VTTs

[TealdragonUK]

Yet another VTT contender, Role, is now Kickstarting:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/role/role-a-new-kind-of-platform-for-the-rpg-community

This is a bit of a strange beast, having only theater of the mind capabilities (video chat, character sheets, dice rolling and cards - but apparently no text chat), and adding "looking for player" and content market features to the mix - including 6 RPGs only distributed via their service. Hard to say how this will fare.

Update: There is a text chat, phew!

I went in on the Kickstarter, wasn't expensive and it looked decent enough. Less of a tactical tabletop approach which I kinda like. When the Beta hits I can try it out and update here.

 

[Gerald.Lock]

I'm curious about why Astral hasn't warranted a mention yet. I haven't used it beyond some initial trial 'poking around' - mainly because it doesn't provide pre-built character sheet support for my preferred system (Star Wars D6) - but the UI looks well-polished and much more modern than the old faithful, roll20.
https://astraltabletop.com/
I'm interested to know whether anyone has dug deeper and either used it or done some in-depth research...

 

[ELF]

I did use Astral for running a oneshot back in the spring when Astral pro features were available for free. My feelings were mixed: I liked the user interface and being able to create interactive VTT character sheets from standard PDF was great. Still, there were some strange omissions in the available functionality, mostly small things like the inability to test the soundscape without launching a live session. There have been updates since that, so many of my issues may have been fixed already.

In my books Astral is definitely a step up from Roll20, but on the other hand does not match the features of FoundryVTT. To me, it seems that Foundry is offering more while costing less.

 

[JohnnFour]

I'm about to buy Foundry and give it a spin. Wish me luck @ELF!

 

[Gordon Johansen]

It will be interesting to see what you think of it. I've had problems loading for but I think it is windows admin permission thing. It seems to fly by the screen that asks if you want to allow it to run and just cancels out.

 

[ELF]

I'm about to buy Foundry and give it a spin. Wish me luck @ELF!

All the best! If you want a test drive first, they have a demo installation available:
https://demo.foundryvtt.com/join

 

[Gerald.Lock]

Foundry looks great (if you're playing D&D 5e or you're a programmer!) - I'm hoping the user base grows to develop support for other rules systems.
I feel like I'm stuck with roll20 (seems old and clunky, but at least it has good user-built support for my preferred system - Star Wars/D6) but hey, all I really need is a place to interact with my maps and store/leverage digital character sheets, so I can't complain really.

On a more '[VTT] system agnostic' note, the whole 'forced digital transition' that COVID has precipitated has been an abject lesson in 'who and what really matters'.
For my group, playing remotely (even though we're all within 20-30mins drive) has meant about an hour more game time at each session and happier partners & family. I can get my son to bed and be 'at the table' 10mins later!
Now that we're back to kinda normal (zero cases in 12 days!), I've suggested to my group that we play mainly online and just meet say once a month or so for a meatspace hang-out and a shorter game. And if any of us ever need to isolate again, very little needs to change.
To me this is a great win-state!

 

[ELF]

Foundry looks great (if you're playing D&D 5e or you're a programmer!) - I'm hoping the user base grows to develop support for other rules systems.

Luckily the list of officially supported systems is a bit longer than that:
https://foundry-vtt-community.github.io/wiki/Community-Game-Systems/
We have been playing our Warhammer FRP 4e campaign on Foundry, and the support is excellent.

Call of Cthulhu 7e is not officially supported, but the fan-made package still works fine. On the package list there are currently supported 75 game systems.

 

[Gerald.Lock]

Luckily the list of officially supported systems is a bit longer than that:

Nice one @ELF - couldn't see my beloved Star Wars D6 on the list. Oh well. Any tips on how one might promote the development of this? I really have no idea what's involved, so might be just pipe dreaming, but if it's just getting a decent interactive character sheet working and a few dice macros, how hard can it be?

 

[ELF]

Nice one @ELF - couldn't see my beloved Star Wars D6 on the list. Oh well. Any tips on how one might promote the development of this?

A good place to start would be the FoundryVTT Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/foundryvtt

I quickly checked and you are not the only one that would like to have Star Wars D6 supported. The community there is active and friendly, so asking around hopefully brings in some results. (We once had an issue with the Warhammer character sheet and got the package developer to fix it for us in real time, mid-session.)

 

[Gerald.Lock]

A good place to start would be the FoundryVTT Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/foundryvtt

I quickly checked and you are not the only one that would like to have Star Wars D6 supported.

Thanks. Joined Discord (never used before). Feels a bit like standing at an airport arrivals board watching the chatter. I've posted a question in #other-game-systems.
Do I just wait for someone to notice my message in a bottle? It already seems short, insignificant and just floating in a sea of words...
😔

 

[Veilheim]

I'll just chime in here -- Foundry is fantastic. Couple it with the ability to have it hosted for you, and you have a really solid product. That said, the learning curve can be steep, so be prepared to have to dig in. It is not as steep as others (Maptool, FGU), but it's not as instant on as say R20.

 

[ELF]

Shard Tabletop has just launched their Kickstarter:

Shard Tabletop is a virtual tabletop and character sheet dedicated to the 5th Edition of the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game. We intend to differentiate ourselves from other tabletops based on ease of use, seamless multi-device support, and the depth and breadth of the content available.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...top-a-5e-virtual-tabletop-and-character-sheet

 

[Butcher of Blackhall]

Foundry.

It's supposed to be fantastic. But not user friendly to set up. Is there a set up guide anywhere?
https://foundryvtt.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aHlApa1nUA&list=PLGgCMB0gYnLFWxyrCkUYwHY4vvA_yME7m

This is the best youtube channel for foundry, I bought it and found something super intuitive while others are not so. Foundry seems very tech heavy if you want it to be, ie. setup servers for players to access info and lore any time they want. But then you have to set up servers(no thanks, too much work for me.)

 

[JochenL]

Campaign Table Top

Announcement: https://campaign-community.com/index.php?threads/preview-campaign-table-top-beta-access.1266/
The app: https://ctt.campaign-logger.cloud/

 

[ELF]

This is a curious one: AboveVTT is a Chrome plugin that is supposed to add VTT functionality on top of D&D Beyond:

Turn your dndBeyond (DDB) campaign page into a VTT with AboveVTT - d&d made easy.

AboveVTT is a all-in-1 chrome extension that allows you and your friends to turn your DDB Campaign page into a VTT session in seconds.

No sign up, no fees, just your DDB account (free) and you are ready to go,
With your DDB character sheet, 1 click maps, 1 click tokens (monsters & PCs), easy fog of war and more!

Key features, advantages and DDB integrations:

️ Use your DDB character sheet! HP, dice rolls, conditions & send spells, abilities, and even monster art directly to chat.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/abovevtt/ipcjcbhpofedihcloggaichibomadlei/

I haven't tested this yet, but there seems to be a lot of praise in the user reviews.

 

[Stephan Hornick]

@John B : Hey John, want to try?

 

[ELF]

Quest Haven is a currently kickstarting VTT platform with Virtual Reality support (so VRVTT?):

QuestHaven is a tabletop RPG platform coming to PC, PCVR and standalone Oculus Quest 2, with plans of expanding to other devices in the future.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mersis/questhaven

Personally I I'm not too keen on these AR/VR solutions, as they tend to limit the theater of the mind experience to what is currently supported by the 3D model library (or require a lot of extra effort to actually create the missing 3D models).

 

[Stephan Hornick]

Me neither. It shifts too much into a pc gaming experience and away from a fantasy experience.

 

[ELF]

This must be a first: The Augur is a VTT platform for solo roleplaying.

Conceived for GMs, Worldbuilders, Solo Players, and Players who want complete avatar customization, superpowered character sheets, journaling, a bestiary with over two hundred entries, and deep mapping systems with procedural generation of NPCs, cities, settlements, and dungeons.

https://the-augur.itch.io/theaugur

The old version is available for Pay What You Want:
https://the-augur.itch.io/theoldaugur