Gaming Platforms

Why Self-Host Your Gaming Platform?

Commercial gaming platforms like Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and Tabletop Simulator charge subscription fees or one-time purchases for features that self-hosted alternatives provide freely. Roll20’s Plus subscription costs $60/year for basic features like dynamic lighting, while advanced features require a $100/year Pro plan. These platforms also store your campaign data, maps, and character sheets on their servers, meaning years of campaign work depends on the platform’s continued operation and pricing stability.

Foundry Virtual Tabletop is a full-featured virtual tabletop application that runs on your own server, providing dynamic lighting, fog of war, audio/video integration, and a module ecosystem with thousands of community add-ons. It supports D&D 5e, Pathfinder, and dozens of other game systems through official and community modules. PlanarAlly offers a lighter-weight alternative with a focus on tactical battle maps, initiative tracking, and fog of war — well-suited for groups that want a simpler tool without the complexity of a full VTT platform.

Self-hosting your gaming platform means your campaign data, custom maps, and character sheets are stored on hardware you control. Session recordings, homebrew content, and campaign notes stay private. You can run multiple simultaneous campaigns without per-player costs, customize the platform with mods and extensions, and maintain access to your campaign history indefinitely regardless of any company’s business decisions. For game masters who invest hundreds of hours building worlds, self-hosting ensures that investment is never at risk from a platform pivot or shutdown.