Roll20 vs. Owlbear Rodeo (Virtual Tabletop Comparison)

Responding to comments about Roll20 being better than Owlbear Rodeo.
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[@TonyCrenshawsLatte]

"Simplest route to playing online with map, tokens, fog. Done." Yeah, that's me.

[@MichaelHolland]

Owlbear Rodeo simulates the sheer simplicity of the GM throwing down a map and some minis and it does so beautifully. For some games and groups, that is all you need and the rest is just fiddly bits they don't need. I have fallen in love with Owlbear Rodeo.

[@eldanko7825]

well, when pandemic broke out, I just lost touch with my players and did not have enthusiasm to play dnd online. However one day I started looking for alternatives, as almost everyone, I found Roll 20. I was thinking, if it is so popular than it has to be good. But for me it wasn't. It was so complex that I simply lost track of what I as a GM was doing. So when you a few months later made a video about Owlbear rodeo I simply fell in love with it. It is simple clean and perfect for me. I am playing with my group every week since than and we are once again having fun ... so thanks

[@ralexcraft990]

Yeah roll 20 is clearly setup to run well, fully online games with complete strangers (given the "Looking for game" feature). Owlbear due to the fact that the only way to join a game is a direct invite or code it makes a lot more sense to use it with friends, which is probably why it's so much simpler. Personally I'll be using it to replace battle mats and maps because I just cannot carry those to school consistently and pheasably (not to mention we're an open club so I'd need to bring enough Mini's for everyone(which could be anywhere from 5-20 people)).

[@alaskagrafix476]

Owlbear lets you Export your maps and settings, which you can then Import whenever you want or on a different computer, or store in a google drive. That is also nice for if your cache gets cleared.

[@samleonard2557]

I'm a huge roll20 fan, but owlbear sounds cool. Sounds like a fair summary. The roll20 learning curve is pretty steep. Especially for people who aren't super tech savvy.

[@TheMattizo]

You should give it a try. My group tried everything out there before we started using Roll20. I think for the paid programs Roll20 is the best. Roll20 for us was the simplest and least fiddly even though there was a curve to it, it was just way more intuitive then all the other programs. After I found out about Owlbear and getting the group to give it a shot we made the switch. It's just easy to use and I feel like you can do those impromptu encounters much quicker.

[@binnieb173]

@@TheMattizo They both drag and drop though... In R20 I can just drop maps and it tokens, including just searching the web for a token. I also love the ruler in R20, it makes it very easy to calculate distances, I don't even need a grid anymore. The one thing that NONE of these systems do is good 3d fighting. There is almost no good way to show that something is higher or lower than something else.

[@jahvyn]

I've been using owlbear since your last video and it's fantastic. So simple to use. I'm not a fan of having everything automated so the additional functions of other vtts are unnecessary for me. I simply want an easy way for my players and me to navigate tokens around a digital map. Easy

[@jeffreykershner440]

I'm with you. Owlbear Rodeo is simple and effective. In my mind, a thing is done not when you can't add more to it, but hen you can't take anymore away.

[@CosmoTheFish]

Thank you! This sums up my feelings exactly. I play a lot using Astral, but since you introduced me to owlbear I’ve been using it more and more with my oneshot games.

[@ericmailer6722]

We use Owlbear for maps and use Google docs for character sheets etc. Very simple setup that we can adapt as needed :-)

[@Spky_soup]

exactly what im doing for my camp

[@SteveVanderArk]

That's me exactly. Put down a map and some tokens and let's play. I've been using Owlbear Rodeo ever since I saw your first video and I'm loving it. And yes, there have been several instances where the game took an unexpected turn so I told everyone to hold on a sec, did a quick Google search for a map, threw it up on Owlbear, and the story continued. Now for the first time I'm creating a collection of generic maps on my computer for just such situations.

[@Bettoramirez]

Thank you Nate for showing this tool, I love it. SO EASE to use and load all the info needed for my games. I had the same issue with the fog LOL. I belong to an organized D&D comunnity in Costa Rica with 10 DMs and mostly of us are using this tool because of your videos. Thank you again for your content. Pura vida from Costa Rica!

[@DrewHerrema]

I would use anything over Roll20.

[@Frederic_S]

I feel the same way

[@Raoul9753]

Why?

[@Frederic_S]

@@Raoul9753 for me, all the stuff I don’t need and use is only bogging me down. I tried it, but it wasn’t for me?

[@Raoul9753]

@@Frederic_S Pk, never heard "I dont like it because it offers too much", but I guess if thats how you feel, its a valid point.

[@Raoul9753]

@@dziooooo mechanically complex? Are you still playing 4e? D&D 5e might be the most simplistic TTRPG ever made...

[@Churchtastic]

Thanks for the great side by side! I think I'm going to migrate to Owlbear. It has everything that I want out of Roll20 but streamlined. Like you said: map, tokens, fog. 🙌

[@AracneMusic]

I tried both as a DM and I have a very clear choice: owlbear rodeo for oneshots, roll20 for long campaigns. Why? Roll20 allows me to have an inventory of images and notes that I can give my players as handouts, I choose to mantain this in secret during long campaigns. This aspect is not at all important for me during oneshots, so I prefer a much "lighter" vtt, which makes things go smoother. Edit: also I do think the fog tool of Owlbear Rodeo is way more convinient compare to the free version of Roll20

[@davio3d]

The main reason to switch to Foundry is the third party community, every feature you want - someone else have made it.

[@mariakronwalder5426]

I looked into Roll20, FG and Foundry, played s few sessions on those, and found all of them unnessecarily complicated. When I watched your introductory video on Owlbear Rodeo, I immediately started using it. It's perfect for me. Thank you for the heads up! :-) My main issues with the big VTTs are those three: 1. The more features you use, the more chances of failure you have, meaning that there will be an additional layer of meta-talk about technical issues, especially with new players, and I don't want that. 2. I use DNDBeyond a lot, with DM-subscription and most of the books. I don't see why I should buy all the books again for Roll20 etc. 3. VTTs like Roll20 turn my pen&paper game into a computer game. It takes away the theater of the mind and the social interaction, by focussing on graphics and rules. For me, that's exactly the wrong direction. And so, Owlbear Rodeo doesn't fall into any of those traps and enables and enhances my game, instead of changing it into something different I don't want to have.

[@bass679]

I've been using Owlbear Rodeo for a few weeks and I love it. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Honestly even the short duration isn't a big deal. I use it in PBP as well to great effect.

[@AltogetherGuy]

Oh! It’s for maps! I’ve just been putting photos of environments on it. I’m just looking for a VTT that can support lots of obscure system’s character sheets.

[@theldun1]

Roll20 learning curve is steep as hell. its a real pain to have to make your own macros for everything.

[@enixxe]

I wouldn't really consider it steep so much as unintuitive. You shouldn't try to learn it without a guide, but if you have a guide (and there are plenty to choose from), it's extremely easy and straightforward. I use Roll20 regularly to run solo games for myself, and learned how to use it to make sure I could help the DMs for the games I'm playing in on Roll20, and it probably took me under 2 hours to learn how to do anything I could do with the free version. If you're less of an independent learner, then maybe it will take you longer because video guides tend to be slower as a consequence of being more hand holdy, but it's really nowhere near as complicated as it appears when you're just starting out and staring at the empty void of gridded whiteness for the first time.

[@Rybosome141]

ive never made a macro and have dm'd on roll20 for 2 years smoothly

[@Rybosome141]

I would love to know where you guys get the idea that you have make macros for roll20?

[@brianallen3173]

@@Rybosome141 yeah i dont use macros either

[@bigmack811]

I don't even know what macros anyone could need... I'm a little over a year into the game I've been DMing. If you're wanting to import monsters from 5etools I know that can be a pain but as the DM I like to roll physical dice anyway

[@alonelole]

600+ hours on Roll20, and i switched on Foundry in a snap...best choice ever made! not only it's just better, but also the community on discord is sooooooo helpful, with guide, macro, addons, etc! btw Owlbear Rodeo is the best to use on laptop/tablet to share a map digitally during a live session, if u don't want to go with map and minis (maybe coz of money? XD), Owlbear comes in really handy

[@sylviamaher2704]

For me I think owlbear rodeo is great for groups that normally play in a physcial space but have swapped to virtual play, its quick and simple and as someone who is use to playing without virtual tools having somewhere to put a map is the main thing I needed.

[@GeneBrodeJr]

I like Owlbear but my lay session ended mid-combat and when I came back to it a week later I lost the placement of my tokens when I imported it again. I might’ve done something wrong, but I’d love to know exactly how to save games in that situation.

[@kzookid2051]

Have you tried Export, along with saving a couple screen shots? I haven't used Owlbear aside for a few minutes, so I don't know for sure if Export would work for saving a game.

[@koekeritisVideos]

This is exactly why I prefer owlbear rodeo! Only thing I kinda miss is an initiative tracker

[@kittykaz7161]

I’ve not tried it yet, but noticed a sticky note feature, you can pot it there

[@dc4046]

The Owlbear team put out a video recently showing an initiative tracker using a mount image, it’s very useful and easy to use.

[@FlexDRG]

There is an mods/extensions section that has quite a few, free, tools. Including dice rolling, combat trackers etc even showing the monster/npc sheets. Works great, it seems. Still tinkering with it and only about 2 hours hands on, for now. Looking to use it with a secondary touchscreen for the players.

[@LostHereticPress]

Your previous video was my first encounter with Owlbear Rodeo, and I have to say, I had EXACTLY the same experience with Roll20 vs Owlbear. Back at the start of lockdowns when we moved to online play I looked into Roll20 as an option, and going through the tutorials left me more confused about how it worked than when I got started. Owlbear Rodeo I opened the website, clicked around for about 10 minutes, and understood the basics of how everything worked. Thank you so much for showing off such a great resource! I had previously been using an ipad on a boom arm to show an overhead of a physical battlemap with minis on it, and this makes SUCH a huge difference in my play.

[@weirdlife1013]

lol i use Roll20 exclusively and even I know Roll20 isn't the best

[@suprchrgd]

Great content as always. Thank you for calmly addressing the comments and concerns, and providing really good details on the two products. I too found Roll20 to be sluggish, and I really didn't enjoy the way it does asset management (tokens, maps, etc). I mainly use Foundry now, but I may give Owlbear a try for one-shots :) Thank you!

[@andbruu]

I stopped using roll20 about a year ago. Its folder system is slow and clunky, and the best features are created by the community - some getting lost as people stop supporting them (and you have to pay roll20 to use the community stuff). I found that using TTS was better for me, as it had more of a tabletop feel. Granted, there is a lot less automation without using mods, but its just the same as playing in real life. On the upside, importing assets is easy, and you can extrude 2d drawings to get a 3d-like effect.

[@peterandrewgriffiths8791]

I definitely love owl bear! But I was wondering is what do you do for character sheets? My friends like being able to have tons of options so dnd beyond doesn’t really work for them, what would you suggest?

[@jace7033]

I give my players a choice. They can have paper sheets, pdfs/excel sheets, or dungeon masters vault. My players cab use whatever they want but must send me copies of it.

[@tubebobwil]

I have the same question, how do you handle character sheets when using Owlbear?

[@DungeonBricks]

As of me, I created a costume google sheets to auto calculate what was needed (even funnier as the spells had links to the sources). It took me about 48 hours to do it, and it works wonders

[@braedenmurphy6961]

I'd be very interested in using Owlbear Rodeo, but I could use some tips on good places to find maps. I've tried making my own, but I've everything I've tried to use takes too much time.

[@squasher5008]

That's what is so great about owlbear's drawing tools you can use it as a whiteboard-style battle map where you draw the basics in session, for simple random locations that just come up randomly. for dungeons or other major locations, I recommend prepping out of session the 3 main ways I do this are using toying with donjon's random dungeon generator until it makes a map I like... I save the map then drop it in owl bear when I am ready to use it..... browsing the web and finding a map that will work for your home game or drawing your own map with tools such as dungeon scrawl.

[@MarcoPerri]

Would love to see you review Foundry! I've been eyeing that one up for a little while now. But I'm in full agreement with you on this, all I need is a program to track tokens and the map, I don't need it to keep track of the rules.

[@jern2216]

Foundryvtt is way better then roll20. If someone is getting in it, foundryvtt is really the best, still in development so things are promised to improve, with foundry you can also automate stuff and save a lot of time, some dont like that and you dont have to. Also i like the module for blood xd

[@user-dd9dh9kw5c]

Foundry honestly is the best of all of them. I have used all of them and foundry is leagues better than any of the competition to a level that shouldn't honestly be possible.

[@jern2216]

@@norcalbowhunter3264 i used roll20 for around 3 months, but after month i knew free version will not be enough, lways running out of space, wich nate completly forgot, 100 MB or how much is it is insultingly low. Am using foundry for like 2 months now and i dont regret a penny i spent, i would pay know even twice more and it would still be worth it. My players are so glad i switched, i got used to the ease of foundry vtt to absolutely disgusting levels, where i have scene for every single place (i made even brothel ;) ) also shopping is with some modules so easy.

[@jern2216]

@@norcalbowhunter3264 yeah i never really wanted to pay that much for it, also foundry was way cheaper, only issue is the self hosting, which i made possible thanks to ngrok, working nicely.

[@TheLoneBrick]

I just recently started looking into VTTs for my ongoing campaign. We'd been using theater of the mind, but my players kept asking for me to indicate position on the maps I'd draw for reference, so I finally decided to just use a VTT. I was struggling to find one that fit my needs without providing a lot of extra features that I wasn't going to use when I stumbled across your first video on Owlbear, and it checked all the boxes: the basic map features, lightweight and able to run my large maps, and most importantly, mobile friendly. The fact that I can use it on my tablet exactly the same as on my computer is a massive selling point for me, and the inability to do that was why I had not settled on any previous VTT.

[@vigilantgamesllc]

I'm speaking as someone who was fully invested in roll20. I do know how to use all of the tools and was happy with it for a while. I know use owlbear rodeo. Why? I found that my GM style grew and evolved. - My monsters are all moded or completely homebrew now, and I don't care to manually type all of that into roll20 when my binder works just fine. Strike that feature, no longer needed. - I like rolling physical dice. Auto-roll no longer needed. - I have an entire system where I actually improvise dungeon layout as my players roll. Think of it as one of those board games where you draw from a stack of tiles. Owlbear's drag and drop feature is seamless and is way faster than roll20s. It's interesting. As I've grown, I've actually discovered that less is more for me. I used all of the bells and whistles of other vtts before, but no longer.

[@unlimitedfunlol]

I was sold the second I heard Owlbear Rodeo works on mobile.

[@aaronbrady9579]

Stonks, never heard of owlbear rodeo but I’m interested 🤔

[@lowellarnett3172]

it is great!

[@41hz]

I love Owlbear. I was up and running in 15 minutes. I still haven’t figured out roll20. I’m not techy and it works great. I’m trying to replicate a tabletop experience. Roll20 seems like a little too video gamish to me. We use Owlbear, Discord, and DnD beyond and it rocks.

[@johnyg1939]

The one says roll 20 The other says something else. And you know what I say? A table

[@TheHammy10001]

Dynamic lighting is one of the best tool R20 has, animated traps, making running patrols if you want to make a map with roaming monsters. There is so much more if you dig into R20 and want to run a big campaign

[@philippegauvin-vallee9371]

The only important feature of Roll20 he seemed to have missed is one of the simplest yet most important ones: the chat discussion. It contains all the rolls, allows to type some text that would be hard to understand out loud (such as complicated names and long riddles), and allows people to confidentially whisper stuff to one another (GM to player, player to player).

[@Brandoons88]

Well put. I also just want a map with tokens and fog.

[@stordarth]

Owlbear Rodeo recently added an export feature, so if you export it and save it to something like google drive, one drive or dropbox you can have your Owlbear Rodeo table ready practically anywhere. You just need to import the file into your new browser on your remote machine. The main reason I like it is that I tried roll20 and realised I just didn't like it. I still run 4th edition which is basically unsupported these days, so a simple VTT that can be used for any system imaginable is far better for me than something more specialised and indepth like roll20.

[@tubebobwil]

Thank you for this, your first video on Owlbear Rodeo got me excited about it, but this has cemented it for me. Very easy to use tool!

[@RealmBuilderGuy]

This was perfect for me. I was looking at Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, ans Foundry. Found it all a bit complex. I just want a map and for me to move the tokens. Owlbear Rodeo sounds perfect.

[@bownasty]

I am completely new to all of the applications and D&D in general. I'm a technical person, so I pick up easily on all of this. I just want to say, this video in particular, you did an amazing job with comparing two separate tools and the pros and cons of each. Very well made video.

[@Kadarro85]

I will be testing this live on Monday :) I needed sth to show map exploration (specifically under the Vanthampur villa from DiA) :)will throw this on TV and manage from tablet. Did some test and works nice right now :) though tv browser is a little slow. but that seems like tv problem

[@TubaHorse]

I would absolutely recommend Foundry, but not vanilla Foundry. You will want to install the module called Plutonium made by the 5ETools team. It allows you to import creatures, items, clickable rollable tables, and almost any book or module content. It allows you to build a character and import features directly into a sheet so you or your player doesn't have to make all their macros manually.

[@stephensayers4998]

It's funny because I started with owlbear. And now use roll 20 and I feel much happier with the tool. Owlbear was a great free stepping stone into vtt. And I would recommend it to anybody first looking into VTTs. Its simple to use and doesn't have to much to worry about.

[@psychonexus]

Wacom tablet comparability may have brought me over.

[@mrmisterman8177]

I did this to get my wacom working with roll20: Go to your wacom software, create a profile for your browser (Firefox, Chrome etc), on that profile disable "Windows Ink" on the Mapping tab

[@russelllong3561]

It also pairs well with DND beyond which is a far more polished character sheet than anything I've ever seen as far as Roll20 or FG. Players already have their sheet in dnd beyond, and it automates quite a bit for them. When combat rolls up I send them the link for the map, and away we go!

[@WASD20]

That’s how I work it too

[@ruolbu]

Near the end you described my situation. A couple of my friends are lightly into RPing, mostly one shot adventures. Hardly ever campaigns longer than 2 sittings. It's already an undertaking to find time and re-explain the rules and check characters... I'm not sure getting 5 people to sign up for something they use three times a year is feasible xD, let alone making them remember their login and how to use the software. Nothing is easier than getting a link and playing in your browser. There is a target audience there and I'm glad a software exists to cater to them :)

[@nERVEcenter117]

Your video about OR sold me immediately. My experience with Roll20 was that is was a broken mess that was trying to do too much. I want the kind of system-agnostic, simple, virtual tabletop that I can throw whatever I want on, from a GURPS session to a Warhammer 40k battle. Opinionated systems with baked in rules for D&D piss me off.

[@dmdc5719]

love the idea of a simpler tool. Roll20 was the first VTT I was introduced to, and I ended up getting lots of map and token packs from the market. I also upload a some tokens and stuff that I either got from DrivethruRPG or made using the Roll Advantage token stamp. Which I just now realized is from the minds of Foundry Virtual Tabletop. I would like to try something else, but I have so many maps made for the games I had been running on Roll20, I just don't want to have to redo them all in another program. Plus I'd have to download all of the assetts I have on there (that can be downloaded) and then upload to the new one. Just a bunch of hassle I don't want. That's the main reason I haven't switched away from Roll20, even with it being a bit chunky at times due to their work ont he new dynamic lighting tool.

[@lalopses008]

If you really want a simple experience, but still have some advanced tools... DnD Beyond Character sheet, Roll 20 VTT, and Beyond 20 Chrome plugin. The plugin allows you to simply click on your character sheet in DDB and it plops all info, rolls, and descriptions into the R20 chat box. Very automated. It works for PCs and also monsters for the GM (default rolls for monsters are whispered to DM). No trying to import your character into R20. No copy/paste shenanigans. No need for macros.

[@WASD20]

Sounds slick! I do love DnD Beyond.

[@possumasshole420]

i’ve been using roll20 for a while, have i think over 300 hours on it. it definitely leaves something(s) to be desired: unresponsive like you mentioned, high impact program, long load times, and even within the game things don’t work like they’re supposed to sometimes. i’ve been running official d&d adventures (we’re playing dotmm right now) and being able to just buy the adventure and save myself a whole lot of time is why i use roll20. i desperately wish they would improve their ui and performance issues, but for now it’s what works for me and my group. always love hearing your thoughts!

[@painappledad1352]

Has a handicap ♿ dad, I don't have too much time or energy to do extra things. So I really enjoy Owlbear Rodeo, it makes really easy for me prepare one shots or improvise maps. Also I have a shity computer, so I can't use some other options.

[@davidtavener1742]

I play ttrpgs to get away from my day job of programming. I got into to roll20, setting up macros to roll monster attacks/saves/etc. besides being a time sync, it was starting to seem like work. I got to the point I didn’t need to use physical dice. Wtf. OBR gives me just enough of what I need to run online until we can get back to the table.

[@DungeonBricks]

Since the last video, I tried Owlbear Rodeo and... Honest? I dropped roll 20 sided entirely almost 48 hours later (time i took to design a self calculating character sheet in google sheets). And all my 4 groups moved to Owlbear Rodeo. Is amazing, simple and perfect to use. Even if it doesn't have the camera r20 has, that's always wonky and broken. And the stats for the monsters are a pain to program. Owlbear Rodeo on the other hand is the closest I've found to a hands on experience... To make an offhand analogy no one will get is like Dueling Network and Project Ignis for Yu-gi-oh virtual games

[@ammonschumer8589]

I used Owlbear for several sessions till I discovered Shard Tabletop. Best VTT I’ve ever used and it balances ease of use with a detailed and well thought out program.

[@robertthyberg5846]

Thanks! I'm stoked to check this out!

[@Ashwgun]

i use Above VTT, it uses the cache too, but pulls assets straight from D&D Beyond assets I already bought. It has hiccups as it's in beta, but works very well.

[@3ron]

I'm just looking for something easy to put a map with tokens up on a screen next to the table and owlbear seems like the quickest and simplest. I can use a laptop to GM it and just about anything (my PC or a phone) to cast to the small tv for the player side.

[@TheSwampman001]

Guess i will need to try and figure something out. I need to test both out. I am trying to start a D&D club at school and trying to figure the easiest to do one shots on.

[@mtnbiker78]

If that's the case, then owlbear rodeo is your huckleberry.

[@intrepid211]

Dude! Owlbear is the simplest way for a DM to just drop down a map and setting up a game for my parties weekly sessions as we use Discord right now. I love it!

[@randomyoutubecommenterr]

Owlbear Rodeo saving in your cache gives you so much more space for assets. Combined with the drag and drop nature of it makes it super easy to use whatever assets you want on the fly without worrying about using up all the space of something like Roll20. Also super easy to just erase all your assets with a click rather than tediously going through your roll20 assets folder.

[@jonsaucy8440]

I think we should all revel in having so many different tools available to us all. I can certainly understand Owlbear Rodeo, as a lightweight and very quick option to get up and running, it has a very nice suite of features. Though I am personally moving from Roll20 to Foundry Vtt at the moment (I've paid and waited long enough for Roll20 to provide a reasonably stable and responsive experience), I still point people towards Roll20. Its a good available tool, and I won't overly complain about any of them. Just rejoice we have so many, and always remember that we all have different lives/schedules/times we are able to fit our passion into. For almost everyone out there, there is a tool that will fill our needs. Enjoy that.

[@evanmurphreegamble575]

I've been a player in a long term campaign on Roll 20 and totally enjoy it. I even get into making my own macros! But when I started dm-ing online for a group of mostly new players I knew it was not the tool for the job. We played entirely theater of the mind until I saw your Owlbear Rodeo video. We've had a couple sessions using it and all my players are psyched and it's so intuitive for everyone! And once we're done with this current dungeon I may try transferring my assets to my ipad to see how the program works with an apple pencil~

[@Eyeolair]

When I worked with youth groups and DMd Dungeons and Dragons I used both D&D Beyond and Roll20. For most of the people I DMd for this was too much due to various issues so Owlbear would have been a lifesaver. I will remember it for the future if I ever do that again. Thank you.

[@sebastienmigneault5183]

What character sheet system do you use with owlbear if you do NOT want to invest in dnd beyond? Or do you use dnd beyond while inventing all the paid options as a user created ability???

[@dakdur1126]

I want to know what is best for in person local play. We will not ever be playing online. I need this to simply be a virtual tabletop for local play! DM see one thing on MacBook, the players see another thing allowing DM to see through fog. Use physical miniatures, use physical miniature monsters, use paper character sheets.

[@dastanghaedrahmati6977]

imho one very good feature of Roll20 is the built-in search, in a pinch it's really easy to find and add an object, token, or effect to the game

[@_Crunchy]

Just come over from watching the video he references at the start. Left a comment over there being one of the "Roll20 has all that + more though" people. Noted a thing I forgot in my comment was to touch on how Owlbear working for phones actually seems a major selling point, that while currently irrelevant to me, I can see the value in. I ran a one shot for a group of new players recently, and might've tried out Owlbear if I'd known about it. This game was in person and I don't usually do that, so everyone playing didn't have access to a computer. My solution was to lay a tv on its back with a Roll20 game shown through it, make it seem like we were around a game table, but there were hiccups (that I could probably iron out with repeated practice of running that way). For novice players at an in person game though, it seems like it would be much easier to just pull a "get out ye phones and use this link". Though I would absoloutely have the goal of upgrading to play on Roll20 at some point with the group, because of how much easier it is to run games on it.

[@kilruf]

Like you, I just needed a place to load in a map. Jumped into Roll20 and got lost. Jumped into Owlbear and learned it in like 5 minutes. Simplicity wins.

[@vlad_ussr8390]

I would say owlbear rodea is better because it is so simple and it is free and it is available in more countries than roll20 is

[@therealtwiggyleaf]

Thanks for the video. I was originally introduced to Owlbear Rodeo from your last intro video. We are a group of "oldtimer" tabletop gamers that mainly play "Pathfinder Version 1" and have been somewhat hampered by LOCKDOWN. We tried Roll20 but it is a lot of extra work for GMs, and can also be a bit clunky at times. We also tried Fantasy Grounds, and that was a complete disaster. There are just so many things that "don't seem to work". After your video, I watched couple of other videos and thought, hey, this looks like just what we need. We tried a simple version last week using a home made map and a few basic first level characters. There was a bit of a lag at times, but we all agreed it would work well. I am hoping to try another one game next week with an uploaded map and we hope this will be fine. I would also point out that we already use "Obsidian Portal" for all of our campaign information, and we all have acces to the Pathfinder OGC site, so we can always look up spells, etc. there. For what we want to achieve, Owlbear Rodeo seems perfect, so thanks for drawing it to our attention. 😎

[@laioren]

I love your reviews, and I was hoping you might be able to help me. I've looked at a bunch of different reviews on VTTs and sites like Dungeon Fog, but I still don't know if any of them are "right" for me. I'm looking for access to battlemaps (I'd rather get access to them for free, or pay for them if need be. I don't want to make them myself). Given my preferences below, which site or system would you recommend. 1) Must have access to community battlemaps (either free or paid for). 2) Must have sci-fi interior settings (e.g. buildings, factories, ship interiors, laboratories, etc.). 3) Must have a hexagon mapping feature OR a blank feature where I can download the image, apply a hex grid in photoshop, then reupload it. But no "always squares" dependency. 4) Must have the ability to save data on the system servers, since I'll be switching between devices to "host" the battlemaps (so it looks like Owlbear Rodeo is out). 5) Prefer a system with fog of war that works well. 6) Prefer a system where players can individually move their tokens on their own devices. 7) Prefer a system that's easy-to-use. 8) I do NOT need the system to do any game mechanics for me, since I'm using my entirely homebrewed rules. Thanks for any advice you can help me with.

[@dchitt94]

Played my first session with owlbear rodeo last week and my players had a blast with their first online play experience. It does what I need it to and does it very well

[@brendenbarnes4907]

Thanks for this, I will be trying it out in my next session to see if my players enjoy it!

[@DanielGallant1]

I'm happy with Roll20 and don't see a reason to change. Nothing wrong with Owlbear Rodeo, I'm just happy using Roll20.

[@jcmartin1978]

I’ve been using Fantasy Grounds for years now and have the ultimate license and have spent hundreds of dollars on books within the software. I’m moving to Owlbear rodeo, because the complexity sometimes gets in the way and slows the game down. Combining Discord, Owlbear and DDB hits a great sweet spot for functionality and ease of use.

[@JohnGunter_Johnprime]

During the pandemic, we played virtually entirely and used Fantasy Grounds, but after the pandemic, we went back to face to face, and I have a gaming table with a smart TV in it that I built and we have changed to Roll20 as it was easier to do that on the TV.

[@1290Zack]

Definitely pick FoundryVTT for a review, it is by far the most robust and at the same time easy to use VTTs out there. It doesn't feel claustrophobic like Fantasy Grounds, it's a one-time fee for full features, it is in constant development by a team that interacts with the community in a good way, unlike Roll20. And the biggest plus, the Modules which the community makes allow for endless customizability. You are free to complicate it or simplify it however you want.

[@bbqR0ADK1LL]

If you're already invested in something like D&D Beyond, Owlbear Rodeo adds some maps on top of what you already have. If you're looking to get started with a new system that can do everything, Roll20 is a good option. I haven't used either extensively, but playing Blades in the Dark with Roll20 for the character sheets & rolls was a good experience. Using maps & switching between them was kinda complicated though. It was a couple of years back, so maybe they've changed it, but I feel like I would need to go through tutorials again before running a campaign.

[@PyroMancer2k]

Not having used Foundry myself but only having done some research into it I think one of the reason it is popular is because it is more open to mod support. You have the community making macros and scripting that are free and so if you are not into coding you could just import them. My original VTT was MapTool which is still around and free, it also had so many features that R20 didn't have in it's early days. It has the dynamic lightning, scripting, great community with lots of easy to dnld and use macros/scripts, and many more, however R20 has added many of those now. MapTool is also really old at this point though and has an early 2000 look to the UI and other than the price point everything I've heard about Foundry seems set to replace it. Though the main thing I think R20 has going for it vs the other two is everything is saved in the cloud so you can work on your campaign from any device. Where the other two it's locally saved and players connect to host. Though I'm fine with local saves as I don't jump between devices that much and next time my groups schedules free up to let us play I was considering trying to give foundry a go.

[@mve0172]

I actually think Owlbear Rodeo might be a good choice for players that use a digital screen at their local game sessions as well. For me Roll20 is better since most of my players with hardly any gaming experience are still learning the rules after 9 sessions. The digital charactersheets do wonders for them.

[@jahvyn]

You're totally right. I'm using it for my battles with my family d&d game at home. It's a very simple way for us to navigate our tokens on a digital map. We want to do everything else 'analogue', so there's no need for the additional functionality of other vtts.

[@DeVoLt13]

I've used both programs and I really appreciate the simplicity of owlbear rodeo. There is no complication, I just send my players a link and we jump right in. I draw most of my big maps and I have sources for the smaller ones so I don't really care about being able to create everything in roll20. Learning roll20 was beyond frustrating and I still don't have everything down. My players love drawing their characters, so they made all of their own tokens. And I just grab a good picture for the monsters. When I use owlbear rodeo, I also use the encounter feature on DnD beyond. I have all the sourcebooks on beyond and have a campaign running on it, so I don't miss the features on roll20. I keep 2 tabs open and discord and I'm all set. I can play on my phone when I'm on the go and it's just an easier time for all of us.

[@thegiantmimir4664]

My gaming group couldn't get on with r20. There were several criticisms, from speed of response of the maps and layers to suspicions about the digital dice, preferring to roll physical dice, which rendered a lot of my preparation and macros redundant. In the end they just wanted a quick and easy shared map with tokens - and O.R ticks those boxes. The A/V integration doesn't save r20 since it breaks so often for us. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go back to r20. My group are probably a couple of generations late for digital role-playing.

[@scetchmonkey007]

After running Half of dungeon of the mad mage in Roll20 I had a store of tons of assets I had built to play the game that I could easily use in any other game I ran. The more you run games the more assets you build. It got to the point when it was time to let someone else GM I just copied my game and handed over GM powers to another who could then use my library of assets. The feature of building your own libraries of assets, including custom maps, spells, magical items and monsters, makes Roll20 much more appealing. And this is all possible in the free version.

[@Nashi_likes_games]

I once made an experiment on Roll20 where my "map" was just a ton of token sized tiles on the map layer. The map itself was a pretty massive dungeon (something like 60x70, way bigger than the dry erase mat I have). My computer, which is a pretty bad laptop without a GPU, didn't exactly have a hard time loading and processing it, it was literally just business as usual, and if I recall correctly, my players didn't have issues either. As far as the learning goes, I haven't actually touched Roll20's tutorial thingy so I wouldn't know how bad it is. I just ran it, took a few minutes to get familiar with it and started building maps and running sessions.

[@davidtscott666]

I think you are right on the money. I only want to recreate the experience of sitting around a table with my friends, moving tokens or minis and rolling dice. The bigger VTTs are great for some, but they’ve turned playing D&D into a video game and that is not for me. I may be in the minority here, but I don’t even like using digital dice. I use a simple two-webcam setup and free OBS software to show my face and dice tray - not for transparency, but because I enjoy sharing the experience of playing. Call me old fashioned.

[@WASD20]

I’m with you, David.

[@alannah-maedawson9225]

I may be intrigued enough about owlbear from watching this to use it when my "in person" group I run starts up again. They are doing Lost Mines of Phandelver and some of my players struggle with theatre of the mind so I will start making tokens for them and gather the maps. Thanks Nate

[@kevencassivi3813]

Where can i find as à new player some online groups ? Is my question which ever prog i use

[@HermanDuyker]

If your group is already pretty invested in DnD Beyond, and really just needs a battle map and tokens, and share some images, Owlbear Rodeo should fit fine. Getting the full advantage of using Roll20 (or the other VTTs) mean buying the content on those platforms *again*... (which might be a different discussion, but paying again and again for physical books + DnD Beyond + Roll20... gets a bit expensive. Certainly if you're coming from battlemat + minis/tokens + DnD Beyond and are moving online due to Covid right now.

[@jasonpwnd]

The thing that keeps me on Roll20 is having my entire GM kit neatly organized in the browser instead of spread around my laptop on the table

[@TheEarthlyOdyssey]

I use DnD Beyond and thanks to you, Owlbear... It's simple and easy to use. Very little prep time. Everyone has their preferred system. Go for it.

[@EyeMCreative]

I've been trying to play Hero Kids, a kid version of DnD, with my daughter and a couple other younger family members who live in a different state. roll 20 seems like an awesome program, and I'm enjoying all of the features it has, but if you're doing anything besides D&D 5e or one of the other supported rulesets, It makes it a lot more difficult because you have to build everything yourself. Plus, when playing with the kids it's much more fun for them to roll real dice and have physical character sheets and everything. anyways. This seems like the perfect tool because all I've been wanting is a way to share the map, and trying to use roll20 as only a map tool gets a bit finicky.

[@tedp9146]

A little late but: the dice rolling physics in owlbearodeo are so good. It looks cooler to roll in dnd beyond but the physics in OBR are just so much better, don’t know how they did it

[@crimsonhawk52]

Ay we're starting a campaign this week and going to use owlbear rodeo. My only wishes so far is I wish I could draw just by clicking on the grid to color the square on the grid, and I wish I could layer drawings. Also now that I think about it, I wish I could put images on the notes on owlbear rodeo. Maybe I can. Not sure, will have to check

[@crimsonhawk52]

Also, I wish I could pick the dice I want to roll and then roll them all at once, rather than rolling each dice seperately as I choose each of them.

[@garycastaldo7692]

Foundry VTT is my favorite.

[@parkeroneilbryant]

Can you do an example/tutorial video in making a map and running an encounter in Owlbear Rodeo?

[@WASD20]

I'll consider it. Thanks for the suggestion. Perhaps something along the lines of - how I run games online, showing the various tools I use.

[@JimJonesGreatBigTable]

I would love to hear your opinions on the best dungeon mapping software. A tutorial or two would be great too.

[@squasher5008]

as an Owlbear user I personally really like, "Dungeon Scrawl by PortableTrain" for drawing my own Dungeon maps using a square grid system. it is a free tool that is easy enough to use and is not super resource intensive.