Does everybody use discord these days

i'm so tired of it

Do you mean for Audio/Video? I stopped using it ever since the latest chat system came out. If you mean as a replacement for the entire chat system, I've never used it for that, nor have I played with anyone who has.

i mean for voice.  i have troubles finding groups not using it.

A lot of people do use it for voice/video but also "offline" campaign organization and sometimes even side stuff for their games. It's mobile friendly, so players can reference something when not in a session or even just hang out and chat with one another outside of the game. 

I have players who have problems using the in-game audio/video even with the new system. Even with Discord we don't use video because one of our players doesn't have the internet bandwidth to handle it (He lives in a rural area with limited options for internet access). I recently asked my players if they'd want to trying using Roll20's new audio/video system with the video turned off and the response was a resounding  NO . They like the flexibility of being able to communicate without actually logging into the game on Roll20. I find that Discord allows easier private messaging between me and my players (using private channels) and it allows for handling some stuff between game sessions, like PC s RPing shopping trips for special items or doing research; situations that players want to RP but would bog down the session for the others if played out "live".

I also use Discord for my groups organizational needs as well as voice (we don't do video).  I find the voice to be more reliable than Roll20's WebRTC was, and while we could move to the new Integrated Voice & Video as I said, we don't do video so there is really no need to do so.  Additionally, some of my players do voice via their phone while they are using Roll20 on their computer due to the age of their computer or other technical issues. That isn't possible in Roll20.  Discord also allows me to create chat channels specific to specific users for personal conversations, places for a user to leave notes to themselves, etc. Roll20 does not have the same level of out-of-game functionality.  Also, if someone posts on Discord the others in the group tend to see it more or less immediately because Discord is a very commonly used communications platform. If someone posts on Roll20 they will not see it unless they check into Roll20, or if they have notifications via email, their email. I used to use Roll20 for notifications and found people didn't see them for days, if ever. Discord gets a much better response time.  Finally, while Discord's search engine is...basic, it is better than Roll20's is. Makes it easier to find a post.  For example: A player accidentally deleted the instructions on an item specific to an adventure. I could search my discord loot channel for the location that item was found (I list loot by room), then go find that item in the adventure's description of that room. I would have a much harder time doing that in Roll20 as I would have to do a Ctrl+F search of each page of the loot thread. 

I use Discord for Voice. never tried the new system but no point in changing what isnt broken for us, so discord it is. That I also have a lot of DM behind the screen stuff on my discord as well. Easier organization tool as a DM. Video - Same, when we do, everyone prefer discord. Also allows me to share my screen. I have puzzles on a site, which allows me to have them share their screen. That cant be done with roll20.

Just curious, but why are you against using Discord? King Leonidas said: i mean for voice.  i have troubles finding groups not using it.

Our group uses Discord for audio mostly because we like having a second means of communication. If and when any of us have problems with Roll20 we can still communicate with Discord and hopefully solve any problems. The catastrophic problems with Roll20 are much fewer now than in the past so perhaps Discord has become a security blanket.

I use Discord for all voice and chat, leaving the Roll20 chat for in-game dice rolls. When I started in 2014 I used Google Hangouts, but I switched to Discord when Google dropped the API that Roll20 used. I have never used the built-in voice or video because my games have always been inter-continental. 

I play / DM with three groups, all of which use Discord for voice (one also does video), and all of us started with the old Roll20 system.  One of the groups did experiment with the new system, but it still had some issues, so they switched back to discord. Discord's big advantage is that they use a central server model, which for voice means one stream instead of one per player, and a lot less bandwidth, and that's a big deal for someone who's on the end of a congested appartment-building cable network with a low-quality wifi signal and is barely able to get a megabit reliably (and I have more than one player like that).  For those in the gigabit world, that may seem crazy but it's still the reality for a lot of people.  Heck, I'm just glad none of my players are still on DSL. Discord also generally just works, whereas roll20 on a Saturday night is sometimes less than stellar. And that matters, too.  I can deal with slow dice rolls, but failing audio is unacceptable. And while I gather the new system allows some kind of multiple audio channels, discord makes that simple and painless.  Something we used on a recent startup campaign, where two of us more experienced players were helping the DM manage multiple people generating new characters.  We just set up some extra channels and went one-on-one with the people having problems. So, while "everybody" doesn't use discord, a lot of us do, and for good reasons.  I can understand not wanting the extra complexity, and discord is a pain when it wants to download and install patches when you're trying to connect to a game, as it seems to do every saturday.  But that, to me, is a small price to pay for reliable audio. I'm glad Roll20 has integrated audio.  It saved me from having to learn two systems when I took my games online in 2020.  And I'd recommend it to someone starting out, just to simplify their learning curve.  But its repeated failures drove me nuts, and my players had no trouble adopting discord, even the tech-phobic ones, once I reduced it to a simple set of instructions (get an account, enter this url, click there, there, and there, and say "hi" to everyone). So I'm certainly never going back.

I use Discord and have for a long time.  From a "don't put all of your eggs into one basket" perspective, its ideal because if Roll20 is having issues with its communication capabilities, it doesn't impact my groups at all.  I can't remember the last time I had an issue with Discord that impacted any of my campaigns (but I can recall numerous Roll20 issues that caused issues to my campaigns.) If I eventually transition away from Roll20 it will be less of system shock to my players to still be using Discord. -Adam

I dont use Discord for its server community, but for voice chat during a session it seems decent. Apparently Roll20 has imrpoved lately. I havent tried that - what do other people think of it?

GiGs said: I dont use Discord for its server community, but for voice chat during a session it seems decent. Apparently Roll20 has imrpoved lately. I havent tried that - what do other people think of it? Love it. I still have a discord server for our group, but it's for between-game text communication. I love having the video in the same window as the game. We had a couple of issues the first couple of weeks, but they were due to one player just not being very computer savvy, and one player who needed to update some drivers. Maybe every other session or so, one of us might have to press the reconnect button and wait 1-2 seconds, but by and large it's great, and the whisper function is very handy. I know this is not everyone's experience, but I have no complaints.

Discord is a great tool to build communities, both small and large regardless of the VTT preferred by the different members. It allows to change voice server regions and provides a great call quality. Participants can fallback to voice on mobile phone. The combination discord/roll20 is giving more people the opportunity to join games: i play with lots of people that still use their last study pc, but have a much more recent phone. Discord  has many features to organize those communities, features that are beyond the scope of any vtt. It also supports the play of Epics: online events where many GMs each play at their own table, but can converge all participants to a single voice channel. Then again Roll20 excels at supporting Epic game play by allowing creation of a single master game that can be maintained by multiple GMs. A master game that can be duplicated - if need be - hours before the event. Discord/roll20 is the proven WoW for this (Way of Working).

I run two different campaigns using the same maps setup etc. I tried to switch to the in-house audio, I don't use video in my games, the group of older players with crappy computers, shaky internet, and almost negative technical skills got it working fine and we love it. The 20 something players with high end computers and tech skills had a 50% failure rate on the new system, this group is Saturday and the older group is Sunday, so it could be traffic related.

keithcurtis said: Maybe every other session or so, one of us might have to press the reconnect button and wait 1-2 seconds That's the kind of thing a mature system shouldn't be requiring, and is enough of an inconvenience for people to look elsewhere. I may give it a try, though.

A couple of the games I play in use Discord - run in the browser it's sort of ok.&nbsp; The group I run uses <a href="https://jitsi.org/" rel="nofollow">https://jitsi.org/</a> &nbsp; for non-roll20 games and the new voice chat when in Roll20 - we've found the new voice chat rock solid and the ability of the GM to whisper to one or more players secretly has allowed me a new level of deviousness :)

We use discord for audio.&nbsp; Roll20 for nearly everything else

GiGs said: keithcurtis said: Maybe every other session or so, one of us might have to press the reconnect button and wait 1-2 seconds That's the kind of thing a mature system shouldn't be requiring, and is enough of an inconvenience for people to look elsewhere. I may give it a try, though. I'd agree with you, if every other system I have tried (including Discord) didn't also have occasional connect issues. Things happen, and the plus of having the video engaged in the same window as the VTT vastly outweighs the occasional minor inconvenience.

My group met in a Facebook D&amp;D group so we use Messenger audio/video chat.&nbsp; I'm not an old fart by any means, but messenger is just so... uncomplicated.&nbsp; Not saying Discord is, but it's just less hassle for our group because the level of tech savviness varies from member to member.&nbsp;

keithcurtis said: GiGs said: keithcurtis said: Maybe every other session or so, one of us might have to press the reconnect button and wait 1-2 seconds That's the kind of thing a mature system shouldn't be requiring, and is enough of an inconvenience for people to look elsewhere. I may give it a try, though. I'd agree with you, if every other system I have tried (including Discord) didn't also have occasional connect issues. Things happen, and the plus of having the video engaged in the same window as the VTT vastly outweighs the occasional minor inconvenience. the voice program i use disconnects twice maybe per year depending on the server you run it on of course

keithcurtis said: GiGs said: keithcurtis said: Maybe every other session or so, one of us might have to press the reconnect button and wait 1-2 seconds That's the kind of thing a mature system shouldn't be requiring, and is enough of an inconvenience for people to look elsewhere. I may give it a try, though. I'd agree with you, if every other system I have tried (including Discord) didn't also have occasional connect issues. Things happen, and the plus of having the video engaged in the same window as the VTT vastly outweighs the occasional minor inconvenience. I've never experienced that with discord, or steam's voice chat. The worst I've experienced with Discord is it getting my microphone wrong, but that happens once in a blue moon. But if you have experienced issues, Roll20's might look better. I did go through a period of about a month where I had a flaky connection with discord, and it kept disconnection - even with text chat. So I guess no system is perfect.

My group switched off of Discord and onto Zoom several years ago.&nbsp; We used Discord for a long time, but a strange bug popped up where when a specific player would mute his mic, it would kick the GM from the call and he's have to rejoin. =D&nbsp; Despite the benefits of Players getting a chance to do some GM-less planning, we switched platforms.&nbsp; Every A/V streaming services seems like it's perfect until it isn't, Zoom is no exception.&nbsp; It has problems sometimes, but generally doesn't intrude on the gaming sessions very much.

I hear zoom has some very serious privacy and security issues, so I'd be way of using that one.

Yes, it's the gold standard and perfectly reliable, unlike Roll20's option. That and it gives a place for community, allowing the group to communicate and chat between sessions in a centralized and easily managed location.

I don't use Voice or Video in my games; text only.&nbsp; My players are free to use what they want outside the sessions, and some are discussing Discord now for the game I am starting. But I will not be participating.&nbsp;

When I play a text-only game, it's just Roll20. It's best to keep everything under one roof. If roll20 recorded calls like a stream, there'd be privacy issues to solve I guess (though it would be no different to text IMO since its not public), but if it did that I'd try to use Roll20 more, to keep it all in house.

Yes. Discord is so common that it is considered community standard voice chat.

GiGs said: When I play a text-only game, it's just Roll20. It's best to keep everything under one roof. If roll20 recorded calls like a stream, there'd be privacy issues to solve I guess (though it would be no different to text IMO since its not public), but if it did that I'd try to use Roll20 more, to keep it all in house. That's why I prefer it in Roll20. Discord has superior quality (as one would hope, since it is their mission), but I'm willing to sacrifice some things to keep everything on one spot. Having the VTT over there , and the video feed over there is distracting and pulls me out of the experience. And yeah, the whisper function is very quick and handy.

keithcurtis said: GiGs said: When I play a text-only game, it's just Roll20. It's best to keep everything under one roof. If roll20 recorded calls like a stream, there'd be privacy issues to solve I guess (though it would be no different to text IMO since its not public), but if it did that I'd try to use Roll20 more, to keep it all in house. That's why I prefer it in Roll20. Discord has superior quality (as one would hope, since it is their mission), but I'm willing to sacrifice some things to keep everything on one spot. Having the VTT over there , and the video feed over there is distracting and pulls me out of the experience. And yeah, the whisper function is very quick and handy. I might be changing my mind about this, as a result of this conversation, and will give Roll20's tools another try.

I also use Discord for my game.&nbsp; Not only is the voice simple (and easy to have separate servers for different games), but it is great for organizing.&nbsp; &nbsp; Handouts section, session summaries, and I give each character their own channel since to me it is easier to post 1:1 messages to them via discord than to do it in Roll20

All the groups I've played with online use Discord. I'm planning to use it for my upcoming games.

right anyone here playing a non discord game? or willing to

I'm not criticizing your preferences - people like what they like -&nbsp; but I'm curious why you dislike Discord.

King Leonidas &nbsp;said: right anyone here playing a non discord game? or willing to I think it was established above that some people do. Rick A. said: I'm not criticizing your preferences - people like what they like -&nbsp; but I'm curious why you dislike Discord. Who are you asking?

I was asking&nbsp; King Leonidas ,&nbsp;this thread's original poster. keithcurtis said: Rick A. said: I'm not criticizing your preferences - people like what they like -&nbsp; but I'm curious why you dislike Discord. Who are you asking?

I use discord for voice/video during our sessions because I find it smoother. I also use a music bot via discord to create ambience - I find it easier to manage ambience music and then in roll20 I uploaded sound effects. I like discord for a number of reasons; 1. It's organized. I have categories for things like wish list items my players hope to discover. Important info handouts as refreshers (such as ability checks/conditions/starting equipment lists) a questions channel for any questions players have about the game (or dnd in general) 2. General chat. During the session when we're focused on only 1 or 2 of the players, my other players like to talk in the general chat with each other so as a) not to disturb the game and b) they really love gifs and if something crazy is happening, they love to express themselves/their excitement without necessarily disturbing the natural flow of the game. 3. It gives my players a place to chat/plan and plot through-out the week when the game isn't in session. 4. I stream my games and whilst I'm comfortable putting myself out there to the world, I wouldn't ask that of my players who are there to just play. So, discord allows my group to video with one and other so as a group they can see how each other is reacting but also allows me to stream to Twitch and then go back and watch our sessions so I can remember what happened whilst only capturing their audio.

Rick A. said: I'm not criticizing your preferences - people like what they like -&nbsp; but I'm curious why you dislike Discord. i had actually written a longer answer, but keeps getting poofed. 1 privacy 2 unstable 3 i'm IP banned.

Short Answer- Yes.

The Keeper said: Short Answer- Yes. Which question are you answering? If it's "Does everybody use Discord these days?". the answer is demonstrably no.

right anyone that is not using discord willing to run a game?

Everyone used razorcomms before discord. And skype before that. TBH purely using roll20 would be a nightmare 0_o The voice and video system never worked for myself or anyone I've played with. And with how bad roll20 lags of late I could only fathom the horrid lag it would bring with that in mind. &gt;&gt;;

Mr. NumNums said: Everyone used razorcomms before discord. And skype before that. TBH purely using roll20 would be a nightmare 0_o The voice and video system never worked for myself or anyone I've played with. And with how bad roll20 lags of late I could only fathom the horrid lag it would bring with that in mind. &gt;&gt;; everyone used Teamspeak before discord

King Leonidas said: Mr. NumNums said: Everyone used razorcomms before discord. And skype before that. TBH purely using roll20 would be a nightmare 0_o The voice and video system never worked for myself or anyone I've played with. And with how bad roll20 lags of late I could only fathom the horrid lag it would bring with that in mind. &gt;&gt;; everyone used Teamspeak before discord Honestly? Not everyone used Teamspeak, it has some significant bars to entry. Some folks used other chat programs with lower bars to entry.&nbsp;

We've used Discord, Skype, Zoom, and Google Hangouts (or whatever it was called back then). In its early phase, you could run Roll20 within a Google Hangout&nbsp;window, which allowed you to do some pretty fun things, like banner overlays on the video feed. I've used Teamspeak (never heard of razorcomms), but not on Roll20. Our group finds video essential. Now we use the Roll20 in-game system, which works just fine for us.