New to Roll20 and question(s) about subscriptions

Hello fellow gamers, I have a question and hope, that maybe you can help me with it. I have been a DM for years now, running games the good old fashioned way, pencil and paper style, for close to 10 years now (God I am getting old...).  Anyway, now my group and myself have to split, due to work and family responsibilities separating us, which means, that we are now looking into options to continue playing online. Now, here I am. To say that I am not tech savy and that all the tools etc. overwhelm me a bit would be an understatement. So my question is this:  - Where is the difference between the 4.99 sub and the 9.99, if I only plan to run one campaign at a time? Are the scripts worth upgrading to the higher sub, even when I can't code to save my life? - What do I need to buy to run a good campaign in terms of modules. We are currently doing a homebrew story with the PHB classes, so I need to buy the module on here too? Sorry, if my post seems like a convoluted mess, but that would be an appropiate representation of my brain right now. Thank you all for your time and happy gaming! :-)

Hi and welcome to Roll20! First off I'll say that to begin with you don't need a subscription at all to run a perfectly functional game!! Both subscriptions give you a larger library size for uploaded art and ability to upload larger sized files but the primary difference between the two in realistic terms is that the 4.99/month one will give you access to dynamic lighting which is a major time and effort saver for a GM, you'll need to set it up ahead of time but you won't need to worry about manually removing fog of war during play, however the 9.99/month pro subscription gives you that major feature as well as the API and transmogrifier. Two great features for the GM about town. The API requires next to no coding knowledge to use, most desired functionality has already been scripted by the raft of volunteer coders who have even provided easy to follow documentation on how to use their creations! Commonly used scripts: TokenMod - allows quick setup of tokens, editing on the fly without having to navigate menus etc ChatSetAttr - allows attribute management from a linked token/id as well as creation of new attributes and more... Roll20AM - All your jukebox management needs TurnMarker - Initiative management (please note that many other scripts exist, and many of them have overlapping or duplicate functions giving you plenty of choice and many combinations to fit any style of play) The transmogrifier is a really useful tool for being able to quickly move content between games you have created. This helps keep a main game trim (lots of character sheets can cause longer loading times over the course of a long game) or allows for a series of games to quickly utilise the same maps, characters, NPCs etc (another note... plus subscription does provide access to the Vault which is another way to move character sheets between games but not as quickly). With regards to running a good game, all you need is yourself (a dedicated GM) and your imagination. Depending on your chosen system access to compendium unlocked content can speed things up but it isn't needed if you have existing reference material. Again, depending on which system there are many modules already setup ready to go, these usually contain all you'll need to play: maps, character sheets, NPCs, monsters, handouts etc... more recent ones will also include pre-setup dynamic lighting too! What I'm driving at here is that you don't need to spend anything to recreate your tabletop experience almost in its entirety... the subscriptions can enhance that but aren't necessary. I would recommend creating a game, inviting your crew and playing around with the tools until you are comfortable and see what works best for you :)

Thank you very much for the quick response and the warm welcome, That sounds great! I know I am practically a fossil, when it comes to RPGs, holding onto my paper and pens for so long without looking at the tech, so just reading up and watching all these comparison videos were a little confusing. Especially when people make the argument, that to run a smooth game you NEED to subscribe, without explaining why.  So that response really gave me some assurance. One quick other question, if I may. If I decide to buy, let's say the player's handbook, I unlock the content in my compendium, right? If I then run a game for players, who do not have it, I can share it with them in my game only and they can use the resources associated with it, correct? Thanks in advance!

Iwantmacookay said: One quick other question, if I may. If I decide to buy, let's say the player's handbook, I unlock the content in my compendium, right? If I then run a game for players, who do not have it, I can share it with them in my game only and they can use the resources associated with it, correct? Thanks in advance! And that's where subs can benefit, too, because the free account can only share with like up to 5 people or something like that...

Your questions about the PHB are correct. Note that this gives you and your players the ability to create first level characters with a high degree of automation, via the Charactermancer, if you are using the official Roll20 sheet for 5e. At this point, leveling up is not implemented, though it is on the road map. It also gives you the spells not included in the SRD, as well as access to the full rule set -- all the text from the print book, cross-indexed and in many cases, filterable.

That is correct, while some of the source materials aren't 100% integrated with things like the Charactermancer etc (but will be eventually!) you can still access all the information through the in-game compendium and also share that content with your players. There are some limitations based on subscriber level and I'm not sure it can work in reverse (ie, a player buys the handbook but I don't think they could share it with the group). Full details on the compendium sharing process can be found on the wiki .