D&D 5E Virtual Online Tabletop for 5e

[MonsterEnvy]

Poster above listed desires for a video game, not a VTT.

1. Easy to use and access online character database. Roll20 has this to some extent, but it should be automated to extra your latest character from your "binder" of characters and slot them into a new adventure. Like how characters are stored in an MMO.

2. Automated rolling. Fantasy Grounds does this pretty well, Roll20 it is almost non-existent. If I click a target and hit Fire Bolt, have the dice rolled vs. AC calculated etc.

3. Players should be able to add and remove effects from themselves. Roll20 has almost no ability to add/remove effects, Fantasy Grounds can add effects but needs a specialized tool to let players remove them. Frees up the DM significantly.

4. Full integration of the rules. This is a MASSIVE licensing issue so good luck here, but drag and drop on level up that doesn't add the actual features is annoying. Have things like spells, class/race abilities, etc automatically built in and auto-level as the characters increase.

The full integration is not too hard actully. They can use everything from the 5e SRD. Though that would make some subclasses unavailable. But it's a good starting point.

 

[tlackemann]

On stuff I like. A feature I would like the ability to customize the layout. I don't really like in roll20 for example how you have to get rid of the chatbox to look at the other options in the menu.

Customize layouts, will look into. Thanks!

 

[tlackemann]

(1) Text-accessible interface: it should be at least possible to drop a Hypnotic Pattern on a clump of orcs without clicking on a single button. Doesn't have to be natural language-based but it would sure be nice if it were smart enough to know that "cast Hypnotic Pattern" should default to casting it on the largest group of enemies instead of casting it on one's current location or throwing a "you must specify a target" error.

(2) Ability to smoothly handle extremely large battles. If I say, "You open the door and see 44 zombies come boiling out of it to attack you," I shouldn't be tempted to drop back to a whiteboard and ToTM in order to handle the battle. The product should make my life easier, not harder. Related to #1.

Usability is our #1 focus which is why we specifically are only targeting DnD at the moment. To support other d20 games would mean opening up a lot of customization that we're not confident will make for a great user experience upfront. We'll 100% be focusing on usability for large games.

(3) Automation and machine learning capabilities, e.g. for learning more-effective zombie scripts, or for solving Internet arguments like "I bet a Warlock 10 could beat a Fighter 20" via Monte Carlo sim.

Interesting idea, will look into.

(4) Ability for the DM to prospectively or retroactively modify things by fiat, no matter what the rule engine says. "Actually there are two ogres here." "You're right, Brad, I forgot that you still have that magical boon. The ogre doesn't hit you--that is now a miss."

(5) Related to #2 and #4, should be usable on the fly as well as with pre-planned adventures. "Add ten ogres in random locations throughout the area" should be a thing it can do.

Great ideas.

(6) Shareable (via URL) post-combat logs that are able to include non-combat activities, so you can see from the log all the roleplaying activities as well as the pure combat stuff. "Jack looks really mad that the ogre would say such things about Grizella. He snatches up a table leg and hits the ogre with it! 'She's NOT yummy, she's MY FRIEND!' Jack hits the ogre for 3 points of damage."

(7) Deeply transparent explanations available for why things happened. "Jack hits the ogre for 3 points of damage" is just a summary which can be drilled down to a full explanation of what the ogre's AC was, what Jack rolled, whether Jack used any resources like Superiority Dice on the attack, why he did or didn't use Superiority Dice if he had them, what dice were used for rolling Jack's damage, what features caused those dice to be selected, etc.

Rich text logs and summaries, got it.

(8) Good path-finding for AI-controlled creatures. Doesn't have to be perfect but should look like something a real creature would do.

(9) Partial information capabilities. E.g. it should be possible to use this tool to automatically track the movement of ten off-screen ogres moving around through the dungeon while the players are examining the cooking pots in another. Then when four ogres suddenly show up all at once, it should be possible (after the fact) to show the players that the ogres were there all along, and that they were just attracted by the noise when the PCs started banging pots together. This allows you to play Kriegspiel-like scenarios without the players having to feel like the DM might be handwaving unfairly or cheating, because they get to audit the game afterwards.

Both things I've never considered but think are definitely interesting, we'll look into them.

Partial information scenarios, 3D (e.g. a fort with hanging bridges that let you go over things and tunnels that let you go under them), and large battles are some of the real killer apps for virtual tabletop software, because you can't really do them easily at a real tabletop.

I don't really expect you to create a VTT that has all these capabilities, but as I've been working on my own little hobby project these are some of the design requirements I've come up with for a useful 5E software tool. And if you do happen to have any of these capabilities I would definitely like to know about it. I see you support at least some AI PCs but from the web page I can't tell what the experience is like.

As of yet the experience is an idea. We know *how* we'd like to accomplish it.

An AI powered DM would be able to move characters through a pre-built adventure. Much like something from Wizards of the Coast adventures out now (Storm King's Thunder, etc...) this would be possible due to an advanced turn based combat system and simple story trees and side quests much like video games today.

As far as AI powered characters, they would fill roles also much like you see in video games, they would be capable of combat and giving simple responses but at first would not be a big focus of the story. The real PCs would be the focus of the story for the DM and the AI characters would help make sure you had a full and well rounded party making it possible for the DM to throw bigger and better adventures at you.

Again this not set in stone yet as far as implementation, but these are the roles we would like those features to fill.

 

[tlackemann]

I've always wanted something like this, but I think I may need a new PC somewhere down the line.

My friend is an optimization wizard for the web which is where we're going to start (we both are being from enterprise software backgrounds but I'm more confident in saying he is.). I have my daily driver that's 6 years old now, I'd like it to run on that too. We'll do our best to make that happen.

Thanks for the feedback and congratulations on your child! Good luck!

 

[tlackemann]

1. Easy to use and access online character database. Roll20 has this to some extent, but it should be automated to extra your latest character from your "binder" of characters and slot them into a new adventure. Like how characters are stored in an MMO.

Yes! We were thinking this

2. Automated rolling. Fantasy Grounds does this pretty well, Roll20 it is almost non-existent. If I click a target and hit Fire Bolt, have the dice rolled vs. AC calculated etc.

I feel this could be heavily debated. Maybe an option?

3. Players should be able to add and remove effects from themselves. Roll20 has almost no ability to add/remove effects, Fantasy Grounds can add effects but needs a specialized tool to let players remove them. Frees up the DM significantly.

When we first came up with the idea to do this, our initial reason was to make the DMs life easier with better tooling. We'll definitely look into this.

4. Full integration of the rules. This is a MASSIVE licensing issue so good luck here, but drag and drop on level up that doesn't add the actual features is annoying. Have things like spells, class/race abilities, etc automatically built in and auto-level as the characters increase.

Fingers crossed but I'm pushing my luck and am attempting to talk to Wizards now.

Thanks!

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Oh, and pluggable rulesets are also pretty important for broad adoption. E.g. you'd want the VTT to be able to cater both to DMs who think it's fine to Hide any time you are heavily obscured, and to DMs who feel that you can only hide before combat; you'd want to be able to cater both to DMs who allow Sharpshooter and its -5/+10 effect, and DMs who nerf that to -5/+5.

You can never guess at all the possible permutations of house rules but the more closely your game supports a given DM's ruleset the more likely he is to be interested in it.

I've also considered the idea of leaderboards, e.g. "Here are the 10 people with the highest scores in the Who Can Kill A Thousand Orcs scenario, and here are the builds and AIs they used for it."

 

[tlackemann]

Oh, and pluggable rulesets are also pretty important for broad adoption. E.g. you'd want the VTT to be able to cater both to DMs who think it's fine to Hide any time you are heavily obscured, and to DMs who feel that you can only hide before combat; you'd want to be able to cater both to DMs who allow Sharpshooter and its -5/+10 effect, and DMs who nerf that to -5/+5.

You can never guess at all the possible permutations of house rules but the more closely your game supports a given DM's ruleset the more likely he is to be interested in it.

I've also considered the idea of leaderboards, e.g. "Here are the 10 people with the highest scores in the Who Can Kill A Thousand Orcs scenario, and here are the builds and AIs they used for it."

Agreed. Usability/Customization are things we are heavily investing time into. Thank you!

 

[RulesJD]

*snip*



I feel this could be heavily debated. Maybe an option?


*snip*

I mean you have to ask yourself, what's the purpose of using your VTT? If players and DMs want to do everything manually, they can just use the existing options or just use Skype.

The benefits of introducing a computer to table top gaming is automating a lot of things so that the game flows more smoothly and with less need for work by the DM. That lets the DM focus on other things, like monster tactics, telling the story, etc. This saves the DM from getting bogged down in things like tracking initiative, monsters HP, effects on monsters, etc.

 

[ProphetSword]

I actually use a VTT for a different reason. We have built a gaming table and utilize the maps and miniatures on the screen built into the table, so things like tracking combats, rolling dice and character sheets are less important to us than they are for others who use these tools online.

What is important, though, are tools that can allow us to do things with the maps. Utilizing fog of war, the ability to mark things on the map, the ability to move objects around, and being able to seamlessly transfer from one map to another.

I'm not asking for anything in particular. I'm just asking that some thought be given for those of us who might utilize something like this in a different way than you might expect when you think about the features you'll add.

I'm including a couple of pictures of the tabletop in question to give you an idea of what I mean.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I also enjoy being able to automate rolls so it should at the very least be an option I think. Making sort of a variable sheet for monsters would also be very useful.

Checking out the beta of the tabletop is for sure something I would like to do.