Before you comment: After scrolling through a lot of the comments, I'm well aware there are other cheaper options for D&D Online. I've used them, and they're not my favorite. If you like it, that's great! This is MY recommendation. IMO you get what you pay for. And if you already have a way to do it on your own then you're perfectly fine to do that. I'm not here to tell you what's right and wrong, this is just my experience. You can save your "I hate zoom and roll20 is actually cheaper lol". Play with whatever is best for you.
Not that this is necessarily a fault of yours, but I feel like, since there are people who would view you as an authority on how to play D&D, even though you aren't, people are going to take this video as "you should be paying x amount of dollars to do this", and that's why so many people in the comments are clarifying. Is that your fault? Not really. But it can't hurt to clarify.
Yeah I’m in agreement with Gorade. You massively exaggerate how much you prefer one virtual tabletop program instead of providing an objective laundry list of the pros and cons of each available option. Someone could waste their money when they would have been perfectly happy with Roll20. I think specifically in a time when people are tight on cash, giving a bit more of a positive edge to the free programs and not just a passing glance would have made this video much better. As it stands, this isn’t ‘HOW TO PLAY D&D ONLINE’, it’s ‘HOW I LIKE TO PLAY D&D ONLINE’- which isn’t the same thing.
Most reasonable people would agree with you. Do what works for you. Some are just sharing their experience as you were sharing yours. Some people just don't have much else to do right now.
"Doesn't work well with people across the planet." I have been playing with a group for two years using Discord voice. I'm in California, the GM is in Japan. We base the server in Europe, and it's a happy medium. Rarely have voice trouble, and if we do, it's easily fixed. And who uses video for games with people they don't know? Just dang silly.
@@tholgrimstonebeard5943 it's more the "everyone's schedules barely ever match up" thing, so we either play at like 11pm for the Germans or 8 am for the USians
Here's my favourite reason for using roll20: Homebrew. Roll20 is just hands off enough that you can impliment any homebrew you want easily. And it's not just homebrew either, you can also "homebrew" official content from the books you own without having to pay for them again. I know you definitely can do that in fantasy grounds too but so far it's been a much steeper learning curve. My half-orc Gell still falls unconcious before I can use his Relentless Endurance ability to I have to manually ask for the DM to remove the condition. He started at level 1 and is now level 5.
@@bigpunk157 Jitsi meet is an open source alternative that does not sell your data. It has no registration, just create a room and use an optional password if you want. It runs directly in the browser or in a mobile app.
My party generally uses tabletop Simulator for combat, but everything else is just done over Discord. Edit: it is good for those small skirmishes and Dungeon running, but working with a whole world is definitely a pain
Don't forget VR Chat has many dnd and tabletop type rooms with things from figurines to actual swords and shields you can hold and pretend to be your character! :D
My group has been using a combination of discord for the call, dndbeyond for characters, and google docs with a table on it for maps. Working surprisingly well so far
just kinda wanna throw this out there as well: if you are already set and grounded in IRL DnD and you already spent a lot on physical books and all that, try tabletop simulator. My group does discord/tabletop and DnD beyond (which is more suited for both IRL and online) and it works great.
Just introduced my siblings to D&D yesterday using Zoom + theater of the mind. Looking forward to using stuff from this video to make our adventures better.
yeah, I honestly really like Discord play-by-post. took our group about a month to finish a four-hour Adventurer’s League module. I wouldn’t do it as my *main* way to play, but I really liked it as a way to have two games going at once (and as a way to get the hang of roleplaying my character, since I’m a better writer than I am an actor lol)
@@toastnuances i think it would make combat an absolute hell to run though, having to wait 2 days for someones turn would suck, especially if you are rolling death saves or some other stressful situation
Reasons to use Roll20: Easier to use, better looking, can be used for free If you are going to play online for just 2 weeks, or how long the quarantine takes I would just pick up R20. If you are looking forward to play it for a longer time, then take FG and its cheaper than R20 if you play DnD 5e (Books on FG are 50% cheaper than on R20. For most of them at least)
@@tehfelf haha. Both because of the quarantine and also because there is now foundry which imo is the best one and cheapest as well with the highest quality
Jitsi meet is an open source alternative to Zoom. I haven't used it to play D&D yet, but it's great for video conferences since no registration is necessary. It also works on any computer or operating system since only a recent version of Chrome or Forefox is needed. Apps for Android and iOS are available too. I have not played online yet, but I have considered using "RPtools" as it's also an open source alternative to Fantasy Grounds and Roll20. It's a collection of software of which MapTool is the main one. It's in active development, available for Windows, Mac plus Linux and is completely free.
I've been doing Roll20 and DNDBeyond, All my players already had their characters built in beyond from when we were having in person sessions. There's a chrome extension called Beyond20 that has been a huge help. A roll button will be automatically added to D&D Beyond’s character sheet sidebars (abilities, skill checks, saving throws, weapon attacks, spells, class features, and more) that lets you either roll the dice directly into the Virtual TableTop chat, or display the spell card, feature or equipment item for others to see. It's highly recommended for anyone who uses DNDBeyond and a Virtual Tabletop like Roll20, all my players love it and it has been a huge help.
As a DM and sometimes player of a group that does D&D exclusively online, we've always made use of Discord and Roll20 for our games. I find that you don't need to pay for whatever the premium of Roll20 is called in order to make good maps and creature tokens and adding a dice bot (my group uses Sidekick) into your Discord server makes the whole experience either. None of us have used webcams, coming down to $0 spent on things that aren't the books, and we've all been playing for at least 3 or 4 years at this point, all fun times
My group is meeting online tomorrow night after a couple of weeks of not playing, and just 20 minutes ago I set myself up on Roll20 and got Beyond20 plugin.
Highly recommend this method if you use dndbeyond a lot! Use whatever voice or videochat program of your choice, we do fine without webcams on discord. Beyond 20 is a browser extension that adds buttons to your dndbeyond character sheets and/or monster statblocks that roll right into the roll20 app. Now it would be easier and more convenient to buy content on roll20 for running games on the platform, but prepping for games is hardly any more difficult than prepping for a home game if you're used to dndbeyond.
You know what I love about your videos man? It doesn't take you a fucking hour and a pretentious attitude to convey the same information that it takes other UA-cam d&d channels to. Plus you're actually entertaining. Another great upload. 👍
Use a combination of D&D beyond for rulebooks and characters. Incarnate for map and dungeon creation, donjon just in case you cant think of map ideas, and google hangouts or zoom for video calls. Also One Note for DM notes. Then discord for sharing any info or images with everyone, since zoom is a video service, and google hangouts can be laggy occasionally. All of this is so simple, it can be accomplished on a hecking school chromebook. Just recommending what I use. (Also, there are other services for dungeon creation if you want)
If you just wanna _try_ online D&D, I kinda recommend the free options. Discord with dice bots + screen share sounds perfectly viable, but Roll20 is what I've tried and my recommendation. The platform can be as complicated as you want it to be. Just want a battle mat with tokens and to roll some dice? Let the DM draw/assign tokens, make your sheets like you would usually do, and type in roll commands in the chat like /r 1d20+5. Want some added functionality? Fill out a digital sheet and simply click the part of the character sheet (such as Fireball or a stealth check) and it will roll everything you've instructed it to roll. There's even a step by step character creator with free SRD content and you can can easily drag and drop SRD spells and weapons from the compendium search bar on to your sheet to automatically fill out your sheet with those roll instructions. The DM can drag entire monsters entire monster stat blocks on to a sheet. If you wanna use stuff not from the SRD, you'll have to fill it out manually OR buy the integrated digital books. A pro subcribtion will allow the own of the game page (usually but not necessarily the DM) to share with everyone else. Fantasy Grounds is cheaper if you know you wanna buy every book for the platform as well as have access to premium site functionality like "line of sight" based automatic map reveal. It's great if you have a committed group of friends who wanna splice together to play online. Roll20 is better if you just wanna find some people to play with online to try it out without huge up front monetary commitment. Spending money on that platform is only necessary for saving you time on filling out character sheets, monster stat blocks or official adventure modules.
I recommend checking out Foundry VTT, a relative newcomer onto the virtual tabletop landscape BUT really slick, with community-driven free mods you can use to augment it, and a one-time purchase, no subscription! You can also import your things from DnD beyond. I'm having a blast atm setting up my next DnD game in it, very powerful tool.
My friends and I are big fans of using Tabletop Simulator. Just being able to do a bunch of things like actually referring to a character sheet at the table, setting ambient lighting, and moving actual minis of your character is fantastic.
me and the party i play in started doing a starter practice mini campaign at tabletop simulator, discord and added free dnd beyond, then we decided to purchase the books and all the sets on dnd beyond during a sale and we pooled money together, instead of table top simulator we went to roll 20 (the google chrome dnd beyond extension for roll 20 is amazing!) and we are using that right now. discord has some nice bots like one that allows us to play music that we all listen too synced, can add a lot of immersion for battles with epic music, or playing ambiences to really create atmosphere. we are thinking of going to fantasy grounds or foundry because they both look great once in they own ways. all this covers about 1.5 years and so far it works really well. its a blast.
yeah but have you heard about Tabletop Simulator? It's pretty funky with how it works but you can basically set up your own virtual D&D table that is fully customizable, it has a physics system so you can move your minis in a 3d world as well as rolling your own dice, there are tons of workshop mods on steam that let you get most of the things that you want, it doesn't have everything but it covers most of the grounds. All of the things that we have at our table would cost us thousands but thanks to the modding community it's all available on the workshop. I just started a campaign with my friends with Tabletop Simulator and it is the closest thing you can get to physically playing the game together.
A game that was meant to be played with a sheet of paper and some dice... You can pay the price of AAA videogame each month to play it. Wow, incredible!
@@mefisbalorgames3694 the feature wasn't available from the begining, if i recall correctly, possibly Jacob has an outdated info. For me dndb works much better then roll20 or fantasy ground (for character management, ofc)
I have always been a theater of the mind player and DM so using dndbeyond and playing over discord has been a blast. I have been moving a little bit into roll20 territory for encounters with lots of monsters but I can recommend playing online.
DnD Beyond does give the option to individually decide which books are blocked and shared. Though you can't block block stuff the player personally owns and you'll just have to trust they have the options you want set on their character sheets, which as DM you can manually go in and change on their sheets, to have options from certain sources appear. I do agree they should have campaign wide options for that which auto apply the settings to all sheets.
You can use the program tabletop simulator on steam it has a bunch of good resources as well as tons of 5e workshop content. It also tends to go on sale frequently where 4 packs of the game go for 30$ US I use it to run 3 seperate campaigns and I have a ton of environment, figurine, and other standard 5e assets The best part about this is all dice and figurines and the entire table is there for you to access and players can move their own pieces and such Just something to think about if you're stuck in the house and want to have a "physical" game board
My husband and our group actually play over Discord and Roll20 :D Ours is simplistic though, as none of us have a lot of money to spare, and the vc for disc works well enough. Not all of us have webcams either, so just the vc works for us xD My husband has been spending most of his free time learning how to work Roll20 -which reminded me a lot of Fantasy Grounds, actually lol Now, all of that said, I loved your setup, and as you said before, to each their own ^^ I'm a weird person who enjoys seeing how other people set their things up. So for me, this was purely for fun to see how you run your game ^^
Ok so here's our story. We've been playing dnd for like 2 yrs since school and occasionally we would play dnd online. First we were on discord, then whatsapp, and eventually we were just in instagram group video call. One time my mic went faulty when we were in discord so my character became a mute guy who does hand signals only known to another character (or dm, I forgot). We never finished that one shot. Heck, we never actually finish any campaign. The only game we ever finished was a one shot I dm'd for the first time, where eventually only one player was left (the others basically quit. I yeeted them with fireball) and this guy was the dm for our regular campaign. And it's the out of box type of guy, he killed the bbeg wizard's sacrifice and now the big konosuba-inspired golem destroyer thing obey's him. Needless to say he broke everything and I had my wizard use the wish spell so that this never happened. The world rewind back in time until nothing existed. And that was how my one shot ended. DN
We use tabletop simulator and discord. None of us really have web cams and we all use discord for gaming. Tabletop sim is simple to use. All you have to do is copy a url for maps and character pictures. There's a handy fog of war feature too. Also loads of setups and tools for DnD on the steam workshop.
My friends and I are doing 2 campaigns through roll20 right now (one with me dming and the other with someone else dming). We have paper character sheets because we started both of these in person, and we were always using mostly theatre of mind. The only downside is I can't make overly intricate and artsy handouts. Which is probably fine, I don't need to make everyone handwritten letters with wax seals, we can survive without that (as much as I really love making everything by hand). I can still import the town map I made as an image, which was very easy since I originally made it with gimp. I can still use my paper books for reference and everyone else has easy access to this weird thing known as google. Oh! And roll20 is free. We can do this entirely for free. Which is great because we're all broke college students and some of my friends aren't sure if they even still have jobs... Sorry I get that this is a sponsored video and all but why would people shell out that kind of money unless their budget could easily absorb that cost? I'm sure it's a great service and all, but if you have to scrape money together and ask friends to chip in, just use roll20 and save yourself the hastle.
@@Her_Imperious_Condescension A lot of the times they're objectively better since they have all the systems in place for things like loot, maps, automation. If you went completely free and used say discord with a roll bot, you'd have to rely on external apps like Evernote, OneNote, Keep, Adobe Etc for this and a lot more work would be involved for both the GM and players. What you're paying for is convenience. In these senses something like Fantasy Grounds would be the better way to play D&D and that's why a lot of the main online streams use it. (Unless they're sponsored or partnered with Roll20)
@@TheJollyAlex Fastasy grounds objectively has more features, yes. However we don't _need_ any of that stuff for our sessions ∴ simply using Discord is better for us (hence why I said that what's better is up to the end user)
what i do is just: 1. make a discord server with channels for sessions, out of character talk, lore, npc info, session summaries, etc 2. get my friends in there, as well as Avrae! 3. play! (i prefer to use text honestly) (it's a little more involved with that but we've been running different sessions like this for years it's great (also one of us has worldanvil and makes incredible maps and lore)
discords video quality has gotten a lot better through the streaming option recently, also another super fun way too play dnd is tabletop simulator and with the streaming option only one of you needs to have it
How I've been playing D&D online: Discord for voice and some easy reference pictures. Tabletop Simulator for the actual game. I'm limited on pieces, but you are able to make custom figures that's a picture on a stand, so there are options there as well. It's good enough, plus we can do more than just D&D with it since there are a ton of other games for it. If you do use it for D&D there is a workshop map you can use that's for D&D 5e, it gives you a total of six spaces plus one for the DM, dice for everyone, dice trays, in game character sheets, the whole shebang. It used to havea bunch of set pieces too, but they had to take them out unfortunately.
if you're young and/or unemployed I would recommend just getting dnd apps or going on sites like rpgbot or similar places. You don't need to pay, you can get it for free. I would recommend the "Dnd 5 Database" or "Dnd 5e Rulebook" apps as they are very useful and very accurate.but remember that whenever you see something you think is wrong, always look it up to check.
I'm sure you've gotten messages about this, but Discord does do video calls, and you can create organized chats if you would rather do it text based. The biggest advantage of zoom is that their Network delivery can be a lot better.
@XPtoLevel3 I understand it's still in beta but Fantasy Grounds Unity is what my group uses. It has its fault because again its a beta. But some steps it has above Fantasy Grounds Classic - Clickable Doors (This is still being worked on but a really cool feature where when it is done will allow DMs to click on the map to lock a door and players to unlock with a roll BY CLICKING ON THE MAP :D - Moving your tokens with the arrow keys. Very easy to stay in the grid lines with this. - The Above mentioned Fog of War is even better in this. - I think one of the coolest features that have personally to our group made the difference is we have 1 player who oftentimes can't connect to our game and with Unity, our DM made a Lan game and more or less made it so he can come to play with us because that game works off his own connection, not a global size connection but we all live really spread apart. ( I mean really some of us live in Aussie, Belgium, and the US) But if you get the chance just give Unity a try. Just make sure you join the Fantasy Grounds Discord because as I said it is a beta. So you may run into some issues. But with it being a Beta, it has some REALLY promising features.
Just a warning, If you put any private information on Zoom, they sell your information to Facebook without telling you. I’m not saying to stop using it, but if you aren’t okay with Facebook knowing your private information and what you say on calls (even though they might already) you might want to try something else like discord.
I'm using Discord for voice chat, have my players with the Push to Speak button to avoid cross-talk, pasting my maps onto Word and streaming for combat (easy to move shapes around for each character), using Improved Initiative to track combat and HP, and my players are using D&D Beyond for their character sheets. Weirdly running better than the times we've played in person
I use discord and Comunidadumbria, a Spanish online RPG community with a new battlemap system. It's kinda lacking as it is right now, but it is SIMPLE and it is FREE. If you speak Española, I recommend this mucho.
A cheap way to do audio, which won't tax older machines trying to run multiple programs (with audio/video) is simply Messenger Video Call o cell phones, and then run Roll20 or whatever online separately as the phones will run off the router and not tax the puter/laptop etc....
You can choose what you share on D&D Beyond though? You can set characters to not be allowed to use homebrew content, even select stuff like whether Critical Role content is alright,...also whether the players have access to your adventure books,...
One thing to also mention is that Fantasy Grounds is currently running an open Beta on a Unity version as well which is going to add a whole bunch of features! But being a Beta, not all of the features are currently available, so if you are looking for the best current experience with FG, use the Classic version.
Another option is the cheapest option for players handbook. I would suggest monster manual instead of a pre-written story since you can make your own. then subscription. The way we do it is the same but I have most stuff on D and D Beyond and subscription for content share so all my players can use my content and then we use tabletop simulator that's on steam that has really nice tables.
My online set up is 1: Microsoft teams (for the video call) 2: My phone and a simple mount (for camera positioning) 3: the DnD material I have at home because I'm old school
Roll20 is cheaper. LOL nah , joking. Just had a test session with my friends and it had disconnects and the designer is weak, given how long the program is out. Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to do this video. Much appreciated.
I usually use discord because how two of the players mostly play on their phone and have their sheets at the ready. Its very easy and recently i brought up the idea we use a bot to add ambient noise so we can immerse ourselves more when we play
Great video buddy Just can agree with you we started runing curse of strahd via fantasy grounds in january my players are there every week its amazing Got the ultimate license of fantasy grounds in the christmas sale for 60 Bucks and the core rules plus curse of strahd for 40 more bucks My players love it Can really recomend it
While I do appreciate the advice, feel like you're making it seem *way* harder and more complicated. Roll20 is free, accessible, and amazing for any low-to-uppermid effort campaign. Honestly, only tiny fraction of online campaigns are going to be super extra with the features you described--most are going to be players showing up in voice for what the DM put together on the days they weren't tired from work. It takes no time or money to learn and prep D20/Discord for the campaigns most people play.
Pro Tip: Literally just google anything you want to know. Use Discord or Google Hangouts to communicate. Boom, play with your friends and family for free. I own all the books yet I still just google everything because it's more convenient when you know what you're doing and have good google-fu.
I use discord and Maptools, with the Pathfinder system. Everything is free, and extremely powerful. I can use google images or drawings as tokens, create completely customized attacks, and look up anything for pathfinder in seconds (if my internet didn’t suck)
I don't know why you all do not use Google hangouts. It's free and never had any problems. I use roll20 to play music, show maps, battles and dice and Google hangouts for role-playing. Because audio and video are just good. And it's free
I live with my parents and i have no friends to play anything with ever, I'm on my own and just sit around and do nothing until I'm to tired to stay awake. All my creative energy is just balled up and has nowhere to go. The idea of exploring a unique world with new people and get to have a feel for all the exciting experiences and adventures and surprises without the need to be in cobtrol of the experience or fear i played wrong, just going with the flow and letting things happen, with a bit of effort towards playing a fun and unique role in the world without being an edge lord or develop main character syndrome. I've been watching a lot of crit crab so i know the red flags. I hope i can join a group someday and not have to deal with drama. I just want to have fun. Plus i have a tablet so discord would be easier. Zoom may take too much power.
I’m DMing my first campaign tomorrow (It’ll be homebrew, don’t want that pre-written noise) just on discord with good old pencil and paper. I think Theatre of Mind works well, you just need the ability to describe things well. (I have only barely read into a Dungeon Masters guide, all my info has just been gathered from watching games and playing a few lol, so wish me luck.) But, I’m playing D&D completely free, so don’t sweat it, it’s possible.
Before you comment: After scrolling through a lot of the comments, I'm well aware there are other cheaper options for D&D Online.
I've used them, and they're not my favorite. If you like it, that's great! This is MY recommendation. IMO you get what you pay for.
And if you already have a way to do it on your own then you're perfectly fine to do that. I'm not here to tell you what's right and wrong, this is just my experience.
You can save your "I hate zoom and roll20 is actually cheaper lol". Play with whatever is best for you.
Not that this is necessarily a fault of yours, but I feel like, since there are people who would view you as an authority on how to play D&D, even though you aren't, people are going to take this video as "you should be paying x amount of dollars to do this", and that's why so many people in the comments are clarifying.
Is that your fault? Not really. But it can't hurt to clarify.
Do u use unity or classic?
Yeah I’m in agreement with Gorade. You massively exaggerate how much you prefer one virtual tabletop program instead of providing an objective laundry list of the pros and cons of each available option. Someone could waste their money when they would have been perfectly happy with Roll20. I think specifically in a time when people are tight on cash, giving a bit more of a positive edge to the free programs and not just a passing glance would have made this video much better. As it stands, this isn’t ‘HOW TO PLAY D&D ONLINE’, it’s ‘HOW I LIKE TO PLAY D&D ONLINE’- which isn’t the same thing.
Will you ever do a how to use world anvil video?
Most reasonable people would agree with you. Do what works for you. Some are just sharing their experience as you were sharing yours. Some people just don't have much else to do right now.
"Just use telepathy idiots."
-A Mystic, probably
"Turn around."
-The Bugbear behind you.
rouges dont have that
I'm not sure if I can find an idiotic telepath to communicate with my par... Oh, you meant "telepathy, idiots" not "telepathy idiots."
@@firstnamelastname3547 your a telepathy idiot, idiot.
Broke: mystic telepathy
Woke: GOOlock telepathy
"Or you can't leave your house."
HEH HEH. WHY WOULD WE BE UNABLE TO DO THAT JACOB?
Still can’t 😔😔
I love you buddy. Thanks for the shout out.
I love you, gonna go watch more of your videos
"These walls are a prison." I feel you, man.
I don't. Spending years of isolation in a wizard's tower researching ways to cast more powerful fireballs has made me used to this sort of thing!
I mean, researching in a secluded area? Sounds like school... Wizard school?
It's not school if you're the only one there. Forever.
Wizard prison?
That would imply I've ever been caught for my many crimes!
"Doesn't work well with people across the planet."
I have been playing with a group for two years using Discord voice. I'm in California, the GM is in Japan. We base the server in Europe, and it's a happy medium. Rarely have voice trouble, and if we do, it's easily fixed.
And who uses video for games with people they don't know? Just dang silly.
Yeah I'm in a discord game with two USians, two Brits and two Germans, works just fine.
Well except for scheduling but that's not the program's fault.
@@erikw.s.5209 Roll20 posts the time in everyone's relative time zone. It's not hard at all.
@@tholgrimstonebeard5943 it's more the "everyone's schedules barely ever match up" thing, so we either play at like 11pm for the Germans or 8 am for the USians
@@erikw.s.5209 Yeah, it's 4 Am Pacific time for me, 7 for the Canadians, and 9 in the evening for Japan and Aus.
California? Japan? Why not use a server from Hawaii? Europe seems farther for both of you. (Unless there are no Hawaiian servers)
I'm doing it on discord with a dice rolling bot. I'm sad. Quarantine sucks
If you want some simple free battlemaps or anything, without having to stream photoshop to the players, I recommend Google Drawings lmao
Dude im using whatsapp and a grid map made out of emojis for my games
@@DapperestDave That sounds amazing ghaahaa
Roll20 is free
Hey all I’m gonna say is any books you could need are probably on the trove
my group we literally just use google sheets for the map and a discord call cause we're low budget
Have you tried MapTool from RPtools? It's completely free and open source. It's available for windows, mac and linux.
This is how my first group did D&D it works very well
@@SkepticalCaveman thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out
Him explaining his problems with discord that I dont have, but have for zoom.
YES.
4:22 Ricardo and Michael Scott character pictures are the real details I need to hear about.
I was about to say "Don't think we didn't notice that Ricardo pic in that list." lol.
Here's my favourite reason for using roll20: Homebrew. Roll20 is just hands off enough that you can impliment any homebrew you want easily. And it's not just homebrew either, you can also "homebrew" official content from the books you own without having to pay for them again. I know you definitely can do that in fantasy grounds too but so far it's been a much steeper learning curve. My half-orc Gell still falls unconcious before I can use his Relentless Endurance ability to I have to manually ask for the DM to remove the condition. He started at level 1 and is now level 5.
Ah, yes, Zoom, the thing that sells your private data to facebook and isn't even end to end encrypted
Discord is owned by tencent.
MechaFetus so are a lot of other companies. Its useless to try and avoid them.
@@bigpunk157 Jitsi meet is an open source alternative that does not sell your data. It has no registration, just create a room and use an optional password if you want. It runs directly in the browser or in a mobile app.
@@SkepticalCaveman Reeeeally? Neat.
Tbf Discord isn't end to end encrypted either, but I would trust them more than Zoom after all of Zoom's recent issues.
I've... played in Tabletop Simulator.
Did... work?
@@stephenplatt5499 yeah i guess? I only played once
My party generally uses tabletop Simulator for combat, but everything else is just done over Discord.
Edit: it is good for those small skirmishes and Dungeon running, but working with a whole world is definitely a pain
Don't forget VR Chat has many dnd and tabletop type rooms with things from figurines to actual swords and shields you can hold and pretend to be your character! :D
Ready to go 5e tables in VRC
Online LARPing
ORPing
@@gorade1901 they have tables you can sit down just like at home...well sort of
@@gorade1901 here ya go the most gonzo game of d&D ever in the universe and time
ua-cam.com/video/_-UyYJN04jY/v-deo.html
My group has been using a combination of discord for the call, dndbeyond for characters, and google docs with a table on it for maps. Working surprisingly well so far
just kinda wanna throw this out there as well:
if you are already set and grounded in IRL DnD and you already spent a lot on physical books and all that, try tabletop simulator. My group does discord/tabletop and DnD beyond (which is more suited for both IRL and online) and it works great.
Just introduced my siblings to D&D yesterday using Zoom + theater of the mind. Looking forward to using stuff from this video to make our adventures better.
I will say I use the Discord method, but I do all text based. That way timezones mean nothing.
So does that mean people just type whenever they can, so you're effectively always playing a neverending session?
yeah, I honestly really like Discord play-by-post. took our group about a month to finish a four-hour Adventurer’s League module. I wouldn’t do it as my *main* way to play, but I really liked it as a way to have two games going at once (and as a way to get the hang of roleplaying my character, since I’m a better writer than I am an actor lol)
@@toastnuances i think it would make combat an absolute hell to run though, having to wait 2 days for someones turn would suck, especially if you are rolling death saves or some other stressful situation
@@piemaniac9410 combat is certainly not the smoothest, but the bot Avrae manages a lot of the basic stuff and we were all blessedly pretty active
@@piemaniac9410 I'm on a few discord play by post servers, battles are relatively easy as we do a 24 hour ping, then we skip.
I use dnd beyond for characters, discord for audio, and roll 20 for battle maps rolling and video
Reasons to use Roll20: Easier to use, better looking, can be used for free
If you are going to play online for just 2 weeks, or how long the quarantine takes I would just pick up R20. If you are looking forward to play it for a longer time, then take FG and its cheaper than R20 if you play DnD 5e (Books on FG are 50% cheaper than on R20. For most of them at least)
Lmfao this comment did not age well
@@tehfelf haha. Both because of the quarantine and also because there is now foundry which imo is the best one and cheapest as well with the highest quality
“The cheapest method is $34 a month”
Me, master internet rogue: _you underestimate my power_
Teach me your ways master Klid
That's over twice as much as a classic MMO subscription to play a *tabletop game* over the internet, does this not seem absurd to anyone else?
@@ericaosborne537 jus pirate shit bro
@@SergeantSniper ye honestly seems easier just to do a video call where the DM moves the pieces and stuff if your dead set on playing virtually
Plot twist, he actually has 7 sponsors in one video!
Jitsi meet is an open source alternative to Zoom. I haven't used it to play D&D yet, but it's great for video conferences since no registration is necessary. It also works on any computer or operating system since only a recent version of Chrome or Forefox is needed. Apps for Android and iOS are available too.
I have not played online yet, but I have considered using "RPtools" as it's also an open source alternative to Fantasy Grounds and Roll20. It's a collection of software of which MapTool is the main one. It's in active development, available for Windows, Mac plus Linux and is completely free.
I've been doing Roll20 and DNDBeyond, All my players already had their characters built in beyond from when we were having in person sessions. There's a chrome extension called Beyond20 that has been a huge help. A roll button will be automatically added to D&D Beyond’s character sheet sidebars (abilities, skill checks, saving throws, weapon attacks, spells, class features, and more) that lets you either roll the dice directly into the Virtual TableTop chat, or display the spell card, feature or equipment item for others to see. It's highly recommended for anyone who uses DNDBeyond and a Virtual Tabletop like Roll20, all my players love it and it has been a huge help.
As a DM and sometimes player of a group that does D&D exclusively online, we've always made use of Discord and Roll20 for our games. I find that you don't need to pay for whatever the premium of Roll20 is called in order to make good maps and creature tokens and adding a dice bot (my group uses Sidekick) into your Discord server makes the whole experience either. None of us have used webcams, coming down to $0 spent on things that aren't the books, and we've all been playing for at least 3 or 4 years at this point, all fun times
1:45 literally my web cam and mic.
spoopy
My group is meeting online tomorrow night after a couple of weeks of not playing, and just 20 minutes ago I set myself up on Roll20 and got Beyond20 plugin.
Highly recommend this method if you use dndbeyond a lot! Use whatever voice or videochat program of your choice, we do fine without webcams on discord. Beyond 20 is a browser extension that adds buttons to your dndbeyond character sheets and/or monster statblocks that roll right into the roll20 app. Now it would be easier and more convenient to buy content on roll20 for running games on the platform, but prepping for games is hardly any more difficult than prepping for a home game if you're used to dndbeyond.
Zoom has serious security issues.
You know what I love about your videos man? It doesn't take you a fucking hour and a pretentious attitude to convey the same information that it takes other UA-cam d&d channels to. Plus you're actually entertaining. Another great upload. 👍
Use a combination of D&D beyond for rulebooks and characters. Incarnate for map and dungeon creation, donjon just in case you cant think of map ideas, and google hangouts or zoom for video calls.
Also One Note for DM notes. Then discord for sharing any info or images with everyone, since zoom is a video service, and google hangouts can be laggy occasionally. All of this is so simple, it can be accomplished on a hecking school chromebook. Just recommending what I use. (Also, there are other services for dungeon creation if you want)
If you just wanna _try_ online D&D, I kinda recommend the free options. Discord with dice bots + screen share sounds perfectly viable, but Roll20 is what I've tried and my recommendation. The platform can be as complicated as you want it to be. Just want a battle mat with tokens and to roll some dice? Let the DM draw/assign tokens, make your sheets like you would usually do, and type in roll commands in the chat like /r 1d20+5. Want some added functionality? Fill out a digital sheet and simply click the part of the character sheet (such as Fireball or a stealth check) and it will roll everything you've instructed it to roll. There's even a step by step character creator with free SRD content and you can can easily drag and drop SRD spells and weapons from the compendium search bar on to your sheet to automatically fill out your sheet with those roll instructions. The DM can drag entire monsters entire monster stat blocks on to a sheet. If you wanna use stuff not from the SRD, you'll have to fill it out manually OR buy the integrated digital books. A pro subcribtion will allow the own of the game page (usually but not necessarily the DM) to share with everyone else.
Fantasy Grounds is cheaper if you know you wanna buy every book for the platform as well as have access to premium site functionality like "line of sight" based automatic map reveal. It's great if you have a committed group of friends who wanna splice together to play online. Roll20 is better if you just wanna find some people to play with online to try it out without huge up front monetary commitment. Spending money on that platform is only necessary for saving you time on filling out character sheets, monster stat blocks or official adventure modules.
Not sponsored, not sponsored, WORLDANVIL!!! Our sponsor.
I recommend checking out Foundry VTT, a relative newcomer onto the virtual tabletop landscape BUT really slick, with community-driven free mods you can use to augment it, and a one-time purchase, no subscription! You can also import your things from DnD beyond.
I'm having a blast atm setting up my next DnD game in it, very powerful tool.
My friends and I are big fans of using Tabletop Simulator. Just being able to do a bunch of things like actually referring to a character sheet at the table, setting ambient lighting, and moving actual minis of your character is fantastic.
me and the party i play in started doing a starter practice mini campaign at tabletop simulator, discord and added free dnd beyond, then we decided to purchase the books and all the sets on dnd beyond during a sale and we pooled money together, instead of table top simulator we went to roll 20 (the google chrome dnd beyond extension for roll 20 is amazing!) and we are using that right now. discord has some nice bots like one that allows us to play music that we all listen too synced, can add a lot of immersion for battles with epic music, or playing ambiences to really create atmosphere. we are thinking of going to fantasy grounds or foundry because they both look great once in they own ways. all this covers about 1.5 years and so far it works really well. its a blast.
yeah but have you heard about Tabletop Simulator? It's pretty funky with how it works but you can basically set up your own virtual D&D table that is fully customizable, it has a physics system so you can move your minis in a 3d world as well as rolling your own dice, there are tons of workshop mods on steam that let you get most of the things that you want, it doesn't have everything but it covers most of the grounds. All of the things that we have at our table would cost us thousands but thanks to the modding community it's all available on the workshop. I just started a campaign with my friends with Tabletop Simulator and it is the closest thing you can get to physically playing the game together.
I already really knew this information I just felt listening to you talk
9 months of pandemic so long and now this started to look appealing
I saw one of the characters was Ricardo. Your play group has good taste.
Laughs in searching online PDFs of all of the books.
Try the free Arcanum SRD from Zilla Games
misty mountains connected to waterdeep
*nods head in agreement and mumbles words of approval*
A game that was meant to be played with a sheet of paper and some dice...
You can pay the price of AAA videogame each month to play it. Wow, incredible!
Yeah I don't friggin' get it either. Really turning me off to this.
I just use Discord and DnD Beyond with my group 👀
same
@@mefisbalorgames3694 the feature wasn't available from the begining, if i recall correctly, possibly Jacob has an outdated info. For me dndb works much better then roll20 or fantasy ground (for character management, ofc)
Same but we actually use other sources than dnd beyond
I love this channel, and your voice/content style is comforting.
I don't get that a lot, thank you :)
Please never stop making videos, Jacob. They’re way too entertaining!
I have always been a theater of the mind player and DM so using dndbeyond and playing over discord has been a blast. I have been moving a little bit into roll20 territory for encounters with lots of monsters but I can recommend playing online.
DnD Beyond does give the option to individually decide which books are blocked and shared. Though you can't block block stuff the player personally owns and you'll just have to trust they have the options you want set on their character sheets, which as DM you can manually go in and change on their sheets, to have options from certain sources appear. I do agree they should have campaign wide options for that which auto apply the settings to all sheets.
You can use the program tabletop simulator on steam it has a bunch of good resources as well as tons of 5e workshop content. It also tends to go on sale frequently where 4 packs of the game go for 30$ US
I use it to run 3 seperate campaigns and I have a ton of environment, figurine, and other standard 5e assets
The best part about this is all dice and figurines and the entire table is there for you to access and players can move their own pieces and such
Just something to think about if you're stuck in the house and want to have a "physical" game board
My husband and our group actually play over Discord and Roll20 :D
Ours is simplistic though, as none of us have a lot of money to spare, and the vc for disc works well enough. Not all of us have webcams either, so just the vc works for us xD
My husband has been spending most of his free time learning how to work Roll20 -which reminded me a lot of Fantasy Grounds, actually lol
Now, all of that said, I loved your setup, and as you said before, to each their own ^^ I'm a weird person who enjoys seeing how other people set their things up. So for me, this was purely for fun to see how you run your game ^^
Ok so here's our story. We've been playing dnd for like 2 yrs since school and occasionally we would play dnd online. First we were on discord, then whatsapp, and eventually we were just in instagram group video call. One time my mic went faulty when we were in discord so my character became a mute guy who does hand signals only known to another character (or dm, I forgot). We never finished that one shot.
Heck, we never actually finish any campaign. The only game we ever finished was a one shot I dm'd for the first time, where eventually only one player was left (the others basically quit. I yeeted them with fireball) and this guy was the dm for our regular campaign. And it's the out of box type of guy, he killed the bbeg wizard's sacrifice and now the big konosuba-inspired golem destroyer thing obey's him.
Needless to say he broke everything and I had my wizard use the wish spell so that this never happened. The world rewind back in time until nothing existed.
And that was how my one shot ended. DN
Jacob 2020: “I prefer fantasy grounds”
Jacob 2021: “ok I’m sending it to Roll20 chat now”
I know you were joking about a two hour video but I feel like that would be really useful because there isn’t enough content like that on UA-cam
We use tabletop simulator and discord. None of us really have web cams and we all use discord for gaming. Tabletop sim is simple to use. All you have to do is copy a url for maps and character pictures. There's a handy fog of war feature too. Also loads of setups and tools for DnD on the steam workshop.
My friends and I are doing 2 campaigns through roll20 right now (one with me dming and the other with someone else dming). We have paper character sheets because we started both of these in person, and we were always using mostly theatre of mind. The only downside is I can't make overly intricate and artsy handouts. Which is probably fine, I don't need to make everyone handwritten letters with wax seals, we can survive without that (as much as I really love making everything by hand). I can still import the town map I made as an image, which was very easy since I originally made it with gimp. I can still use my paper books for reference and everyone else has easy access to this weird thing known as google. Oh! And roll20 is free. We can do this entirely for free. Which is great because we're all broke college students and some of my friends aren't sure if they even still have jobs... Sorry I get that this is a sponsored video and all but why would people shell out that kind of money unless their budget could easily absorb that cost? I'm sure it's a great service and all, but if you have to scrape money together and ask friends to chip in, just use roll20 and save yourself the hastle.
Ignoring the completely free options to play D&D or other RPGs:
"Ok."
because they're not as good
@@TheJollyAlex
That's up to the end user really.
@@Her_Imperious_Condescension A lot of the times they're objectively better since they have all the systems in place for things like loot, maps, automation. If you went completely free and used say discord with a roll bot, you'd have to rely on external apps like Evernote, OneNote, Keep, Adobe Etc for this and a lot more work would be involved for both the GM and players.
What you're paying for is convenience. In these senses something like Fantasy Grounds would be the better way to play D&D and that's why a lot of the main online streams use it. (Unless they're sponsored or partnered with Roll20)
@@TheJollyAlex
Fastasy grounds objectively has more features, yes.
However we don't _need_ any of that stuff for our sessions ∴ simply using Discord is better for us (hence why I said that what's better is up to the end user)
what i do is just:
1. make a discord server with channels for sessions, out of character talk, lore, npc info, session summaries, etc
2. get my friends in there, as well as Avrae!
3. play! (i prefer to use text honestly)
(it's a little more involved with that but we've been running different sessions like this for years it's great
(also one of us has worldanvil and makes incredible maps and lore)
Xp: *says zoom is better than discord*
Me: *crashes into his room*
Also me: YOU DARE UTTER THOSE WORDS IN THAT EXACT ORDER!!!!!!
Thank you! I was looking to finally start playing D&D online so this very useful video came just in time!
discords video quality has gotten a lot better through the streaming option recently, also another super fun way too play dnd is tabletop simulator and with the streaming option only one of you needs to have it
How I've been playing D&D online:
Discord for voice and some easy reference pictures.
Tabletop Simulator for the actual game. I'm limited on pieces, but you are able to make custom figures that's a picture on a stand, so there are options there as well.
It's good enough, plus we can do more than just D&D with it since there are a ton of other games for it.
If you do use it for D&D there is a workshop map you can use that's for D&D 5e, it gives you a total of six spaces plus one for the DM, dice for everyone, dice trays, in game character sheets, the whole shebang. It used to havea bunch of set pieces too, but they had to take them out unfortunately.
if you're young and/or unemployed I would recommend just getting dnd apps or going on sites like rpgbot or similar places. You don't need to pay, you can get it for free. I would recommend the "Dnd 5 Database" or "Dnd 5e Rulebook" apps as they are very useful and very accurate.but remember that whenever you see something you think is wrong, always look it up to check.
I'm sure you've gotten messages about this, but Discord does do video calls, and you can create
organized chats if you would rather do it text based. The biggest advantage of zoom is that their Network delivery can be a lot better.
I'd def be down for one of those Fantasy Grounds rundowns from you
At first I thought "Rükenland" was "Fükenland" and I was thinking "That's a füken great name for a D&D location."
@XPtoLevel3 I understand it's still in beta but Fantasy Grounds Unity is what my group uses. It has its fault because again its a beta. But some steps it has above Fantasy Grounds Classic
- Clickable Doors (This is still being worked on but a really cool feature where when it is done will allow DMs to click on the map to lock a door and players to unlock with a roll BY CLICKING ON THE MAP :D
- Moving your tokens with the arrow keys. Very easy to stay in the grid lines with this.
- The Above mentioned Fog of War is even better in this.
- I think one of the coolest features that have personally to our group made the difference is we have 1 player who oftentimes can't connect to our game and with Unity, our DM made a Lan game and more or less made it so he can come to play with us because that game works off his own connection, not a global size connection but we all live really spread apart. ( I mean really some of us live in Aussie, Belgium, and the US)
But if you get the chance just give Unity a try. Just make sure you join the Fantasy Grounds Discord because as I said it is a beta. So you may run into some issues. But with it being a Beta, it has some REALLY promising features.
I like the part when recomend the direct competition of the sponsor
I am actually having DND withdrawals so i needed this. thank you my friend.
Just a warning, If you put any private information on Zoom, they sell your information to Facebook without telling you. I’m not saying to stop using it, but if you aren’t okay with Facebook knowing your private information and what you say on calls (even though they might already) you might want to try something else like discord.
After Facebook acquired WhatsApp, they got pretty much everything. My imaginary character's fireball damage info seems so innocent near that.
I'm using Discord for voice chat, have my players with the Push to Speak button to avoid cross-talk, pasting my maps onto Word and streaming for combat (easy to move shapes around for each character), using Improved Initiative to track combat and HP, and my players are using D&D Beyond for their character sheets.
Weirdly running better than the times we've played in person
StreamYard and google slides work great for our campaign. StreamYard is also free up to 20 hours a month
Also StreamYard has a built in audio processor to sort of balance audio in real time. Works great for exporting audio to a stream or For videos
I use discord and Comunidadumbria, a Spanish online RPG community with a new battlemap system. It's kinda lacking as it is right now, but it is SIMPLE and it is FREE. If you speak Española, I recommend this mucho.
Thank yoooou, Me and my players have been trying to find something that works for us! So this is a great start ~ 💕
Discord + Roll20 + Improved Initiative = perfect set-up. (And freeeeeeee)
A cheap way to do audio, which won't tax older machines trying to run multiple programs (with audio/video) is simply Messenger Video Call o cell phones, and then run Roll20 or whatever online separately as the phones will run off the router and not tax the puter/laptop etc....
You can choose what you share on D&D Beyond though? You can set characters to not be allowed to use homebrew content, even select stuff like whether Critical Role content is alright,...also whether the players have access to your adventure books,...
One thing to also mention is that Fantasy Grounds is currently running an open Beta on a Unity version as well which is going to add a whole bunch of features! But being a Beta, not all of the features are currently available, so if you are looking for the best current experience with FG, use the Classic version.
"Have fun out there"
-Jacob, 8/4/2020
FoundryVTT is also a pretty good option, for anyone who is looking for other VTTs.
Another option is the cheapest option for players handbook. I would suggest monster manual instead of a pre-written story since you can make your own. then subscription.
The way we do it is the same but I have most stuff on D and D Beyond and subscription for content share so all my players can use my content and then we use tabletop simulator that's on steam that has really nice tables.
I had use Discord with people across the world without having troubles, I hear them perfectly.
My online set up is
1: Microsoft teams (for the video call)
2: My phone and a simple mount (for camera positioning)
3: the DnD material I have at home because I'm old school
Ha! I just DM’ed online for the first time today. Good timing.
Sponsor time is 2:30-3:18 for people who skip like me.
Bless you man, I’ve been going stir-crazy . Off to get killed by a beholder
Roll20 is cheaper. LOL nah , joking. Just had a test session with my friends and it had disconnects and the designer is weak, given how long the program is out. Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to do this video. Much appreciated.
I usually use discord because how two of the players mostly play on their phone and have their sheets at the ready. Its very easy and recently i brought up the idea we use a bot to add ambient noise so we can immerse ourselves more when we play
I find that as long as I can keep the encounters small theater of the mind works pretty well
The ad is from 2:24-3:14 if anyone is wondering
Great video buddy
Just can agree with you we started runing curse of strahd via fantasy grounds in january my players are there every week its amazing
Got the ultimate license of fantasy grounds in the christmas sale for 60 Bucks and the core rules plus curse of strahd for 40 more bucks
My players love it
Can really recomend it
Now if only my players wouldn't be asleep when we're supposed to start
While I do appreciate the advice, feel like you're making it seem *way* harder and more complicated. Roll20 is free, accessible, and amazing for any low-to-uppermid effort campaign. Honestly, only tiny fraction of online campaigns are going to be super extra with the features you described--most are going to be players showing up in voice for what the DM put together on the days they weren't tired from work. It takes no time or money to learn and prep D20/Discord for the campaigns most people play.
Pro Tip: Literally just google anything you want to know.
Use Discord or Google Hangouts to communicate.
Boom, play with your friends and family for free.
I own all the books yet I still just google everything because it's more convenient when you know what you're doing and have good google-fu.
Thank you for introducing me to World Anvil!!!
I use discord and Maptools, with the Pathfinder system. Everything is free, and extremely powerful. I can use google images or drawings as tokens, create completely customized attacks, and look up anything for pathfinder in seconds (if my internet didn’t suck)
I'm here a bit too early.
I don't know why you all do not use Google hangouts. It's free and never had any problems.
I use roll20 to play music, show maps, battles and dice and Google hangouts for role-playing. Because audio and video are just good. And it's free
I don't want to pay MMO subscriptions. I'm not touching a subscription to play a game powered by *papers and pencils.*
Exactly why I stopped the video right after he asserted the costs - thought I'd peek into the comments to find anyone else as annoyed as I was ...
Personally my go to will always be roll20-discord-dndbeyond, but it was really cool to see this
I live with my parents and i have no friends to play anything with ever, I'm on my own and just sit around and do nothing until I'm to tired to stay awake. All my creative energy is just balled up and has nowhere to go. The idea of exploring a unique world with new people and get to have a feel for all the exciting experiences and adventures and surprises without the need to be in cobtrol of the experience or fear i played wrong, just going with the flow and letting things happen, with a bit of effort towards playing a fun and unique role in the world without being an edge lord or develop main character syndrome. I've been watching a lot of crit crab so i know the red flags.
I hope i can join a group someday and not have to deal with drama. I just want to have fun.
Plus i have a tablet so discord would be easier. Zoom may take too much power.
I’m DMing my first campaign tomorrow (It’ll be homebrew, don’t want that pre-written noise) just on discord with good old pencil and paper. I think Theatre of Mind works well, you just need the ability to describe things well. (I have only barely read into a Dungeon Masters guide, all my info has just been gathered from watching games and playing a few lol, so wish me luck.) But, I’m playing D&D completely free, so don’t sweat it, it’s possible.