Online Gaming Platforms

[Will Dover]

Given that GMs and players have been gaming online for a while now, is there a preferential platform? Please provide pros and cons for your answer. Thanks!

[LokiTheWanderer]

My personal preference is Fantasy Grounds.

Pros:
More available content for Starfinder (only 3 books coded and released for PF2 so far).  Update - As of yesterday, a fourth sourcebook was made available for Pathfinder 2E.  Starfinder has all books except Near Space currently available for use.
Automatic answers on to hit and application of damage (provided players and GM properly apply targeting)
Lots of instructional videos on YouTube on how to use the software.
Availability of use on Windows, iOS, Linux, and Steam.
More material being added frequently.
Free to use (except for GMs)
Unity is cloud based, by default, where Classic is a direct connection by players to a GMs PC (Unity also supports this).
Ability to make games private and / or password protected.
GMs can share purchased resources with up to 15 players.
Monthly subscriptions and lifetime licenses are available.
Ability to link your Fantasy Grounds account to both your Paizo and Steam accounts.
Resources purchased at Paizo via PDF (after account link) provide a discount for purchasing the same material at Fantasy Grounds.
Purchases of source material at a Fantasy Grounds (after account link) give you the PDF on your Paizo account at no additional cost.
Bundle pricing available for some game system materials.
Players can create their characters locally ahead of time and then import them to the GMs campaign.

Cons:
Software download required.
The two versions of the software (Classic and Unity) will not permit users of the opposite version connect to games.
Not the most intuitive software to use.
Learning curve can be a little steep.
Character creation is quirky.
No way to import from HeroLab (not sure if PCGen files can be imported).
Unity is still in open Beta and has some glitches (like disconnects, server drops, etc.).
If you have a lot of resources for a campaign and try to load the campaign with all resources loaded, your campaign will not connect to the lobby server and players will be unable to connect to your game.
Cost for full license plus source materials can be a bit high, and source materials cost the same on Fantasy Grounds as they do from Paizo, so purchasing a resource on Fantasy Grounds if you already purchased a hard copy book equates to buying the book twice.
Manual entry is required if you do not purchase the source material or it is not available.
Translation of scenarios that are not yet available for purchase on Fantasy Grounds is time consuming.

On a side note, Discord voice channels also have their quirks, at times dropping audio where you have to disconnect and reconnect to get it back.

[Will Dover]

I see it has subscription and one-time pricing models. I wonder if I could do subscription for a month or two and then pay the one-time cost. More expensive, but less expensive if I don't like it or if we go back to live events.

[LokiTheWanderer]

I see it has subscription and one-time pricing models. I wonder if I could do subscription for a month or two and then pay the one-time cost. More expensive, but less expensive if I don't like it or if we go back to live events.

Actually, yes.  Here's how I did it.  I signed up on the subscription model, then opted to go lifetime license.  Since I already had the subscription model, I got a discount of 40% on the lifetime license.  When I canceled the subscription due to having the license, they gave a full refund of the license price and did not go after full price on the lifetime (I wasn't trying to game the system, but it ended up working out that way).  Since I had the Classic license and then opted to add Unity (after a conversation with Liam indicating that Unity works better for users with MACs), the license was discounted 50% since I already had the Classic license.  So, all told, I may have paid slightly under a full license price for two full licenses.

[Will Dover]

What version are you using, Joel?

[LokiTheWanderer]

I have both versions, but I'm using Unity (which has its drawbacks since it's an open Beta). I've done character creation in both (you can import the characters between both as well as the campaign information)

[Will Dover]

Looks like you need Ultimate to host demo players.

[LokiTheWanderer]

Correct. That's where the cost comes in. Only a GM has to have a license, and only the Ultimate license will permit the Demo users to connect.

[LokiTheWanderer]

Looks like you need Ultimate to host demo players.

If you haven't already purchased a license or subscription, grab the demo and sit in on the session I'm trying to pull off at noon on Saturday, if you're available.  That will give you a test drive of it as a player, at least.

[Will Dover]

May get the demo and do as you suggest. What system are you running Saturday?