R.I.P., Astral Tabletop

[chuckdee]

Yeah. Right now, I'm paying $8 per month to host Foundry VTT on Molten Hosting. My upload speed is crap (thanks Comcast), and I'm generally not thrilled by the idea of having connections directly to my desktop computer. So I kind of find the whole "Foundry doesn't need a subscription" argument a little disingenuous, considering I pay a subscription to have it hosted, as well as everyone else I know that uses it to GM with. That being said, Alchemy requires both the GM and players to subscribe if they play three or more characters on Alchemy ever. I... just don't see that happening, realistically.

I also find Alchemy's penchant for physical merchandise a little weird.

But that subscription is a matter of the choice you made for hosting. I know people that are hosting it on a rPi sitting off to the side of their desk. I was thinking about doing it, but decided to just use an EC2. I could get it cheaper with EKS, but EC2 is cheap enough, and I use the machine for other stuff.

 

[Bunch]

I'm necroing this thread just to vent that I really miss Astral Tabletop. Foundry is a pain in the rear if the RPG you want to play isn't supported. Not to mention dealing with modules going unsupported with new Foundry releases. Astral Tabletop was a lot easier to use, IMO.

There's money in 2D VTTs but not enough. I think there's just enough for WoTC, Roll20 (or other browser based one) and Fantasy Grounds (or other dedicated application based one). The most users will probably be WotCs just by virtue of D&D. Next will be Roll20 because it's free and loosely supports everything. Last based on users will be FG.

 

[Hairless Bear]

Yeah. Right now, I'm paying $8 per month to host Foundry VTT on Molten Hosting. My upload speed is crap (thanks Comcast), and I'm generally not thrilled by the idea of having connections directly to my desktop computer. So I kind of find the whole "Foundry doesn't need a subscription" argument a little disingenuous, considering I pay a subscription to have it hosted, as well as everyone else I know that uses it to GM with.

Interesting, I also use Molten Hosting for Foundry (but I only pay $4 for the "basic" subscription). I felt so unique...until now.

Btw. what game systems and modules are you using? And which ones give you trouble because of version incompatibility? Not that I could help you fix that, I am just asking out of curiosity and also to know what to avoid . My group is using Cyberpunk RED, Fate and Cairn. We didn't have any problems yet, but we also hadn't upgraded to Foundry v11 yet.

 

[Lunar Ronin]

Interesting, I also use Molten Hosting for Foundry (but I only pay $4 for the "basic" subscription). I felt so unique...until now.

Btw. what game systems and modules are you using? And which ones give you trouble because of version incompatibility? Not that I could help you fix that, I am just asking out of curiosity and also to know what to avoid . My group is using Cyberpunk RED, Fate and Cairn. We didn't have any problems yet, but we also hadn't upgraded to Foundry v11 yet.

Game systems are Overlords of Dimension-25 and hopefully eventually Prowlers & Paragons. Neither of which are supported by Foundry. As for which modules are giving me trouble, none yet. It's that I spent a *lot* of time researching Foundry and Foundry modules (mostly on YouTube, because no one writes anything anymore), and I found that most videos that recommended modules were two or more years old, and the recommended modules were not compatible with Foundry 11. But the functionality looked cool or necessary for an unsupported system, so I'd have to spend even more time trying to research alternatives. Some of which I couldn't find, others took me over a week to find.

 

[AsenRG]

Game systems are Overlords of Dimension-25 and hopefully eventually Prowlers & Paragons. Neither of which are supported by Foundry. As for which modules are giving me trouble, none yet. It's that I spent a *lot* of time researching Foundry and Foundry modules (mostly on YouTube, because no one writes anything anymore), and I found that most videos that recommended modules were two or more years old, and the recommended modules were not compatible with Foundry 11. But the functionality looked cool or necessary for an unsupported system, so I'd have to spend even more time trying to research alternatives. Some of which I couldn't find, others took me over a week to find.

I take it that doing the game with the old "chat+rulebook+diceroller" model isn't an option for some reason?

 

[Lunar Ronin]

I'm really digging Owlbear Rodeo. There are a lot of third party extensions that are making it into a really neat package. Astral was awesome and I miss tinkering around with it, but Owlbear is working great for me so far.

I take it that doing the game with the old "chat+rulebook+diceroller" model isn't an option for some reason?

You both had me take another look at Owlbear Rodeo. I had no idea that it was completely revamped a couple of months ago. It looks to be pretty much exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you.

Foundry is great if the game you want to play is supported. But if it's not supported, and you're not a programmer, Owlbear Rodeo seems to be a much better bet.

 

[Jamfke]

You both had me take another look at Owlbear Rodeo. I had no idea that it was completely revamped a couple of months ago. It looks to be pretty much exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you.

Foundry is great if the game you want to play is supported. But if it's not supported, and you're not a programmer, Owlbear Rodeo seems to be a much better bet.

I don't use too many of the extras that folks have been creating. I like the DDDice integration, and the dynamic fog/lighting takes some tweaking for me at least. Works well as is for what my group does!

 

[UnplayedRanger]

I didn’t realize there were extensions for Owlbear. I’ve used it a couple times for a quick map.

 

[Jamfke]

I didn’t realize there were extensions for Owlbear. I’ve used it a couple times for a quick map.

If you haven't already, check out their Discord server. There are a lot of great things being developed for it.

Join the Owlbear Rodeo Discord Server!

Check out the Owlbear Rodeo community on Discord - hang out with 2722 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

discord.gg

 

[Torque2100]

I also miss Astral. I only go to tinker a little bit with it, but I loved being able to import PDF character sheets. Foundry can do something similar but that requires a form fileable sheet. IF there isn't one, creating one is doeable but it's tricky. It's easy to make a mistake and bork the whole sheet.

I shall have to check out Role VTT and reluctantly re-up my Roll20 Premium sub.

 

[MoonHunter]

But its dead.

Shows what you know. It is only "mostly dead".

“There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.” ... go through its caches for loose data.

It is still up and running for now. Sure no new features will be added (which screws games that need specific things now to be displayed), but the basics are there and can still be used.

 

[Lunar Ronin]

But its dead.

Shows what you know. It is only "mostly dead".

“There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.” ... go through its caches for loose data.

It is still up and running for now. Sure no new features will be added (which screws games that need specific things now to be displayed), but the basics are there and can still be used.

Uh... Astral Tabletop is completely gone. It was permanently closed as of August 29th, 2022. See the post here. Going to astraltabletop.com will redirect you to some Indonesian gambling site.

 

[MoonHunter]

Uh... Astral Tabletop is completely gone. It was permanently closed as of August 29th, 2022. See the post here. Going to astraltabletop.com will redirect you to some Indonesian gambling site.

Oh darn. I had been there a few weeks ago. My bad. Well ignore my thoughts and punny joke and move on with your regularly scheduled thread.