I’m not going to go on about how to install Foundry, as that can vary depending on how you want to run it – either locally on your own machine or on a hosted server somewhere else. The tool is the same regardless, so you can find the approach that works best for you elsewhere.
Now, I’m going to assume you’ve already installed the software and you are in the tool. Once you launch it, you’ll see a screen that looks like this.
Before we can do anything, including creating a game world, we have to set up a game system. A game system is the underlying environment and world that you’re going to run a world in and, in many cases, is specific to the version as well. Foundry has many systems already developed for use, and odds are you’re going to probably use one of those systems when you start your game.
To set one up, click “Install System” in the bottom of the screen. You’ll get a popup that shows all of the systems that are currently available in Foundry. (Note that these screens represent the version of Foundry I currently have installed, which is Version 9 Build 269. I don’t have a lot of experience with other versions so if things look different throughout my posts, you’ll need to search other forums for assistance there.)
Like I said… There’s a lot. For my needs, and probably for many, the main system you’re going to be playing is Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (aka D&D 5E). If you search the list, you’ll find Foundry’s official implementation of the game system under “DnD5e“. Hit the “Install” button next to it, and that will install the system directly into your Foundry setup.
You may also see at the bottom of the screen there is a section called “Manifest URL”. This is a URL to where you can choose to install a system not currently in Foundry, but is compatible. Installation from Manifests for modules, systems, and more is quite common in Foundry – many of the best 3rd party modules will provide you this URL so you can easily import maps, tokens, etc. right into the tool. (The DnD5e one, for example, could also have been installed with its own Manifest link:
Now that we have a game system installed, we can see that the Game Worlds tab is now available to us and we can start to set up our game world to play in.
Now that we have the system installed, we can proceed onto the Game World.