GM Forge - Virtual Tabletop

Just go buy Foundry VTT, they've already caught up to and surpassed Roll20 (not that it was that difficult) and keep the game updated regularly.

Might have been something, but then it was abandoned and sadly, that's that.

Not even basic support for the bugs.

Shame really.

First things first: this product is abandoned. Its last update was in 2018, almost 3 years ago at this point.

I will say, I actually tried this product back in 2018 when my group was looking to switch over from Roll20. Though I desperately wanted to leave Roll20, we only ever played one session on it. I have pretty good internet, but on a self-hosted server, the loading times between scenes were absolutely awful. Like, multiple minutes in some cases. That, combined with the fact that this product hasn't seen any support, means we never came back. Which is a shame, because the UI was much cleaner, it had a lot of cool features, and it was probably a better product - it was just too clunky and never got fixed.

If you're looking to leave Roll20, check out Foundry VTT instead. It's a similar application, a one-time purchase, but actually gets regular updates and has an amazing developer community.

Terrible. The dev hasn't cared about this VTT for a couple years. Do not buy this.

I got this to assist with my Pathfinder tabletop gaming and found the user interface to be unwieldy as well as hard to learn. It also crashed often. If there had been a good user tutorial or the menu was more user friendly, it might have been ok.

Even when it was not abandoned it was not worth it, only because I spent time preparing a session for my players I couldn't refund this, since you can't have X amount of hours in the game and ask for a refund.

Foundry VTT is probably the best alternative to this that is under development and has a great community, its what I use now, I have weekly 5 groups if that helps with something

Not user friendly, abandoned by the developers, and really shouldn't be on Steam at all. It's pure abandonware, and every function is hidden behind websites that no longer work, Support for this game doesn't exist.

The lack of support is really killing this VTT. It wants to be good so badly, but the aging software is, after 90 hours, actively fighting me at every possible point. Right-click menus closing immediately, lag to the point my players are seeing my rolls before me, unresponsive to selections, and just recently, throwing me off my game map when I try to select tokens in combat to figure out which one is active.

I can't keep using this product and I can't recommend it to anyone else. If you're curious about this VTT and you see this review; just make a Roll20 account and save yourself the inevitable headache.

The tool is a beta test at best, and honestly shouldn't have been sold on steam outside of anything but early access.

You may see i have "740+" hours on record, well this is because of me having to work around a major issue with the product. Which was the product had a 50/50 chance of loading in the first place, and sometimes would make buttons disappear from the screen when it ran. This was a known issue at the time but was never even looked into for fixing, apparently it just was just terrible if a campaign file went above a 4x4 map.
As a result i ended up just turning the tool on and once i got it working never shut it off for weeks on end, because trying to get it working the day of a session could take anywhere from 1-5 hours of just starting/restarting/refreshing.

My favorite part being that the tool also didn't allow you to utilize the main screen; even on the host machine you needed to access it from the browser. This was partially because the tool wasn't made for a modern OS so once the memory usage climbed above 512 MB it would just have more and more bugs pop up.

But the true slap across the face was for the $30 price tag the receive little to no support from the dev and eventually resulted in them saying they were too busy to work on this "side project".
I find this annoying because i'd at best would've payed $15 if i'd known it was a "side project".

There's much better products now like FoundryVTT who effectively made a similar but far and away superior product to this.

As development has slowed down to a crawl on this, its not a very fluid program. Still, a 30 dollar price tag one man has to buy vs. a subscription everyone has to buy sounds good, and it still functional, just need the patience for the huge learning curve.

While you get everything you need on GM Forge without a subscription cost or whatever the case maybe.

Sadly this program for your D&D experience has a lot of technical issues which is a damn shame. I really want to enjoy this one over Fantasy Ground (which is more expensive in the long run).

The Good:
Has as many features, or more, than most alternatives.
Cheaper than a subscription than Roll20, and cheaper than Fantasy Grounds.
Strong community support, and has Steam Workshop support.
Once learned it's easy to use and easy to invite players to your games.

The Bad:
Steeper learning curve than Roll20
More expensive than Roll20 free.
Horribly ridden with bugs.

I'd say it's overall worth it, though the number of bugs it has can be a pain in the ass sometimes. I used to be a pro subscriber to Roll20 so even the past two months I've almost made my money back by canceling my subscription.
If you switch from Roll20, it'll get the job done but expect a buggier experience; but it is a one-time payment for a very similar feature-rich program.

QUICK BUYER INFO:
- This VTT is the program which gives you some very basic tools to start making things yourself. This means you have to code everything yourself in either HTML or JSON just to get it working. There is some pre-made content that can be downloaded in the Steam Workshop for a few systems like D&D 5e, but if your content is not there, you must make it yourself.

There is potential here but as of currently, I cannot recommend the purchase. I bought this hoping for an alternative to Roll20 with just a one-time purchase, but it is rather buggy and feels incomplete. I have logged over 10 hours on this already of simply trying to set up my own character sheets. In order to get this working, you MUST watch their tutorials videos (which are currently incomplete) and do the rest of the work yourself. At a 30 dollar pricetag, I didnt expect to spend so much time merely trying to get it useable. Perhaps later on there will be more bugs fixed and more pre-made content to easily download.

Consider carefully. If you are willing to put the effort in to code character sheets, layouts, and macros, this may be for you.

I really wanted to like this, but it's just not there yet. It's not that it's extremely broken or anything, it's that it's just not as polished as I wanted it to be and with only a single developer who know's how long it will take to get to that point. I'm definitely gonna continue to follow this because if I ever see that it's imporved significantly then I'm probably gonna jump back on the GMforge train because this deffinitely has potential.

My advise to the developer: You've got a real gem here, and it has the potential to do amazing things if properly supported. Get some help, I know this program has probably only just paid for it's self barely, but some help with the things you seem to be weak in like UI design could go a long way towards making this the next Roll20.

I came over to DM Forge From Roll20/Fantasy Grounds in hopes of seeing a one time buy alternative to both however I was fairly disappoint. My main complaints are as follows.

1. The known features require allot of youtube video watching.

There is simply massive amount of content that doesn't follow any one standard method of creation in example the way you would create a map which is very similar to other platforms such as Dungeon Painter Studio Pyromancer even the other big name brands is not the same as a character sheet in fact character sheets are designed in 3 different methods HTML, drawing, and simple status boxes, and while interesting and helpful there is no room for error as control+z an industry standard seems to be non existent and with constant bugs causing sheets to randomly go blank and you to loose hours of work its simply to much work and to much effort to even make a character that could be gone by a new player making one wrong click.

2. It seems to be a continual work in progress. How can you offer this paid without it being at least stable

I.E. Tons of lag lacking stable or streamline features constant bugs related to information not being passed from the built in compendiums. Updates regularly but not always for the better. It is getting there but it took me over the basic 2 hour allotment just to get used to the program.

3. Aloooot of lag and loading bugs with no real way of recovering lost progress.

This is most likely one of my biggest gripes. I even waited for the supposed anti-lag update which seemed to fix allot of my updating issues with a map that previously had the infinite white screen bug. However after I made several tokens on screen and went to start the rain instant infinite loading screen again. A simple F5 fixed it however this would have effectively ended a campaigns immersion with the GM leaving and requiring re invites all around. can I recommend a simple Control+Z which is the industry standard for undo but seems to be lacking in every menu of this system. The system also seems to lack tool tips other than the basic popup of what the buttons are. and with the UI spread out and not organized in any particular fashion that makes sense and is easily understood DMs just kinda have to know where this stuff is and what it does. This is very much noticeable in a recent update where the weather icons moved from top left to top right and unless you click these empty white squares you have no clue what they due

4. Community access but no obvious attempts at keeping the engine compatible

Granted it has community content but with recent UI update and even before all my Community content no longer works the update actually destroyed one of my WIP's by making the HP bar on tokens pull some kind of attribute that simple wasn't on the sheet even though I could still see it on the sheet. Even before this update when I would attempt to drag a goblin onto the board of into my custom assets the engine would freeze lock up or simple make my map disappear and infinitely load. I by no means have terrible internet so claiming slow connection is unacceptable from the developers when I am hard lined with a 1000mbps down and 50 mbps up connection. This shows a massive memory leak if my connection is being bogged down.

5. It is getting there.

While it has gotten better the menu's and flow character/map/item creation is not at all optimal. The compendium access helped but that is also now broken and bugs out. The bugs alone are out of control and are well documented. This to be honest should have been offered free until it was stable coming in at $30 this isn't even something I want to put time into learning because its a waste of time and money when it simply doesn't work.

6. The flow of battle is also not optimal.

There appears to be no way of editing the health or other stats in a quick manner from the token itself instead you are required to roll damage from a different token and apply the damage from the die roll itself. This slows down combat greatly when in retrospect I should be able to help my players add in advantage should they forget it. To add to the pain of combat there are a myriad of bugs that with one miss-click will end your campaign deleting a character sheet entirely or wiping it clean and no way of undoing a mistake such as hitting the edit character sheet option, come on devs a simple cancel button would be nice. Cache the sheets until a finalize button is hit this is coding 101.

7. I literally can't start my campaigns.

Setting aside the myriad of bugs and issues that come from a WIP launcher that is easily replaced by Fantasy Grounds $110 licence and well worth the increase in price. (Now we hve FoundryVTT which is even better than that at $60) The Engine itself requires you to host. Now this VT has a huuuuuge issue with streaming its content so much so in fact many internet connections simply cannot keep up I barely keep up with a stable 1000mbps connection and those that can are bogged down by the engine eating most of their connection speed and the inevitable hosting of multiple users. I cannot understand how a built in map with 1 enemy on it can bug out due to slow connection with only 3 custom assets literally a Goblin (Built in) a map (built in) and 2 character sheets (Custom Asset 1 & 2) and a picture for my user profile (Custom Asset 3)

8. Outside connections

Set aside the bugs and memory leaks. The developer has tried to help with a comprehensive guide for almost everything assuming you dig for it because its not directly linked in the program ( I have not visited the discord) and doesn't appear to be readily pinned on the Social hubs. However the guide does explain outside connections and how to host. This comes with also 3 different connection types which while at least one will work for someone leads me to believe even the hosting methods are in a state of flux as the developers are still finding the best or GM preferred method of hosting. Several of which are not user friendly and require advanced knowledge such as router manipulation and port fording. I am attempting to play DND, Pathfinder, AnimeD20, World of Darkness, not host a full on mine craft server on Linux guys come on.

In conclusion. This program isn't worth the $30 price tag PERIOD. Its features while useful are found in the free versions of many other systems and id prefer just combining Pyromancers+Roll20, FoundryVTT or FantasyGrounds to gain the features for free and bug free. Should they work out the myriad of issues and bugs sure. However in its current state I am unable to even use the program effectively or efficiently. I could understand if I was on a low end system running terrible specs and trash internet. However, With Specs like

Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 8 Core 4.5Ghz
RAM
32.0GB Vengeance DDR3 @ 2700MHz
Motherboard
MSI 970A GAMING PRO CARBON (MS-7992)
Graphics
VX2250 SERIES (1920x1080@60Hz)
NVIDIA GeForce 2060 Super
Network
1000mbps Down 50 mbps up

I may not be rocking the best (upgraded some parts recently) but I by no means should be running out of power for this program. Maybe I am incorrect and I am the only only one receiving these bugs? I have had bad luck with getting bugs no one else gets in the past.

I really want to like GM Forge, but it's just plain unfinished. I didn't mind the small bugs and slow performance until I ran into a game-breaking issue that persists even after a restart - maps not loading or allowing new tokens to be placed.

Once a map breaks, there seems to be no way to fix it other than to delete it and remake it from scratch. That's not a huge issue if the map is just a background image, but it could mean losing hours of work once you add to it in-app, like by drawing walls for the dynamic lighting. This is the main reason I can't recommend this virtual tabletop in its current state, but I'll give a more detailed overview of the pros and cons since I think it has great potential.

PROS

• Not subscription based
  
• Packed full of features, some of which are innovative (e.g. the ability to place map markers with links that allow you to move between maps)
  
• Dynamic lighting / fog of war
  
• Flexible asset creation system
  
• Workshop has compendium mods that contain a lot of easy to import content (spells, monsters, items, etc.)
  

• Tons of bugs, some of which are game-breaking
  
• Slow performance
  
• Unintuitive UI
  
[*]Its future hinges on the willingness of its sole developer to keep it alive

BUYER BEWARE:
I bought this and tried to get it to work for me, but it's full of bugs and kept crashing or losing data of characters I was trying to create.
After 5 hours I gave up and requested a refund only to be denied because I "Played" for over 2 hours. This product is unuseable in it's current form, maybe a year down the line the dev will have fixed the problems but right now you'd just be wasting $30

When you talk about VTTs you always compare with Fantasy Grounds and Roll20.
So how does GM Forge compares to those two ?

+ It's cheap, no subscription, 25 euros for the GM and free for the players.
- It's WIP, features are added every couple of weeks, with this quick development, bugs appear, in a few months all the features will be released and the developper will be able to focus entirely on debugging, I hope so...
+ The GM hosts the server, you have all your resources locally, no need to host it with limited space or to depend on a third party server.
+ It's damn easy to mod, with the recent updates the sheets are made in HTML, CSS and you can script with JS for additionnal features, JQuery, Bootstrap, a pleasure for any web developper.
- Only one developper, today GM Forge depends on the work of one developper. He is very active, does not count his hours but he is alone and if he has to give up for a reason, GM Forge is done.
+ Promising features, nothing new, but I would like to think that it takes the best of both Roll20 and FG, Roll20 for its clean UI, simple of use, and FG for the adaptability, you can customize everything, automation, and redact amazing notes with interactive rolls, sharing portraits, conversations...

I recommend this software to every GM, even if you don't use it. Purchasing it now supports the developper, and will increase the chances for it to become the perfect VTT, it has an amazing potential. The technology is good, the philosophy is promising, and the community is building progressively.

I really recommend not getting this until they get proper online support. Right now it's just a jumbled mess that requires you to either port forward with information you rather not give, use proxies, getting a website or using a third-party program (Workarounds are not proper online support). online Support like that was okay ten or so years ago, but when five dollar indie games can have proper private online support, it's not al dente. Get this when it's on summer sale next year, by then it might have proper online support, fix the meme tier javascript bugs and who knows maybe there will be some good mods too. I'm not saying this program is bad far from it, I think it could be the roll 20 killer that I always wanted, but I do feel like it was rushed out the door like an early access game, it needs to go back into the toaster because right now it's cold wonderbread.

I wanted to like this and use it myself but after 40 minutes of not being able to do anything I had to give up.
Any images I uploaded would not show up, when I would add an asset it would be there but as soon as I added a second one it deletes the first, and random javascript crashes. I hope it is just a case of something went wrong on my end because I still really like the idea of this and would still like to use it but with the lack of guides and this version not matching the video tutorials they have I can't recommend it.

To start off, I'm going to say that this is a bit more complicated than Roll20 and not necessarily a required upgrade.

If you buy this, you're going to want to meander around and explore the game before you boot up and prepare to go gung-ho into a campaign. It's not very direct on how to utilize and make your way through, but after a few hours of dabbling with it, it becomes very straightforward.

I'm still learning what all there is to do with this game, but with the last several hours I've used it-- I have to say that it's a very a fluid and pleasant experience/upgrade from Roll20 and I look forward to using this to play my campaign with my group this weekend. If you can get your ports forwarded and find your way through their systems, you'll probably be extremely satisfied with this purchase.

Hard to beat a 1-time buy for a whole group that offers unlimited replayability, free assets, and an entire workshop ready to be used over the next several years. If you are going to be playing a tabletop online, this is the program to be doing it on.

8/10