all time favourite vtt’s is encounter plus. It’s only for MacBook or iPad but it’s really cool.theyre updating it constantly and it’s growing well. I’m running a campaign with a few friends and we are loving it so much.
Our favorite VTT is RPG Stories cause we created it ha ha. Thank you for reviewing :) Next time feel free to ask for a key! Keep it up!
You neglected to mention that Foundry can be hosted on a remote server such as the forge or my personal favorite, Molten hosting.
You also forgot that foundry supports animated maps
It depends a bit on the game i'm playing
- For longer campaigns in old-school games: Shmeppy
- For oneshot in rules-light games: TLDraw
- For oneshots/campaigns in more complex games: FoundryVTT
Foundry VTT also has services like the Forge, which you can pay monthly for them to host a server for you so that you don’t have to port forward and they also allow some of the mods which in my opinion is a better experience than Roll 20. Alternatively, you could use a free service such as Hamachi to imitate being on the same network, which should allow you to connect anyway. There are also TH-cam channels dedicated to making tutorials for Foundry and the mods available, some by the mod creators themselves.
As a sidenote, my favorite module creators that have subscriptions on Patreon are BaileyWiki3D, theripper93, KibblesTasty, WarHead’s software bakery, Caeora, and Moulinette!
Hamachi doesn't always work. Usually it does, but not always.
Would highly recommend ngrok for this over hamachi
@@Mitchyzdabossor cloudflared ngrok started limiting me
If you search for Foundry setup in Oracle Cloud, you will get a link to a very very very very very well made document telling you how to set up Foundry on the Oracle Cloud using the free tier. Granted, I work in computers and IT so I am familiar with Ubuntu a bit, or at least enough to go update stuff and software using the terminal, but it is completely free to use. I am loving working with Foundry like this and not having to host it.
Specifically for Pathfinder 2E, no VTT comes close to Foundry VTT. It's nothing short of magical, the amount of insane integration and automation that team (of volunteers!) has done to make that VTT the de facto place to play Pathfinder. For other systems, it varies a lot, and your video breaks it down incredibly well.
Just a note for Foundry, most if not all future DND 5e/5.5e etc from now on since Wizards is finally partnered with FVTT so there will be official content.
Foundry is my go-to and has been for a while, it's amazing what it can do.
i really appreciate what some companies (Paizo) do with foundry packs for their APs.
dude, this rocks! there's a lot of videos about different vtt's but they're from a couple years ago so this is a very updated compilation
Two things to consider:
1- Talespire has a great mod community which allows you to download even more assets and character sheets with barely any effort whatsoever.
2- for a next time, you should consider hardware requirements: In low-end/old pc's or laptops, most of them could work when designing a map, but the moment you try to share the screen throught discord it will lag the hell out of it. I know it because i have a potato laptop (2015 ideapad) and while i can design maps with talespire, dungeon alchemist, dnd beyond maps or owlbear rodeo i cant use them at the same time i have discord open.
Alchemy is my go-to VTT, as my GM style is very "cinematographic"; theater of the mind enhanced by background images.
I used to do it on Roll 20, adding bunch of background images and inserting tokens on the appropiate one. With Alchemy i can do that way easily, the scenes and motion really enhance my style!
I should note that Talespire is pretty fun to use in real-life sessions as well. We have one laptop for the DM, and one computer showing on the TV screen for all the players with a wireless mouse going around the table. Also consider it's still considered pre-release.
My main advantages: unlimited assets vs. real-life mini's and tiles (want to battle 100+ monsters? You can), height/line-of-sight/cover/AoE are easier to track in 3D, community content for building maps, regular progress updates by devs, esthetics
The main disadvantage: often fiddly to move creatures in cramped spaces, detailed maps can take away from theater of the mind, tracking the game from DM standpoint is not the easiest with one monitor (I don't feel that symbiotes are quite there yet)
We started with AboveVTT and will stay with it. It is so easy and grows even futher.
I also like on Above VTT being able to share images and spell descriptions to the game log. It makes it fun.
We recently moved to foundry from browser based and it just seems like we all love it! Thanks for the video! Love to see other vtts out there 😊
Fantastic video, thanks for making it! I'm currently all-in on Foundry. I ran the PF2e beginner box recently and I cannot express how smooth it was to run. Sound effects, music, ambience, lighting, automation, etc. Truly incredible.
Foundry has been my go to, you can pay a server to host it. I love the modules cause it lets me tailor my game to my party with useful things. I love it for playing Lancer
Concerning the wow factor for FGU for me it's a 3 : dynamic lighting and animated maps and animated tokens, FX on maps and the possibility to switch to 3D whenever you want (2.5D in fact because you use 2D tokens). 3D dices of course. And don't forget the integrated map creation tool and probably the biggest store with an incredible number of rulesets and adventure modules. The only problem: there is a big learning curve for it, but it is worth the time investment. My second VTT is Foundry which I use whenever there is no matching ruleset for FGU (i.e. Blade Runner RPG) Also a wow factor of 3 (missing the 2.5D though) and a deep learning curve.
Fantasy grounds is easily may favourite and I bought in before the fantasy grounds unity days when it wasn't nearly as good. It's the best simply because it handles the basics the best (simple 2d maps, easy to use after the initial learning curve, simple "coding" for making custom abilities and effects). The fact you can quickly and easily do line of sight and dynamic lighting and all that stuff now is just icing on the cake.
For fantasy grounds, the "no port forwarding" is probably related to how in the last version (which was windows only) you had to connect directly. They're probably mentioning it as an improvement over the previous iteration of the software.
Honestly though, I just love the built in automation features in fantasy grounds. I like foundry well enough, and I pay for a vps so I can run it as a website, but fantasy grounds is my first vtt love, and there are some aspects that have yet to be beaten by any other vtt I've ever come across, such as how easy it is to group items into parcels, and npcs into encounters, and to create templates for each so you can create random encounters and random loot that exists within the game before going onto a player's character sheet. I love how the combat tracker does not require maps and tokens to work, making theatre of the mind so much easier to do, but you can use them in combination if you want to.
The biggest downside to it is the price, but the price is greatly improved over how it used to be. That said, the level of automation built into all the official stuff is amazing, and while you could do it yourself for free, it would take a really long time.
Your last point is the biggest point IMO. Fantasy Grounds is a double edged sword. If you are using official content that you've bought its the greatest experience you can find. Everything works beautifully, everything is smooth. It's awesome. But when you step outside of that official content, the further away from it you go the more time consuming designing things becomes. Its a fantastic VTT when you are in the garden, but if you are trying to use it with Just the initial purchase of the system it fights you every step of the way.
On the flip side Foundry at its best is just as good, or better(Looking at PF2e ruleset), but since its community driven most things don't get close to the same level of polish FantasyGrounds has, but its easier in foundry to set up your game to be functional even if you don't have everything added in and automated.
Man, this video obviously took a lot of work! It's a great overview of available VTT's and their respective strengtht, thanks for making this! There are definitely some options I'm going to be checking out!
Above VTT can be janky but it is impeccable if you are invested in dnd beyond resources or have a friend sharing their content with you!
Feel the same! At this point I think it’ll take less time for me to get used to the jank than it would to deal with the hassle of porting all the Dndbeyond material to another VTT.
Above VTT is way less janky than roll20 and is free. I love it and use it faithfully
Owlbear is goated
It has horns? Or a beard?
@@finncullengreatest of all time, then abbreviated, then turned into a verb.
@@mimipeahes5848 whoosh?
I was expecting to see Role on here too.
The one I'm most interested in trying out is using Miro as a VTT.
FOUNDRY IS THE GOAT I JUST SWITCHED FROM ROLL20 and I’m in love
I'm really happy to see your channel growing. Your content is top tier and you have great delivery. Best of luck going forward
If you're going to grade Roll20 on price by going with the highest tier you need to talk about it's features, the API is leagues above the macro in terms of flexibility and power to help DMs run games. On the flip side is does increase complexity and initial setup (but then you can just go watch Nick Olivo's videos).
play in foundry and a fantasy grounds game every week, foundry seems to have more problems with updates , also the note taking in fantasy grounds is sooo nice :D
Of all the dScryb ads I've seen on RPG channels, this one might be the one to finally make me try it out. Great demonstration.
Only issue I have with these ratings are the cost of books should factor into the cost score, above vtt is cheap until you realize that you need to buy all of the books if you want to be able to run it without having to swap to a different vtt
unless you're playing pathfinder, which has all of their rules for free, can just hop on Foundry, and have every class, feature, feat, item etc. all available for free. huge props to them for that
I mean unless you are pirating content you will need to buy/own the books for any vtt platform.
It`s like saying to play TTRPG you need books. You can use them or make thing on your own, VTT are just a way to display this things. Foundry (like other VTTs) lets you build things from scratch or copy things from your books
Hey man! I just wanted to say that I need to make time to catch up on more vids from your channel. Yours have been occasionally popping up lately, and they are all killer content with extremely helpful info. Kudos to you and your channel, and I hope others keep catching on as well.
Foundry has been my go-to since I made the switch from Roll20 years ago. If the system is well supported you will not find a smoother experience. But for something more rules lite or narrative-focused I have also used Owlbear with no issues either.
Thank you for the survey. Your selection had some eye-openers on it. TY for sharing and providing so much context and perspective to make sense of the options.
I’m pretty brainless on TH-cam- hardly like, comment, or subscribe and am always just consuming content. Had to stop and do all three for this, as this video gave awesome insight to my upcoming DnD project. Thank you for this in depth overview, and articulating so many features with transparency. I think I’ll be going for Foundry!
Wow. What a terrific walk-through and comparison of these various systems. I'm so glad you did this, because I sure don't have time to, but really wanted to know this info. Thanks so much! You've helped me make some decisions about toolsets I want to use.
Also: your mustache rocks!
Subscribing now.
Great video! Personally, I don't really like using VTTs too much but I've used Owlbear Rodeo before and it was always quick and easy for me and my players so I recommend it if anyone is looking for a beginner friendly VTT!
Fantasy grounds allowed me to do things that I don't think are possible in other ones due to the sheer amount of time it's been around and how much modularity. My group adapted within a couple sessions and we still talk about how great it was. I would still be using it if I didn't love playing in person so much, but even playing in person makes me miss some of the things FG did.
I'm honestly considering reintegrating Foundry into my in person games, just for all of the quality of life things it can provide. I've yet to watch this video, so I'm excited to see if a different VTT looks more appealing nowadays.
@@meobotbotbot9631Rule of thumb:
Foundry has better visuals and cheaper
FGU has better automation and performance, more expensive
I watched a streamer running a game on Fantasy grounds and all the windows made me say "Nope!" right away. Nothing I dislike more as a DM to have to deal with than a massive amount of windows all over the place lol
Headache inducing XD
I use FG in my in-person sessions too. I just built a TV table and use FG through my laptop.
I use fantasy grounds to do all the combat tracking for my in person game. My players use paper sheets, but using fantasy grounds encounters saves me so much effort.
Good to see a lot of aspirant VTTs emerging. I hope the established players are feeling motivated to excel in this increasingly populated marketplace.
Foundry VTT still gives its updates for free after the initial purchase. I started off on v8 and I've steadily moved up to v12 at no extra cost. It also sometimes goes on sale for the December holidays.
I literally waited a year for this Video before buying one system, thank you ❤
I went in the video expecting a perspective only focused on 5e and was pleasantly surprised. IMO you did a good job of considering the needs of both your game and other's.
Since I GM Pathfinder, Foundry is definitely a no brainer. The automation features from the base module really speed up my game, which is specially appreciated in 2e since you end up having to track more stuff. Being able to customize the game to be exactly what you want is definitely the cherry on top.
First video I've watched of yours and I really appreciate your presentational style while you keep things informative and moving! Subscribed!
This was really helpful.
Glad I spend my money for Foundry VTT.
I would love a rated list like this for map making tools and one for campaign managers like world anvil.
0:02 love the book of humanoids you’ve got on your desk.
Yeah Alchemy. 😀
But no Shard Tabletop? 🤔
I was disappointed not to see Shard Tabletop
I've been using Shard for a year and a half and love it. Why does no one ever include it in these VTT review videos??
Owlbear does have an extension that gives statblock functionality. I use it all the time.
it does?? i'm new to owlbear can you tell me which one you us?
@@morrohir Clash! and HP Tracker both have stat block support. (I wrote Clash)
@@mdjxbl nice! Gonna try them, thx!
@@morrohir there are video tutorials for HP Tracker: th-cam.com/video/_ooRIDPhBhI/w-d-xo.html
No one ever mentions AboveVTT!
I started using it temporarily and it may become my permanent VTT. I’m using it to supplement my in person game, not replace it.
OMG I just got it. "Above and Beyond", that's brilliant.
Thank you for the video! I've been using a vtt as a display for my in-person game. Bag of mapping is perfect for what I was looking for since I don't need a lot of the vtt tools. Just an easy setup and grid and full display. Thanks!
Also, just a note on the roll 20 discord feature that has been handy for one of The players in a different game that wasn't able to be at a computern so being able to see the roll 20 on discord would have been a huge help
With tale spire you get 4 seats if you buy the full program at 25 dollars, then you can buy additional seats. All players in a session share the accumulative total seats, as in if you and a friend buy the full program at 25 dollars, between the both of you in a campaign you should have 8 seats available to the group (up to a max of 12 people, at least according to what their FAQ says).
Basically if a GM and a player both bought the program you should be able to host 6 other free tier players of tale spire (I believe the seats include you so with 8 between you and the other player, 8-2 = 6 free slots). In theory it should've only cost your table 50 dollars to host everyone not 120 something....
No, he's right. Talespire doesn't provide free seats with a full copy.
We use AboveVTT for years and have loved it!
As someone who uses D&D beyond as you said you do, I'm surprised you didn't showcase D&D beyond maps. It's very solid so far and has added a bunch of features very quickly and seamlessly integrates with your character sheets and monsters as well as all the maps released for all of the adventures.
This is the video I wish had been available a year ago when I started DM'ing. I use AboveVTT and backed DC20 as well - feels like this vid was made just for me and my group. Another great one!
It was nice to see some of these, especially the couple I hadn’t heard of; but it would have been nice to see your review of Shard VTT
Great review. Can't wait for next year's update!
Thanks for reviewing all of these. Very informative.
It's been like 10 years - but I still absolutely love DM Tools. Getting it to work over the internet was a pain, but I just used a projector to the maps, tokens, and monsters up on the wall so that we didn't need to sit around a small table.
Foundry is the gold standard for VTTs now. Nothing comes close in terms of how much you get for the cost, and for how much community support there is.
Some things you didn't mention:
- The sheer level of Foundry's automation support. You mentioned that there _is_ automation, but not the scope of just how much it does. With some proper setup (which isn't really that hard, a lot of module makers have done a lot of hard work to make things easier for the end user), you can run an entire combat almost hands-off. If you want a high-automation game, Foundry can be set up to roll hits and damage appropriately, auto-rolls saves when needed, automatically roll concentration checks and end spells when concentration fails, end spells after their time runs out... it can literally do all the "busy work" for you so you can concentrate on running the game.
- Foundry can be hosted remotely to eliminate you needing to do any port forwarding. (Also, port forwarding isn't that much of a security risk if you only forward the ports you need. Source: I'm the IT Director where I work, lol)
- As for the "wow factor" of Foundry... You, sir, have not seen Automated Animations in action. That stuff will blow your mind. I was running a PF2e game tonight and one of my players ran into the middle of a horde of skeletons and dropped a three-action Heal. Watching the automated animations fire off green healing mist at every target in range was glorious and my players thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever seen.
One last thing: I noticed you mentioned that Alchemy is getting DC20 support. Foundry is also getting an official DC20 module, which is currently in development by someone from Dungeon Coach's team and with assistance from BaileyWiki.
On the overall, Foundry is far and away the best VTT out there right now. There are some VTTs that do one or two things better than Foundry, but if you have anything better than a potato PC and you're looking for something that can handle anything you want to throw at it, throw the $50 at Foundry (or wait til they have a sale, I got my Foundry license for $37.50) and you won't regret it. My entire D&D gaming group used to use Tabletop Simulator as our VTT... I've converted the whole group to Foundry now, lol.
Great points made in the comparisons. Another thing I value is homebrew-ability and how easy it is to customize things while still keeping QOL features like automation. I've had a great experience with Foundry for my needs, and use a server hosting service for $4 a month so I never had to figure out port forwarding which also helps take the load off of my mediocre internet.
Also bonus points for mentioning DC20 at the end!
3d VTT's might be big on the WOW factor but honestly that isn't what makes a good VTT experience. Ultimately it's about the stories WE tell, not the pretty graphics that the DM handcrafts in these pieces of software. Maps, a little bit of dynamic lighting, and character sheets. That's all you need, and Foundry does it incredibly well.
Just as a note, there are services that can host Foundry servers for you if that was the obstacle. And the further you get away from D&D, the more Foundry's different game modules shine.
A VTT in the works that I think could be a huge rival to the new WoTC vtt would be Menyr. They are aiming to make RPGs more of a Skyrim-like experience. They can procedurally generate hundreds of square miles of map that you can then go back and sculpt with mapping tools to build the world you have in your head. You can then create "scenes" in that world that bring the camera down to focus on a specific area. You can change the weather and lighting on a slider. Their ultimate goal is to have procedurally generated dungeons, cities and towns added down the road. Their road map ultimately has the ability to link in 3d assets from popular token creators like heroforge.
It's in beta and has a long way to go, but it has some crazy good promise. It's free to play with paid access to beta. Ultimately their model is going to be to enable a workshop where creators can sell custom 3d models and assets for players to use in the vtt with menry taking a small percentage of the purchase to support the vtt.
The reason menry could be interesting. You can use their map to procedurally generate the land between major settlements and the settlements themselves. Then you can go back and just need to prepare specific encounters or landmarks. As a DM you can use the scenes to prepare special encounters ahead of time while the procedural generation can handle when the players are just screwing around outside your plans.
Based on their road map, a great example would be a city chase scene. The dm can prepare the start and the destination, procedurally generate a city in between and then drop in small encounters for the players to interact with. It doesn't matter if your rogue takes a 3 block detour, the map made that for you.
Or the party picks a fight with an npc while traveling on the trail. You can simply drop the tokens on the trail in the world and have a completely ready made and unique battlefield.
And when the session or campaign is over, your players can go back and explore in first person to find all the little encounters you planned but didn't use for one reason or another.
One aspect about using a 3D VTT that can be a consideration is the ability to craft your own content. The RPG Engine is like having limitless Lego blocks with a ton of special pieces. This lets you create your own worlds to game in. While that is not important to all people, for the ones that it is, it is awesome.
Owlbear Rodeo FTW !!!!
simple smooth table top experience without bells and whistles. love it
@@ruolbu amen
Several of the extensions support stat blocks.
Also there are more extensions available than those directly listed on the OBR extension page.
Nice research! I haven't heard about some of these. Bag of Mapping is cool since it also supports Blades in the Dark.
Foundry is the best suited to my games. I run high-homebrew games with lots of changes to characters, so it’s convenient to have a way to keep track of that and automate things. It’s also nice to be able to drag and drop features onto monster and character sheets, so I can give a monster a feat or a spell and not have to keep track of that myself.
Talespire's community maps and the ease of copy and pasting building assets is a very nice time saving feature. I do wish they implement Fog of War into the game. Been patiently waiting for 3 years now. I do like the updates. Although I don't play currently. I made some really awesome maps/ Dungeons with it. Some on the community are on another level, which is awesome to see the commitment to the product.
You should have included a score for Ease of Finding Games (for players). There's a HUGE difference between the VTTs in this realm, and is probably why Roll20 still reigns supreme.
I use Miro. It let's me copy and paste things and move them around and me and my players handle all our own math. Like an actual TABLE.
I've been using tabletop simulator for 2.5 years now and while it doesn't have the features a lot of others have, I've found that it's significantly more immersive than especially the browser based VTTs but than most VTTs in general. even a lot of the 3D ones just feel like a slightly higher fidelity 2D VTT, which isn't what I want. It feels the most like sitting around an actual table with my friends out of everything I've tried
Owlbear and Roll20 are absolutely what I use. Foundry doesn’t agree with my computer
I moved from Roll20 to Foundry and I will never look back.
I got all my books on DnD Beyond, and used the importer to connect Foundry to it.
The reason I stick to Roll20 is that is supports games other than D&D so well.
Owlbear is genuinely so good I came here just to say that
I really wish one of your talking points was about how easy it was to integrate 3rd party or homebrew options. Otherwise, an excellent video!
The reasons you point out is exactly why I use Foundry over Fantasy Grounds, even though I own both.
Funny that the one VTT my group uses for the last decade, MapTool, wasn't featured!
The best premium option will always be foundry. Assuming you have the money it can emulate all these other products but better. Anything you want that’s missing from a VTT? A premium foundry creator will have it there.
Foundry modules are like Skyrim mods. Can either make the basic experience better or it can make the entire thing feel like an entirely different game.
Can even do 3D on it that’s just as good if not better than Talespire and can also do animated custom tokens.
Except mobile support:(
@@redd_Jack certain modules help with that actually although not by an insane amount. In a few years I’m pretty sure this issue will be solved hopefully.
@@orpheus1138 still unplayable on phones by my players, as of beginning of this year
@@redd_Jack there is a module for mobile support!
The problem with Foundry is stability. To have all of this capability you talk about, you are relying upon dozens of community developers keeping all their modules in sync and working with each other. It might happen once for a few months, but with any major revision you are then stuck not updating to get new features or updating and losing community features because the dev hasn't updated their module yet or has left the community. And every GM I've talked to says this takes them many hours every month. That's a hassle I just don't need or want.
If you play other RPGs besides D&D or Pathfinder... Foundry VTT is the choice! It has support for over 200 game systems. And if you play GURPS, then Foundry VTT is it.
Very nice to have them all compared in one video. Waht I would like to see is a table with scoring all at the same time - it would also be helpful to get an "at a glance" summary at the end of video. Or at least a link to a specific post on your patreon (because now anyone who visits the video in a couple of months will have to search for it, and patreon search engine is not the greatest).
It's actually super easy to find the post! If you filter his patreon posts for only public ones, then it's only 1 out of 2 there.
I want something that simulates the experience of playing at a table with whiteboards as closely as possible, and that's owlbear. No fluff. Really dig it (until Draw Steel has its own VTT, that is - then we might make the switch)
As some have noted, a shout out to Maptools, a VTT you can still get, but I understand why most people have never heard of it. It's old and janky, and has been surpassed by the bells and whistles of other newer systems by now. I however, loved it for the Warhammer 40k campaign frameworks Wolph42 created. It's not exactly noob friendly in the slightest, with a ridiculous number of buttons, but it has a TON of functionality. If the GM knows what they're doing, you could also do some interesting things with the Bag of Tricks mod. It's also free. I'm not sure what else Maptools still excels at, but it might still be the relevant program to run the older 40k rpgs. I think Foundry has some of them now as well, so it might depend on which one you want.
I'm an Owlbear Rodeo guy, but I'm exploring Alchemy RPG. Tabula Sono looks interesting in the same as Owlbear Rodeo. No fuss, just some 3D tokens on a 2D map. My players will like that.
I really miss Astral. It had so many cool features and great dynamic lighting and effects, and I was gutted when it shut down. I use Foundry now, but it's not the same and the learning curve is pretty steep. Astral's UI was so user friendly.
Alchemy has really surprised me with how much I like it
Very nice rundown, there's probably a few you didn't catch (D20pro is one I have, but not one I would suggest for new players..."purchase once" but has seats, 2d/top-down, dated interface, obviously intended for d20 systems but can be hacked for other systems...it's not bad, just lacks a lot of extensibility provided by newer VTTs)
I dm for an in person group, but use VTTs to supplement our play. I find Talespire to be awesome for in person games. My other go-to is Arkenforge, which imo is best used if you have a tv table (or just a tv lying on its back loke I do) and play with physical minis/terrain on top.
AboveVTT has a better grid alignment. You can simply input the poi of the image and it should align perfectly
Wow! Very thorough. Thanks for the useful overview.
I actually do the same! Play aboveVTT for the rules and talespire for the heroforge and map integration. You can use symbiotes to show dnd game log. I recently just switched to a combo of foundry (for shadowdark) and talespire. Great videos as usual!
Foundry for me. I run WFRP, which is a rarely supported system. Foundry has complete support for Warhammer Fantasy 4th Edition and most of it's books. There are mods that are compatible across multiple systems, and I can always build maps in something like dungeon draft and have a universal import. It's basically the "android" of VTT's - highly modular, moddable, and each person's foundry can be different. I host it on forge for a couple bucks of month so there's no need to log on, through my end - my players can access the games, books, roll tables, and inventories at any time without needing me. It's so useful and easy to use, and the moddability increases what i can do with the vtt drastically - there's even 3D modding as well, for those who prefer 3D maps.
I loved the video, it was good, detailed and informative but jeezo 17 ad breaks and two promos was a chore. I know most of that is on YT but it was a good video so go get that bag 💰
Thanks for the review! I've got (at least) DnD Beyond, Foundry, Talespire, Tabletop simulator and Alchemy, but mostly we still play locally around the table and I'm not really using these are all 😄
When you have a lot of time, you can build awesome maps in Foundry and I really like it. The UI seems a bit outdated compared to Alchemy, which is currently my number one VTT.
The biggest issue we ran into trying Aurora from Roll20 was a lack of drawing tools. Not being able to have the equivalent of scribbling on a whiteboard to visualise what someone means when describing a space was a major issue. It's now a hard must when looking at any other option.
I also backed DC20, and use AboveVTT currently. I hope you do a rundown of what VTTs you think fits bests for DC20 since AboveVTT will not work. Great video!
I was so hoping you would try Vorpal Board. It apparently is good at using Dwarvenforge or homemade tables. Doing this to really drive home that “you’re at the table” feeling as much as I can.
Great video overall, but you should've mentioned symbiotes for Talespire! They are a great way to have char sheets inside the VTT and a lot of other stuff made by the community. Also, there's Heroforge integration
Great video. Personally, anything that only has a subscription and no one-time-purchase option is eliminated by default. I do not even start using those, no mater how good it is or how good the free version is.
Foundry is my go to for anything I want a map for, so, mostly PF2, but also Lancer. I also used it for Mage: The Awakening, but I kinda feel like it was a bit overkill there since I wasn't making any maps, just using it as a character sheet and dice roller. I actually use Forge for Foundry cuz it's pretty cheap and has a better player experience than running from my pc.
I mainly use r20 but have used a few of these before too. Thanks for the video, it was interesting seeing all the ones I wasn't familiar with.
Just stumbled on this channel and loved the content, the presentation, the quality, and the honest evaluation. Now, if I could somehow find a way to not focus entirely on the moustache while watching I might be able to see other things that I'm sure are important... ; ) Cheers!
🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗 welcome back!
Sorry I was gone so long! 😭 This video took way longer than I expected! 😅