Roll20
Roll20 is a service that offers tools for tabletop RPG players, so that games can be organized online. Compendiums include the biggest IPs in the space, including D&D, Pathfinder, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Shadowrun, with a marketplace full of campaigns and accessories.
FoundryVTT
Foundry Virtual Tabletop (FoundryVTT) is a self-hosted application for running multiplayer tabletop RPGs. It supports over 200 game systems and offers features like dynamic lighting, fog of war, and customizable maps.
Quick Links
In the modern age, tabletop RPGs are more likely to be played online than at an actual tabletop. The hardest part of these games has always been getting a group together and synchronizing their schedules, and that becomes a lot easier when you have access to people living far away from you. Even for groups that can physically get together, it’s often easier and more convenient to use the internet, and computers are able to offer a level of functionality that no physical tabletop can match. Some complicated games are borderline unplayable without macros, and many others benefit heavily from their use.
But which virtual tabletop do you choose? There are a couple of prominent options out there, each of which have different levels of functionality, carry different costs, and are ideal for different types of tables. Two of the most prominent options are FoundryVTT and Roll20, and this article is here to help you figure out which is right for your group.
Easy to run any system
Price
Roll20 and Foundry operate on two different payment models.
Roll20 is a subscription service with free and premium versions. Your group can use Roll20 to run their game without paying anything. However, many of Roll20’s most useful features are gated behind a monthly subscription. Dynamic lighting, extra storage space, the ability to upload larger files, and the elimination of ads not only require your Game Master to pay for the service, but require that they continue to do so as long as you continue to use it.
Canceling your subscription will lock you out of those features for ongoing games, and can even automatically delete files if your now-reduced storage space doesn’t allow you to have them.
FoundryVTT doesn’t allow any group to use it for free. While players can access it without paying, Game Masters are required to pay $50 to install the application.
If you want a completely free experience, only Roll20 can give you that, but if you’re already planning to pay for your VTT, Foundry is likely to be more cost-effective.
Functionality
Technically speaking,these two platforms have most of the same features. Both services have dynamic lighting, the ability to upload and use your own files, and fillable character sheets that can automatically generate macros and help simplify character design. The primary difference is that,in Roll20, these are options you have to use and operate, while Foundry implements all of them automatically, but barely allows you to play without them.
Creating a new campaignin Roll20 will, by default, give you a generic virtual tabletop that theoretically has access to just about any feature you can imagine, but will force you to set up those features yourself. Even if you take advantage of every time-saving feature available, you’re going to have to spend some time setting up things like character sheets and dynamic lighting, and your player’s sheets aren’t going to do as much for them automatically.
By contrast, beginning a new game in Foundry will require you to choose which of its 200 supported games you are playing. Once you’ve done this, it will automatically start you off with extremely functional character sheets that automatically generate macros.
You’ll be able to find already-functioning versions of just about any monster you’re likely to want to implement. You won’t need to manually set up macros or understand how they work to use them. This saves you a ton of time and fuss, and makes it easier to use more features without having to spend as much work learning how to implement them.
This comparison makes Foundry’s functionality seem superior, and there are many ways in which this is true. However, there is an important caveat. If you want to play a popular game, and are sure you want to make use of these advanced features, Foundry allows you to do so more easily. However,if youdon’twant to use all of the features Foundry offers, or if you’d like to change how one of them works, you’re going to have a hard time.
If you want to implement a pre-designed monster in your campaign, Foundry will let you do so with less work, but if you want to implement a homebrew monster, you’re going to have a somewhat harder time doing it, both because it is harder, and because Foundry’s hand-holding nature means you haven’t been forced to learn how it works.
This is a point that bears repeating. While it may seem at first like a piece of software being easier to use is always a good thing, too much hand-holding can sometimes put users in a position where they’ve been using a piece of software regularly for years and have no idea how it works. An application being harder to use at first can sometimes force users to learn it in a way that benefits them in the long run.
Roll20 will never give you an experience quite as easy as plopping down a fully-premade monster in Foundry, but it will allow you to implement custom elements more easily.
Essentially, Roll20’s functionality is variable. What you get out of it depends on how much you’re willing to put in. Foundry has a high level of functionality baked into it, but if what it offers isn’t quite what you want, tough luck. Tweaking things is finicky and annoying. This won’t be a problem for tables who already intended to run pre-published modules in popular systems, but other tables will find it quite frustrating.
Versatility
Both Roll20 and Foundry have extensive support for a wide variety of games.However, just how wide that variety is varies.Foundry supports over 200 games, including many of the most common and popular systems out there, and, as stated above, it will give you far more baseline functionality with those games than Roll20 will.
If, on the other hand, you want to run something that Foundry doesn’t support, well, two things. First, there’s a decent chance Roll20 will support it, becauseRoll20 supports hundreds of games that Foundry doesn’t. Second, if neither platform supports your game, you’re going to have an easier time using Roll20 than Foundry to get it working.
To illustrate, let’s consider some examples. Say you want to run a pre-published module in D&D 5e or Pathfinder 2e. In Foundry, you will find every asset you’re likely to use already set up for you with a high amount of functionality and minimal work. In contrast, Roll20 will require you to set more up manually. In this case, you’re going to get a better experience out of Foundry.
But what if you’re not planning to play a popular system? What if, for example, you want to playthe excellent SCP Foundation TTRPG, by 26 Letter Publishing. Well, Roll20 has a community-made template that will allow you to do exactly that with pre-built character sheets that generate helpful macros that automatically handle the complicated way rolls work in this game.
Foundry does not support this particular game. It does have generic templates that allow you to manually set up the same amount of functionality you can get from a more popular game, but it’s no longer saving you any work. In this situation, you’re clearly better off with Roll20.
Of course, no platform can be expected to support every game. For instance,Queerz is a highly underrated superhero TTRPGthat isn’t explicitly supported by either Roll20 or Foundry. This means that you’re going to have to set things up yourself. This will take some work no matter what, but that work is easier to do in Roll20 than in Foundry. In both cases, you’re probably better off adapting the infrastructure of a related game like City of Mist than building everything from scratch, but that customization is easier in Roll20.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Foundry is the platform with more bells and whistles and more ease of use for a lot of common situations. However, if you try to use it outside of the situations its creators designed it for, you’re going to have a difficult time.
By contrast, Roll20’s fewer bells and whistles make it more versatile. It’s easier to customize, more likely to have obscure games, and easier to use with games it doesn’t have. Roll20 can give you more or less function depending on how much work you put into it. Foundry is going to give you a ton of functions essentially for free, but if you want something different than it’s offering you, you’ll be lucky if you can change it at all, let alone as easily as Roll20 would let you.
FAQ
Do players need Foundry VTT?
No. Only the Game Master of a given campaign needs to buy FoundryVTT. Players can access the campaigns they’re in through their browsers without having to purchase the application.
How much is Foundry vs Roll20?
Foundry requires a one-time payment of $50. The same amount will get you a year of Roll20 premium. However, you can use Roll20 for free so long as you’re willing to do without some of its features.
