FoundryVTT - A Quick(ish) Beginner's Guide

Turns out it is kinda hard to make a "quick" starting guide for a program with as many bells and whistles as FoundryVTT, but I'll be darned if I didn't try! Hopefully it has enough information to get some of you started, or at least give you an idea of just what goes into running a game on Foundry.
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[@TheDJYosh]

This came in at the correct time, I was gifted this table top by a player recently for a future game. It's been a stark contrast from Roll20 but this helps me to give it an earnest try!

[@Reoh0z]

I was looking for a quick, simple showcase for what Foundry can do to show my players and this nailed it. Thanks.

[@xXFyesanXx]

More than 2 years later and still a great introduction to FoundryVTT. Thank you! It's so hard to get started with GMing, I'm glad there are channels like yours! :)

[@MerolLord]

Yep was about to comment, 2 years + 8 months later now and this is still the best foundry intro video on youtube

[@seanmcneal6330]

Thank you! I’ve been looking for a short and sweet intro into setting up a Foundry game and you’ve definitely hit the mark. Every other video goes into so much depth and step by step detail that I end up losing interest and moving on to something else but the way you’ve done this is perfect, take my sub kind sir!

[@Nortic111]

I’ve been considering getting Foundry VTT and this was extremely helpful in making my decision! Going to get it and reference your guide a lot, thankyou!

[@JustStopPlayingGames]

Good lord this is a well made video. Thank you so much for making this. I have so many ideas now!

[@michaelgrouse7850]

Great video! Nice balance between evangelizing and letting me know that there are rough bits to Foundry. Also nice but subtle music.

[@Cracklemere]

Stumbled across your channel this evening and hot damn. Concise, polished and genuinely useful videos. Thanks for the work!

[@epicawesome1910]

This was definitely the best video I've seen of the type. Top notch man

[@MitchellHolt-if8gz]

full on best quick look at foundry! every other video has been terrifying and disheartening. hats off!

[@andrewhenry4827]

OMG thank you so much for this video, I've watched others and so far none that I've seen have talked about these points. Followed and liked and will definitely share this!

[@spingebill4392]

Holy cow! This was an awesome little tutorial, saved me a bunch of trial and error haha! Thanks a ton!!!

[@tylerlaw6324]

Super appreciate this video. Just installed foundry two days ago and this answer most of my questions (at least all the starter ones).

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Oh thank heavens! I worried that this video wouldn't be helpful at all after all the revisions the script went through lol

[@steffen.6952]

Same for me! Thank you very much! 🙂👍🏻

[@SirTwitch22]

This was extremely helpful I'm new to the vtt world and have only heard good things about foundry. It seemed very intimidating with no knowledge of how it worked but now it's a lot more reasonable and understandable.

[@mythicmountainsrpg]

Looking to switch from Roll20 and I found this very helpful. Thank you!

[@Rosematoes]

This is incredibly helpful I love you

[@jeffadams4537]

I impulse-bought Foundry 8 months ago and have never used it because since I dug in I was lost. I tried to watch the other youtube series out there for Foundry tutorial and was destroyed by information overload. Thanks for posting this. It actually helped me understand it better on a more simple foundation. My only concern is that all my players are present during the game and I don't want to be fully digital, I still like to 3d print characters and stuff and use models for some parts of maps, So I have a 45 inch tv I plan on laying flat on the table, using Foundry for the base maps and still lay characters and monsters on top. So I will probably still use tokens, just in a hybrid way. I feel taking everything digital, you lose a lot of the craft of imagination and tangible parts of playing. So this video will helpfully do the basics which I need and I can find the path to the hybrid model of physical and virtual synergy.

[@mharper5522]

man, I know your post is a bit old, but that is EXACTLY how I feel!

[@sophialore7958]

I'm actually doing exactly that!! Fun to see others who want to blend digital with IRL ^_^

[@thashadowspawn]

3 years ago but great video for me. I am ready to learn more because I have a lot of Mini Campaigns my players want me to run and Roll20 is no longer cutting it for me sadly. I look forward to watching more of your videos to learn, subbed liked and preparing for more! :D

[@evamotto9276]

Perfect guide for an overview!

[@mrbrianparker]

Late to the party but the video was good, really well made, fun and packed with information.

[@talgoldvaser5267]

thanks that was a great guide. clean and simple

[@midnightrambler4468]

A bit late to foundry but thanks for the video, looking forward to seeing more of your content :)

[@pattysprague4481]

Thanks for this I appreciate this video

[@JazzyBassy]

Great video, will show it to a GM that I am gifting a license to! TBH I still struggle trying to teach modules to my players in a concise way, specially since I heavily use automation modules like MidiQOL.

[@RVR121]

Good enough for the basics.

[@knorwetenschap]

a realy good intrudichen

[@ninoprodan1552]

Thank you so much!

[@zanderdonnell7650]

I thought this was a great video thank you

[@AndrewJHayford]

Foundry seems really awesome. Kind of regret going all in on Fantasy Grounds.

[@Ginzzzu]

Thanks!

[@startledlobster8603]

Thanks alot, man

[@StarlightSovereign]

Thank you! This is a good primer for getting started. It seems like if you're familiar with Roll20 it's not that different. I'm swapping to Foundry from R20 so I'm hoping this will help me make a smooth transition.

[@knorwetenschap]

thank jou i realy needet this to play dnd

[@AustinKazda]

Heyo! Great video as always. How does Foundry handle 3.5 D&D and Cypher System (specifically Numenera)?

[@animateddream1035]

This is a damn good video, my guy! Thank you! I think I'm leaning more towards foundry at this point. As a default, I'm a very low-prep DM (new), and I was given the impression that foundry is even better for people like me than Roll20. However, when I'd like to, I do like to go above and beyond to ensure that the atmosphere is optimal for my players' immersion and enjoyment. One thing I like about Roll20 is that once you buy an adventure, everything is set and ready for you to use. This is apparently not the case for Foundry, as you have to manually port everything from D&D Beyond. I did, however, see someone use a converter to port a Roll20 adventure straight over to Foundry with everything (even the chat history) there. The only thing I would like to know is if you need to buy resources for your players to set up their characters as easily as you've shown. (As opposed to filling in the Roll20 character sheets with supplentary sites)

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Thanks so much. That is kind of the rub with Foundry. It does more than most VTTs, but requires more from its users. Frankly, a lot of the time I don't have more to give lol. So, there ARE mods for Foundry that will let you import stuff from D&D Beyond. The one I used in the past required a very reasonable patreon subscription to access (Maybe $3-5?) and allowed me to import eeeeverything. I could import character sheets with a click, import every item I had access to on Beyond, every NPC/Enemy, all that. It was pretty simple. I will say, it has been quite a while since I used it, and there is always the possibility it no longer works (since WotC/Beyond are really starting to hammer out their own VTT, they may be trying to restrict that kind of 3rd party access). Best I can say is do a little searching for "D&D Beyond Foundry Importer" and the like, and see what folks are currently saying. I personally don't play much D&D anymore, mostly all other systems, so I'm a little out of touch on all that these days. Still, hope this helps!

[@luminesc]

It helped someone!

[@davidrust3169]

Dude: as an older gamer geek who was only just recently diagnosed with a life-long learning disorder, you knocked this one out of the park! I UNDERSTOOD IT! You have no idea how rare this is for me. I really appreciate your attention to detail, sound-levels that I can actually *hear* without having to crank up my speakers to "Old Man" levels, and conversational English (rather than tech-speak). Don't get me wrong: I've been a WebDeveloper since '94 ... I *know* tech-speak! But, honestly, as I've gotten into my 50s, I'm finding it harder and harder to keep things straight. Acronym-creep is a real, horrible problem the world suffers from! :) Anyway, just again: Thank You! And if you ever want to do a series on "How To Do 'x' in Foundry VTT" you'll have a very enthusiastic supporter, here!

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

You have no idea the smile you put on my face. Thank you so much. I'm glad I could be of help! I definitely struggle with trying to find a balance of my silliness and information and all that, so it really makes my day when I hear that I legit helped someone out. Comments like this keep me making these videos!

[@davidrust3169]

@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide - I've already watched another one of yours, about the "Powered By The Apocalypse"-style games, and, yeah: you've got a great skill! Keep up the wonderful work! I'm definitely subscribed! :)

[@Oniguma]

He says "hop on in", but one of my fist hiccups was just that I coudn't find out what the "Acess Key" was. It turns out you just don't need one

[@PossumMedic]

Chill dude it was fine 😂

[@capnyoungs6896]

so my question is do all the players and the DM need to purchase the program or is it just a DM purchase and the players can just come in and play?

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Only one person needs to purchase it

[@NiklasFreidwall]

Amazing. Could you go through Fate in Foundry? Best modules and practises?

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Oooo, I really like that idea! Might do more than just Fate too, but that would be a lot of fun to tackle! Thanks for the suggestion

[@NiklasFreidwall]

@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide happy to inspire. Anything that is more Minds Eye Theatre and less maps and minies woulf be very helpfull for me :)

[@sinmaan7568]

What about the video chat? Is there an option in Foundry or do you use another one like Discord?

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Foundry does have a video chat. I've run into issues with it now and again (certain players having to refresh ocassionally, sometimes a certain browser is a little weird, etc...but nothing consistent), but overall I would say it's decent.

[@allenflud]

Comments for the algorithm

[@David-su4is]

Thanks. I'm so technically inept. Could you do one with Shadowdark some time?

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Shadowdark is a bit of a Blindspot as far as my ttrpg knowledge, but I may have to look into it!

[@arkhamcreed4326]

Does everybody need to own this, or just the DM?

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Only one person needs to run and host Foundry. The rest connect for free through their browsers

[@3nertia]

Do the DM & players each need to buy a copy of Foundry?

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

No, only one person has to own a copy of foundry, the rest will access it via a browser link.

[@3nertia]

@@TheDungeonNewbsGuide I have since learned that but thank you - I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

[@cyphrsphyr]

🖖🏾

[@c.c.germaine9960]

I came for the port forwarding info you skip completely. Haha. Ok, so I'll stick around for the other stuff, but the big questions are about hosting.

[@bernardomcf2842]

Awesome content, man. But the background music is quite loud and a bit annoying, honestly. Just an opinion. Thank you for the video though

[@juhdg3804]

IDK ❗❗

[@MisterReltec]

As much as I appreciate you spending the time to make this, I feel as though if you aren't at least a little proficient at Foundry already, everything here is too fast. I just wanted to give you some constructive criticism.

[@dominicperron8609]

I didn’t want to watch an hour long video. Deciding if foundry is right for me and a brief overview was apreciated. Plenty of deep dives out there

[@ArkStClair]

I managed to get a decent idea of of foundry and I never used a vtt its a good video for a quick once over

[@Tobias5036]

Player Gifted me a licence. My intial impressions are poor. I can see it has lots of utility. But i don't want to do data entry to play D&D.

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

Totally fair. I've found that with certain games/campaigns it has been a really valuable tool...assuming I put in the work ahead of time. I can load a campaign up with every item, monster, location, etc, and once we get to playing it keeps the game running really smoothly. But lordy can be a ton of work, and then if there is an update suddenly a community mod I've become reliant on might no longer work. It's a real investment, and honestly not worth it for everyone or every game. Totally depends on how much you'll use it and how much of it you'll use. It can still be good as a more minimal VTT, using only a few of the features, but at that point I think there are other VTTs out there that do a better job with just the basics. I've got hundreds of hours of use time in Foundry, and I still only use it for maybe 1 out of every 5 ttrpgs I run.

[@VideoGamePhilosopher]

All of these VTTs are too complicated to introduce people who are still not 100% on board with TTRPGS. It’s hard to introduce someone to these for their first time playing a game.

[@TheDungeonNewbsGuide]

You aren't wrong! Frankly, for a LOT of the games I run, I often default to the simplest options (discord and google sheets, or maybe Role or Fari). Unless I know that we are going to be running a longer campaign and all of Foundry's tools will be extremely helpful in the long run, I tend to avoid it!

[@etaioncmfwyp3822]

Yep. WAY too complicated. How do you have time to actually play the game? How did we ever get by with MUDDs?

[@senseikitsune-sama4598]

I'm all about learning curves I have several learning disabilities And none of them will stop me

[@williampoulter2679]

Stupid question which isnt answered how the hec to I get to the start screen - bought it but I dont get the start menu etc as you have.....I hate poor user stories

[@williampoulter2679]

Might want to cover how / where to download it first