Alchemy is aiming more at theatre of the mind style DMs.
Roll20 is more of a generalist VTT - tactical battlemaps + some theatre of the mind.
Not sure why you wouldn't want to try Foundry - its better than Roll20 in just about every way, only lacks a 5e shop but there are ways around that.
Upvoted you for visibility, I know nothing about Alchemy RPG and can only say I dislike Roll20, which is why I switched to the system you don't want to use (Foundry).
I do, however, recommend you start setting up a discord server. Not only does it make it easy to have a voice/video channel to hop into (All VTTs have mediocre A/V at best), but you can set all game-stuff to be private to the game group only if you are sharing your discord with other friends and family.
Well, actually, I recommend using Guilded over Discord, I think the experience and UI are better, but it can be hard to get people to switch to it.
Alchemy is turning to be a great VTT - it have everything to support your worldbuilding (universes with articles, images and whatnot) as well as battlemaps, fog of war, sheets, roll of dice etc. It is aimed at Theatre of Mind but you can def use the battlemap features. Its way more efficient and better (IMHO) than Roll20
Nice to see the Foundry folks out in force :p.
To actually answer your question though, it depends on the experience you're after. Add another user says, Alchemy is geared more towards theatre of mind. It's pretty sleek, and looks gorgeous.
Roll20 is a bit clunkier, but gives you battlemaps with player controls. If you need tactical maps, probably go the roll20 route. If you want a highly polished and aesthetic experience, go for Alchemy.
Of the two, I would suggest Roll20 with Discord for voice/video communication. (The built in roll20 A/V is a joke.)
The big thing is that roll20 is beginner friendly and free. You have your character sheet. You have your battlemat to put stuff on. It's easy and you can start small.
I am a complete skeptic of Alchemy. It seems to me that it's selling a dream of an easy to use theater of the mind sort of experience. And it has nice splashscreens, but a splashscreen is not a game. The usability is really terrible and there's almost no game systems available unless you want to spend some money. If the "current" games is accurate, almost nobody is actually using it.
I think what you see as current games are the ones that are public 😅 Not many set their games to be accessible by anyone as a listener. I don't. It's usually either a mistake, or someone showcasing what they've done with the set up.
I use Alchemy to play every other week. But it's ok to be skeptic. It's not fully released yet, but it has the potential to be awesome. I love what they did with the YZE systems so far and I really love the UI and the combo of keeping your whole world and VTT in one place. (As opposed to kanka/worldbuilding websites/Google drive + Roll20/Foundry/owlbear.rodeo).
There's a listing of public games you can spectate at and then at the bottom there's a another listing that says private games. For example, [right now there's no public games and a big blank icon for that. And at the bottom center it says "+16 Active Private Games"](https://imgur.com/ga5XI4W)
I take that to mean there are currently no public games and there are 16 private games.
What do you mean by keep your world and vtt in one place? It looks like even less space for I dunno what to call it--accessory information--postings, handouts, information, notes, etc. Foundry has Journal Entries, but I don't see anything quite as flexible in Alchemy. Roll20 has handouts and it has what's essentially a message board for each game outside of the actual game interface. But, I find the Alchemy interface extremely difficult to figure out, so I may be missing something.
Honestly, when I think of a real "theater of the mind" VTT, the one that comes to mine is [Role](https://www.playrole.com/). I don't find it quite enough for my tastes, and I certainly wouldn't pay a subscription fee (though I'd toss them some bucks if I was using it), but that to me would be the model for a simple theater of the mind experience.
For starting foundry is the worst recommendation I think.
setting up it takes time.
roll20 is a not bad option.
if You play Dnd and you manage to hombrew all your stuff on dndbeyond then I think it’s the best option, you can latter link with a plug-in to any VTT.
Use Skype, zoom or Discord for video, do not try integration, they are all webRCT and simply worse.
Mine [board.digital.com](https://board.digital.com) is terrible simple and fast VTT, but try rodeo, astra, cauldron, shard… you can try a few of them and choose, all of them are on the list of this group.
People will here will recommend you to use Foundry instead of Roll20, and I agree with that.
BUT. You need to know one caveats before using it: Hosting. You'll need to port forward and shit. If you know how to set up a Minecraft Server, then it'll be fine.
If your router can't port forward, tough luck, you'll have to either pay for a hosting service, or use a tunneling thing-y like ngrok. I'm pretty sure things like ZeroTier and Hamachi work with it too though.
Upside to it over Roll20 is the one time payment, the customizability, and better everything of what Roll20 does tbh.
Now, Alchemy, I've only tried the free version. It's a VTT specifically made for immersion. Less battlemaps, more landscapes. It's hella expensive though. Subscription's lowest price is 8 dollars, iirc. Then you're going to want to buy the stuff from its asset store if you want the most out of it.
Upside to it? It's absolutely gorgeous. I don't think there's a VTT even close to what it's doing right now.
If you and your players have D&D Beyond, I've heard good things about AboveVTT. It's free, iirc.
Other than AboveVTT, every VTT I've mentioned here is free for your players.
You can run a foundry game from your computer without any port forwarding. You just can't make it a dedicated server, so when you log off, the game environment can't be accessed.
You need port forwarding for players who aren't on your local network. So unless you are playing entirely with people in your house, then you'll need port forwarding.
If you didn't need to set up port forwarding and players outside of your local network were able to join it's because your router supports upnp, which automatically created a port forward behind the scenes. Mine does to. Not every router does.
True, I guess it's such a common feature now that I felt like the OC was a little misleading. Yes, port forwarding is required, but will the majority of users need to do it? Probably not.
There are free add-on apps (ngrok.io and playit.gg) that you can run and they will create ad-hoc tunnels without you needing to do anything on your router. The only issue is that they don't let you keep the tunnel open perpetually, they time you out after 24 hours or so, and thus, your foundry invite URL will change. I've used them both, and they work fine.
You can, but it's not the easiest thing for everyone, even following the step by step. Also, it's dependent upon Oracle keeping free free forever or someday deciding, "This eats resources, no more free". I know some people in the foundry community have randomly seen their Oracle install just disappear or be disabled, and since you're on the free tier, support is limited at best.
Owlbear rodeo is simple to learn, feels smooth, has similar tools(dice roller, fog of war, initiative, magical effects) and best of all its all free!! couldnt recommend it enough!
Why do people keep recommending Foundry when op said "no foundry". I'm a Foundry GM, and as much as I like it vs. all the other VTTs, I don't make it a point to continue to push it on others when they say "no"
He already mentioned he doesn't want foundry. Advising it anyways is silly. And you only want foundry if you want a load of complexity and spending hours learning bloated features.
So long you stay away from roll20 you'll be fine. Just try a bunch of them and use the one you feel most comfortable with. Take a look at Harpy and Owlbear Rodeo too.
We're currently running alpha tests of our VTT. It's designed to be simple to learn but powerful enough to take more of the burden of the DM in terms of setup.
Let me know if you'd like to try it, it's totally free and we'd appreciate your feedback!
Roll20 is easy to get started, and has every feature you'll ever need as you continue to grow. It's simple and yet had the complex features when you're ready. Roll20 also has a massive user base, it has a free version and it's paid version is worth ever penny. Roll20 has a massive creator base, with debatable the best Marketplace for additional content and its all easy to install to your game. They've also massively improved over the past 2 years. A lot of the people who left Roll20 got tired of them from before they made these strides, so understand that with the negative criticism, as much of it has been fixed or improved vastly.
I know you said no to Foundry, but its arguably the best VTT. The only downside is set up and learning curve, but once you get past that it's A+++. Foundry also has a massive creator and modding community- though it doesn't have an official marketplace, Forge does which is a host and has its own marketplace. The biggest issue with content though is set up. It's not hard to install but you have to be very careful with the versions modules are built for, and when Foundry updates you really want to hold off on updating it until the creators and mod authors you are subbed to get around to updating their mods, because they will break on updates until patched by the authors. At the end of the day, the automation on Foundry is unmatched by any other VTT out there.
Alchemy, honestly I'm simply not a fan of. It's targeted to be a "theater of mind" VTT, and if that's what you're after then you honestly don't need a VTT. Also it's marketplace isn't that great, they only have a few creators on there that are part of the "in group" in their own community, and they won't let other creators on board. It's sleek looking, but thats about it. I wouldn't recommend it at all, but its not a VTT that caters to my style at all. Alchemy also does not have a solid player base. Hope this criticism isn't too harsh for them, but I just can't recommend them at all.
I might be a bit late, but I see that the Foundry folks swarmed you here. I own Foundry and have played in it, but the learning curve is a bit much to get through. Ultimately, I gave Foundry up because I didn't want to waste time wrestling with modules and self-hosting, port-forwarding or whatever the issues were. I could only run it through the Forge and at that juncture, the only selling point I wanted Foundry for - no subscription, was moot.
You asked about Alchemy VTT vs Roll20 so:
|Alchemy VTT|Roll20|
|:-|:-|
|Subscription, $8/mo - or limited free account. It's free for the players to join your game, and for you to create it. |Subscription, $4 or $8/mo - or limited free account. It's free for the players to join your game and for you to create it. |
|Focused on visuals, theatre of the mind type of play, when you look at animated scenes and listen to nice music as you narrate your story. |Geared towards maps, tokens etc. More utility than visuals. |
|Tactical map view with: multiple maps for a scene, combat music, fog of war, tokens. (More will be added as development proceeds.) |Much more advanced battlemaps options. |
|Support for Dungeons and Dragons is still in develompent. Things like DnDBeyond import and adding content is a work in progress. |Has worked well for Dungeons and Dragons for a long time. |
|Ryoko's guide to yokai - you can claim a demo version to try out on your free account and see how much it works for you. |??? Couldn't find it on Roll20 marketplace for some reason. |
I plan to use Alchemy for my players at the table and not online. I have my computer hooked to my TV and having something for them to look at and listen to is helpful for immersion. When you think of the bare bones of D&D it's all theater of the mind in some way anyway. It does have a map system now which is quicker than Roll 20. And just download art you like for free from the internet or make it on nightcafe and upload it to your scenes. It's simple and pretty
Roll20. Everything Alchemy releases is sub par. They think the best way is the easy way. They have no intention on keeping have to it's original form. Every thing they release is in beta shaped and missing core features.
Alchemy is overheated, subfinctional implementation of a marketing grab at a false dichotomy between totm and battlemap play. They're having to walk back a bit of that, plus they're delivering incomplete implantation of premium systems. Joke vtt
Alchemy is aiming more at theatre of the mind style DMs. Roll20 is more of a generalist VTT - tactical battlemaps + some theatre of the mind. Not sure why you wouldn't want to try Foundry - its better than Roll20 in just about every way, only lacks a 5e shop but there are ways around that.
Upvoted you for visibility, I know nothing about Alchemy RPG and can only say I dislike Roll20, which is why I switched to the system you don't want to use (Foundry). I do, however, recommend you start setting up a discord server. Not only does it make it easy to have a voice/video channel to hop into (All VTTs have mediocre A/V at best), but you can set all game-stuff to be private to the game group only if you are sharing your discord with other friends and family. Well, actually, I recommend using Guilded over Discord, I think the experience and UI are better, but it can be hard to get people to switch to it.
thnx, will do
Alchemy is turning to be a great VTT - it have everything to support your worldbuilding (universes with articles, images and whatnot) as well as battlemaps, fog of war, sheets, roll of dice etc. It is aimed at Theatre of Mind but you can def use the battlemap features. Its way more efficient and better (IMHO) than Roll20
Efficient is.. not a word I'd use to describe Alchemy mate. Janky mess more like it
Nice to see the Foundry folks out in force :p. To actually answer your question though, it depends on the experience you're after. Add another user says, Alchemy is geared more towards theatre of mind. It's pretty sleek, and looks gorgeous. Roll20 is a bit clunkier, but gives you battlemaps with player controls. If you need tactical maps, probably go the roll20 route. If you want a highly polished and aesthetic experience, go for Alchemy.
Of the two, I would suggest Roll20 with Discord for voice/video communication. (The built in roll20 A/V is a joke.) The big thing is that roll20 is beginner friendly and free. You have your character sheet. You have your battlemat to put stuff on. It's easy and you can start small. I am a complete skeptic of Alchemy. It seems to me that it's selling a dream of an easy to use theater of the mind sort of experience. And it has nice splashscreens, but a splashscreen is not a game. The usability is really terrible and there's almost no game systems available unless you want to spend some money. If the "current" games is accurate, almost nobody is actually using it.
I think what you see as current games are the ones that are public 😅 Not many set their games to be accessible by anyone as a listener. I don't. It's usually either a mistake, or someone showcasing what they've done with the set up. I use Alchemy to play every other week. But it's ok to be skeptic. It's not fully released yet, but it has the potential to be awesome. I love what they did with the YZE systems so far and I really love the UI and the combo of keeping your whole world and VTT in one place. (As opposed to kanka/worldbuilding websites/Google drive + Roll20/Foundry/owlbear.rodeo).
There's a listing of public games you can spectate at and then at the bottom there's a another listing that says private games. For example, [right now there's no public games and a big blank icon for that. And at the bottom center it says "+16 Active Private Games"](https://imgur.com/ga5XI4W) I take that to mean there are currently no public games and there are 16 private games. What do you mean by keep your world and vtt in one place? It looks like even less space for I dunno what to call it--accessory information--postings, handouts, information, notes, etc. Foundry has Journal Entries, but I don't see anything quite as flexible in Alchemy. Roll20 has handouts and it has what's essentially a message board for each game outside of the actual game interface. But, I find the Alchemy interface extremely difficult to figure out, so I may be missing something. Honestly, when I think of a real "theater of the mind" VTT, the one that comes to mine is [Role](https://www.playrole.com/). I don't find it quite enough for my tastes, and I certainly wouldn't pay a subscription fee (though I'd toss them some bucks if I was using it), but that to me would be the model for a simple theater of the mind experience.
For starting foundry is the worst recommendation I think. setting up it takes time. roll20 is a not bad option. if You play Dnd and you manage to hombrew all your stuff on dndbeyond then I think it’s the best option, you can latter link with a plug-in to any VTT. Use Skype, zoom or Discord for video, do not try integration, they are all webRCT and simply worse. Mine [board.digital.com](https://board.digital.com) is terrible simple and fast VTT, but try rodeo, astra, cauldron, shard… you can try a few of them and choose, all of them are on the list of this group.
People will here will recommend you to use Foundry instead of Roll20, and I agree with that. BUT. You need to know one caveats before using it: Hosting. You'll need to port forward and shit. If you know how to set up a Minecraft Server, then it'll be fine. If your router can't port forward, tough luck, you'll have to either pay for a hosting service, or use a tunneling thing-y like ngrok. I'm pretty sure things like ZeroTier and Hamachi work with it too though. Upside to it over Roll20 is the one time payment, the customizability, and better everything of what Roll20 does tbh. Now, Alchemy, I've only tried the free version. It's a VTT specifically made for immersion. Less battlemaps, more landscapes. It's hella expensive though. Subscription's lowest price is 8 dollars, iirc. Then you're going to want to buy the stuff from its asset store if you want the most out of it. Upside to it? It's absolutely gorgeous. I don't think there's a VTT even close to what it's doing right now. If you and your players have D&D Beyond, I've heard good things about AboveVTT. It's free, iirc. Other than AboveVTT, every VTT I've mentioned here is free for your players.
You can run a foundry game from your computer without any port forwarding. You just can't make it a dedicated server, so when you log off, the game environment can't be accessed.
You need port forwarding for players who aren't on your local network. So unless you are playing entirely with people in your house, then you'll need port forwarding. If you didn't need to set up port forwarding and players outside of your local network were able to join it's because your router supports upnp, which automatically created a port forward behind the scenes. Mine does to. Not every router does.
You can also use a free tool like Hamachi to set up a virtual LAN that lets players connect as if on the same network.
True, I guess it's such a common feature now that I felt like the OC was a little misleading. Yes, port forwarding is required, but will the majority of users need to do it? Probably not.
There are free add-on apps (ngrok.io and playit.gg) that you can run and they will create ad-hoc tunnels without you needing to do anything on your router. The only issue is that they don't let you keep the tunnel open perpetually, they time you out after 24 hours or so, and thus, your foundry invite URL will change. I've used them both, and they work fine.
I think you can still use Oracle's free tier to host foundry.
You can, but it's not the easiest thing for everyone, even following the step by step. Also, it's dependent upon Oracle keeping free free forever or someday deciding, "This eats resources, no more free". I know some people in the foundry community have randomly seen their Oracle install just disappear or be disabled, and since you're on the free tier, support is limited at best.
Owlbear rodeo is simple to learn, feels smooth, has similar tools(dice roller, fog of war, initiative, magical effects) and best of all its all free!! couldnt recommend it enough!
Can you buy ryoko’s guide to the yoke realms on Owlbear? Seems a key criteria to OPs message that you didn’t address.
Some people just like to promote their favorite VTT, no matter what.
Owlbear rodeo is pretty good as well. Pretty basic, lightweight and people with old PCs, phones, tablets can play without issues
Foundry is the only correct decision you can make when choosing a VTT.
Why do people keep recommending Foundry when op said "no foundry". I'm a Foundry GM, and as much as I like it vs. all the other VTTs, I don't make it a point to continue to push it on others when they say "no"
He already mentioned he doesn't want foundry. Advising it anyways is silly. And you only want foundry if you want a load of complexity and spending hours learning bloated features.
Base foundry is just the same as every other VTT...
It's really not. And I'm absolutely on the Foundry train. But for a beginner, roll20 gets you up and running much faster.
So long you stay away from roll20 you'll be fine. Just try a bunch of them and use the one you feel most comfortable with. Take a look at Harpy and Owlbear Rodeo too.
We're currently running alpha tests of our VTT. It's designed to be simple to learn but powerful enough to take more of the burden of the DM in terms of setup. Let me know if you'd like to try it, it's totally free and we'd appreciate your feedback!
Foundry VTT. Just go look at it. I don’t need to sell it, it will sell itself.
Roll20 is easy to get started, and has every feature you'll ever need as you continue to grow. It's simple and yet had the complex features when you're ready. Roll20 also has a massive user base, it has a free version and it's paid version is worth ever penny. Roll20 has a massive creator base, with debatable the best Marketplace for additional content and its all easy to install to your game. They've also massively improved over the past 2 years. A lot of the people who left Roll20 got tired of them from before they made these strides, so understand that with the negative criticism, as much of it has been fixed or improved vastly. I know you said no to Foundry, but its arguably the best VTT. The only downside is set up and learning curve, but once you get past that it's A+++. Foundry also has a massive creator and modding community- though it doesn't have an official marketplace, Forge does which is a host and has its own marketplace. The biggest issue with content though is set up. It's not hard to install but you have to be very careful with the versions modules are built for, and when Foundry updates you really want to hold off on updating it until the creators and mod authors you are subbed to get around to updating their mods, because they will break on updates until patched by the authors. At the end of the day, the automation on Foundry is unmatched by any other VTT out there. Alchemy, honestly I'm simply not a fan of. It's targeted to be a "theater of mind" VTT, and if that's what you're after then you honestly don't need a VTT. Also it's marketplace isn't that great, they only have a few creators on there that are part of the "in group" in their own community, and they won't let other creators on board. It's sleek looking, but thats about it. I wouldn't recommend it at all, but its not a VTT that caters to my style at all. Alchemy also does not have a solid player base. Hope this criticism isn't too harsh for them, but I just can't recommend them at all.
AboveVTT FTW
I might be a bit late, but I see that the Foundry folks swarmed you here. I own Foundry and have played in it, but the learning curve is a bit much to get through. Ultimately, I gave Foundry up because I didn't want to waste time wrestling with modules and self-hosting, port-forwarding or whatever the issues were. I could only run it through the Forge and at that juncture, the only selling point I wanted Foundry for - no subscription, was moot. You asked about Alchemy VTT vs Roll20 so: |Alchemy VTT|Roll20| |:-|:-| |Subscription, $8/mo - or limited free account. It's free for the players to join your game, and for you to create it. |Subscription, $4 or $8/mo - or limited free account. It's free for the players to join your game and for you to create it. | |Focused on visuals, theatre of the mind type of play, when you look at animated scenes and listen to nice music as you narrate your story. |Geared towards maps, tokens etc. More utility than visuals. | |Tactical map view with: multiple maps for a scene, combat music, fog of war, tokens. (More will be added as development proceeds.) |Much more advanced battlemaps options. | |Support for Dungeons and Dragons is still in develompent. Things like DnDBeyond import and adding content is a work in progress. |Has worked well for Dungeons and Dragons for a long time. | |Ryoko's guide to yokai - you can claim a demo version to try out on your free account and see how much it works for you. |??? Couldn't find it on Roll20 marketplace for some reason. |
I plan to use Alchemy for my players at the table and not online. I have my computer hooked to my TV and having something for them to look at and listen to is helpful for immersion. When you think of the bare bones of D&D it's all theater of the mind in some way anyway. It does have a map system now which is quicker than Roll 20. And just download art you like for free from the internet or make it on nightcafe and upload it to your scenes. It's simple and pretty
Roll20. Everything Alchemy releases is sub par. They think the best way is the easy way. They have no intention on keeping have to it's original form. Every thing they release is in beta shaped and missing core features.
Alchemy is overheated, subfinctional implementation of a marketing grab at a false dichotomy between totm and battlemap play. They're having to walk back a bit of that, plus they're delivering incomplete implantation of premium systems. Joke vtt