NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 9698579" data-attributes="member: 6796661">Testing, configuring, and generally messing around with TTRPG digital tools is almost a second hobby for me. Recently I've cut back and try to stick to the basics and keep my time focused on prepping my games with the tools I have.For World Building, my favorite was RealmWorks, which I really only used as a DM prep and in-game tool. The killer feature was the auto-linking features, so you didn't need to create cross links manually. It also has "Fog of World" feature with multi-layered maps. It wasn't a VTT, you don't drop token, you just reveal the map manually as the players explore. I liked its integration with Hero Lab, which I used for combat tracking. Unfortunately, the developer stopped development on it.  I continued to use it anyway, until I moved and had to run games online. I would run it along with Google Meet for audio and screen sharing, but I eventually made the moves to full VTTs.I tried to use World Anvil, which is a well designed, hosted world building and campaign management tool. Cross linking is/was manual but not too difficult. It was just too much data entry for me, especially went most of my content was in a VTT and I started to run published adventures instead of home brew. But I still recommend it to those who want a full featured world-building tool.No I just use Foundry Journals. With the QuickInsert or Spotlight Omnisearch mods, it is trivially simple to cross link to other articles, sections of articles, actors, items, maps, etc. I don't need/want the extra complexity of advanced structured data types. I don't need graphic relationship and plot maps. Foundry Journal Articles more that meet my world building and campaign management needs.I've tried incorporating music into my games many times over the years.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">YouTube/Spotify/Apple Music playlists and a bluetooth speaker for in-perhaps games.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Plugins/mods for Foundry or Discord to link and control Spotify or YouTube playlists (most recently the <a href="https://foundryvtt.com/packages/fvtt-youtube-player" target="_blank">YouTube Player Widget </a>for Foundry</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Syrinscape and Battle Bards (if I'm remember the second one's name correctly), using RealmWorks and Foundry Integrations or running the software/webpages separately.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Using Foundry's native playlists</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Using Foundry modules like Moulinette with subscriptions to various sound and music artists</li> </ul>I've enjoyed testing and playing around with them more than using them in game. For remote play, players tend to mute them anyway as managing the levels for background music, sound effects, etc. gets to be annoying. As a DM I find it adds a lot of extra prep time. This is largely because I get obsessive about it. The time is somewhat rewarding as a discover a lot of new music, but it is rarely rewarding in play. I've tried to put more time in prep to make it easier to use music in games by "automating" it somewhat with associating scenes with playlists, using regional sound controls, and having various generic and adventure specific playlists set up. I've even connected an Elgato Stream Deck to Foundry to have physical buttons to control music and sound.But when I'm running games I just find adding "DJ" to my GM duties to be too much. And my players just don't care much either way so I prefer to spend my time one what they do enjoy. If I were to be running in-person games again, I would try to bring some background music and ambient sounds back into my game, but I'm done with using it for online games for the most part.As for VTTs, I've posted at length in other VTT-specific threads on EN World about my VTT journey. I've been using Foundry for years now as a DM, but still joing games as a players using other VTTs, mostly Roll20, sometimes Fantasy Grounds. I have not loyalty to any VTT. Foundry works the best for my needs for now, despite some things I don't like about it. I choose what VTT to use based on the game I'm running. Looking forward, I'm most interested in system-specific VTTs.  I've backed Foundry's Kickstarter for Ember, a world and compaign designed by the Foundry team, specifically for Foundry and while it will support 5e, I'm most excited about playing it with Foundry's in-house Crucible system.I'm also following MCDM's work on a VTT designed specifically for Draw Steel.</blockquote>

Verification