GURPS on Roll20 or similar platform

[sjard]

Originally Posted by Rolando

You got me thinking, about this, and I took a look... but I can't unless I pay because I can't even test the engine unless I pay.

The demo has the full features (except hosting) that come with the base (standard or ultimate) license, and you can test a campaign from the GM side with just the demo. You just can't save anything you create.

As a demo player I can only play in someone else game, and that if that someone have an ultimate account, not a regular paying account.

As a demo player you can join a GM with the standard license, you'll just get booted the moment anyone else joins. For the Unity version, you do need to have a free forum account which is used to log in (for any license level). Edited: The only differences between license levels (demo, standard, ultimate) is the connectivity allowance. Demo can't host, Standard can host any standard or ultimate licenses, or one demo license, and ultimate can host any number of standard, ultimate, or demo licenses (subject to personal hardware limits).

I really have no bias but truth is you get nothing in Fantasy Grounds as a demo player.

The only thing you don't get is the ability to save your campaign, the ability to use purchased DLC, or the ability to host other players.

That is fine, it is their business model, but it is not misleading to say you have to pay for everything, for the most basics of functions.

They offer single purchase or subscription options. One regularly offered suggestion is to subscribe for a month, ($5/month for standard, $10/month for ultimate licenses), then take advantage of their 30 day no questions asked refund policy before the month ends (don't do this immediately as the subscription ends the moment you cancel) for a full featured demo.

[Rolando]

@sjard, you are misunderstanding me.

I'm not saying FGU is bad or not a good investment of money.

We are making comparisons, I say Roll20 is free, the FGU is not. It is not misleading, and a 30 days free trial is not a free engine.

You can't use the engine unless you pay, it is not a bad thing, it is what it is.

It is misleading to say it can be used for free. It can't, at least someone have to pay.

[Tinman]

My group has been using RP Map Tools & Skype for years. It works really well & they are both free.
I highly recommend it for GURPS "online".

[Lancewholelot]

I've been playing GURPS on Roll20 for over 7 years now. There's been periods of time where our group has had to use other options for voice/video chat, but otherwise it's worked well. I just ran a game for four players this past Wednesday with no issues with Roll20 chat.

[Christopher R. Rice]

I run three groups a week on Roll20 and it works out very well. We use Hangouts for Voice/Video. I'm sure we'll need to switch the latter to Discord or Skype at some point since Hangouts is shutting down next year, but that's next year's problem. XD

[Humabout]

I've run a few games now using Roll20 as a VTT and other platforms for sound, including Hangouts and Discord. This setup has worked really well, and fan as I was of Hangouts, Discord just offers so much by way of chatrooms and stuff for between-session communication, I'd generally recommend that, if you have to learn a platform anyway. Otherwise grab what works for you and your players.

[seycyrus]

Originally Posted by Rolando

...
It is misleading to say it can be used for free. It can't, at least someone have to pay.

Oh c'mon. It's used as a descriptor phrase to differentiate between the Ultimate, standard, and demo versions.

I have an ultimate license. Consider the following. A person without a FG license tells me he wants to join my game, and asks me how much it will cost. Which of the following is the proper response?

A) It won't cost you anything buddy, I've got you covered! Just download the demo version and join my game. It's free for you.

B) Cost? What is cost? What is value? Let us consider the great philosopher's thoughts on these matters...

C) Just a small part of your soul.

[Rolando]

all of the above are right. Specially A. And maybe C I'm not sure.

It's free for you is quite on point.

I can see a group of regular players sharing an ultimate account for example, making it more even more affordable.

Calling it affordable is also fine.

Telling someone that have never player online or is looking to GM online that FGU is free is misleading.

Specially misleading when other really free options are being discussed.

[cptbutton]

My bits of wisdom on the subject:

You don't have to use the same service for audio chat that you do for everything else. You can do voice over Discord or Facebook calls while using Roll20 or whatever for visuals and text chat.

Do not assume things will work correctly for everyone first time out. Allocate at least 30 minutes, or a whole separate session, to people making sure they can log in to whatever, that everyone can hear and see everything, that everyone knows where they are supposed to be. That everyone can get the needed software to work on their particular system and understands the details of how it works. In my experience, there are always problems with this starting out. Things should be plug and play, but they aren't.

[Mark Skarr]

We use Tabletop Simulator and Discord. It works better than any experience we had with Roll20 or FG. There's no "built-in" automation, but that hasn't bothered us at all--there's no built-in automation for playing in meat-space.

Now that we can buy Hero Forge figures as asset bundles for direct import, getting "painted" minis for the game is easy.

Yeah, Tabletop Simulator isn't free, but it's $20, or $10 on sale. Each player needs to get that to play. And there are a lot of free workshop items. If you're playing DF, and use TTS, you really need to subscribe to this workshop collection (link to steam workshop page). Did I mention that those figures are free?