by falava on 10/5/21, 5:21 PM with 45 comments
by hresvelgr on 10/6/21, 1:16 AM
1. No fog of war. You can create zones that have toggling visibility, but its cumbersome and not automatic.
2. No cyberpunk/modern assets. They did make their stretch goal so this will be arriving eventually.
3. No custom audio streaming. I believe you can play music and sounds but only what came with it.
4. Expensive for players at $35aud. I don't mind spending money for resources as a DM, but there should be a player-only version that's much cheaper/free. I would rather pay $120aud if it meant my players didn't have to.
Currently as it stands for me, the best option for a VTT is Foundry[1]. It has everything I mentioned prior and more. Pair that with Dungeondraft[2] and the mountains of free content packs at Cartography Assets[3], you have everything you could ever need for running an internet campaign. None of these require a subscription and are imo the best bang for buck you can get for a VTT setup.
When Talespire addresses my current pet peeves, I will likely switch, but for now it's just not viable for me.
[3] https://cartographyassets.com/asset-category/specific-assets...
edit: formatting
by dannyobrien on 10/5/21, 11:48 PM
by trynewideas on 10/6/21, 5:16 AM
And while I get that it's still early days, I don't see anything here that to be excited about where it'll wind up. Streamers will get great visuals out of it (they already are, TaleSpire's doing a good job using streamers for marketing) but this is just another fiddly prep timesink for everyone else that would be better spent setting up characters, locations, plots, etc.
by SummonToast on 10/6/21, 6:26 AM
I built my own entry into the VTT space with that in mind before the pandemic with Tableplop[1] when I wasn't happy with the front ends on what was available at the time. My aim is something free, solid and always online to move tokens about a map with fog of war and a simple dice roll syntax. The 2d maps have a lot of weaknesses in judging heights and especially with flying creatures but it's unbeatable for the number of existing assets and maps and for making your own with something like DungeonDraft[2] or DungeonScrawl[3]. 2d also makes it easier to draw lines on a map on the fly and will in the gaps with imagination when you need to improvize, something that does not translate to 3d very well but is the epitome of RPGs for me.
[3] https://dungeonscrawl.com/
Edit: formatting
by joe_the_user on 10/6/21, 1:27 AM
I play table top rpg's a lot online and it would be nice to have something besides roll20 and the various play-by-post options.
The thing is, I think the best thing you could is something less data intensive than roll20 and something more aesthetically pleasing. If the video is a guide, this seem like a thing that an average consumer machine is going to completely choke on. Roll20, the go-to full-featured ttrpg server is infamous for audio, video and general connectivity problem, to the point most people doing video on a different server (zoom, discord, google-meet,etc) and just use the server for simulating the table top. I'm doubting this thing, even more feature heavy, could work better.
And just generally, succeeding in making this truly look like a video game might not be realizing the imagination-based ttrpg ideal.
by Imnimo on 10/6/21, 5:18 AM
It feels like the sort of thing that will be great for groups dedicated enough to organize it, though.
by Aeolun on 10/6/21, 12:15 AM
This is really easy when you are in a room together. Not so much so when apart.
by oddthink on 10/6/21, 1:44 PM
I've know that the first thing dice rollers seem to grow is 3D simulated dice, so clearly the market is there.
But this would be (for me) replacing an assortment of wood blocks, lego minifigs, scribbled-on index cards, and assorted tokens with a whole lot of additional prep time.
by luckierdodge on 10/6/21, 3:35 AM
Remarkably, it's probably more reliable in terms of performance and stability than Roll20.
Even though it can be a little more work sometimes building in 3D instead of 2D, 1.) you'd be surprised how quickly you can put stuff together once you get a little practice under your belt and 2.) there's already a ton of great builds out there, and the developer's have made it SUPER easy to import stuff (literally just copy and paste for "slabs" of content, or you can share entire boards with a URL). Plus, being in 3D makes it a lot easier to handle things like flying, verticality in map design, and just generally living in a 3D world in a way that I haven't found with most VTTs
by Brushfire on 10/6/21, 4:20 AM
by Paul_S on 10/6/21, 6:35 AM
by le-mark on 10/6/21, 11:57 AM
by kevwals on 10/6/21, 2:08 PM
by Kinrany on 10/5/21, 11:35 PM
by xpasky on 10/6/21, 12:56 AM
by xwdv on 10/5/21, 11:49 PM