So we just ran our first campaign with 7 players. We used discord as the chat server and Beyond for the character sheets.
Believe it or not, the three text boxes were not that bad as a campaign editor. But the things I found as a DM which would have helped play.
Something to signify that the characters were actually present. I could see their character sheets, but I could not know if they had arrived. Them flicking a green light little dot to signal they were present or when away would be good.
An initiative box. Something for the players to put their initiative in and then that of the NPCS for all to see. this was an issue. Literally, players can either use it to roll and it appears with their characters names and class in order.
An in house voice chat like Discord; Discord is great, but when it is a new group, I found that I struggled at first to know who was talking...Or what character. If the character icon lit up when they talked, I would know right away which character or characters were speaking.
I used pictures....A lot. And in Discord, I could easily drag a picture from my desktop right into the chat box and it would pop up. Dragging a picture to the chat box here and having it appear would also be nice.
Chat boxes; A chat box would also be good. The thing is, switching between 3 or 4 applications is time consuming. I didn't always know when someone was private messaging me or there was chat going on because I was in the DDB campaign screen.
A map editor which I am sure has been mentioned before. And, honestly, a good one with fog of war where I can design rooms and doors like some architecture program would be nice, but more than that, just having a place I can place character tokens and monster tokens and move them around or have the characters manipulate where they want to have their characters go. It can be as fancy as little colored circles which when hovered over give details, to little animated characters like in sword coast legends (just simple animations of movement and swinging a sword) where a hovering hand can pick up and move around as they wiggle and kick like in Dungeon keeper. maybe I can right click on the animated character out of the monster manual and have the option for it to perform whatever actions it can such as attack or use ability.
A quick reference bar for all the players passive perception, AC and HP along with easy adjustment counters or health bar. as an option that can be on or off maybe right click on the monster that I dragged from the monsters manual to the battle field..I right click on it and it comes up with a list of the monsters attacks and abilities. I tell the monster to attack and chose the target within his range. A simple animation and the dice roll. If it's a hit, I roll for damage. Then the life bar of that target go down. Or, do everything manual from home dice and adjust with ease.
When you actually go into the players character sheets - having a tab option that lets you jump from open character sheet to open character sheet. Going into a sheet, scrolling down to read, then hitting the back button on the internet and opening a new character sheet is not very streamlined. or maybe have llittle mini character sheets on the side i can just click on and it will open that one and close the one I am in.
An inventory items list for the DMS. What would have been nice, is if I had pre-game set up an inventory of items that I planned to dole out. From there, I would just drag that Item to each player, or put it in a pool or table for players to take. Little icons and tokens for each item, sword for weapons, shield for armor, bottle for potion..whatever...literally Nintendo final fantasy style icons would work. I found that trying to dole out treasure was a bit tedious.
Anyway, the experience was good. Players seemed to have a lot of fun. I used a lot of pictures to drag and post for some visual for the players. The DM notes was great for typing out the flow of my campaign and then just copy and paste from there to player notes for things like letters such as this.
Hail thee of might and valor:
I, a lowly servant of Barovia, send honor to thee. We plead so desperately for your much needed assistance.
My daughter, Ireena Indirovich, has been afflicted by an evil so deadly that not even the good people of our village can protect her. She languishes from terrible nightmares and a wasting sickness of her soul. I would have my only daughter saved from this menace.
I have heard your company is one of the best money can buy. There is much wealth to be had and I offer it all to thee, and thy fellows, if thou but shall answer my desperate plea.
Mercy, I beg of you all.
Come quickly and with all haste, for I fear her time grows short! All that I have shall be
thine.
The night grows dark, a strange shadow lurks in the court
hurry,
Kolyan Indirovich
Burgomaster
We used the quick reference a few times that really helped. The character creation was decent and the ease of the players manipulating their characters could use a bit of work. finding Items and equipping gear was a bit atrocious... It should be just type in the gear you want to give the players, then simply drag and drop. Or all the gear should have prices on them from what they cost from the DM's guide such as a potion of healing. Punch it in and boom, they come up with a price tag that the DM can adjust once he sees the Players Handbook prices.
A place for quick charts and cheat sheets...pricing, encounters, you name it. all the things DM's would need for quick reference above typing in rules.
Anyway, I think the experience was good. I had fun, the players had fun...We played for 5 and a half hours. It's definitely a program I knew would come out eventually, and honestly it's what I've been waiting for. Fantasy grounds was too expensive and the learning curve too steep...Sometimes, a bit of simplicity and imagination go a long way. This is a game about imagination after all. I did more with a few pictures from the internet which I posted to the chat boxes in discord to describe a setting than 12 hours of work with one editor could have done. I would say you are going in the right direction with this.
I would say if I didn't have to buy the books, I would pay a subscription (between 10 and 15 a month and not much more than that) to use and have access to all current and future books and applications. But I don't think I will re-buy what I already own in hard cover. Not when the books and Discord are costing me nothing. I could become unable to play D&D anymore, or just want to quit D&D all together...and that could be after a few months, a few years...and then I would have noting to show for it accept some expensive digital books I can't use.
Subscription I could stay as long as it was relevant, and the price tag would be lower up front.'
Items and gear should be subtracted from their gold when they purchase while in a campaign. Any other special gear should be given to them from the DM or added to a grab table of sorts.
So a character rolls a level 1 character. From there they can go to "merchant shop" tab. The players purchase what they need from the items list of general goods and to whatever else the DM adds in. The DM can go in pre game and add custom prices or whatever. But yea, the gold is automatically deducted from the players bankroll through a drag and drop system.
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So we just ran our first campaign with 7 players. We used discord as the chat server and Beyond for the character sheets.
Believe it or not, the three text boxes were not that bad as a campaign editor. But the things I found as a DM which would have helped play.
Anyway, the experience was good. Players seemed to have a lot of fun. I used a lot of pictures to drag and post for some visual for the players. The DM notes was great for typing out the flow of my campaign and then just copy and paste from there to player notes for things like letters such as this.
We used the quick reference a few times that really helped. The character creation was decent and the ease of the players manipulating their characters could use a bit of work. finding Items and equipping gear was a bit atrocious... It should be just type in the gear you want to give the players, then simply drag and drop. Or all the gear should have prices on them from what they cost from the DM's guide such as a potion of healing. Punch it in and boom, they come up with a price tag that the DM can adjust once he sees the Players Handbook prices.
A place for quick charts and cheat sheets...pricing, encounters, you name it. all the things DM's would need for quick reference above typing in rules.
Anyway, I think the experience was good. I had fun, the players had fun...We played for 5 and a half hours. It's definitely a program I knew would come out eventually, and honestly it's what I've been waiting for. Fantasy grounds was too expensive and the learning curve too steep...Sometimes, a bit of simplicity and imagination go a long way. This is a game about imagination after all. I did more with a few pictures from the internet which I posted to the chat boxes in discord to describe a setting than 12 hours of work with one editor could have done. I would say you are going in the right direction with this.
I would say if I didn't have to buy the books, I would pay a subscription (between 10 and 15 a month and not much more than that) to use and have access to all current and future books and applications. But I don't think I will re-buy what I already own in hard cover. Not when the books and Discord are costing me nothing. I could become unable to play D&D anymore, or just want to quit D&D all together...and that could be after a few months, a few years...and then I would have noting to show for it accept some expensive digital books I can't use.
Subscription I could stay as long as it was relevant, and the price tag would be lower up front.'
Anyway, that is my first impressions and 2 cents.
Items and gear should be subtracted from their gold when they purchase while in a campaign. Any other special gear should be given to them from the DM or added to a grab table of sorts.
So a character rolls a level 1 character. From there they can go to "merchant shop" tab. The players purchase what they need from the items list of general goods and to whatever else the DM adds in. The DM can go in pre game and add custom prices or whatever. But yea, the gold is automatically deducted from the players bankroll through a drag and drop system.