How useful is Fantasy Grounds or Roll20 if we aren't using a supported system?

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Tom B

Tom B

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I'm curious. Given the current situation, our gaming group has been meeting online using Zoom.

For a while, I've toyed with the idea of using something more dedicated, like Fantasy Grounds or Roll20. We don't run any of the games that are supported, though. Our recent games have been Shadows of Esteren, Genesys, Shadows Over Sol, and Harnmaster. What features of Fantasy Grounds or Roll20 would still be useful? Genesys uses special dice and Shadows Over Sol uses a standard card deck. Is there any way to emulate these? If I'm just getting a video chat with some map features, I'm not sure it's worth the cost.

Any thoughts or advice?
 
Roll20 has a free account option and Fantasy Grounds has a free demo. My advice would be to experiment with them (and yes you can emulate playing cards inside Roll20, not sure about Fantasy Grounds -- perhaps with an extension or mod?)

As for features without system-specific support, the biggest thing is probably being able to roll virtual dice, a shared whiteboard/mapping area, a turn tracker, the ability to share handouts (with everyone or select individuals), token support with status effects, and some other potentially useful doodads and whatnot that vary a little from one to the other. In general, I'd say the FG learning curve is a little steeper. YMMV
 
I have used Fantasy Grounds very effectively to run Lady Blackbird with just the CoreRPG features. Even with these barebone features, it was totally possible to reproduce the character sheet and to automate die rolls. You still had to check manually if you had succeeded, but okay...
 
I love FG but if you aren't already using it I'm not sure I would spring for a license for unsupported rulesets. You could subscribe for a month and try it out that's not terribly expensive.
 
Card decks are no problem in roll20, one is built in. Genesys is definitely not ideal on roll20, but you could build a custom table for the dice that would work.

Tabletop Simulator has a lot of RPG players. People have already modded in Star Wars dice. TTS is really neat that you can mix and match elements from any mods pretty easily. It's a much better toy box than any of the rpg only VTTs, but not a great database.
 
If Roll20's sound worked better I'd see it as a go-to, since it's got the dice-roller and sketch area... but as it is we just about always ended up using Discord for sound... and sometimes just Discord. Our local F2F group moved to online last week and is just using Discord, with sharing of pictures in the chat area.
 
Did a quick character sheet check for Roll20 and your listed systems:

Shadows of Esteren - Has one, but description states it is very rudimentary.
Genesys - Has one. Requires an additional step to load a script for the dice roller.
Shadows Over Sol - Didn't see one for this. However, there is a standard 52 card deck built into Roll20 by default.
Harnmaster - Has a HarnMaster 3 sheet.

I will add that you can create Macros without any programming knowledge if there isn't a sheet and you just need a handful of rolls that you will use repeatedly.

For example, if I was to commonly attack in 2nd edition with a longsword and didn't use a character sheet in Roll20 I could create a macro that was called #longsword that would execute just by clicking on the button. For example, if I wanted it to state that I'm attacking with my longsword, roll a d20, and roll damage then I'd add these commands to the macro:

/em Spellslinging Sellsword attacks the enemy with his longsword.
/roll 1d20
/roll 1d8
 
If you want a VTT to do more than what you do at the table - i.e., offload mundane resource tracking or combine multiple math operations into one function, then it would be disappointing.

If you're willing to just roll dice and upload stuff for people to see then it works just fine.
 
I've used Roll20 a bit. If you spring for a paid subscription, dynamic lighting is really cool. Players see only their character could see based on walls and lighting sources. Though it takes an extra hour or two to set up the dungeon for it.

Even with a free account, I like having an NPC wiki and a built in forum for discussion between sessions. I like having all the maps quickly prepped and being able to drop objects and monsters from any image source or grabbing them from the free library. I like the map layers so things are hidden from the players and I can make things appear suddenly by clicking on the object and choosing a new layer. Plus, the die roller. None this requires coding or much effort.

I don't use their character sheets - I just keep important players stats in a spreadsheet. As a player, I like to memorize commmon stats so a coded sheet. But I know non-coders who set up their character sheets fairly easily (for sheets already supported).

I could do it in another system but it's easier and more accessible in Rol20.
(Having never used any other VTTs for more than a few minutes, I can't compare options.)
 
Thanks for the feedback. I think the subscription idea is a good one to try them out, I might go that route.
 
I'd start with the free one to make sure you like it.
 
I have used Roll20 just fine for games without their built in support (even when I was running Classic Traveller, their character sheet didn't work because it was only Book 1 skills, and the RQ3 character sheet is useless for RQ1). The TFT game I am playing in is working just fine also without using any support.
 
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