D&D General Do you want a 3D vtt?

[MNblockhead]

I need to be able to easily create monsters or NPCs , because I own a lot of third party stuff

The achilles heel of every low-prep DM who wants to use a VTT. I often just use pen and paper to track monster HP, etc. looking at the stat blocks in book/PDF. Prepping maps is enough work. I often can't be bothered to create the NPCs manually in the VTT.

 

[MNblockhead]

To be honest I am not sure I want 3d VTT but if there is one I want it to support 2d maps and AR/VR
What I would really like from D&DBeyond is campaign management tools that are integrated to the maps in the VTT. Like currently offered by FantasyGrounds but better. I want to be able to copy and paste from pdf and D&D Beyond to encounter and story elements and hyperlink them to each other and to the map.
Be able to track a time line and record events and place plot developments into the timeline.
Stuff like that.

Sigh. RealmWorks was great for that. But Lone Wolf Development ended support for it. World Anvil is probably the best campaign manager on the market, but RealmWorks autolinking was magic.

 

[MNblockhead]

Campaign management is also one of my requests. I'd love a world map and city maps you can pin locations to.

You can do this with a lot of VTTs. Certainly with Foundry. But World Anvil might be more of what you are looking for. World Anvil has a Foundry mod to link content in both.

Realmworks was really great with this as well, but is no longer being actively developed.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Note, this generally isn't a computer performance issue, but, an Internet speed thing - not only yours but every one of your players as well.

All of my players are on fast internet - and we go one step further. There are no Wi-fI connection permitted in our games. You must plug in to your router with a hard-wired connection.

 

[Velderan]

Yeah creating your own assets for 2D is pretty straight forward and inexpensive (if not free).

Agree on 2D being free and easy to quickly make a few tokens. I've had combat break out when I didn't expect it and a quick "ok, 5 minute bathroom break" was enough to quickly make some tokens on Token Stamp and upload them to Roll20 for use on a quickly thrown together grid map.

 

[Zaukrie]

You can do this with a lot of VTTs. Certainly with Foundry. But World Anvil might be more of what you are looking for. World Anvil has a Foundry mod to link content in both.

Realmworks was really great with this as well, but is no longer being actively developed.

WA has an awful interface, but it is an otherwise great tool.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Agree on 2D being free and easy to quickly make a few tokens. I've had combat break out when I didn't expect it and a quick "ok, 5 minute bathroom break" was enough to quickly make some tokens on Token Stamp and upload them to Roll20 for use on a quickly thrown together grid map.

You are not wrong about this. In either this or another thread, I mentioned that in most cases, the addition of 3d removes what is a broadly accessible tool in the hands of the Many, and at a stroke, because of the additional technical barriers to entry in working with 3d, moves it into the hands of a Few.

This is true. HOWEVER, it is not inevitable or unavoidable. There are ways to make 3d accessible to the masses. BioWare did that with NWN1 20 years ago when it was released in 2002. And Obsidian broke that approach with NWN2 in 2007 -- and so the toolset passed from the hands of the Many to the hands of a Few.

It's doable. It's just quite difficult to create the tools to make it easy.

 

[Hussar]

All of my players are on fast internet - and we go one step further. There are no Wi-fI connection permitted in our games. You must plug in to your router with a hard-wired connection.

Again, that would be a total non-starter for me. I don't think my wife would appreciate me lugging the desktop computer downstairs to the router every week just so I could not use the wifi. Granted, I have just bought a MUCH better wifi router which has made all my other problems go away. Which is nice.

 

[Charles Lowry]

I don't get to run games very often, but I only play in person and have loads of maps, tiles, loads of 2d flat minis and some miniatures. I'm not entirely sure I need VTT. Of note, I also run a lot of homebrew and riff from a lot various DND products.

I guess I'm in a wait and see mode.

 

[Azzy]

I don't get to run games very often, but I only play in person and have loads of maps, tiles, loads of 2d flat minis and some miniatures. I'm not entirely sure I need VTT. Of note, I also run a lot of homebrew and riff from a lot various DND products.

I guess I'm in a wait and see mode.

I'd say, if you only play in person, you really don't need a VTT at all. I know some people do use VTTs to augment their in-person play, but that's not something that I'd personally waste time and money on if I played in person (which, I don't).