Why would you need to buy more than once? If you actually plan ahead, and find the VTT that's right for you and they actually sell legal conversions, you would only ever have to buy that platforms versions. I haven't bought a printed RPG book since I picked a VTT (edit: a decade or so ago). And I've only bought PDFs of stuff that wasn't converted.I’m somewhat surprised that all the handwringing about not wanting to pay for a cloud service, there’s surprisingly little handwringing about having to buy the same books several times to make the most of some platform.
Sure, that's certainly true. But not only are you locked into that VTT now, which great that that works for you, but that's a hard pass from me. Moreover, you're locked into reading your rulebooks... in... your VTT? Again, hard pass. That company might go bankrupt, they might do some shady stuff you won't like, they might worsen the reading experience... the list goes on; you're not in control.Why would you need to buy more than once? If you actually plan ahead, and find the VTT that's right for you and they actually sell legal conversions, you would only ever have to buy that platforms versions. I haven't bought a printed RPG book since I picked a VTT (edit: a decade or so ago). And I've only bought PDFs of stuff that wasn't converted.
So, sure, if you are indecisive or insist on printed versions, then maybe you might want to buy multiple copies of the same product. But that's not required, every VTT I know of you can enter the info on your own if you so desire and your time is less valuable than a purchase.
Further, the more rules that get baked into the VTT the harder it becomes to add in houserules and-or kitbash the rules system and-or use the VTT for a non-standard system.I still say this assumes the rules book content needs to be baked into the VTT for the latter to be useful/useable, which is a kind of odd idea to me. But then, as I've said, a lot of people seem to demand more automation from their VTTs than I see as at all necessary.
My impression is that there is at least three categories of people:I still say this assumes the rules book content needs to be baked into the VTT for the latter to be useful/useable, which is a kind of odd idea to me. But then, as I've said, a lot of people seem to demand more automation from their VTTs than I see as at all necessary.
I haven't played every VTT, but this does seem to be the case.Further, the more rules that get baked into the VTT the harder it becomes to add in houserules and-or kitbash the rules system and-or use the VTT for a non-standard system.
My impression is that there is at least three categories of people:
I have the feeling, that there's a lot of talk about the people in (3) and their needs, but there's enough people that are fine with or even prefer (1) or (2). However, this is just my personal feeling based on my immediate surroundings and what I read in online communities, and I don't have any numbers to back this up.
- People that mainly need a shared map or background image, tokens, and maybe smaller supplementary tools like a pointing tool, an initiative counter or some form of distance measurement
- People that want a character sheet from which they can roll virtual dice, including options for the main rules affecting this (modifiers, advantage/disadvantage, etc.) and potentially some sort of result check (e.g. 6 = success in Year Zero games)
- People that want more or less full automation of the game mechanics, including target selection, determination of the result for opposed rolls, applying mechanical effects on characters, etc.