My friends and I play via discord and so visualising our locations and that of enemies during combat can be kind of a pain.
We're more than happy using our current system for rolls and character sheets etc. We just use our sheets on beyond and roll in discord using Avrae.
What we don't have, and I'm tearing my hair out trying to find something so seemingly basic, is literally just a tabletop.
The only thing we need is a shared backdrop that the DM can upload an image to, and movable tokens. That is literally it. I can't believe nobody has developed something like this because it seems like it would be incredibly simple to do. Just: move icons on top of image.
I am astounded that seemingly nothing like this exists. Could someone PLEASE prove me wrong and point me in the right direction? We really don't need something as complex as fantasy grounds and honestly roll20 seems like a nightmare to use from what I've seen so far.
I mean this is the kind of crap that I could feasibly do on fecking MS Word so why on earth doesn't something this simple exist on a shared platform somewhere with the amount of people that play TTRPGs via the internet?
I have used google draw. Upload your image and put text boxes for the mobs and pcs. I then export as a jpg and upload to discord . In my case I use discord to host the images and then put them in my play by post here.
You can move the text boxes as combat evolves and repeat the process.
I've been reasonably happy with RPG maptools. I mostly use a chromecast to move to a TV but I just take images from all over and create maps with tiles and pieces of other maps by putting on the background layer. There are lots of tools to make maps and you can change them into an image and put them on RPTools.
For a campaign with a party of 4 I could create an uploaded map with grids and movable tokens for each player in literally less than a minute in Roll20. It's free to use as well. Like if you're not using the character sheet/journal part of roll20, it basically is a virtual chessex mat.
I have looked for a good VTT besides Roll20 that can be used over the internet on a webpage for my phone/tablet players. Not such good luck so far, but I did find a couple great video's on youtube for this.
Just use a free online whiteboard that you can share with everyone. You can upload images for maps, tokens, etc. its got basic draw features and shapes for spell effects. We use https://awwapp.com which has all the features we needed for free, but there are plenty of other options too. cheers~
I mean, that is literally what roll20 is. Everything else it does is just bells and whistles built on the exact premise you are looking for. It really isn't difficult to use (upload an image, put it on the map layer for a map, put it on the token layer for a token), and is free for those basic things you want to do. Might want to give it another go?
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Hi guys,
My friends and I play via discord and so visualising our locations and that of enemies during combat can be kind of a pain.
We're more than happy using our current system for rolls and character sheets etc. We just use our sheets on beyond and roll in discord using Avrae.
What we don't have, and I'm tearing my hair out trying to find something so seemingly basic, is literally just a tabletop.
The only thing we need is a shared backdrop that the DM can upload an image to, and movable tokens. That is literally it. I can't believe nobody has developed something like this because it seems like it would be incredibly simple to do. Just: move icons on top of image.
I am astounded that seemingly nothing like this exists. Could someone PLEASE prove me wrong and point me in the right direction? We really don't need something as complex as fantasy grounds and honestly roll20 seems like a nightmare to use from what I've seen so far.
I mean this is the kind of crap that I could feasibly do on fecking MS Word so why on earth doesn't something this simple exist on a shared platform somewhere with the amount of people that play TTRPGs via the internet?
Halp?
Thanks,
J
I have used google draw. Upload your image and put text boxes for the mobs and pcs. I then export as a jpg and upload to discord . In my case I use discord to host the images and then put them in my play by post here.
You can move the text boxes as combat evolves and repeat the process.
I've been reasonably happy with RPG maptools. I mostly use a chromecast to move to a TV but I just take images from all over and create maps with tiles and pieces of other maps by putting on the background layer. There are lots of tools to make maps and you can change them into an image and put them on RPTools.
Its also free.
Testing it out more you can actually publish to the web and have an almost live version of the image. As you make changes and move tokens it updates.
Haven't tested it fully but looks good.
For a campaign with a party of 4 I could create an uploaded map with grids and movable tokens for each player in literally less than a minute in Roll20. It's free to use as well. Like if you're not using the character sheet/journal part of roll20, it basically is a virtual chessex mat.
I ran a game with Google slides and a screenshare for my visual once
I have looked for a good VTT besides Roll20 that can be used over the internet on a webpage for my phone/tablet players. Not such good luck so far, but I did find a couple great video's on youtube for this.
Tabletop terrors has one using google slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu8ZzYT5dW0
tabletop terrors with Fist full of dice review two others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6HFGUprBTo
YMMV
I just want to tell everyone "happy gaming" and actually mean it. Whatever your game is, just have fun with it, it is after all, just a game.
Just use a free online whiteboard that you can share with everyone. You can upload images for maps, tokens, etc. its got basic draw features and shapes for spell effects. We use https://awwapp.com which has all the features we needed for free, but there are plenty of other options too. cheers~
I mean, that is literally what roll20 is. Everything else it does is just bells and whistles built on the exact premise you are looking for. It really isn't difficult to use (upload an image, put it on the map layer for a map, put it on the token layer for a token), and is free for those basic things you want to do. Might want to give it another go?