This weekend was my first full D&D session run over Roll20. In 2017, I had visited my friends in Clemson and ran a 4th ed game for them. We had a blast and it was like the last twenty years never happened. We talked about perhaps trying to keep playing together online. Well a few months ago I started seriously researching and delved into Roll20. The interface was pretty simple, and after a few searches on google, I was able to start creating some simple content. I then grabbed my two buddies who played DDO with me, and we tested out the audio/visual and some basic mechanics (moving icons, rolling dice, etc).
I won't lie. I spent a good amount of time entering in content and figuring out how to add maps and get them to line up to the grid and such. I was even then able to add in monsters and stats to supplement my notes. All in all, I ended up with a play area that was a full color map and had all my creatures in it.
Above is a small example of the play space. Players only saw the non-shadowed areas, otherwise they just see black. So a really nice fog of war feature that lets me reveal only what they actually see.
The grid on the map also lines with the grid of the play space, so icons snap to the correct positions as you move them around. The character icons are tied to actual character sheets and then to the actual player. So each person just controls their own token. Also, I can display certain info on the tokens when selected...for this session, I did perception mod, AC, and HP. For the monsters I setup, I had attack bonus, AC, and HP and then added notes for specific weapons and abilities for each one.
It also has a turn counter that you can pop up too which is tied to the character initiative. Players and the DM can also ping a location on the map or even draw on it as needed. It did take a little getting used to, but after a while, things went fairly smooth.
Characters need only click on the weapon they were using on their character sheet (separate window) and Roll20 would make the roll, put it in chat, and if I said it hit, let them click on the entry in the chat window to roll damage. I will say, the DM got he majority of good rolls :)
The feedback though was very positive from every player. I also have to point out that we all used cameras so that we had live video and audio feeds from everyone, five in all. That was great honestly. I wasn't sure how important that was going to be, but wow, what a difference. I got to see the faces of my friends and their reactions as we played and it really was almost as good as them being there. The group was covering four states on both coasts. And the amazing technology brought us all together.
Oh, and we are also all using the free account. I did drop some money for the 5e PHB. As DM, I could share that resource with my players, so they had full access to the book for the built in character builder.
As we move forward, it will still be a lot of work on me, the DM to keep adding the content. But I really feel it was worth effort. For players, they have to update their character sheets which is not the most intuitive thing. Right now, the built in character builder only creates level 1, and does not have a great interface for updating or leveling. I do believe that is a planned enhancement that is coming though.
Roll20 also has a marketplace where you can buy lots of upgrades, from source books, digital libraries, and even modules, including those from D&D proper.
There is another competing product out there called Fantasy Grounds. I haven't done much research into it. It seems that the biggest plus for Fantasy Grounds is that you are able to save a good deal of money for the paid content. However, pretty much everyone needs to dish out some money to use it, or the DM a significant amount. For now, I'm sticking with Roll20 because I've only spent $50 and we are all able to play. If this really kicks off though and we start to play more regularly...I may have to decide which one is better in the long run, or else get those slackers to pitch in. :)
Until next time...
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