Discord usage

I have ran into a number of DMs that prefer to route the voice through Discord instead of using the on board voice.  Can i ask why? Am i missing something. cause it seems to me that the less programs you have running would reduce the bandwidth, hence a better smoother game. I am working hard on learning Roll20 to run my game on and i need to know of any pitfalls to be aware of. thanks

My players and I do that because we had problems with the roll20 voice chat -- people were having trouble connecting and with poor audio/cutting out.  Haven't had that problem with Discord, and we all had it anyway.  My suggestion is to have your group try roll20 first.  If there's no issues, great, just make use of it.  If you do have problems, Discord makes a good backup.

The A/V has been troublesome for many people over the preceding years. Recently there has been an A/V update which has reduced or eliminated many of the issues but as many people have already been using discord with their games, they are comfortable with it. As Tyrnis mentions, try the inbuilt Roll20 audio/video feed and if it does not work for your group, move to discord.

I prefer Discord as it is more reliable than the roll20 VC, I like the other have had many issues with roll20 VC and to circumvent this I use discord. I must say download the app, don't use the browser based discord, this way you are only using your browser for roll20. Discord also uses less bandwidth than roll20 VC. Also, discord is free for as many server as I want, so I can have my players on their own servers for each game. Discord has push to talk, which is a must for most of my games as I prefer not to hear the background noise of people eating, drinking and so on. Also discord has made communications a lot easier to handle as I can have the discord app on my phone and can read/reply  

We use Skype or Discord (depending on the group) because we had problems in the past with the R20 VC--haven't really tried it since the update and not sure I want to...we don't use video and with Skype or Discord, I can put that on my phone which then gives me freedom to get up and get a drink or a snack while I'm gaming without missing any of the action.  It's really convenient that way.

I started out gaming in google hangouts. most of my crew still do.  I do have discord i would just rather not have to explain more software to the technically incline.  LOL that cracks me up to say that because i barely understand discord myself.  

Discord is the step-child of an old BBS and YahooIM/QQ with voice & video capability

Discord has PTT and individual volume controls. By being a separate app, when you crash/reload/accidentally close roll20,  you are still part of the conversation. Between sessions you can chat with your group easily. Also handy for running to the kitchen or taking the dog out when it isn't your turn if you have the phone app loaded as well. I don't use integrated chat for any game.  Discord/Ventrilo/Teamspeak is always preferred.  Discord isn't even my favorite, but it's easy enough for newbies to use, and once they get it setup once, it works for all their games.

Years ago, integrated chat with voice was not very good, My roll20 groups moved to Skype, but it was slow to connect, and not stable with more than 6 or 6  players. I did not like google hangouts, it just was not a fit for me. I like discord on my phone... If a player has a note for me, I can get it from my phone and do not have to log in to roll 20.  Individual volume sliders on discord. it accepts graphics postings in line on text chats. Big fan of Discord. Also, Discord has larger communities where it is easy to meet people that are serious gamers, not going to sign up to play and then bail out before the game,  So I get to meet hundreds of people, that is usually very reliable.  The Roll20 community consists of people looking for a DM or for players, and bug reports, API stuff, etc. That is about it. I do not have a dialogue with the larger community on roll20.

I’ve always had trouble with the built in audio because my games are intercontinental. I’m in Australia and I have players in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Google Hangouts handled that and when the API broke Roll20 access I switched to Discord.

We switched to discord due to the fact we have 8 players and a GM and built in audio gave us issues once we went over 6 players.