Poll: VTT Users - Do you prefer self-hosted or cloud-based VTTs?

[Lionblade]

Hi everyone! My name is Sean - I am the Founder of Realm VTT (https://www.realmvtt.com) which we recently launched this year. I'm looking for some feedback on what it would take for users to switch to a new VTT.

Currently, Realm VTT is a free cloud-hosted platform with optional subscriptions for more storage. But we’ve received a fair amount of feedback that some would be more interested if there was a self-hosted option with a one-time purchase.

So I'd like to ask around here - would you be more willing to switch to a new VTT if they offered a self-hosted option? Or is there something in particular - a feature, or content - that you want to see before you consider it?

 

[LordEntrails]

So hosting is only one small aspect of what it would require for me to switch. I'm currently with FG so that will inform you about my perspective. Here's my thoughts of what I would be looking for:

• Self-hosted, because I don't want to be dependent upon another company staying in business and I want to control all my own content. This also allows me to control updates and modification/extensions to the VTT code.
• Connection brokering services, because I don't want to have to port forward my self-hosted VTT
• Licensed content, though I'm getting away from D&D, I don't want to have to create all my own content.
• Community marketplace, because not only do I want licensed support, but I want to be able to leverage a robust community of creators and be able to share my own stuff.
• Active, welcoming and helpful community, because I don't want to re-create the wheel or struggle to get help when I need it
• Character Management, share/copy/re-use characters between campaigns, character access/editing when not connected to host
• Content Management, easy ways to create my own modules/books and r-use them across multiple campaigns
• Combat tracking; this includes initiative/order, health tracking, status/effects,
• Die rolls with hit/miss or success/failure determination (which may require targeting depending upon the game system)
• Map & token support, with tokens tied to PCs & NPCs in the combat tracker
• NPC & image name/title aliases vs real identification (goblin vs vicious bi-ped)
• Company viability/longevity, I'm not keen to switching because I intend to be re-using the content I create for another 2 decades, so I want a VTT that shows it will still be active then.

There are lots of other things that would be valuable and important, but that, to me, would be the bare minimum before I would consider a switch.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm firmly in the "self-hosted or bust" school; even with the best of intentions I don't want to be dependent on someone else to host my game.

Edit: Past that, I'm a man of simple needs; though I now use some macros, all I really need is map and token hosting, and perhaps some minimalist light control (mostly for fog-of-war). I can appreciate an extensive community to do matchmaking with, especially outside the D&D sphere however (its a weakness of my current choice), but that's not something anything but time will do.

 

[OscarM]

I'm in the self-hosted camp as well. Primarily because I don't want to subscribe to yet-another-service. I use foundry. While I currently host it on a Linode VPS, I've been tempted by moving that to a machine at home but I like not having to futz with opening ports and allowing traffic to a server behind my home router.

Foundry does everything I want it to do, I wouldn't switch to another VTT unless its for simplicity.

 

[Heilemann]

To add a counterweight to the above arguments, here's what I want from a VTT, and what none of the ones I've tried are giving me (and why I wrote my own that does what I'm talking about here, but that's another matter):

It should be simple above all, simple to sign up, start a game, invite people, join, do all the basics like rolling dice and looking up things.

I never want to deal with versions and upgrading without knowing if my game will break or trying to talk my players, for whom a VTT is simply a necessary evil that we all wish we could do without, through how to do simple things. I don't want to have to juggle extensions and other nonsense and I want no real automation, it's complexity, it gets in the way and it removes the feel of the game. And corollary to that I never want my game to feel like a computer game.

I'm not some 'I only play like Gary did!', in fact I barely touch dungeon crawling, but by god I'm there to be with the people and create that magical experience together, and these overwrought VTT monstrosities just get in the way.

I also don't want to have to buy some weird custom format of rulebooks, although I have in the past, when a PDF should do. Why do all the platforms have such absolutely terrible PDF support; it's THE standard in roleplaying games today!

And yes, it should be cloud hosted because it supports the above the best.

PS: I do have a soft spot and a lot of respect for eg. Fantasy Grounds, but it is more work than play at the end of the day.

 

[CleverNickName]

Definitely cloud-based for us. We hate being beholden to someone's home internet connection, software configuration, and computer hardware.

 

[Kichwas]

I'm in the self-hosted camp. I'm a player in a game right now where another player expressed the feeling of not liking connecting to a self-hosted system. Feeling weird connecting to someone else's machine. I'd not considered that view before but it makes me realize the best VTT needs to offer both options.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm in the self-hosted camp. I'm a player in a game right now where another player expressed the feeling of not liking connecting to a self-hosted system. Feeling weird connecting to someone else's machine. I'd not considered that view before but it makes me realize the best VTT needs to offer both options.

Genuine question here: even with VTT's that can roll both ways, I'd think a given session is still being hosted one way or the other, so it seems like this is one of those things different people in a group both can't have it the way they want it. Am I wrong here?

 

[schneeland]

I wouldn’t rule out cloud-/subscription-based services completely, but any such platform is fighting an uphill fight against Foundry where I both own the modules and can run the server myself.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I wouldn’t rule out cloud-/subscription-based services completely, but any such platform is fighting an uphill fight against Foundry where I both own the modules and can run the server myself.

Though not what I currently use, I have to admit Foundry would probably be my drop back choice if I switched at this time.