The Dungeons & Dragons Virtual Table

[tentfox]

For me to get all my party to use this has to surpass, not just equal, the free current offerings.

To equal them it needs to be as good as deviant null's 4e framework for maptool in terms of handling auto rollers (I would like to see implement and critical damage fixed as well), ease of applying damage and healing and tracking of conditions. As well of tracking power usage, etc for characters.

To be better than it in any meaningful way, that is enough to be able to get my party to start subscribing to the DDi (which this better be part of with no additional fees), then it needs to use the strength of the other online tools. I would at a minimum need to be able to pull any character, any monster (both from the compendium or online monster builder) and any dungeon tile and just drop it in the tool with no extra work. Currently it takes hours to prepare adventures in maptool for this very reason and to mitigate that work would be a god send.

 

[blalien]

I've been a loyal Wizards of the Coast customer for fifty years, but this is the final straw. I'm going to quit D&D forever, burn all my Wizards products, and get a real hobby like knitting.

By which I mean, I might use it if the price is reasonable and the maps are better than Maptool.

 

[Zaukrie]

Not all that interested in this. An updated monster builder (that works better than teh CB) would be nice, though. Really nice.

 

[Nikosandros]

If this works as advertised, it will be awesome. Indeed, the VTT is the one tool that would persuade me to maintain an active DDI subscription.

The FAQ states that they haven't yet decided about the pricing. This seems to me a rather strong hint that the VT won't be part of the current DDI subscription.

 

[catastrophic]

Wow, looks like a prettier version of Maptool*.
(* insert VTT of your choice)

I run maptool games and they look a lot prettier than that, because you can freely import maps and other art into maptool to use in your games.
Unless this program can do that, there's no contest.

 

[Dragonblade]

As a DDI subscriber, I expect this to be bundled with my subscription. If WotC wants to offer a separate subscription model for those who want the table only, I don't mind.

And this doesn't change the fact that the builder still needs a lot of fixing.

 

[mattcolville]

I blogged about this.

Annoyingly, I just dropped $150 for the Fantasy Grounds 2 Ultimate License and I'm beginning to regret it. It's incredibly hard to figure out, I've spent a week on it so far and been unable to smoothly get a player into it and playing. Which is alarming for a paid app, and $150 at that.

So I'm sorta excited about this. I'll deeply, deeply regret choosing now to buy FG2, but at least I'll be able to get people into a game quickly and play.

That being said, if we ever get to the point where my players can easily get into one my game and play, I can see how it could be superior, in that it's more like a real table onto which I can drop multiple maps, player handouts, people write notes, share them. All sorts of stuff.

I just wish the damned thing worked.

 

[Dragonblade]

And for the love of god, please no microtransactions to buy tokens and such.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, there are a few basic resemblances to Maptool. I'd say personally, having used Maptool for most of my 4e games that integration with things like CB and MB IS the key. It should look pretty good, but that is the easy part really. The hard parts are good use case based design to make things go smoothly in-game and good integration to make the DM's job easier. I should be able to create an encounter with this and MB in 15 minutes.

It is true too that Maptool provides a pretty decent bar to have to pass. At its current level of development there is a lot of good stuff there (marred by some annoying UI shortcomings but even so pretty nice). Again, what Maptool REALLY lacks is tight integration with tools like MB. You CAN import monsters into Maptool with the right macro sets, but it is a lot of fiddly work. There's not too much point in another VTT that still requires all of that.

 

[Dragonblade]

I blogged about this.

Annoyingly, I just dropped $150 for the Fantasy Grounds 2 Ultimate License and I'm beginning to regret it. It's incredibly hard to figure out, I've spent a week on it so far and been unable to smoothly get a player into it and playing. Which is alarming for a paid app, and $150 at that.

So I'm sorta excited about this. I'll deeply, deeply regret choosing now to buy FG2, but at least I'll be able to get people into a game quickly and play.

That being said, if we ever get to the point where my players can easily get into one my game and play, I can see how it could be superior, in that it's more like a real table onto which I can drop multiple maps, player handouts, people write notes, share them. All sorts of stuff.

I just wish the damned thing worked.

Ironically I posted before reading your blog entry. If WotC starts nickel and diming me for access to this or that class, or this or that token, I'm done.

Where I think WotC can legitimately charge a microtransaction fee that I would support, is lets say they release premade adventure modules for the VT with all the necessary maps already tiled out and the tokens pre laid out and bundled for each encounter. Thats cool with me. But I shouldn't have to pay 99 cents for a beholder token or for access to a given tileset.

ALL WotC tiles and monster tokens should be standard with the VT. And access to the VT should be included in DDI subs.

After all this is something that DDI subscribers were promised way back when it was first started. Trying to charge extra for the VT, especially after the online character builder debacle would be an outrage.