Benji
Journeyman Douchebag
Alea iacta est
Posts: 176
Preferred Game Systems: Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, V20, D&D 3.5, Castles & Crusades, Monsters & Other Childish Things, Little Fears, TFOS
Currently Playing: Not a damn thing
Currently Running: Pathfinder, Savage Worlds
Favorite Species of Monkey: Cebuella pygmaea
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Post by Benji on Nov 3, 2015 21:07:54 GMT -8
I'm looking at doing a favor for an old buddy and running a 5E game remotely with google +/hangouts and either roll20 or Fantasy Grounds. Roll 20 looks fairly easy but Fantasy Grounds seems to have a lot of the 5E mechanics built in. Can anyone chime in on the pros and cons of these two virtual table top applications?
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Post by shadrack on Nov 4, 2015 6:43:59 GMT -8
Roll 20 has Google hangouts support, and there are a lot of built in and/or fan created resources for running with roll 20 on Google hangouts, I'm also pretty sure the basement level stuff is free (which should be sufficient).
I don't know even that little about fantasy grounds, so I'll leave that bit to someone else.
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Benji
Journeyman Douchebag
Alea iacta est
Posts: 176
Preferred Game Systems: Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, V20, D&D 3.5, Castles & Crusades, Monsters & Other Childish Things, Little Fears, TFOS
Currently Playing: Not a damn thing
Currently Running: Pathfinder, Savage Worlds
Favorite Species of Monkey: Cebuella pygmaea
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Post by Benji on Nov 4, 2015 14:17:04 GMT -8
Did some research on my lunch break. Roll 20 seem the way to go. Browser driven and the only cost appear to be if I want to DL icons. Fantasy Grounds is MUCH more involved (and costly) but is installed and has a bunch of hoops to jump through to go on a Mac.
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sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Nov 4, 2015 17:21:43 GMT -8
Does roll20's stuff record in a Hangout On Air?
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Benji
Journeyman Douchebag
Alea iacta est
Posts: 176
Preferred Game Systems: Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, V20, D&D 3.5, Castles & Crusades, Monsters & Other Childish Things, Little Fears, TFOS
Currently Playing: Not a damn thing
Currently Running: Pathfinder, Savage Worlds
Favorite Species of Monkey: Cebuella pygmaea
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Post by Benji on Nov 4, 2015 21:38:27 GMT -8
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Post by Forresst on Nov 5, 2015 1:47:58 GMT -8
I've played with both, and I have to say I prefer to roll20 interface and system. I can't actually give concrete reasoning for this, but I just found the Fantasy Grounds interface clunky and nonintuitive, where the roll20 interface had some clunky bits, but was much more efficient.
I just thought of one example: the game I played on FG ended up having every player have to write their character sheet on the equivalent of post-it notes and stick them on the board because there was no other way for the GM to keep track of things using the system. On roll20, that can all be put into the GM-only layer.
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Post by squeatus on Nov 27, 2015 1:29:28 GMT -8
Just noticed Fantasy Grounds is on sale via Steam for like 25% off, probably for Thanksgiving weekend.
I think it'll wind up saving around 30-40 bucks for an "ultimate license" or whatever. Can't find a 5E add-on listed, but can find like, every other system there in their DLC packs, which are also 25% off.
I'm really tempted to demo this, haven't checked it out in years. I'm sure it doesn't live up to the video hype (no VTT ever does) but it's gotta be better than it was 7 years ago when I last tried it. Doubt I'll make the purchase myself, but the one-time license fee does appeal, even if the other strengths of Roll20 (zero port-forwarding issues) make it more appealing to me.
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