If you’re the kind of person that really wants to “wow” folks but doesn’t have the time to build everything from scratch, you can just pick up some preconstructed adventures and run them without too much tweaking. In addition to subscription tiers, Roll20 also straight-up sells digital modules and handbooks to play a number of different RPG systems. No need to up the learning curve from the start, after all. I’ve subscribed in the past and likely will again in the future, but for someone just starting out, a sub will likely only add more stuff to fiddle with.
The different subscription tiers (Plus at $49.99 a year and Pro at $99.99 a year) add more storage, the aforementioned dynamic lighting, custom character sheets, and more.
It’s a nice setup, really, because you can run full campaigns without having to pay anything, but all of the extras are helpful.
But all of the core functionality is there from the start, and there’s no reason to upgrade if you don’t need the extras. There are also certain premium options in Roll20, and they range from useful to extremely useful: things like dynamic lighting and premium tokens.
There’s even a jukebox function baked into the free version that lets you set the mood with a little music. Basic text chat also allows for rolling dice, sending messages as specific characters, and just, well, shooting the breeze. Want to do video and voice while you play? That’s built right in. And of all the reasons to give Roll20 a shot, possibly the biggest is the simplest: it’s free.įrom the start, Roll20 lets you create campaigns, use a variety of different maps which can be toggled as active or not, place digital miniatures in the form of tokens that can then be moved about said maps, and more. Various upgrades are available to purchase, but the basic service will let anyone do all of the above without too much muss or fuss. It launched in 2012 and allows people to create, share, and play tabletop campaigns.
Roll20 is a digital platform from relatively small company The Orr Group. If you have access to the internet, you can run virtual tabletop games of Dungeons & Dragons-or anything else-thanks to Roll20.Įnlarge / Your standard map with tokens on it after a hard-fought battle with dice rolls to the side. And it does so without overly complicating things. If so, Roll20 solves the biggest hurdle between you and delving dungeons with your buddies. Perhaps, like me, you had fun adventures with friends locally when you were younger or, perhaps you're interested in role-playing now but unable to actually, you know, meet up with anyone thanks to the pandemic. Across five different states, there wasn't a dry eye among our team, but we recomposed ourselves and continued to play our tabletop adventure through the service we’ve used for half a decade now: Roll20. Our team had come this far only to lose its youngest member. Emmelina, the knight that had first welcomed him into the group, cradled him in her arms as he took his last breath. Erik sighed deeply, and though his vision blurred, he could still see the rest of the party coming to his aid. When the dust cleared, the golem lay in pieces across the dungeon floor.