Do you need Roll20 or Foundry to play D&D online?

No. A virtual tabletop is only necessary if your table fights on grid battle maps. For theater-of-the-mind games, all you need is voice chat (Discord), a way for everyone to see each other's dice rolls, and character sheets. Many long-running online tables never open a VTT.

What is the minimal setup to play D&D online with friends?

Three pieces: a Discord server for voice, a shared dice roller open in everyone's browser so all rolls are visible to the whole table, and character sheets, either paper at home, D&D Beyond, or a free browser sheet. Total setup time is about ten minutes and none of it costs money.

How do you roll dice when playing D&D over Discord?

Either a Discord dice bot like Avrae (rolls as chat commands) or a shared browser roller like DiceDND (everyone opens one room link and sees every roll land live). Bots suit text-heavy tables; a shared roller feels closer to dice on a table and needs no commands to learn.

When is a full VTT actually worth it?

When your group runs tactical grid combat with positioning, areas of effect, and fog of war, or when the DM wants automated rules lookups. If that describes your table, Foundry (one-time purchase, self-hosted) or Roll20 (free tier) earn their setup cost. Owlbear Rodeo is a lighter free middle ground for maps only.

Play D&D online with friends without a VTT: the minimal setup

Quick answer: you need exactly three things to play D&D online: voice (a Discord server), dice everyone can see (a shared browser roller or a dice bot), and character sheets (paper, D&D Beyond, or a free browser sheet). A full VTT like Roll20 or Foundry is only needed for grid battle maps. Setup takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.

What do you actually need to play D&D online?

Strip away the tooling debates and an online session has three requirements:

Voice. The game is talking. A free Discord server handles it; make one voice channel and one text channel for links and notes.
Dice everyone can see. The one thing that silently breaks remote games. "I rolled a 19, trust me" works until it doesn't. You want every d20 visible to the whole table the moment it lands.
Character sheets. Each player needs their own, but nothing requires them to live inside a shared tool. Paper at home works. So does D&D Beyond or a free browser sheet.

Battle maps are the fourth thing everyone assumes they need. They're optional; entire campaigns run theater-of-the-mind, and most groups that start minimal stay minimal.

Do you need Roll20 or Foundry?

Only if your table fights on a grid. That's the honest dividing line:

Your table	What you need
Theater of the mind, roleplay-heavy	Discord + shared dice + sheets. No VTT
Occasional simple combat sketches	Same, plus Owlbear Rodeo (free) when a map helps
Tactical grid combat, fog of war, AoE templates	A real VTT: Foundry (one-time purchase) or Roll20 (free tier)

VTTs are good software with a real cost: setup evenings, module maintenance, and a DM who becomes part-time IT support. Pay that cost when grid combat is the payoff, not by default.

The 10-minute minimal setup

Make a Discord server (2 minutes). One voice channel, one text channel.
Open a shared dice room (1 minute). One player opens DiceDND, picks a room name, and drops the link in the text channel. Everyone opens it in a browser tab, phone or desktop, no signup. Every roll now shows up live for the whole table.
Sort sheets (5 minutes). Whatever each player already has: paper, D&D Beyond, or the free 5e sheet built into the same DiceDND room, which auto-calculates modifiers so nobody does arithmetic mid-turn.
Session zero the logistics (2 minutes). Agree on a start time, a session length (2.5 to 3 hours online beats 4+, energy drops faster remotely), and who posts the recap.

How do you handle dice so nobody has to trust screenshots?

Two good options, different table styles:

Discord dice bot (Avrae). Rolls happen as chat commands (!r 1d20+5). Powerful, especially with D&D Beyond integration, but there's a command syntax to learn and rolls live in the chat scroll.
Shared browser roller (DiceDND). One room link, tap dice, everyone sees the roll land live with the modifier math shown. Feels closest to dice on a physical table, and the DM can watch rolls happen instead of reading logs. Free, no accounts.

Either beats the honor system. Pick the bot if your table lives in text; pick the shared roller if you want the game to feel like a table.

What about battle maps?

When a fight genuinely needs positioning, Owlbear Rodeo is the lightweight answer: free, browser-based, drag a map image in and drop tokens on it. It composes with the minimal stack (keep voice in Discord and dice in the shared roller) and takes minutes to learn, not evenings. If you find yourselves using it every session and wanting fog of war and automation, that's the signal you've outgrown minimal and a real VTT is worth the setup cost.

Tips that keep remote sessions fun

Shorter, more regular sessions. Weekly 2.5 hours beats monthly 5. Online energy has a shorter half-life.
Cameras optional, voice mandatory. Video helps but eats bandwidth and nerves; good audio is non-negotiable.
One tab for the game. The fewer tools, the fewer "wait, where do I click" moments. That's the real argument for the minimal stack.
Let the dice be an event. A visible shared roll before a big moment does what a physical table does: everyone leans in. It's the part of the table most worth recreating online.

Open a shared dice room → Free, no signup, works on phones