D&D 5E How many players would use a service like this

[Oofta]

I agree that if you are spending time putting set pieces together you are going to spend a lot more time prepping. That said, preparing set pieces is antithetical to improv IMO. I'm not saying it is a bad way to play or anything, just that if you are essentially locking the PCs into set piece, you are going to guide them to it rather than just react to what they are doing.

I do think that it takes more prep time to run a prewritten adventure than to create your own or improv. You not only have to mine the paid-per-word prose for obfuscated important information, you have to personalize to your group. I never used to run prewritten adventures until I started running on Fantasy Grounds, because I found improv on the VTT very difficult.

I run a very improv heavy game myself, just pointing out that different people have different styles. But sheesh, VTT is so much work to get right. I got it all to work and it was kind of cool when everything came together but I'd want a massive library of set pieces to really do it right, even though I do a lot of ToTM for non-combat encounters.

My ideal VTT would have an AI of some sort help you make your scenarios. Something like "I want a large tavern, populate it with this mix and it's not very busy" or "give me an abandoned mansion in this style, it has X number of rooms". But that, at least for now, is still a pipe dream.

 

[Reynard]

I run a very improv heavy game myself, just pointing out that different people have different styles. But sheesh, VTT is so much work to get right. I got it all to work and it was kind of cool when everything came together but I'd want a massive library of set pieces to really do it right, even though I do a lot of ToTM for non-combat encounters.

My ideal VTT would have an AI of some sort help you make your scenarios. Something like "I want a large tavern, populate it with this mix and it's not very busy" or "give me an abandoned mansion in this style, it has X number of rooms". But that, at least for now, is still a pipe dream.

I just want a functional virtual dry erase board built into Fantasy Grounds. That's how I run stuff in meat space and I'd prefer to do it that way remotely too.

 

[Burnside]

I just want a functional virtual dry erase board built into Fantasy Grounds. That's how I run stuff in meat space and I'd prefer to do it that way remotely too.

I'm not sure about Fantasy Grounds, but Roll20 effectively has this. You could just use the base empty gridded map template and draw on it with the drawing tool.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm not sure about Fantasy Grounds, but Roll20 effectively has this. You could just use the base empty gridded map template and draw on it with the drawing tool.

Well, you can. But it's not easy to use, especially mid game.

 

[Reynard]

Well, you can. But it's not easy to use, especially mid game.

And it looks terrible.

 

[Hussar]

Me, I’d be happy if I could add text to the map in fantasy grounds. But I’ve long given up expecting basic functionality in FG.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm not sure about Fantasy Grounds, but Roll20 effectively has this. You could just use the base empty gridded map template and draw on it with the drawing tool.

Except the drawing tool won't let you use anything other than a mouse, which is awful for freehand drawing.

 

[Lanefan]

Me, I’d be happy if I could add text to the map in fantasy grounds. But I’ve long given up expecting basic functionality in FG.

This, however, is something roll20 does with ease.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I don't disagree with your overall points, but this ^^^ here is not a truth, it's a statement of personal experience or preference at best. Prep times vary wildly between different GMs and different playstyles.

I have spent hundreds of hours working on worlds pre game, and sometimes as much as a full time job between games... but I have also just said "okay I need 3 city names, 2-3 names for other things (swamp, mountain ect) and 4 possible hooks that I generate 20 minutes before game 1... so yeah it can go either way.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I spend nearly all day long every day thinking about D&D and reading D&D related material. However, I don't do prep-work for games I run beyond reading the adventure book, if I'm running one. If I'm making my own game, I don't do anything other than think about it. But then, I also don't use notes, a book, a screen, or anything other than dice at the table either. (I keep track of most monster statblocks in my head and calculate HP that way too - though sometimes I use a piece of scrap paper and a pencil if there's a lot of monsters to keep track of.) I suppose that I sometimes look-up and print out boss monster statblocks. That counts as prep. I guess I prep somewhere between "not at all" and "all the time".