Who is winning the VTT wars of late?

[DeDiceManCometh]

The title says it all. Who is king of the hill? (OK, that's sexist; who is monarch of the hill?)

Who is likely to be the state of the art a year from now?

[Mark Skarr]

In a year, I figure that not much will change.

Astral, Fantasy Grounds, Foundry, Roll 20, Tabletop Simulator, will all still be here a year from now. In a year Game Master Engine, Tabletop Playground and Tale Spire might be in a position to be useful.

I'm still going to be using Tabletop Simulator. I'm not looking for VTT to tell me how to play my game, I want the virtual table top, not the virtual game.

[Fred Brackin]

All I know is that my DM has bought in (literally of course) to Fantasy Grounds. My personal knowledge is limited as I have not been able to get the free version to install on my computer.

It's also limited because we've all been vaccinated and are playing face-to-face again so I don't need it right now. The dM does say that it makes it so easy to distrbute treasure. However, the other players who did get it to install seemed to be having trouble making attacks and similar actions.

Contrastingly, D&D Beyond worked easily but didn't offer square-by-square figure movement, drop-and-drag treasure disbursement or internalized chat. We had to have Zoom open as well for the chat. Zoom did work better than Discord and much better than Skype.

So right now my answer would be that Fantasy Grounds is not off to that good of a start and who knows whaat we'll be struggling with in a year?

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Contrastingly, D&D Beyond worked easily but didn't offer square-by-square figure movement, drop-and-drag treasure disbursement or internalized chat. We had to have Zoom open as well for the chat. Zoom did work better than Discord and much better than Skype.

Do any of the VTTs have an internal voice chat that works easily and well?

(Not that the external voice chat systems I've tried aren't also a pain in the butt until you have spent an hour or two fiddling with them to get something that works for your group.)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Do any of the VTTs have an internal voice chat that works easily and well?

We tried using the voice chat in roll20 and gave up in about an hour; I think their voice chat server might have been overloaded so we were getting a lot of drops. In general I recommend just using a third party tool (my group uses google meet), developing a competent voice chat system is reasonably a specialized skill (and requires supporting hardware) that is not terribly related to making a VTT.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Anthony

We tried using the voice chat in roll20 and gave up in about an hour; I think their voice chat server might have been overloaded so we were getting a lot of drops. In general I recommend just using a third party tool (my group uses google meet), developing a competent voice chat system is reasonably a specialized skill (and requires supporting hardware) that is not terribly related to making a VTT.

Yes. I've used Discord and Facebook Messenger calls successfully. But always schedule an extra hour for any new group to get things working properly.

[Shostak]

My groups use Roll20, but don't use it's voice capabilities. The price (free) can't be beat, and even though Fantasy Grounds seems to have more bells and whistles, I suspect I'll be sticking with R20.

[Randyman]

Who's winning?

Wizards of the Coast. They are generally dominant on the major platforms, and have used that dominance to solidify their mindshare and market share in the RPG hobby as a whole.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Do any of the VTTs have an internal voice chat that works easily and well?

TableTop Simulator does not have one. We tried it, but it really broke down quickly. We use Discord.

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Yes. I've used Discord and Facebook Messenger calls successfully. But always schedule an extra hour for any new group to get things working properly.

We haven't seen this. A few years ago, yes, but now, no. That's why we use Discord. Get it working for you, and they handle the rest. Sure, every once in a while something happens, but restarting Discord usually fixes it.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

In a year, I figure that not much will change.

Astral, Fantasy Grounds, Foundry, Roll 20, Tabletop Simulator, will all still be here a year from now. In a year Game Master Engine, Tabletop Playground and Tale Spire might be in a position to be useful.

I'm still going to be using Tabletop Simulator. I'm not looking for VTT to tell me how to play my game, I want the virtual table top, not the virtual game.

I agree. I really just want a table top with maybe some ability to reveal areas so the entire dungeon is not visible AND a dice roller. We can use books for all else. I would almost certainly use zoom as well.

I'm more likely to play in person if that is possible though. For GURPS I'm creating a GM screen Excel spreadsheet.