D&D General Next Generation VTT

[Scott Christian]

I feel for the OP and others that find the VTT to be not intuitive. They are not. They could be vastly improved. But you need a lot of talent to accomplish that. Everyone marvels at Google Suite because it's all so simple. But the team that built it just makes it look that way. It took skill and time. And hours (not sure about skill), I fear, is what VTT companies do not have.

That said, I am not sure if anyone posted this link in compendium. But it's worth a look:

D&D Compendium - Virtual Tabletops

Many RPG players have migrated over to virtual tabletop (VTT) software during the pandemic. These tools often include multi-person connectivity, drawing features, token movement, and image import. If you want something simple, try out Owlbear Rodeo or Tableplop. If you want 3D, Talespire and

www.dnd-compendium.com

 

[LordEntrails]

Yup. Just let me get in there and write my own logic. Is that too much to ask?

For 99% of the market, yep.

Hmmm. That sounds tricky. But it makes me think that you could have a feature where you pick a visual "theme", draw a map strictly in 2D, dropping in doors and lights and other features, then let the software generate the 3D models.

Sure, you could. Probably not for $10million in investment, and not for the free or $20 dollar cost most people want in their online solution. Look at all the complaints we see about cost and how many people are using Skype or Discord or other free solutions because $10/month is too expensive? Now you want something with a AAA price tag of $70 plus add-ons and update purchases every few years? Not going to happen in the current RPG economy.

Now, what would I like? level of detail rendering. 3D and AR would be fun. Did you know that Fantasy Grounds was one of the supporters of Tilt Five? They haven't said what they are going to do with the integration, but SmiteWorks always seems pretty cautious in what they invest in and if they invested in Tilt Five, seems like they might have something going on in the background we might see in a few years.

 

[Ovinomancer]

How are the drawing tools in Roll20? I have used it once or twice but only with things where I did not actually care about a battle grid. I am heavily invested in FG, primarily for D&D, so I won't switch from that generally, but for games that fall somewhere between "TotM only" and "needs a grid" I am curious if Roll20 supports improvisational play.

Not great, and I'm a three year user of roll20 -- it's my primary means of gaming.

The drawing tools are barely adequate. You can sketch something out easily enough, but it's mot the tool you want for more than a sketch. Better to use another tool and import if your looking to draw something detailed.

Pro-tip for drawing: the freehand tool eats a lot of processor and can quickly bog diwn a page if you use it a lot. Get in the habit of using the poly line instead and create multiple points along the line. This looks similar to freehand but uses way less resources.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Pro-tip for drawing: the freehand tool eats a lot of processor and can quickly bog diwn a page if you use it a lot. Get in the habit of using the poly line instead and create multiple points along the line. This looks similar to freehand but uses way less resources.

QFT.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Making your own content either by whipping it up on the fly or preparing it before is always a challenge with maps. Tools for creating maps are hard to build and hard to use. It is amazing how hard it is to get something that is as quick as sketching on a mat, whiteboard or sheet of paper. I do wonder if the answer for digital tools is to make it easy for people to share maps that they make. Lots of people like to make maps and sharing is fun. Still need tools to make it easy to find and integrate a map quickly.

Not so.

With MapTools any jpg or png is a map. There are literally thousands of free or very low cost maps available on the Net; I've got several gigs worth.

You pick a suitable map, click on it, adjust the grid so the pogs are the right size (takes a few mouse clicks), then add monster pogs, information markers with cut &paste descriptions, markers for traps, locked, spiked, or chained doors, and lastly (my method) add the PC pogs at their likely entry point.

I recently prepped the three-level fire giant hold (against the Giants) in detail in under an hour. It took us over ten hurs of table time to complete it.

Any PNG or JPG can be made to a pog in seconds. I used to use top-down pogs, but now PCs are square pogs, NPCs are hex, and monster/foes are round with different borders to remind me of certain facts.

You can tailor make pog states so the party healers can see who is hurt and how bad, who is under this effect or that, who is flying, and so forth.

It removes so many distracting administrative issues, and brings the game to life in a way no other asset can.

 

[Don Durito]

One of the issues with picking maps from the internet is that it reverses what I feel it the natural order of approach.

In order to use internet maps - you really need to find a map, and then plan everything around the map you find.

I prefer to approach things the other way, consider what is logical and fits how I imagine the scene and then scrawl a map.

And then there is the fact, that while there are lots of maps on the internet a lot of them tend to actually fall within very narrow spectrums of generic fantasy.

For example, when I went looking for a map a while back for a good representation of a medieval style merchant's house with a central courtyard as they would usually have, it was actually not that easy to find. There's vasts amounts of maps of houses out their but they almost all follow a 19th century style.

Similarly if you want say a Roman Villa, it's easy to find maps of that from historical sources, but maps for gaming purposes - not so easy.

 

[Ovinomancer]

One of the issues with picking maps from the internet is that it reverses what I feel it the natural order of approach.

In order to use internet maps - you really need to find a map, and then plan everything around the map you find.

I prefer to approach things the other way, consider what is logical and fits how I imagine the scene and then scrawl a map.

And then there is the fact, that while there are lots of maps on the internet a lot of them tends to actually fall within very narrow spectrums of generic fantasy.

For example, when I went looking for a map a while back for a good representation of a medieval style merchant's house with a central courtyard as they would usually have, it was actually not that easy to find. There's vasts amounts of maps of houses out their but they almost all follow a 19th century style.

Similarly if you want say a Roman Villa, it's easy to find maps of that from historical sources, but maps for gaming purposes - not so easy.

Yup. You have to either get comfortable building your own maps, which if you get the right assets isn't terribly hard but still is time consuming, or you need to be more flexible about what maps you use. If you start with a firm concept, you're already in a gamble. Start with a general concept and poke around to see if something works.

You can dislike this answer, but it won't change how things are. Been doing VTTs as my primary game for three years now and I run homebrew. I've spent more than $100 picking up map assets over that time (usually about $5 a month) and learning to use GiMP to quickly create maps. In that time, I've gotten very flexible about maps -- fitting the game to what's available rather than being frustrated my concept isn't readily available in maps. Honestly, it's a lot easier since I've learned to be flexible and it's completely transparent to my players -- they have no idea if I found the perfect map, made it, or have settled on something close enough. This is a problem that only the GM notices or cares about, and it's entirely up to the GM how they deal with it.

 

[Nebulous]

I've been using Roll20 for about a month and am getting more comfortable with it. In the "I don't have a map for that situation" -I just create a new page and freehand sketch a quick map - just as I would on a battlemat. usually takes about 30 seconds and is barely a break in the action.

If you can Google-fu fast enough, it only takes a minute or two longer to import a new map. But you have to be kinda good at Roll20 by then to do it fast.

But it IS FAST. For DMs running Roll20 a long time, importing maps is really easy.

 

[Reynard]

If you can Google-fu fast enough, it only takes a minute or two longer to import a new map. But you have to be kinda good at Roll20 by then to do it fast.

But it IS FAST. For DMs running Roll20 a long time, importing maps is really easy.

Not as fast as decent drawing tools would be. I don't have numbers but I would guess that in face to face games the VAST majority of people use hand drawn maps on the fly. VTTs should emulate how we play in person.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Not as fast as decent drawing tools would be. I don't have numbers but I would guess that in face to face games the VAST majority of people use hand drawn maps on the fly. VTTs should emulate how we play in person.

This is an interesting statement. Why should VTTs emulate in person play? They aren't in person play, there are different capabilities and chalkenges from in person play, so why shouldn't VTTs offer a different experience?