Virtual Tabletops, which one do you use if any?

[Tom B]

I believe Foundry lets you customize a generic character sheet for whatever game you need. Not sure, though.

 

[Arcane_Avatar]

Not exactly. There are a couple of generic systems that you can use and customise (Simple World Building and Sandbox) and there's a module PDFoundry that allows you to use a fillable character sheet by linking the fields to (IIRC) either of those generic systems.

 

[chuckdee]

One thing I do really like about owlbear rodeo despite it's flaws is it plays well on mobile phones.

I think I'm going to pair owlbear.rodeo or Mythic Table with Role. I'm going to look at Foundry first- need to get it set up on AWS and pair it with Discord and see which I like better.

 

[Arcane_Avatar]

Might want to think about using Jitsi for A/V with FVTT and compare that to FVTT with Discord. I'm using the built in Jitsi option with the standard (already filled in) Jitsi servers. I also use the WebRTC Tweaks module to allow for pulling out the audio/video windows which makes it easier to see stuff on the screen.

 

[chuckdee]

Might want to think about using Jitsi for A/V with FVTT and compare that to FVTT with Discord. I'm using the built in Jitsi option with the standard (already filled in) Jitsi servers. I also use the WebRTC Tweaks module to allow for pulling out the audio/video windows which makes it easier to see stuff on the screen.

Does it ever lag out? I just wasn't sure how robust the jitsi servers would be without setting up your own. That's one of the problems we had with roll20- their infrastructure wasn't made for the load for A/V.

 

[Arcane_Avatar]

Any infrastructure that's built on a P2P systems (WebRTC) that needs decent quality stable connections between each and every participant is going to crack up when one participant has connectivity issues. Hence issues with this tech on Roll20 and base Foundry. When taking that need for multiple connection between each and every participant out of the equation as Jitsi does (using a central 'traffic cop' to manage the connections) makes WebRTC that much more stable. Equally, using a dedicated A/V system like Discord works as well or better. The Jitsi servers used as standard i.e. the ones pre-entered by Foundry, are the Jitsi company servers so I think that letting them not be available at all times would not be a decent advertisement for their services.

 

[ffilz]

Let's say I wanted to switch from Google Chat/Meet for chat and video call for Roll20 games to Discord, how would I go about getting set up to use Discord in that way? I am on various Discord servers and it seems like it's a manageable platform maybe (though I haven't tried to use it on my iPhone yet whereas Google Chat runs nicely on my iPhone).

 

[chuckdee]

We didn't really do anything. Just turned off voice in Roll20 and set up a voice channel for the game. Join the voice channel on Discord, and join the Roll20 game and you're golden.

 

[ffilz]

We didn't really do anything. Just turned off voice in Roll20 and set up a voice channel for the game. Join the voice channel on Discord, and join the Roll20 game and you're golden.

Did you set up your own Discord Server or add a channel to an existing one?

 

[EOTB]

For any of you using Fantasy Grounds, or curious about it, Melan has made my fan conversion of the material into a useable FG module, available. It should both speed up the generation of urban content as well as running city adventures, generally, in that it will support the DM making a city adventure come alive with material at their fingertips that reflects the variety of experiences one would have in a city, not directly related to whatever matter the DM has otherwise written.

Here is his blog post announcement

[STUFF] The Nocturnal Table – Fantasy Grounds Integration

Now Even More Nocturnal Guest Post by EOTB I am pleased to announce the release of the Fantasy Grounds version of The Nocturnal Table . T...

beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com

 

[Nick J]

Did you set up your own Discord Server or add a channel to an existing one?

You setup your own server (unless you know of someone who is willing to let you create a channel in theirs). It's pretty painless if you follow the instructions laid out by Discord.

 

[Bunch]

For any of you using Fantasy Grounds, or curious about it, Melan has made my fan conversion of the material into a useable FG module, available. It should both speed up the generation of urban content as well as running city adventures, generally, in that it will support the DM making a city adventure come alive with material at their fingertips that reflects the variety of experiences one would have in a city, not directly related to whatever matter the DM has otherwise written.

Here is his blog post announcement

[STUFF] The Nocturnal Table – Fantasy Grounds Integration

Now Even More Nocturnal Guest Post by EOTB I am pleased to announce the release of the Fantasy Grounds version of The Nocturnal Table . T...

beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com

Thank you for this. Very cool!

 

[ffilz]

You setup your own server (unless you know of someone who is willing to let you create a channel in theirs). It's pretty painless if you follow the instructions laid out by Discord.

Thanks, I didn't realize how easy it was to set up a server... :-) I've got a server up now...

 

[chuckdee]

Did you set up your own Discord Server or add a channel to an existing one?

I already had a Discord server, so just set up a channel, but

You setup your own server (unless you know of someone who is willing to let you create a channel in theirs). It's pretty painless if you follow the instructions laid out by Discord.

Yeah, it's just this easy. The hardest thing will be the naming of the server with so many of them out there.

 

[ffilz]

I already had a Discord server, so just set up a channel, but

Yeah, it's just this easy. The hardest thing will be the naming of the server with so many of them out there.

Oh, naming my server was easy... Way back in high school, anytime I made a ruling or something happened in a game that surprised or upset folks, the other players would chime in "Welcome to Frank's World". This was so much a part of our culture that I got a custom button made for me at a convention. So that's my Discord server name...

 

[Torque2100]

I am a long, longtime Roll20 user. I really prefer browser-based VTTs for one simple reason: accessibility. All you need to use Roll20 is a Java-compatible browser and an internet connection. This removes so many potential obstacles which usually result from having 4-6 people each using a different PC.

A VTT that requires any sort of local client will invariably without fail run into problems with at least one person's computer and/or firewall settings. This has been my experience so far, so while Foundry does have some nice features, but I'm hesitant to use Foundry for that reason. I'm also frustrated by the lack of support for anything outside of a handful of supported systems in Foundry.

I will definitely be checking out Astral VTT. I am a fan of Roll20 warts and all, so "Roll20 but better" sounds like it would be right up my alley.

 

[under_score]

A VTT that requires any sort of local client will invariably without fail run into problems with at least one person's computer and/or firewall settings. This has been my experience so far, so while Foundry does have some nice features, but I'm hesitant to use Foundry for that reason. I'm also frustrated by the lack of support for anything outside of a handful of supported systems in Foundry.

Not to act like the forum's resident Foundry shill, but just so you're aware
- The client runs on the GM computer, but players connect via browser. They don't even need accounts, so it's even easier than Roll20 for players. Yes, the GM needs the client, but at least you can work on your game regardless of the server status or internet connection.
- Supported systems in Foundry: currently 121. Most of those are community created and free, but official premium systems are being added pretty quickly. The premium ones do not replace the free community ones, you can still play the free WFRPH, for instance, but they are really well made and have a lot of content.

 

[chuckdee]

Not to act like the forum's resident Foundry shill, but just so you're aware
- The client runs on the GM computer, but players connect via browser. They don't even need accounts, so it's even easier than Roll20 for players. Yes, the GM needs the client, but at least you can work on your game regardless of the server status or internet connection.
- Supported systems in Foundry: currently 121. Most of those are community created and free, but official premium systems are being added pretty quickly. The premium ones do not replace the free community ones, you can still play the free WFRPH, for instance, but they are really well made and have a lot of content.

And to add to that, as stated, I'm not even using my machine for the server. I'm using AWS, so everything is in a browser, on my custom domain. It's a lot easier to customize too, IMO, being that the API is made to be open, unlike whatever that is that Roll20 uses. It's going so smoothly using integrated S3 for all of the assets, that I've not even thought about looking at Mythic Table again (though I will at some point since I backed the Kickstarter, I'm sure).

 

[Jamfke]

I've been messing around with Astral VTT over the past couple of months and I'm liking it so far, but I just checked out the owlbear.rodeo that was suggested up thread and I'm really liking the simplicity of it. While Astral allows for a lot of automation for dice rolls and such, the Fog tool in OR is just easier to play around with. Though it doesn't adjust automatically to token placement, it's still useful and easier to deal with. I like the 3D dice roller and dice tray too. Fun and free little map tool that I will be using soon!

 

[Tom B]

I have Foundry but had an issue with my old computer. That's been remedied, so I need to get it re-loaded on my new system.

Lately, I've been using AboveVTT for sheer convenience. We use D&D Beyond, and this is a Chrome extension that gives you an option to open a tabletop directly from the Campaign tab. It's fairly basic but has quite a few maps built-in (and it's easy to load others.) It does most of what I want, and people can directly open their character sheets for rolls. It's pretty neat if you use D&D Beyond.

 

[Sosthenes]

Came across Gamescape today. It's basically a whiteboard software (like miro, which I've used for gaming, too). So you've got a grid you can draw, and some minor RPG features, like a fog-of-war tool (draw shapes that hide things from players, erase them whole or partially to reveal) and a very, very bare-bones token setup -- no custom images, just colored circles.
You can set a background image, so importing "battlemaps" isn't hard. Just set the resolution, hide everything with the fog of war and then reveal rooms to player.

I'm not sold on it. It seems to focus more on drawing stuff than some other tools, but regarding basic map, fog of war and token usage, Owlbear is more convenient (and you don't have to register, either). But it might be something to watch.

Not that Owlbear just got a new feature where you can attach some tokens to others, which is neat for showing conditions or auras/light sources.

 

[Mankcam]

"Arise, Dormant Thread! Arise!
Thread Ressurection Is Upon Thee...!"


Just calling in here to say that my group is playing every second trpg session online, and we're doing it for free.

We are using Skype for the voice chat (including camera so we can see each other), and putting documents and whatnot in it's text chat.
Everyone managing their own character sheets at home, although the GM is also updating their own versions.
As far as dice, we use this free dice room called dddice, it covers whatever we need and provides fun visuals.
I may experiment with some free mapping tools down the track, I haven't really needed it so far. If so, I'ld probably just try out Gamescape as it looks very barebones and simple (which I also posted below)

Our trpg online gaming applications:
Skype
dddice
Gamescape

Ok nothing too flash here, it's very basic but my group haven't needed to go beyond these yet.
It hasn't cost us a cent, so we're pretty happy.
I just wanted to park these somewhere in case they may be of interest to anyone

 

[Lunar Ronin]

Well, Astral Tabletop died since this thread started. As a result, I've moved entirely to Foundry, and using Discord for voice chat.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

Since this thread started I’ve tried Role, abandoned it after three sessions, and went back to Roll20.

 

[ffilz]

I'm still happily plugging away on Roll20. It's huge audience seems to be helping with new players. I have been steadily gaining new players, just in the past weeks adding two new players to my Cold Iron campaign (one of which actually contacted me to join my RQ campaign, so that's actually 3 slots filled).

I've been really digging that despite it's warning about huge map sizes, they actually seem to work well. It's cool being able to represent multiple rounds of closing for an encounter, and with RQ that's 1m hexes or 2m hexes in Cold Iron. The Fog of War feature works well enough for exploration of dungeons or other limited visibility scenarios.

I gave up on Discord for audio/video, the audio would go terrible unless we disabled video. I don't use video during the game play (other than sometimes to show something) but it IS nice to start the session with video on to see the players as actual people.

I use Google Sheets for shared character sheets. The RQ characters are each a tab in a single sheet (with a "party" tab at the front). For Cold Iron I have a very fancy automated sheet that is an individual sheet for each PC with 5 tabs (main sheet, work sheet, spells, finances, and a final tab with all the tables that drive the character - which if you understand it actually provides a handy weapons and armor table...). The sheet does some awesome auto-calculations, making managing magic points (MP) pretty easy, and simplifying the complex encumbranbce system and making it automatic to reflect encumbrance changes as you use stuff up, drop packs, get on or off your horse (including managing the horse's encumbrance). And it does all the combat skill calculations too (including the encumbrance effects).

All of this stuff allows certain features to be way easier to use (or usable at all) than with the old school table top play. I have battle maps that would never be possible with 1" hexes on a table. Back in the day, we never managed the encumbrance of horses, at best reflecting two PC encumbrance levels, with and without pack. I had to use fine point overhead markers with RQ character sheets in sheet protectors to avoid sheets being destroyed after a few sessions of marking off and erasing hit location damage.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

I had one map (a recreation of the first Legend of Zelda dungeon map) that choked my players’ computers, but everything else has worked really well.

 

[chuckdee]

Well, Astral Tabletop died since this thread started. As a result, I've moved entirely to Foundry, and using Discord for voice chat.

This is what I'm using as well.

 

[ffilz]

I thought I'd share some of my VTT maps...

Here's part of Haven, this is a scan of one of the 8.5"x11" map sheets scaled for 1m hexes with detail of the building they were breaking into overlaid:


Here's the entire map, all 300m x 200m of it...

 

[ffilz]

Here is my first attempt at a large area map:

And a detail from it where I overlaid the detailed map of one of the buildings from the module:

 

[ffilz]

And here's detail from my Cold Iron map:


This is part of a 400m x 400m (200 x 200 hexes) map with mostly hand drawn terrain that I use for outside encounters with an adventure map dropped in to part of it. It's a 3 level dungeon with the levels stacked up and hidden with fog of war. If I was drawing this on a vinyl battle map, the rocks would look a bit nicer but the trees not so nice. On the other hand, it would take a 200" x 200" table... I have obviously never played on such a large table, and rarely even such a large room.

 

[ffilz]

I've used the Cold Iron map for several encounters, just placing the PCs at different locations, and maybe moving rocks around. I use this map much like I used the GURPS battle map set back in grad school, it's just way larger, though the rocks aren't as pretty, on the other hand, I can re-arrange them.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

Hey ffilz, do you do a lot of dynamic lighting? More than actual map size, that’s where I see the worst performance issues in Roll20.

 

[ffilz]

Hey ffilz, do you do a lot of dynamic lighting? More than actual map size, that’s where I see the worst performance issues in Roll20.

I don't have a paid subscription, so no Dynamic Lighting. Only Fog of War.

Dynamic Lighting would be cool, and would be a huge amount of work to use with the maps I use...

 

[Tommy Brownell]

I don't have a paid subscription, so no Dynamic Lighting. Only Fog of War.

Dynamic Lighting would be cool, and would be a huge amount of work to use with the maps I use...

Gotcha!

Yeah, I’ve done a few manually, but almost all of my dynamic lighting was generated with Dungeon Alchemist, which saved me a bunch of that work.

 

[PolarBlues]

Back when this thread was young, I posted a picture of how I used the humble Google Jamboard for online games. Since then I invested a bit of time to make it a little more attractive.

I don't tend to use map intentisve games, but here's how I have been able to set up my Jamboard. The dice roller on the right side is a simple Javascript app that rolls Fudge dice and few other things. It is displayed in Firefox as as sidebar so I can have everything on the same screen.

It's not Foundry fancy. The idea is to keep things casual, abstract and quick to assemble,, in keeping with the scribbling on a sheet of paper feel. I , rather building a collection of very specific maps. The tokens aren't mine, but I think they have a lot of personality while still being generic and suitable for any genre.

 

[Scuba Steve]

Originally when I posted in this thread, I was using Roll20. With all the controversy with it, the lack of updates, broken modules, I decided to make the switch over to Foundry VTT.

So much better. A very affordable one time cost that gives you even more than what the most expensive subscription to Roll20 does. I've had no problem implementing anything, and running it from my computer has been a breeze. I can easily make rollable character sheets for games that don't have modules using Custom System Builder, so it solves all of my issues with running systems that aren't necessarily mainstream.

It's absolutely worth making the switch.

 

[ffilz]

Originally when I posted in this thread, I was using Roll20. With all the controversy with it, the lack of updates, broken modules, I decided to make the switch over to Foundry VTT.

So much better. A very affordable one time cost that gives you even more than what the most expensive subscription to Roll20 does. I've had no problem implementing anything, and running it from my computer has been a breeze. I can easily make rollable character sheets for games that don't have modules using Custom System Builder, so it solves all of my issues with running systems that aren't necessarily mainstream.

It's absolutely worth making the switch.

I would marginally consider a switch, except that Roll20 is turning out to be a recruitment option that is sustaining my campaigns. Switching to another platform would require a comparable recruitment source.

 

[CRKrueger]

One that I used to use was MapTool. Everything for it is free. The problem with MapTool though is while it has different "frameworks", if you really want to do some customization, you're scripting, which is the exact same problem that every other VTT has.

No VTT even comes close to what would be considered the absolute bare minimum WYSIWYG or flowchart scripting of your most simplistic DevKit.

 

[chuckdee]

I would marginally consider a switch, except that Roll20 is turning out to be a recruitment option that is sustaining my campaigns. Switching to another platform would require a comparable recruitment source.

Foundry has a discord server, with a section on looking for group.

 

[Lunar Ronin]

Foundry has a discord server, with a section on looking for group.

Yep. Not to mention that many games or publishers have their own Discord servers with looking for group channels.