D20PRO is a multi-platform, multi-player virtual tabletop (VTT) that takes roleplaying games from around the table to gamers around the world. I interviewed Tobias Drewry, CEO at Mesa Mundi and the lead developer for D20PRO to understand what sets the platform apart from other VTTs.
Like many VTTs D20PRO offers maps, handouts, turn management. In addition, D20PRO also offers bulk healing and harming actions, attacks and spell casting, map markers, map templates (spell effect shapes), togglable grid, and a ruler for measuring distances on any given map. Lights and map markers can be tethered to item and creature tokens allowing them to be dragged around the map centering on the tokens location.
Character data in D20PRO is associated with the map token representing a character. The active character on a map will contain and retain any changes to the creature and can be moved between maps or saved to the library for later recall.
D20PRO provides a slew of library type resources from maps to creatures to items to rules such as spells, features, traits and class definitions. All of these can be combined in various ways to define behaviors either on creatures or on maps.
Maps can be created very quickly and easily in D20PRO. Maps can be created as Empty spaces, from an image source—on disk or via the clipboard, or from YouTube embedded video URLs—for video maps. “Our video map support is not fully built with file sharing yet, so the source video needs to be either a remotely hosted URL or a local file URL which is common between the GM and players,” said Tobias. “This will be updated in a future release after we finish work on the video streaming services component.”
Handouts can be PDF, Image or Text. Handouts can also be built out with rollable tables allowing for a given handout to provide table-based results to the game log. D20PRO also offers various levels of automation from scripted spell behaviors to automated character sheet functionality.
D20PRO's turn management engages in combat mode. When out of combat, all available tokens and actions are available to every token at the same time. While in combat mode (Initiative mode) the active and passive creature rosters are updated to reflect the active turn order and will update after each creature completes their turn, delays, or readies for a later action. GM's can alter the initiative order while active as well as add/remove creatures from the order at will.
D20PRO does offer dynamic lighting with a shared lighting model. The intention of a shared lighting model is to provide an experience similar to the one at a physical table. All vision/lights belonging to the party are considered public by default and can be viewed by any connected player. Managing reaction to elements revealed in this way is part of the role-playing experience rather than a hard limitation imposed by the software. In Tobias’ experience, the shared model makes for a more engaging game. “There is rarely any point where any player is staring at a black map unless they entire party is unable to see for some reason!”
D20PRO offers several options for fog of war (FOW), including the baseline “interactive” FOW and a flip-style FOW Tobias calls Passive Fog of War. Passive vs. Interactive is a per fog of war region option allowing for GM's to blend FOW styles to create fully lit rooms or outdoor spaces which can be revealed in their entirety.
D20PRO also offers something Tobias calls Easy Fog of War. When using this method of Easy FOW, the entire map is covered with 1 grid unit squares of cover. The GM can simply drag select to hide or reveal these grid unit based FOW elements providing a very quick way to apply fog of war over a map, even if that map was added ad hoc during a game session.
“The nice thing about virtual table games is that time and such are really a matter of preference and availability,” said Tobias. “My own personal games are happening at the same time as our face-to-face games would have run with the added exception that we meet about 15 minutes earlier to make sure we've got any technical issues sorted -- microphones, cameras, etc. Stay safe and game often!”
Like many VTTs D20PRO offers maps, handouts, turn management. In addition, D20PRO also offers bulk healing and harming actions, attacks and spell casting, map markers, map templates (spell effect shapes), togglable grid, and a ruler for measuring distances on any given map. Lights and map markers can be tethered to item and creature tokens allowing them to be dragged around the map centering on the tokens location.
Character data in D20PRO is associated with the map token representing a character. The active character on a map will contain and retain any changes to the creature and can be moved between maps or saved to the library for later recall.
D20PRO provides a slew of library type resources from maps to creatures to items to rules such as spells, features, traits and class definitions. All of these can be combined in various ways to define behaviors either on creatures or on maps.
Maps can be created very quickly and easily in D20PRO. Maps can be created as Empty spaces, from an image source—on disk or via the clipboard, or from YouTube embedded video URLs—for video maps. “Our video map support is not fully built with file sharing yet, so the source video needs to be either a remotely hosted URL or a local file URL which is common between the GM and players,” said Tobias. “This will be updated in a future release after we finish work on the video streaming services component.”
Handouts can be PDF, Image or Text. Handouts can also be built out with rollable tables allowing for a given handout to provide table-based results to the game log. D20PRO also offers various levels of automation from scripted spell behaviors to automated character sheet functionality.
D20PRO's turn management engages in combat mode. When out of combat, all available tokens and actions are available to every token at the same time. While in combat mode (Initiative mode) the active and passive creature rosters are updated to reflect the active turn order and will update after each creature completes their turn, delays, or readies for a later action. GM's can alter the initiative order while active as well as add/remove creatures from the order at will.
D20PRO does offer dynamic lighting with a shared lighting model. The intention of a shared lighting model is to provide an experience similar to the one at a physical table. All vision/lights belonging to the party are considered public by default and can be viewed by any connected player. Managing reaction to elements revealed in this way is part of the role-playing experience rather than a hard limitation imposed by the software. In Tobias’ experience, the shared model makes for a more engaging game. “There is rarely any point where any player is staring at a black map unless they entire party is unable to see for some reason!”
D20PRO offers several options for fog of war (FOW), including the baseline “interactive” FOW and a flip-style FOW Tobias calls Passive Fog of War. Passive vs. Interactive is a per fog of war region option allowing for GM's to blend FOW styles to create fully lit rooms or outdoor spaces which can be revealed in their entirety.
D20PRO also offers something Tobias calls Easy Fog of War. When using this method of Easy FOW, the entire map is covered with 1 grid unit squares of cover. The GM can simply drag select to hide or reveal these grid unit based FOW elements providing a very quick way to apply fog of war over a map, even if that map was added ad hoc during a game session.
“The nice thing about virtual table games is that time and such are really a matter of preference and availability,” said Tobias. “My own personal games are happening at the same time as our face-to-face games would have run with the added exception that we meet about 15 minutes earlier to make sure we've got any technical issues sorted -- microphones, cameras, etc. Stay safe and game often!”
