D&D General What would be your dream D&D VTT?

BookTenTiger · Dec 11, 2022

Whilst walking along, you find a genie who can only grant you one very specific wish: you get to wish into existence your dream virtual tabletop for D&D.

The only catch is that if it requires technology that doesn't exist yet, you will have to wait for it to be developed (a motion-capture VR virtual tabletop would require a bit of a wait, an Inception-style shared dream would require a lot more of a wait).

What features does it have? Why is it perfect for you?

Shiroiken · Dec 11, 2022

A simple interface with drop and drag abilities for character creation. An option to add homebrew options along with all official content. As long as we're wishing for unicorns, it would also be free.

Oofta · Dec 11, 2022

I remember having these conversations long ago. The ultimate VTT would be a fully immersive sim akin to a holodeck. One that allows me to change what I say into a completely different voice than my own with an interface that, if I want it, I actually have to swing a sword or activate spells with specific gestures. Whether I hit or not could still be randomized of course.

From the DM's side, as long as we're talking wish list, I want to just tell the VTT what kind of environment I want. Let the VTT build a city for me, with generic NPCs that I could jump into and control at any time. I would also be able to set monsters on auto-pilot during an encounter so I would only have to jump in and take control if I wanted.

Zardnaar · Dec 11, 2022

Build your own open world generator I suppose. A Dungeon ok that's cute isle of dread though......

payn · Dec 11, 2022

A neuroscanner that matches players personality, playstyle, and commitment level to my own.

Lanefan · Dec 11, 2022

Something that takes the best (potential or existing) parts of virtual play and brings them to in-person play. Holographic 3D maps and characters to replace the chalkboard or battlemap. Archived chat and record-keeping. Online spell lists, treasuries, etc. that everyone can access at once. Something that allows the DM to quickly - as in almost instantly - generate maps etc. on the fly, in case the PCs go to a non-prepped area.

But the dream becomes a nightmare if we're not all sitting in the same room.

Steel_Wind · Dec 11, 2022

It would be a tool that I and a group of people worked on from 2008-2010 before the project ended and was left in largely vaporware state.

That VTT could use a 2d map, scanned or otherwise imported. It would attempt to recognize objects and then prompt for user input to flag make changes in case something identified as a wall, floor, door, window, grass, cobbles, roofs, trees etc. needs correction.

The tool will then convert that 2d map to a 3d map, with wall heights, etc.. The user can then drag over seamless textures to make corrections to the resulting geometry. A breathtakingly LARGE asset base of textures is required though, else everything starts looking the same. I need variation, and I need that randomized and implemented via AI so I don't have to spend a lot of time on it. That's the key to 3D. Once you need specialized modeling skills or have to take a lot of time technically tweaking things? It changes from a Tool of the Many to a Tool of the Few.

That's what has to be avoided with 3d. Fail that test? It's not a useful tool for gaming other than for a specialized niche-of-a-niche of customers..

A tool like this can take any 2d map, including one in blue and white from an old module and make a 3d playable map of it in a modest amount of time. Lighting can be dragged over as well, as you can do now in Foundry VTT.

I wouldn't need much more than that grafted onto the existing elements in 3d Foundry VTT to make me insanely happy. Improved animations, spells, and sound effects. And a VAST library of 3d minis to use and populate my battlefields, too? Sure. That would be great.

Some other nice tweaks? Be able to click an area on a map with a bounding box to flag as "public" and adjust the slider for population density. The software will populate that area with a VAST assortment of commoners just going about their business, depending on the time of day. Allow me to define the sort of area the "public" area is in terms of who is most likely to be there (sailors and fisherman, monks, woodsmen and farmers, etc.. This would bring city streets and other buildings alive without requiring my attention to do it.

I used to want an awesome voice modulator, thinking that this combined with a virtual face to send as an image of the NPC over Zoom/Skype doing the talking would be great, too. And it would be great if it worked -- but my satisfaction level with current modulation and virtualization of faces has been very poor to date. Still, a tool which does that which is amazingly easy to use and makes use of excellent AI as models for visual depiction and infinite variation to faces and voices would be awesome -- if it worked.

Add all of that to a Microsoft Game Table style setup? Even better.

darjr · Dec 11, 2022

Mine would be something that I could use my existing table and battle mat for. I could throw terrain and miniatures as well as draw extemporaneously upon it. Local players would have the normal table top experience but remote players would see the table on a screen. They could indicate on screen where they want things moved. Sure I'd have to move them but that's OK.

Next it'd be awesome if it detected the miniatures and lines so they could look at a digital version on their end. Doesn't need to be 3d, 2d presentation top down would be fine.

I almost have that with Vorpal Board. It's really rather cool. But I dropped it because I can get nearly the same now with my phone camera and discord. Ironically the key was the phone arm that Vorpal Board sold me.

The only things I don't have is an easy way for the remote player to indicate where they are pointing at, but I think I can solve for that by numbering/lettering the grid.

Second is neither option detects miniatures nor do they digitize it, it's still a camera feed sent across the net. Thankfully even low end computers and internet feeds seem to handle it OK enough to be usable anyway.

Here's VB's link for those interested.