Checking in with Roll20—Its been a while and a lot has changed

It’s been nearly four years since we ran an actual play mini campaign on Roll20 (“Return to the Glory”); the height of the pandemic, when we were all huddled in our houses, trying to figure out how to play games that usually required everyone to be in the same room. Some fun was had, but by the time we wrapped it up, the technical hurdles of trying to stream a VTT (Virtual TableTop) live had taken their toll (with most of the frustration directed at what was likely at the time an overburdened Twitch). While Roll20 proved to be perfectly serviceable with enough effort and preparation, the experience itself felt under designed and overdeveloped.

Not surprisingly, Roll20 adoption boomed during the Covid years, with their user base tripling immediately, and continuing to grow to this day. Competition has grown as well, with several new competitors like Alchemy, Foundry, and even stalwart predecessor Fantasy Grounds bringing fresh takes on the VTT concept that Roll20 helped to popularize over a decade ago. With Sigil, D&D’s own Unreal Engine fueled VTT about to turn the corner and hoping to bridge the gap between table play and video games, Roll20’s place in the market it revolutionized is about to be challenged like it never has before.

For our part, once we were able to play across the table again, we did so with almost comical haste. As such, our Roll20 accounts have largely sat dormant these last few years, our eagerness to put the lonely days of virtual play behind us. Recently, we decided to shake off the dust and log in again to see what changes may have been made in our absence. What was Roll20 up to these days? Well, here’s a list of what has changed:

Mergers and acquisitions:

• In 2022, Roll20 merged with DriveThruRPG, and the integration of the two resulted in Roll20’s Marketplace diversifying away from just 5E D&D material, as well as PDF support in Roll20.

• In 2023, Roll20 acquired online map-making tool DungeonScrawl. While they are working on integrating the tool directly into the Roll20 app, for now maps made in the tool can be imported and used thanks to the new pdf support.
• In June 2024, Roll20 acquired online character builder “for everything else” Demiplane. While it’s too soon to expect much integration of the two tools just yet, Demiplane should shore up parity with D&D Beyond’s character builder and then some, providing functionality for more than just D&D.

App updates:

• New interface designs and improved functionality are front and center with Project Jumpgate, the biggest overhaul of the VTT since they launched. Roll20 is promising a faster, easier to use, and better looking experience, and our time with it so far has been much improved!

• Discord integration rolled out this summer, giving players the ability to launch Roll20 from within a voice channel in Discord. While I am sure the video chat functionality within Roll20 has improved since the last time we used it, being able to use Discord’s rock solid capabilities without skipping a beat makes things even easier.

So yeah, don’t let the familiar website screens fool you, a LOT has changed with Roll20 and a lot more is on the way: Cosmere RPG content, new features and functionality as more integration with Dungeonscrawl and Demiplane proceeds, and, yes, full support for D&D 2024 content and features, including a new character builder and redesigned compendium.

All this is certainly reason to give the original VTT a fresh look, and we here at GamingTrend won’t be letting those accounts sit idle anymore. Going forward, any Roll20 supported TTRPG coverage on the site and on our channels will include discussion about how well it works on a virtual tabletop. Ideally, we’d like for all of our TTRPG coverage to include this, but for now we’re going to experiment with Roll20’s implementations, so expect that in upcoming content and reviews of Pathfinder, Free League Publishing, Cosmere RPG, and more. The hope is that we not only provide a greater understanding of the game reviewed, but also stay engaged with the now much higher stakes VTT market. We will also continue to assess Project Jumpgate and the new features rolling out to the platform over the next few months. Will we only be looking at Roll20? Probably not, but we do appreciate them providing us extended access into their offerings as they enter this new phase.

Finally, we asked our Senior Tabletop Editor, John Farrell, to revisit Roll20 recently, as he put in the work years ago reviewing the platform and its content. Here’s what he had to say about the changes of the last few years:

Way back in 2017 I wrote a few pieces discussing Roll20’s implementation of some D&D adventures, also touching on the site’s overall features. I had some nice things to say about its ease of use as a virtual tabletop, but also a number of specific issues with its interface and features. Now in 2024, Roll20 has changed a lot, and I can talk about how those thoughts compare with the modern site. The pandemic led to a sea change in roleplay, exploding the number of groups who do their gaming virtually. That time has also seen changes in Roll20’s content and technology.

To start, I want to applaud Roll20’s categorical banning of AI generated content. This is the only acceptable stance to have on this topic, Chris Cocks’ blatant lies notwithstanding. AI has no place in the fundamentally human act of collaborative storytelling, and they’re taking the right stance here. How they will enforce this while partners take other stances is a complicated topic, and one that demands ongoing scrutiny from customers and games media alike.

One of my former issues with Roll20 was its somewhat limited focus on Dungeons and Dragons. This was in no way a problem created or fomented by the platform; after all, D&D was and remains the biggest game in town, and consistently made up over 50% of their games back when Roll20 would annually report those figures. Since then, D&D’s quality has declined while Hasbro’s actions have become more blatantly anti-consumerist. Luckily, Roll20 has substantially increased its support for other games. I have since played implementations of Roll20’s Monster of the Week, Star Trek Adventures, and Dungeon World, and found their character tools simple enough to use that I can easily recommend them to new groups. The effort saved during play is considerable.

Roll20’s merger with DrivethruRPG helps to diversify the games available, including pdf support for Roll20 modules, inclusion of DMs Guild materials, and more integrations planned for the future. I remember having specific complaints about the quality of voice and video, stating that Discord was a better option. Modern Roll20 features a Discord integration that allows launching the software directly into Discord. I had issues with the interface as well, and recently commented that I found Demiplane a clean, refreshing user experience. Roll20 bought Demiplane, will house the official Cosmere RPG nexus, and a beta of the Roll20 UX design available to all users. The two sites do integrate, and Demiplane’s content sharing policy, at the time I wrote about it, was quite reasonable. That said, the creator I spoke to has since left for Fantasy Grounds, so there may or may not be changes ahead.

Though partially owing to the particular adventures that Roll20 was adapting, I raised concerns about the quality of battlemaps and scaling. Last year, Roll20 purchased Dungeon Scrawl, a free map-making tool that allows GMs to create on the fly as well as in advance of campaigns. You can export maps, upload them onto the VTT, and expect more integrations into the site soon.

Under most conditions, I consider massive consolidations of niche media under one roof to be a bad thing. Usually it leads to stagnation and the sidelining of a healthy, diverse market. On the contrary, Roll20 has shown itself to be adaptable, open to criticism, and a dedicated nexus for games from all over. If it’s going to stand up to Sigil, it will have to be.

—John

It’s hard to believe Roll20 has been around for more than a decade at this point, and the competition of recent years has at minimum validated their vision for a virtual tabletop application. The changes they are making should make it a viable player for years to come, with these next few likely to be the most transformative in the market. If you’ve never used Roll20 before, or like us, haven’t touched it since the Pandemic, go to Roll20.net and give it a spin. Make sure you opt-in to the Jumpgate beta, which is now available for free on all accounts. Stay tuned to GamingTrend for continued coverage of Roll20 and other players in the VTT space!

Editor’s Note: It was brought to our attention that we incorrectly named Roll20 at the original VTT on the the market, when in fact Fantasy Grounds first launched in 2004 and was on it’s third version by the time Roll20 launched it’s Kickstarter in 2012. There were others as well, with D20Pro and Maptool (now called RPTool) surviving to this day. The article has been changed to reflect this, please accept our apologies :)

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