I'm running a fanmade system for a series I like (Fate) and am tempted to switch to a VTT from Tabletop sim (I'm a first time GM), and would like recomendations, mentioning what I'm running as it's obviously not on any of them premade so will effect my decision.

I hate to answer a question with another question, but...

What is it you are looking to use the VTT for?

Since none of the VTTs will have your rules, you'll basically be getting a place to put a map and some tokens, in which case stick to easy. I understand Owlbear Rodeo is good for that (I have only used Roll20 and Foundry), though Roll20's free version should be fine.

Agreed, sounds like https://owlbear.rodeo might suit your needs well.

Do you mean FATE as in the system upon which you'll base the game?

If so, check out https://fari.app/

If not, what level of automation are you looking for and how much time are you willing to invest?

For reference, A Foundry implementation feom scratch would probably be a significant undertaking, but there are agnostic modules that let you "build" a system.

DMHUB is free (only limitation is how much you can uplaod to your account each month), allows you to build maps within it and is surprisingly flexible if you're willing to do the work.

If you need little to no automation, there are many VTTs that could suit you

For me it'd probably be Discord because it is mostly voice and theater of the mind with the occasional picture to throw onto the chat feed. I actively do not enjoy VTTs that I've used before. Hate the hurdle to figure out the interface to play, kills the momentum.

Quote from: Opaopajr on February 16, 2025, 11:26:52 AMFor me it'd probably be Discord because it is mostly voice and theater of the mind with the occasional picture to throw onto the chat feed. I actively do not enjoy VTTs that I've used before. Hate the hurdle to figure out the interface to play, kills the momentum.

^^This.

To extend the question (sorry, OP), does anyone have experience programming automation for the major VTTs (roll20, Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, et al.)?  I'm in playtesting of my own system, and if I ever wanted to publish or kickstart, VTT integration seems to be a big selling point nowadays.  I'm looking for a VTT that will work with a dice pool game, that I could program in a character sheet and roll off of the sheet.  Any info/links would be appreciated!

Quote from: Eirikrautha on February 16, 2025, 08:22:20 PMTo extend the question (sorry, OP), does anyone have experience programming automation for the major VTTs (roll20, Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, et al.)?

Yes,

Roll20 is the easiest since much of the work is manipulating html5 and css files with some javascript for the most sophiscated feature.

Foundry is more complex than Roll20 but easier than Fantasy Grounds mainly due to the benefit of hindsight.  Also inches separate Foundry from Roll20 and choosing one boils down to which VTT sales model you find most convenient. For example Roll20 is server hosted and doesn't require players to buy a subscription. Foundry and Fantasy Grounds sells licenses.

Fantasy Grounds is the oldest and most mature of the three but has some quirky and fussy aspects that puts it at the bottom.

Regardless of which one you pick there will be a learning curve due to the specifics of each VTT.

I am the most up with Roll20. Roll20 also has a public code respository (Github) where the source code for most of its character sheets are published. This mean you can grab the sheet you feel is the closest to what you want and modify it rather than starting from scratch.

 

Quote from: Eirikrautha on February 16, 2025, 08:22:20 PMI'm in playtesting of my own system, and if I ever wanted to publish or kickstart, VTT integration seems to be a big selling point nowadays.  I'm looking for a VTT that will work with a dice pool game, that I could program in a character sheet and roll off of the sheet.  Any info/links would be appreciated!

Fire up Roll20 pick one of the system that has a dice pool and see how well it works.

Then head to here
https://github.com/Roll20/roll20-character-sheets

Download the files and study them.

For Foundry
https://foundryvtt.wiki/en/development/guides/SD-tutorial/SD01-Getting-started

Fantasy Grounds
https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996644285/Developer+Guide

I would recommend https://www.questportal.com/

They have a "Universal Character Sheet" that is basically a WYSISYG editor that allows you to build a character however you want.

Plus, it's free unless you want to pay for the "Pro" features which are completely not necessary.

"For example Roll20 is server hosted and doesn't require players to buy a subscription. Foundry and Fantasy Grounds sells licenses."

To be fair, once you own Foundry, you own it. You can host a game from your PC/laptop while your players interact via their browser program of choice and a hyperlink to your PC's web address.

You can also host it to a server or buy a subscription to Forge (dedicated Foundry servers).

If you don't know much coding, Foundry has an excellent "generic system builder" plug in that will let you build things like character sheets and monster stats using mostly GUI and a trivial amount of coding (mostly ensuring you've assigned a unique name to each data field and that you're using the right field for any calculations).

It took me about a day and a half, including learning about said data fields, to get all the elements I needed to run the game built from scratch (about half of that was just the character sheet, but once I had it, all the rest just fell into place).

In terms of appearance, I like Foundry a lot more than Roll20. It's LoS, fog of war, and light sources are just a lot cleaner and easier to set up in my experience. They also reveal everything you would see while you move (i.e. you move 30' past an open door, the fog of war adjusts to show everything you would have seen during the move... whenever I did the same on Roll20 it only showed the perspective from the end square).

Thanks, estar and Chris (no slight to DataDwarf, but my players are more likely to work with an established VTT)!  You've given me some food for thought.  Thanks for the links; I'll check them out...

Most VTTs have generic character sheets if you just want a, "Click X to roll Y" functionality.  If you want something complicated like an initiative system/tracker, abilities or spells with lots of moving parts, that is unfortunately far beyond the scope of what you'll see supported.  For that sort of level of automation, you'd need to lay hands on a coder to build out a full-fledged system module.