Virtual Battle Mat vs Roll20: Which Fits Your Table?
By Burton Miller, creator of Virtual Battle Mat
This is a browser tab.
The short answer. Roll20 does a lot. It has character sheets, rules compendiums, scripts and a big marketplace, and it has been around since 2012. All of that takes learning, and anyone who has learned it knows how much.
Virtual Battle Mat goes the other way. It is built for the GM who wants everyone playing tonight. VBM trades automation for simplicity. It feels like sitting at a table with your friends. No manual required, even for the GM.
What Roll20 does
Roll20 has character sheets for a huge range of game systems, compendiums that keep the rules a click away, dice macros, and a marketplace full of maps and tokens. It runs in a browser, the free tier is real, and voice and video are built in. Its paid tiers add line-of-sight lighting, scripting and more storage. Most of it is machinery for running the rules. The heavier your rules, the more it helps. The lighter your game, the more it gets in the way.
Where Virtual Battle Mat is different
Send your players a link. They join you at the table. Done.
No account for players. No download, no install, no sign-up. A player who has never seen a virtual tabletop joins as fast as they can click.
Nothing to configure. No add-ons, no sheet systems, no dice scripts. The map, the minis and your players' faces sit together in the browser. It's like Zoom made for tabletop.
Minis on a battle mat. The tokens are renders of real 3D minis, so your table looks like miniatures on a battle mat. VBM works with 3D isometric minis or traditional flat tokens.
Paint your own minis. With a free account, players can paint a mini in the browser and share the skin with the community.
A catalog comes stocked. Professional studios supply the minis and maps. Every token and map in the catalog is made by human artists, and the studio agreements require it.
What Virtual Battle Mat does not do
But VBM is deliberately lightweight. VBM has no built-in character sheets, rules compendiums or macros. Run any game with your own sheets. If your table wants the software enforcing the rules, VBM is not that tool. It keeps the software out of the way, so the evening is the battle mat, the minis and the table talk.
Side by side
Roll20
Virtual Battle Mat
Runs in a browser
Yes
Yes
How players join
With a Roll20 account; a free one works
With your link, no account needed
Voice and video
Built in
Built in
Character sheets and compendiums
Yes, for a huge range of systems
No; run any game with your own sheets
Scripts and macros
Yes; scripts from the Pro tier up
No
The look
Flat tokens on top-down maps
Renders of real 3D minis, or flat tokens; isometric or top-down maps
Minis and maps
Upload your own, or buy from the marketplace
Upload your own, plus a studio catalog of tokens and maps made by human artists
Free tier
Yes
Yes, free forever
Paid plans
Add lighting, scripts and storage
More uploads and the full premium catalog of tokens and maps
Pick Virtual Battle Mat if
You want your group playing tonight, including the friend who will not sign up for anything. You want your table to look like miniatures on a battle mat. You would rather spend prep time on the story than on the software.
Virtual Battle Mat's free tier is free forever. Start a session in minutes, not hours. Make your free account on a laptop or desktop at vbm.games.