VTT had been a thing for a while and I had played in a couple of games on Roll20 and had thought of giving it a go myself, when COVID came along and forced our hands. Now I have a background in computers and enjoy playing around with things but it took me a little while to get going and this section is so that I can share some of what I learned to maybe help my friends who are using VTT’s to take the pain out of there own games.
Not that setting up a VTT is painful as like anything, when you get a bit of confidence then what was previously daunting suddenly is a fun thing.
I have tried a number of VTT’s but the two that have stuck for me are Roll20 and Foundry.
Roll20 is a subscription website that allows you to store the resources that you need for your game on their servers. The more resources you want to use then the bigger subscription you will need. However, they offer other functionality with the higher subscriptions, including dynamic lighting, custom character sheet and API and the rather awesome ‘Transmografier”
That said, without even paying the lower level of subscription, you get enough to be able to learn the ropes and see if you like it and if you are just using it to play then all you need is an account, which is free.
Of the two VTT’s I now use, Roll20 is still my go to if I want to do something quickly or if I want a permanent resource my players can visit at any time.
Foundry is a piece of licensed software and so you only pay for the once. You install it on your computer and then it allows you to host the games with your players ‘connecting’ to your computer. Consequently, the only resource limit is your computer.
Foundry is way more complicated than Roll20 as, with skills in Javascript, CSS and HTML, you can pretty much make it do anything you could possible imagine. It has a vibrant and well supported community and there is plenty of free content that you can just use or indeed have a look at see how it works.
Unlike Roll20, you can only host one of your games at a time and it is only available for your players while you are hosting it. That said, if you have access the right kind of additional hosting you could install it on a webserver and leave it running all the time.
To be honest, I love them both, but I know most people are used to Roll20, which is why I have not completely switched over to Foundry.