D&D (2024) I am highly skeptical of the Unreal VTT

[payn]

I will wait to judge till it's released.

Sounds reasonable.

 

[Bill Zebub]

My ideal VTT would have very abstract maps/terrain, but highly detailed & animated minis. Some 3D, or pseudo-3D, in the maps would be fine, as long as the actual artwork was left abstract.

For example, water can just be solid blue, or blue lines, without trying to look like actual water.

I expect most people disagree with me on this one, but I think it would feel more like playing a table, leaving more to the imagination, and less like a video game.

 

[Hussar]

I will wait to judge till it's released.

Yeah, that's largely my take on it. I'm certainly not going to form any opinions from the what, 3 seconds of footage that's on the youtube video.

 

[Hussar]

My ideal VTT would have very abstract maps/terrain, but highly detailed & animated minis. Some 3D, or pseudo-3D, in the maps would be fine, as long as the actual artwork was left abstract.

For example, water can just be solid blue, or blue lines, without trying to look like actual water.

I expect most people disagree with me on this one, but I think it would feel more like playing a table, leaving more to the imagination, and less like a video game.

I imagine that both will be an option. YOu'll be able to have a totally abstract map or a really high-res photo realistic one, depending on what you want.

 

[Reynard]

I imagine that both will be an option. YOu'll be able to have a totally abstract map or a really high-res photo realistic one, depending on what you want.

Sure, but subscribing to a different VTT. Why would WotC put money into an option that already exists? Moreover, they made a point to show this thing this early in all of its 3D glory including leaning on what is arguably the most well known and trusted 3D engines in the industry. I don't think there's much chance in WotC offering a Roll20 clone unless they literally also buy Roll20.

 

[MarkB]

Sure, but subscribing to a different VTT. Why would WotC put money into an option that already exists? Moreover, they made a point to show this thing this early in all of its 3D glory including leaning on what is arguably the most well known and trusted 3D engines in the industry. I don't think there's much chance in WotC offering a Roll20 clone unless they literally also buy Roll20.

Why wouldn't they try to offer the broadest support they can, both in terms of device capabilities and player preferences? It's not exactly a hardship on their engine to allow lower-detailed maps and tokens, or a fixed top-down view.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, again, I'm not sure how much we can take away from the three seconds of preview in the video. But, honestly, I would be very surprised if they didn't offer the broadest appeal possible. It's not like online gaming over VTT is the majority of gamers anyway. It's a small chunk of a much larger market.

 

[ReshiIRE]

Well, more features is always more hardship - in both development and maintenance. Granted, top-down cameras and lower-detailed maps and tokens probably would not be difficult to add and maintain (in fact I'm guessing their camera is going to be like Talespire and simply and easily under player control, so a 'top-down camera' feature would mostly require grid control and zooming between layers), but the nature of software and game development being what it is that sometimes simple things they can 'just add' could actually be a horrifying amount of work.

Maintaining that as well is a potential problem as well, because now that's more tests in the mix; more things that could go wrong; etc.

I would be more worried about the modularity of the VTT system for homebrew content than anything though. How much rule support they can have for that is going to be a key test.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I think we will be able to judge it way before it's released. I imagine we will see the beta for this thing and more footage of it in action as time goes on.

 

[Zaukrie]

Not skeptical that it will come out, but skeptical that it is a good way to play D&D. I honestly believe that the fancier the VTT, the more it detracts from anything not combat, and makes it harder to run things on the fly or even homebrew prepped.

Thoughts?

Likely disagree. People say the same thing about cool terrain. Plus, I have no idea why cool combat tools stop me from cool non combat.