Interviewing the CREATOR of Foundry

I got the wonderful opportunity to interview Andrew, the creator of Foundry VTT! We talked about how Foundry got started, the features coming in v12, what most people don't know about Foundry, and much more! Check out my in depth interview with him to learn what Foundry has in store for the future!
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Chapters:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:02 - What have you been playing?
00:06:16 - How did Foundry get started?
00:14:21 - How big is the Foundry team?
00:22:21 - The importance of Foundry v11.5
00:36:44 - Foundry v12 feature breakdown
00:51:43 - What's coming after v12?
00:58:42 - Plans for making modules break less between versions
01:09:47 - Foundry is way more powerful than everyone thinks!
01:17:24 - With self hosting comes responsibility
01:21:08 - Outro

[@Kevlar-78]

I love his answer to the " What do you wish people knew about Foundry" To add my own - Everyone should know that its a one time fee for GMs (excluding add on paid modules or hosting) I think so many are used to As A Service model / monthly sub. Its refreshing honestly.

[@DiceAndEasy]

So true! The one time purchase (at such a reasonable price) is a truly great aspect of Foundry!

[@joerama]

Great interview. Great host. Great guest. Great questions. Great look behind the curtain. Great roadmap. Well done, and TY for sharing.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thank you so much for the kind words! Means a lot to me!

[@Kevlar-78]

Completely agreed 💯

[@MathewsonMedia]

I went from v.9 to V.11 with no problem. I told my normal group that I was going to do a one shot in 6 weeks. I kept up with our regular campaign in version 9. But the 6 weeks I gave myself was more than enough time for me to create an amazing one shot for my players while I was learning version 11 and all the new modules and compatibilities that I installed, at this point over 100 modules. After that 6 weeks not only was I able to switch over easily but I was incentivized by the AMAZING new features and workflow of the new version. Kudos to Andrew and his team!! I have been using Foundry VTT since version 8. The upgrade process was why, after developing my V9 game to a high degree I did not want to lose AA animations and custom items so I continued to use 9 with my home group. I did use V10 for another group for a short time. Version 11 is just amazing and coming from running my first game in version 8 with several game interrupting issues, I had an awesome first game using version 11 with very few hiccups.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Wholly agree that v11 is fantastic! Can't wait for v12!

[@sarhodes87]

Fantastic interview - Foundry is absolutely my all time best RPG electronic purchase and the rate at which it's improving is impressive.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thanks for the kind words! It truly is a phenomenal piece of software!

[@chrisragner3882]

Oh this is super cool! Ambience for regions is such a great idea for making transitions as presented so much easier for my builds. Great interview. Especially since you just let Andrew share with few, if any, interruptions! Good job!

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thanks for the kind words! It was great having Andrew on!

[@TimothyHuey]

I think the Token Transformation could be amazingly entertaining and immersive.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Agreed!

[@michaelmarchant7245]

Andrew, in your place, the one thing I would want everyone to know about Foundry is yours and your team's love, passion and committment for this project. And that came across in this interview.

[@DiceAndEasy]

His passion shined through every moment I was talking with him. He's truly a great guy!

[@CelestianGC]

Great interview. Hearing their planning and thought processes is quite informative.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thanks! It was such a joy talking with Andrew!

[@LunaticPariah]

Absolutely love the backup feature, and the new compatibly checker. V9 to V10 was a rough one for me....

[@DiceAndEasy]

They are very welcome new features

[@AiguretDuren]

Truly, the idea of "V2" is so powerful when evolving a long-lived application. That was an inspired move.

[@DiceAndEasy]

It's such a good move!

[@WiNGCoMM]

This has been a nice interview, getting into back specifics at time which are not always usually widespread, so I appreciate it. A lot of further questions, many of them very technical, come to mind after this interview which is always a good thing

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@conchobhardm]

That Indieland shirt is so incredibly based 🙏 Great interview also lmao, good work.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Oh well noticed! I streamed as part of it back in 2020 and had a blast! Thanks for the kind words!

[@Shavinderyt]

1:09:47 since I picked up foundry a few months ago, I’ve always thought, this could be bigger than just ttrpgs. With the plain JS and modules, This could easily be the next table top simulator, where you literally only need a single purchaser to run the game. Now TTS does better for 3D and massive games but you don’t always need that and with the modules that people have built you can get a pretty intricate setup going.

[@Mondtor]

Thanks for the deep insight. Foundry VTT is great...!

[@DiceAndEasy]

Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@Kevlar-78]

This was great. I love their approach to developing , testing , beta and stable launches. The Foundry team really do listen and take a prudent approach to problem solving. I like the triggering effects / potential for the Scene Regions.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@nickdubeau8541]

Just purchased V11. New user. Additional features for solo rpg like being able to create randomization tables to setup a session or campaign and then a randomizer to select npc enemy actors would be great. I am managing this outside of foundry but this does break immersion.

[@Kevlar-78]

Hey ! Awesome ! Looking forward to this interview !

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it!

[@JohnWeland]

One thing I’d like to see is the ability to have one user (admin) out on the setup page adding modules etc, without shutting down the game world. Furthermore the ability to manage the server and run multiple game worlds at once. I’d pay a much bigger licensing fee for that. I have a server with 40c/80t and 128GB of memory. I’d love to be able to run multiple tables at once.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Do you mean like being able to manage modules on the setup page instead of in the game world itself? I know The Forge allows running multiple game worlds on some of their sub tiers but if you are self hosting, this article might be what you're looking for to run multiple game worlds at the same time: dev.to/peacefuloctopus/self-hosting-multiple-worlds-on-foundry-vtt-1dkj

[@JohnWeland]

@@DiceAndEasy yeah similar to that. In my case I run the VTT for a few games I am in. Some of those games I am an ad-hoc character (one that appears often but not a regular campaigner). It would be nice to allow that game to be active and running with the DM and players playing it while I am logged into world 2 setting up for another game later in the week. Basically a self hosted “Forge” since I have my own server hardware at my disposal I’d hate to rent out on the forge when I have the hardware here.

[@DiceAndEasy]

@@JohnWeland Yeah makes sense, it would be a waste for you to have to use The Forge. The link in my previous comment might work for you but that stuff is too technical for me so not entirely sure if it will work for you.

[@MaeveK]

I hope we get local illumination back, it hurt to lose perfect vision with v11

[@Walthanar]

Foundry VTT becomes more and more amazing with every new version. I really hope the regions will have the possibility to define the elevation of ground level, and that will sync with the elevation of non-flying cretures moving around, coherently with the recent amazing addition of tremorsense, meaning a creature with e.g. 15 ft elevation on a region where the ground level is set to 15 ft will be detected by someone with tremorsense. Also illumination by region would be very nice, to be able to separate an outside area from a dark cavern. Also looking forward to that thing that makes seamless transitions of verticality come true, to be able to fight on a cliff and then explore the cave that is located underneath it, all in the same scene, so that if a fight involves tokens in both areas that could go in and out of the enclosed space they would be in the same turn order seamlessly

[@DiceAndEasy]

Can't wait for v12!

[@RobertMcGovernTarasis]

I'd be down for some board games in FVTT. Given the love for Larian, maybe an opportunity to work with them to bring their new board game to FVtt

[@RyanWenneker]

Amazing. congrats!!

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thank you so much!

[@georgbackert8050]

Foundry is Great. Glad they plan work on the UI Design. I feel it is still a bit hard to get into and is sometimes not super intuitive.

[@samuelvoyer8134]

With all those modules, Foundry is already way better than Roll20, i'm sure if Foundry VTT doesn't do anything majorly stupid in the next few years. i think it has a big chances to take a big chunk in Roll20's profit and i'm all in for it!

[@DiceAndEasy]

I really hope Foundry keeps growing!

[@Sabrecho]

"Don't update the night before your session..." 🤣

[@DiceAndEasy]

Yeah be sensible 😂

[@renderance3551]

As one of the devs for essence20 on foundry its so awesome to hear andrew's commitment to the software.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Thanks for supporting Foundry with your hard work!

[@Kevlar-78]

I am curious - maybe if you talk to Andrew again in the future - The module makers. I assume that sometimes the core features are updated that can make modules obsolete? I'm just wondering how the creator community and the dev team work together to grab some functionality from the module folks, and how they handle "implementing" module functionality into "core" features.

[@DiceAndEasy]

Interesting point! It would be a good topic for sure!

[@Kevlar-78]

Sorry, one more comment. Thank you for letting your guest speak (maybe to your detriment at times !) I know Andrew can talk , and he has a lot if information to share , which is awesome ! I think you would be able to get away with a little more "color commentary" interjection. Not much , but just a little critque for ya ! Keep up the great work !

[@DiceAndEasy]

I appreciate all the comments, and thanks for the good feedback!

[@Steev42]

The idea of using Foundry as another type of Tabletop Simulator is interesting to me. I'm very curious how that would work -- would you need a separate system for each game?

[@JohnGPK]

It works slightly differently. Foundry works by downloading a system and then you create a world running that system. You can create as many worlds as you want and have disk space. These are essentially separate games. So you could install a DnD system, and then have a Ravenloft world, 3 home brew worlds, a test world to try things out, a one shot world...etc. I have a DnD system, as well as a Delta Green, Alien RPG, a Shadow of the Demonlord, and a Savage Worlds Deadlands system. All of these have one to three worlds for different games I have run or am running. Hope this helps!

[@Steev42]

@JohnGPK sorry, perhaps I was unclear. I was talking about his thing late in the interview about using foundry for board or card games. Trying to figure out, would you just have s 'board game' system with compendiums for different games, or would you need a different system for each game?

[@DiceAndEasy]

Not 100% sure if it would work like this but I would assume that each board game/card game would be it's own module because in the module you could add new functionalities etc.

[@JohnGPK]

@Steev42 My bad on the misunderstanding. The likelihood would be you'd need one system per game unless the game was a derivative. Gloomhaven and its expansions might be able to run off the same system with module expansions, but a Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and a Darkest Dungeon are all running very different operations, interfaces, and user input.

[@roll4stealth671]

20:17 what was he teasing?

[@DiceAndEasy]

We'll have to wait and see 👀

[@lostsanityreturned]

Still really gutted that simple fog of war management isn't coming. It is one area that other vtts do that foundry just doesn't. Simplefog exists, but the dev has explained it is a pain to maintain and very hacky. Thankfully a new dev is maintaining it... but that only recently happened.

[@stradzarovich9381]

Foundry is the Adobe Photoshop for Dungeon Masters. Anything else is child’s play.

[@slumpspawn7939]

poggers

[@DiceAndEasy]

Very