What are the best software tools for playing tabletop games over Internet?

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GamingTabletopWeb

What are the best software tools for playing tabletop games over Internet?

10

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Considered

69

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Recs.

Feb 6, 2024

Last
Updated

10 Games Considered

Best software tools for playing tabletop games over Internet	Price	Steam Rating	Platforms
-- Tabletop Simulator	-	Overwhelmingly Positive	-
-- Discord	-	-	Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android
-- VASSAL	-	-	-
-- Roll20	-	-	-
-- Fantasy Grounds	$3.99	-	-

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Ziago

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score 15 · Answer 1

Tabletop Simulator

Top Pro

Huge amounts of user-created content

Users create and share assets among the community, allowing for a limitless number of tabletop games. See More

Top Con

No Automation

Unlike many, dedicated, Virtual Table Tops, this has no built-in automation for playing specific games. See More

Mark Skarr's Experience

My gaming group has been using this for years to play both D&D and GURPS since our group has been spread across the continental US. It's much more versatile than any of the other VTTs we've tried. The program lacks system-specific automation, but, to me, that's a strength, not a weakness (I've included it as a CON as many people would consider this a point against it). I have a fair bit of experience in the 3d Printer maker community, so I have the experience necessary to create models and load them into the game. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Pro

Variety of games

This game has pretty much anything you want to play. You can even make your own stuff for d&d or such. See More

Top Con

Commercial

Costs around $15 per player. See More

Top Pro

Flippin' Tables

Now when you get angry in board games, what do you do? FLIP THE TABLE! That's right, you can actually flip the table, and make all the pieces fly into nothing. What a horrible person you are. See More

Top Con

The UI is somewhat clunky

Top Pro

A large selection of mods available

Tabletop Simulator includes Steam Workshop support allowing community to create mods for users to download and use with Tabletop Simulator. Games such as Monopoly, Clue, even Cards Against Humanity have been converted. See More

Top Pro

Audio chat included

See All

score 3 · Answer 2

Discord

Top Pro

Open source bots and management tools

Discord has a wide variety of bots for things from airhorn noises to automated server management, to leveling systems for chat. The bot API is open and there are dedicated sites for finding bots. See More

Top Con

No self-hosting avaliable

Discord is wholly hosted by Discord (the company), you cannot run private instances, and all servers are hosted on their infrastructure. For most people, this won't really impact their usage. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Free for unlimited users

Unlimited amount of users. See More

Top Pro

Numerous controls for setting member roles

Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc. See More

Top Pro

Supports video and text communication

Behaves and looks like Slack for regular text channels, but with the ability to create voice channels as well. See More

Top Pro

Easy setup

You can quickly send invites to people and they can join in using the web client without having to create an account or install the app. See More

Top Pro

Good 1-click invite system

Discord allows inviting people to a specific channel with a link. Links can be set to expire. Low effort/passive invite mechanics. See More

Top Pro

Can be used in browser

Users can invite others to join a Discord channel via a web link, which means no installation is required to use the software - which is one of the big typical barriers to entry for social software. See More

Top Pro

User friendly

Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft. See More

See All

score 8 · Answer 3

VASSAL

Top Pro

Free and open source

The source code is available here, licensed under LGPL v2.1+. See More

Top Con

No longer updated for newer versions of Java

Vassal doesn't support any versions of Java after version 8. See More

Top Pro

Tons of free game modules you can download

Top Pro

A vast community that provides a great selection of games

Vassal engine allows downloading user pre-made games, called modules, from a public repository. There currently are over a 1.5k modules. See More

Top Pro

Active develeopment

Vassal engine is actively maintained with a new release every other month or so. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

VASSAL is available natively on Windows, OS X & Linux. See downloads page. See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 4

Roll20

Top Pro

There's nothing to download or install

Roll20 is a web-based application that can be run in any modern web-browser making for an easy and quick way to get all players up and running. See More

Top Con

Laggy

The Roll20 interface is a little bit more sluggish than it ought to be. See More

AmbitiousKuu's Experience

Quick to learn the basics, and you can play with just the basics. Lots of depth behind that, never needed to go there! See More

Top Pro

Easy access to character sheets inside of RPGs

You can view your character sheets, and make rolls by clicking on various skills and abilities on the character sheet. You can cast spells by clicking on the appropriate parts of character sheets. See More

Top Con

Not 3D

Roll20 is a strictly 2D, top-down view tool. See More

BrilliantEunostus's Experience

You can use Beyond20 to directly link DNDBeyond character sheets to Roll20 games See More

Top Pro

Has a whole backlog of premade RPGs

GloriousFides's Experience

Roll20 is my goto tool. I tried not using a tabletop, I tried wet erase grids, dungeon tiles, table maps, Astral Tabletop, and Tabletop Simulator. Roll20 is a little laggy and not perfect, but it minimizes the amount of work I have to do as a DM. The experience works best if you spend a little money. Otherwise, I recommend looking at Astral Tabletop, which doesn't have all the paid options Roll20 has, but works a little more smoothly. See More

Top Pro

Free

It's free as long as you don't need too many features, otherwise you have to subscribe. See More

Mark Skarr's Experience

Was completely useless for anything that wasn't D&D. See More

Top Pro

Easy to control what players can see

With any subscription ($5/month) on the part of the GM, Dynamic Lighting can be enabled. This allows players to only be able to see what their characters should see, without any management by the GM. Light boundaries must be set up beforehand, or you can buy professional maps. You can use fog of war for free, which has simple controls. See More

Top Pro

Very easy to create 5e character sheets

Charactermancer uses SRD content, and any purchased modules to turn character creation into a multiple choice wizard. No need to type in the text of spells or abilities, the weights of objects, or calculate your armor class. This is all performed automatically. See More

Top Pro

You can make whatever RPG you want

Top Pro

Very easy prep for D&D 5e

Wizards has created purchasable modules for nearly every published fifth edition adventure. These are set up and ready to go, if you know how to use Roll20. There are additional 3rd party submissions available for purchase or for free on the marketplace. See More

See All

score 8 · Answer 5

Fantasy Grounds

Top Con

Commercial

It isn't free, and there are less expensive paid alternatives. And it's typically the GM that has to foot the bill for the players. See More

Specs

See All Specs

score 5 · Answer 6

ZunTzu

Top Pro

Over 200 games

Top Con

Development stopped in 2011

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Built-in audio chat

See All

score 5 · Answer 7

Battlegrounds (BRPG or BGE)

Top Con

Commercial

Both editions cost money. However, every BGE client comes with anywhere between 1 and 15 free player slots, allowing that many people to play using just the free BGE Demo. See More

Top Pro

Works very well even with esoteric RPG systems and rulesets

Truly system-agnostic, unlike other VTTs that are clearly intended primarily for D&D or d20 systems. See More

Hernán Ruiz Camauër's Experience

This virtual tabletop has long had support for many features that are frequently requested in other VTT apps. See More

Top Con

Not fully cross-platform anymore

Although earlier versions of Mac OS X are supported (v10.1.5 through v10.6), more recent versions of Mac OS X (those lacking Rosetta support) are not. And there is no official support for Linux (but users have reported success running the program in Wine or Virtualbox). See More

Top Pro

Provides comprehensive support for tokens on tabletop

A great feature of BRPG and BGE is that they provide comprehensive (and perhaps it isn't a stretch to say "unmatched") support for tokens on the tabletop. See More

Mark Skarr's Experience

Tried using this for GURPS and it just didn't have the versatility necessary. See More

Top Pro

Only the host of the game session has to have bought a license

Since BGE comes with anywhere between 1 and 15 free Player Slots, those players only need the free BGE Demo to play. See More

Top Pro

Easy to create digital game conversions (BGE)

One of the better features of BGE is that it is very easy (and even fun!) to create a personal digital game conversion. See More

Top Pro

Free artpacks available for download

Professional-grade content available for free is definitely a good thing. See More

Top Pro

Free digital game conversions available for download

What could help offset the price of the software a bit is the free software conversions that are available on site. Zombie-lovers in particular should take note, as five of the game conversions offered are zombie-themed. Some free game conversion can also be found on Pinterest and boardgamegeek. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 8

Talespire

Top Pro

Can be run through Discord using only one account and stream

Top Con

Very pricey

Leito's Experience

Fantastic despite still being in the early access stage. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 9

Digital d20

Top Pro

Just one click to add a map

Best solution for fitting tokens inside map See More

EnterprisingBacchus's Experience

Really easy and simple See More

10 Games Considered

My Recommendation for Tabletop Simulator

My Recommendation for Tabletop Simulator

Huge amounts of user-created content

No Automation

Variety of games

Commercial

Flippin' Tables

The UI is somewhat clunky

A large selection of mods available

Audio chat included

My Recommendation for Discord

My Recommendation for Discord

Open source bots and management tools

No self-hosting avaliable

Free for unlimited users

Numerous controls for setting member roles

Supports video and text communication

Easy setup

Good 1-click invite system

Can be used in browser

User friendly

My Recommendation for VASSAL

My Recommendation for VASSAL

Free and open source

No longer updated for newer versions of Java

Tons of free game modules you can download

A vast community that provides a great selection of games

Active develeopment

Cross-platform

My Recommendation for Roll20

My Recommendation for Roll20

There's nothing to download or install

Laggy

Easy access to character sheets inside of RPGs

Not 3D

Has a whole backlog of premade RPGs

Free

Easy to control what players can see

Very easy to create 5e character sheets

You can make whatever RPG you want

Very easy prep for D&D 5e

My Recommendation for Fantasy Grounds

My Recommendation for Fantasy Grounds

Commercial

My Recommendation for ZunTzu

My Recommendation for ZunTzu

Over 200 games

Development stopped in 2011

Free

Built-in audio chat

My Recommendation for Battlegrounds (BRPG or BGE)

My Recommendation for Battlegrounds (BRPG or BGE)

Commercial

Works very well even with esoteric RPG systems and rulesets

Not fully cross-platform anymore

Provides comprehensive support for tokens on tabletop

Only the host of the game session has to have bought a license

Easy to create digital game conversions (BGE)

Free artpacks available for download

Free digital game conversions available for download

My Recommendation for Talespire

My Recommendation for Talespire

Can be run through Discord using only one account and stream

Very pricey

My Recommendation for Ziago

My Recommendation for Ziago

My Recommendation for Digital d20

My Recommendation for Digital d20

Just one click to add a map

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