D&D 5E Most User-Friendly VTT? (Dice Games In The Time of Covid)

[Mistwell]

Interesting. Thanks for the replies. If roll20 is the simplest thing out there...I probably just am not someone who is gonna want to use a vtt.

I don’t want to watch a tutorial to figure out how to let players move an asset

They click on it and hold the click, and move it where they want to move it, and then stop clicking. Exactly what you'd expect.

, or to have a torch throw out the correct area of light. I

You click on it, and it will open a window. Where it says 'Aura' you put the radius you want. You can even choose the color of the light, and whether it's round or square.

This stuff is super simple. That's why it's the most popular platform.

 

[Prakriti]

They click on it and hold the click, and move it where they want to move it, and then stop clicking. Exactly what you'd expect.

But first you have to give them permission to move it. And if it's a token that represents their character, then you probably want to link that token to their character sheet. And unless you want to go through those steps on each map, then you also want to associate their character sheet with that token (which is not the same as linking a token to their character sheet). All of this takes time to do and time to learn. And it's not exactly intuitive.

 

[Mistwell]

But first you have to give them permission to move it. And if it's a token that represents their character, then you probably want to link that token to their character sheet. And unless you want to go through those steps on each map, then you also want to associate their character sheet with that token (which is not the same as linking a token to their character sheet). All of this takes time to do and time to learn. And it's not exactly intuitive.

Sure but you don't need a character sheet. They have a character sheet at home. You don't even need the dice roller. We have one player who just rolls his own dice and tells us what he gets - just like you do at a table. Unless you have a trust issue with your players, that should be fine. It's a tool to play your game as quickly as you can get it going - you don't need the bells and whistles.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They click on it and hold the click, and move it where they want to move it, and then stop clicking. Exactly what you'd expect.



You click on it, and it will open a window. Where it says 'Aura' you put the radius you want. You can even choose the color of the light, and whether it's round or square.

This stuff is super simple. That's why it's the most popular platform.

You have to first set those things up. The DM has to learn how to give control of an asset to the player.

I’m also not here to argue about any of this. Save for someone else.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In the meantime, you might want to get started with the VTTs that exist now. Wishing for perfect isn't going to allow you to get a game together this weekend.

Or, just use chat like we have been doing.

Because so far, it doesn’t seem like the vtt options are actually any better than that.

But we will keep messing with them anyway, see if we find one that clicks for us and has enough pre-set-up assets that we don’t have to mess around whatever process to make line of sight work on a building every time.

 

[Mistwell]

You have to first set those things up. The DM has to learn how to give control of an asset to the player.

I’m also not here to argue about any of this. Save for someone else.

Giving control of an asset is super easy too though. It's not like some complex "setup".

Nobody is arguing with you, I am letting people know what the level of complexity is. If you don't like that level of complexity, that's fine. But it looked to me like people could accidentally get the wrong impression of the complexity from your post.

 

[Len]

I found this tutorial that looks useful for setting up a Roll20 campaign: Roll20 Crash Course - Roll20 Wiki (I haven't run through this myself because I'm not the GM of our current campaign.)

Giving control of an asset is super easy too though. It's not like some complex "setup".

It may seem super easy to you, but I can tell you that some new users find it bewildering and just don't know where to start. I find it confusing and I've heard that from other people too. It's fine to say that you only have to do a few simple things to get started, but it can be really hard to figure out what those simple things are.

 

[Mistwell]

I found this tutorial that looks useful for setting up a Roll20 campaign: Roll20 Crash Course - Roll20 Wiki (I haven't run through this myself because I'm not the GM of our current campaign.)



It may seem super easy to you, but I can tell you that some new users find it bewildering and just don't know where to start. I find it confusing and I've heard that from other people too. It's fine to say that you only have to do a few simple things to get started, but it can be really hard to figure out what those simple things are.

You click it. That brings up a display with an ordinary gear icon. You click the gear icon. That brings up the window of controls for that icon (there are not many, it's not like it's a full screen of stuff). Where is says "controlled by" you select the player who controls it. You're done.

There are complex things in Roll20. Choosing who can move an object isn't one of them.

 

[Len]

There are complex things in Roll20. Choosing who can move an object isn't one of them.

You seem to be completely missing my point. It's not that some particular thing is simple, it's that nothing is simple when you're faced with a screen full of controls and a hundred pages of inscrutable documentation.

 

[Mistwell]

You seem to be completely missing my point. It's not that some particular thing is simple, it's that nothing is simple when you're faced with a screen full of controls and a hundred pages of inscrutable documentation.

I am not missing the point. We've all learned how to do something new with software.

Clicking on it pops up a gear icon - we all recognize a gear icon as a standard "settings" type indicator.

Clicking on that gear asks you who you want to control that thing.

You don't need documentation to figure that thing out. My 9 year old daughter could probably figure that thing out in a few minutes.

Yes, there are complex things in Roll20. But please, stop telling people one of the complex things is how to grant control to an object for others to move. It is one of the things that's easy to do in Roll20. Not everything is easy, but that one really is. Nobody needs 100s of pages of inscrutable documentation to figure that particular thing out. It's not IKEA furniture directions or rocket science.