# FoundryVTT

Foundry Virtual Tabletop is a game server for playing tabletop RPGs with your friends over the internet. It handles scenes, tokens, dynamic lighting and fog of war, dice rolling, character sheets, journals, and audio, with support systems for most major RPGs and an enormous module ecosystem on top.

Running it yourself normally means leaving a machine on for the whole campaign and forwarding a port through your router. Hosting it here means your table is always reachable at a plain HTTPS address, and your world data lives on backed-up storage rather than on the laptop you also use for work.

[Get a 7-day trial of ElfHosted FoundryVTT! 🪄](<https://store.elfhosted.com/product/foundry-vtt/>)

*Foundry running on ElfHosted, at an address your table bookmarks once.*

> [!TIP]
>
> **Running the whole table?**
>
> Foundry, [Grimoire](</app/grimoire/>) and [DungeonRevealer](</app/dungeonrevealer/>) are also sold together as the [Dungeon Master Bundle](<https://store.elfhosted.com/product/dungeon-master/>), which is $18/mo for all three rather than $27 bought separately.

## Bring your own licence

Foundry is commercial software, licensed per person, and we cannot distribute it. **You need to already own a Foundry licence**, so buy one at [foundryvtt.com](<https://foundryvtt.com/purchase/>) if you don't.

Your instance ships empty and installs Foundry from a download link that only your account can generate. **The link expires within a few minutes, so open ElfBot first and generate the link last.** In that order it takes about a minute:

1. In [ElfBot](<https://docs-internal.elfhosted.com/app/elfbot/>), find **Foundry VTT**, open its settings, and add a variable named exactly `FOUNDRY_RELEASE_URL`. Leave the value empty for the moment and keep the tab open.
2. In another tab, sign in at [foundryvtt.com](<https://foundryvtt.com/>) with the account that owns your licence.
3. Go to **Purchased Licenses** and pick the **Linux / NodeJS** build. Not the Windows or macOS installer.
4. Press the button to generate a **Timed URL** and copy it.
5. Back in ElfBot, paste it as the value and save.

Your instance picks the link up on its own, usually within a minute, then downloads Foundry once, unpacks it into your own storage, and starts. That takes a minute or two, because it is a few hundred megabytes.

Nothing here is fragile, and nothing you do at this stage can break the app:

- Before you paste a link, the instance sits and waits. It is not crashed and it does not need restarting.
- If the link expires first, the app says so in its logs. Generate another and paste it over the top, and it will pick that one up instead.
- You do not need to restart anything at any point.

You'll also need your **licence key** the first time the web interface loads, which is on the same Purchased Licenses page.

> [!WARNING]
>
> **Foundry allows one hosted instance at a time**
>
> Foundry's licence terms allow a single hosted instance to be reachable by people other than the licence holder at any one time. If you also run Foundry at home for your group, retire that one before you open this one up to your players.

## How do I access FoundryVTT?

FoundryVTT is available:

- From your dashboard: [https://your-username.elfhosted.com](<https://your-username.elfhosted.com>)
- Directly: [https://your-username-foundryvtt.elfhosted.com](<https://your-username-foundryvtt.elfhosted.com>)

> [!NOTE]
>
> **Signed-in users see their own URLs**
>
> The addresses above show the general pattern. [Sign in](<https://docs-internal.elfhosted.com/app/foundryvtt/>) and these become your personal, clickable links.

## How do I use it?

### The first launch

Open your instance, paste in your licence key, accept the terms, and you land on the setup screen. From there you install a game system (*D&amp;D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, Call of Cthulhu, and so on*), create a world, and launch it.

### Inviting your players

Your players don't need ElfHosted accounts, and they don't need to install anything: send them your instance address and they join in a browser.

This is why **Foundry is reachable without ElfHosted's SSO**. Access control is Foundry's own: set an **Access Key** for each player under **Configure Players**, and set an **Administrator Password** under **Configure Settings → Setup Configuration** so nobody can wander into your setup screen. Do both before you share the address.

### Modules and assets

Install modules through Foundry's own **Add-on Modules** browser, which fetches straight from the manifest URLs. Larger asset packs can be uploaded through Foundry's file picker, or dropped into your data directory with [FileBrowser](</app/filebrowser/>).

### Upgrading Foundry

Foundry's built-in updater downloads new versions the same way the first install did, straight into your storage, so you upgrade on your own schedule rather than ours. Take the version bump when your modules have caught up, not before.

Foundry shuts itself down once an update finishes installing. Your instance starts itself back up within a few seconds, so give it a moment and reload the page rather than assuming something broke.

### Audio and video

Foundry's built-in A/V uses WebRTC peer-to-peer by default, which works between players without touching your instance. Foundry's own relay servers are the fallback. Most tables end up on Discord for voice anyway.

## FoundryVTT also works with

- [x] [DungeonRevealer](</app/dungeonrevealer/>)
- [x] [BookStack](</app/bookstack/>)

## How do I get support for FoundryVTT?

1. For general use of FoundryVTT, refer to the [official site](<https://foundryvtt.com/>) or to one of the links in the resources section below.
2. For specific support re your ElfHosted configuration / account, see the [ElfHosted support options](</get-help/>)!

## FoundryVTT resources

- [FoundryVTT (*official site*)](<https://foundryvtt.com/>)
- [FoundryVTT Foundry Knowledge Base](<https://foundryvtt.com/kb/>)
- [FoundryVTT Discord](<https://discord.gg/foundryvtt>)