New Player from forum based RPG

I am used to tabletop (in person) and I played on forums (message boards) where the GM posts the situation (including graphics etc) and the players reply with their actions and then the GM summarizes all the dice rolls/processes the turn that way. The problem has been that the player base there is dwindling and I also lack time to actually play  (overall). So I've been looking for something new. I mention that to understand where I am coming from. I also looked at FG today really hard and in doing I saw a comparison of Roll20 - I Am glad I did because it seems way more intuitive. So here are my questions: 1- Let's say I travel every other week for work and cannot login while I am gone - I also may have a different day of week free. In the forum based RPG this was fine - you reply as you have time. Can I participate as GM or Player in a regular campaign realistically with that sort of schedule? Where maybe 1 (Variable) night a week I can play? 2- How long do typical game sessions last? 3- I am always about homebrew and simple system- I like to listen to what players want to do and rather than look up saving throws and THACOs and all that - consider all the variables and say "You think you have about a 38% chance to do that, or if you play it safe 52% chance - but that may not be enough of an effort to accomplish what you want to do" - will people generally revolt and gravitate towards the pathfinder/5e games? 4 - On the forum based RPG, when setting up a game, you were given a message forum for the game, which you could set up the "About" and accept player private messages and post forums - is that here somewhere? That way I don't have to give out my personal email to potential players. It would be great if I could do both - live sessions but have my game forum restricted to players so they could post to one another and continue playing and then I reply when I am back. Keep in mind - I am speaking about a specific game forum. The tutorial says there is a LFG forum - but I am talking about one for players only in my own game would access it. 5- Can I use PDFs I bought online and convert to custom content for games I want to run or will that violate the TOS? Example: I have Pendragon 5E and I doubt you guys have that here.  6- I love strategy/RPG hybrids. I notice the tutorials and games seem focused on "Okay, so here is your tactical map and this is your combat encounter" type of gaming. I've been gaming for over 40 years and so I've done so much dungeon crawl and random encounter that I don't care about that. I prefer a game where you rule a kingdom or a fall out vault, or maybe the players are young gods over an emerging civilization and have followers, as they deal with river demons and tree sprits, forge alliances with other gods, hand down commandments and so on. Will that fly here? if so what is the category to list that as? 7- EDIT: IN LFG I see that you can limit to 18+ but I don't think the system asked my age. How do you know?  8- I found this page looking at youtube videos about fantasy grounds, and they compared roll20 with FG - the parts that concern me is that you don't have as many supplements I can purchase (like Pendragon) - will this ever make it to steam with the item store? I realize its browser based. thank you.

Welcome to roll20 Ulthar. See my response to your questions below. Ulthar said: So here are my questions: 1- Let's say I travel every other week for work and cannot login while I am gone - I also may have a different day of week free. In the forum based RPG this was fine - you reply as you have time. Can I participate as GM or Player in a regular campaign realistically with that sort of schedule? Where maybe 1 (Variable) night a week I can play? If you are running your own game, you set the schedule.  If you are playing in someone else's game, obviously you'll have to work that out with the GM. 2- How long do typical game sessions last? No hard and fast rules here, but I've found that games ran on roll20 typically run less than our group's "in-person-around-the-kitchen-table" game.  I've gamed on roll20 as short as an hour to as long as 5hr.  IMO; short breaks each hour help fight online fatigue...  My headphones aren't that comfortable... 3- I am always about homebrew and simple system- I like to listen to what players want to do and rather than look up saving throws and THACOs and all that - consider all the variables and say "You think you have about a 38% chance to do that, or if you play it safe 52% chance - but that may not be enough of an effort to accomplish what you want to do" - will people generally revolt and gravitate towards the pathfinder/5e games? 5e, Pathfinder and all other editions of D&D are probably the most popular, but there are LOTS of other systems represented. Again, if you are running your own game, you can play whatever you like.  Communication is key so there aren't any surprises.   4 - On the forum based RPG, when setting up a game, you were given a message forum for the game, which you could set up the "About" and accept player private messages and post forums - is that here somewhere? That way I don't have to give out my personal email to potential players. It would be great if I could do both - live sessions but have my game forum restricted to players so they could post to one another and continue playing and then I reply when I am back. Each game will have it's own forum area. 5- Can I use PDFs I bought online and convert to custom content for games I want to run or will that violate the TOS? Example: I have Pendragon 5E and I doubt you guys have that here.  I am not a lawyer;  but AFAIK you can use anything you legally own as the creator of the game.  PDF's will only import 1 page at a time as an image though. ;-(  You might be able to copy/paste text into handouts and such depending on the pdf. 6- I love strategy/RPG hybrids. I notice the tutorials and games seem focused on "Okay, so here is your tactical map and this is your combat encounter" type of gaming. I've been gaming for over 40 years and so I've done so much dungeon crawl and random encounter that I don't care about that. I prefer a game where the players are young gods over an emerging civilization and have followers, as they deal with river demons and tree sprits, forge alliances with other gods, hand down commandments and so on. Will that fly here? if so what is the category to list that as? Your the boss.  If you want to run a game as  Deities and Demigods , go for it.  Sounds like fun. 7- are there any rules about adult content and keeping players limited to people over 18? I would like to only play in games with mature players but when I created my account I don't think it asked my age.   Anyone can list their game as mature content, but I think it's only there as a warning to anyone interested in joining.  I don't think there is any way to verify and/or block younger gamer's from joining or running a mature game.  I suggest always doing some pre-game "screening" so that everyone is on the same page. thank you. You're welcome.  ;-) edit to your edit 8- I found this page looking at youtube videos about fantasy grounds, and they compared roll20 with FG - the parts that concern me is that you don't have as many supplements I can purchase (like Pendragon) - will this ever make it to steam with the item store? I realize its browser based. Really, someone on roll20 staff would need to answer this one.  Note that roll20 is a browser-based system agnostic vtt platform, so I doubt there would be any reason why it would be included on a system like Steam. Cheers

This pretty much answers all of my questions - There is something like 10,000 dollars in DLC of games on FG  - most of which I won't use but things like Starfinder seem really cool - so before I find a home for my game I need to really think about the system and tools. I love being able to use artifacts from my books - I also like how easy it is to use off the shelf stuff here - but I am concerned there isn't a lot of 'off the shelf'. The reason for steam - would be simple - you get people who would never see this platform otherwise, so imagine if the app was simply a really cool customized browser that points to roll20, with a nice clean UX and customizable themes, on top of it it was F2P - then I'd imagine the people (like I was this morning) that have never heard of roll20 would say "Wow, so one costs 39.99 and one is f2p?" and decide accordingly. yes, I know there is a subscription model but honestly that seems more sustainable anyway in the long term.