One of my players loves using DDB to roll and has the extension that lets it show up in Foundry. The others prefer just doing all/everything in Foundry, other than leveling up their PC here and picking spells just because some things are not available in Foundry (yet, apparently). I love Foundry, but I still roll dice on my desk because that is one of the most fun parts about playing a table-top game to me -- die rolling. I spent all this money on metal dice -- I'm going to effing use them! But I leave that decision up to each player. And we do enjoy seeing each other's dice rolled on the virtual TT and groan sympathetically at the 1s and cheer at the 20s etc. There is something different about seeing it on a 3d-looking die vs. just a line of text. Or just hearing them call it out if they roll it on their own desk.
For maps, I've learned to be careful with it. Dungeons yes. But sometimes the maps can also distract from the RP so I have tried not to get too immersed in mapping everything (which I had done early on). I agree that if you do too much of this it feels like a video game.
I think thats the main thing, my friend is currently running out cyberpunk adventure and felt the need to map out every part of Night City we travel to, sometimes we are simply moving tokens around an area to just end up talking to an NPC about the next job, or try selling what we got. The maps look great but it has taken something away from the experience. Less is def more when it comes to maps.
sometimes we are simply moving tokens around an area to just end up talking to an NPC about the next job, or try selling what we got. The maps look great but it has taken something away from the experience
Yes I think we fell into that trap also. It's easy to do. I'm trying to make sure we don't do that quite so much.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
sometimes we are simply moving tokens around an area to just end up talking to an NPC about the next job, or try selling what we got. The maps look great but it has taken something away from the experience
Yes I think we fell into that trap also. It's easy to do. I'm trying to make sure we don't do that quite so much.
It also takes so much more prep time, as a DM I would rather use that time to think up story, npc's etc :)
I think thats the main thing, my friend is currently running out cyberpunk adventure and felt the need to map out every part of Night City we travel to, sometimes we are simply moving tokens around an area to just end up talking to an NPC about the next job, or try selling what we got. The maps look great but it has taken something away from the experience. Less is def more when it comes to maps.
There's video of Mike Pondsmith GMing Cyberpunk Red over Zoom last year, no VTT or map at all. Completely theater of the mind. Maps are good for a reference for the GM to make or explain some time constraints, or obstacles, and calculate response times ("to get there, you have to get through this turf whose gang has big beefs with all of you"). But moving tokens around on a map is bogging. I want to say even the chase rules in CP encourage you to think of distance in a relative abstract way and thereby giving the GM the opportunity to introduce chaos as rolls dictate. That said, a lot of recent GMs for whatever reason, I think the integration of VTT tools into their game play, do feel almost compelled to have everything drawn out on a map. The fact that VTT capabilities are actually shaping game play rather than simply being used by the GM to play how they want to play is actually a pretty cyberpunk premise.
CP is funny, it can be very technical/cruchy (actual rules for human shields for example) but the violence inherent in the game is so random it's really impossible for the GM to prep battlemap style unless they were rail roading so the GM usually has to make it up on the fly with rough sketches ("you're all going violent? Ok, so the office is sorta set up like this (draws big square with squares, rectangles, circles and Xs and PC initials, keep in mind these walls are thin and those bullets are going to go somewhere."). I think consequently it hits the sweet spot for me in considerable action mechanics combined with on the fly thinking.
CP is funny, it can be very technical/cruchy (actual rules for human shields for example) but the violence inherent in the game is so random it's really impossible for the GM to prep battlemap style unless they were rail roading so the GM usually has to make it up on the fly with rough sketches ("you're all going violent? Ok, so the office is sorta set up like this (draws big square with squares, rectangles, circles and Xs and PC initials, keep in mind these walls are thin and those bullets are going to go somewhere."). I think consequently it hits the sweet spot for me in considerable action mechanics combined with on the fly thinking.
I think thats the reason for him mapping out every location, the knowledge that at any time we could just start shooting, there is a sense that we almost need the VTT to understand where everyone is.
CP is funny, it can be very technical/cruchy (actual rules for human shields for example) but the violence inherent in the game is so random it's really impossible for the GM to prep battlemap style unless they were rail roading so the GM usually has to make it up on the fly with rough sketches ("you're all going violent? Ok, so the office is sorta set up like this (draws big square with squares, rectangles, circles and Xs and PC initials, keep in mind these walls are thin and those bullets are going to go somewhere."). I think consequently it hits the sweet spot for me in considerable action mechanics combined with on the fly thinking.
I think thats the reason for him mapping out every location, the knowledge that at any time we could just start shooting, there is a sense that we almost need the VTT to understand where everyone is.
The problem with an open world and simulationist approach, is well, there's this movie "Syncechdoche, New York" that speaks to the problem therein. A more productive use of time would be just getting a sense of basic architectural principles to understand how floor plans work (always a fan of expanding real world knowledge for gaming), so you can just sketch out common floor plans as events happen. I'd actually say for CP, everything you need to know about firearms is readily accessible on YouTube and isn't necessary because FNFF does good work. So GM prep time I'd say would be better just getting fluent in architecture and interior design (I mean not a license, but the principles aren't that hard to pick up, they're actually taught to some tactical teams that have to enter building with little time to study blueprints, so they're literally taught to "read rooms" and anticipate what's beyond doors and corridors) AND an understanding how "business" works (contract speak, stocks, pay scales, brand management, conflicts ... all the contentious stuff in CP that leads to actual warfare in the game). I think that makes a more capable GM than knowing exactly where every taco stand in Night City is and they're Yelp rating.
As a DM I don't have a comprehensive inventory of every environ in Baldur's Gate. I do have some stock scenes in my head and notes to plop in when things happen, but the where isn't predetermined. It's sort of mental sleight of hand, convincing players something has been waiting for the players to come across in a developed world, where really it wasn't fixed anywhere until it was needed to support the action. Sort of Schroedinger's Quantum Theory of DM/GMing.
That said, if your GM enjoys that level of granular management, have fun with it. But if it's experienced as a bog by everyone at table, change up the game. There's a good guide "Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads" RTalsorian I think still has in print, at least in PDF, that's sort of an edition agnostic GM's guide. Some of the aggression encouraged I think is a bit over the top, but it does provide a manual for thinking on your feet, kinda like logic models a GM can get a feel for and keep in their internal toolbox. It's geared for CP, but I think it does provide a healthy mindset mental framework for GMs looking for how to maintain an aggressive game and keeping the players loving it. Not entirely my style, but my old CP game someone would always chime in "are you sure?" whenever a character went to draw a weapon, so I'm a little appreciative of it.
One of my players loves using DDB to roll and has the extension that lets it show up in Foundry. The others prefer just doing all/everything in Foundry, other than leveling up their PC here and picking spells just because some things are not available in Foundry (yet, apparently). I love Foundry, but I still roll dice on my desk because that is one of the most fun parts about playing a table-top game to me -- die rolling. I spent all this money on metal dice -- I'm going to effing use them!
Thanks! I'm glad to hear that the transition to The Forge was as smooth as I hoped it would be :) With regards to rolling real dice, I suggest you check out "grape juice's" manual rolls module (not sure on the status of it at the moment but this is his patreon : https://www.patreon.com/foundry_grape_juice). He's been working on a setup where you just set up your phone above the dice tray, then when you make a roll in Foundry, it would turn on the phone's camera, asks you to roll, then using a neural net/machine learning to detect the dice results and plugs that right into Foundry as if it was roll from the app, but actually lets you do the rolls manually and just reads the results with the camera. It's pretty neat. I'll poke him and see what's the status on his project and will let you know, cause it sounds like it was made for you :D
I like FoundryVTT, bought the app and even support the dev via patreon.
Given that I found another VTT I'm trying and like the simplicity of it and the fact that I can run it from my Mac and iPad. It's called Encounter+ (EncounterPlus). I used it from mac on my last session sharing the 'external window' to Zoom and it worked quite well.
Thanks! I'm glad to hear that the transition to The Forge was as smooth as I hoped it would be :)
It may have been as smooth as you hoped but I would not have dared hope it to be that smooth. Even my module settings were retained somehow... that was way beyond my expectations.
With regards to rolling real dice, I suggest you check out "grape juice's" manual rolls module (not sure on the status of it at the moment but this is his patreon : https://www.patreon.com/foundry_grape_juice). He's been working on a setup where you just set up your phone above the dice tray, then when you make a roll in Foundry, it would turn on the phone's camera, asks you to roll, then using a neural net/machine learning to detect the dice results and plugs that right into Foundry as if it was roll from the app, but actually lets you do the rolls manually and just reads the results with the camera. It's pretty neat. I'll poke him and see what's the status on his project and will let you know, cause it sounds like it was made for you
Well, I don't really have a good way to set up the phone to record the dice tray but... that is an awesome application. I used to do a lot of programming on simulating animal groups like fish schools and bird flocks so I have some (very limited) understanding of what would go into an app like this, and it sounds amazing. If I acquire a way to show my die rolls on camera I might try it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
One of my players loves using DDB to roll and has the extension that lets it show up in Foundry. The others prefer just doing all/everything in Foundry, other than leveling up their PC here and picking spells just because some things are not available in Foundry (yet, apparently). I love Foundry, but I still roll dice on my desk because that is one of the most fun parts about playing a table-top game to me -- die rolling. I spent all this money on metal dice -- I'm going to effing use them!
Thanks! I'm glad to hear that the transition to The Forge was as smooth as I hoped it would be :) With regards to rolling real dice, I suggest you check out "grape juice's" manual rolls module (not sure on the status of it at the moment but this is his patreon : https://www.patreon.com/foundry_grape_juice). He's been working on a setup where you just set up your phone above the dice tray, then when you make a roll in Foundry, it would turn on the phone's camera, asks you to roll, then using a neural net/machine learning to detect the dice results and plugs that right into Foundry as if it was roll from the app, but actually lets you do the rolls manually and just reads the results with the camera. It's pretty neat. I'll poke him and see what's the status on his project and will let you know, cause it sounds like it was made for you :D
This sounds fantastic. I'm personally a little bit more "old school" and love the feel of dice in my tray. Not to mention my superstitious perspectives ;). Thanks for sharing this, I will absolutely check it out.
I have seen a lot of talk by people wanting DnD beyond to create their own VTT, personally unless it was free I doubt I would use it, DnD is not the only roleplay system I use so Foundry is perfect for me because it allows me to switch easily between systems within a single tool and I know many of my friends feel the same, what I would much prefer is for DnD beyond to continue providing seamless integration with other VTT systems or even make a public set of API's available so anyone can integrate with the site and write there own tools to use the data they have access to in their own way. I imagine the API exists because Avrae must use it in Discord.
Someone is going to make a lot of money one of these days by creating a robust featured VTT that's plug and play and doesn't require you to be a computer coder to figure out and run.
Foundry doesn't require you to be a computer coder to figure out and run. Just get it hosted on the Forge... It's a few bucks a month and super user friendly. Everything is point and click.
And whatever you like or dislike about Roll 20, I'm not sure why it would take computer coding ability to figure out how to run it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
So to clarify if I buy FoundryVTT + Forge I can import my Ghosts of Saltmarsh from DDB (what about FGU or Roll20) into forge an voila it works in Foundry with all their bells and whistles?
As currently constituted no, you could not do that. You could of course manually import everything. If you are a KaKaRoTo Patreon supporter you could import authorized content into Foundry via his Roll20 converter. This will still require some organizational behind the scenes work for you most likely. Soon to come for patreon supporters is beta access to a DND Beyond importer which will import owned DnD Beyond content into Foundry/Forge for a nominal fee. That being said, in my opinion the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.
So to clarify if I buy FoundryVTT + Forge I can import my Ghosts of Saltmarsh from DDB (what about FGU or Roll20) into forge an voila it works in Foundry with all their bells and whistles?
There are a number of online modules and tools that allow you to do this no problem. Do a search on Google, my friends and I host our own foundry instances on AWS (benifit as if working in a tech company lol) and we have found several tools on GitHub that can be used to extract the data from our DnD beyond accounts and import it into our foundry instance.
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I think thats the main thing, my friend is currently running out cyberpunk adventure and felt the need to map out every part of Night City we travel to, sometimes we are simply moving tokens around an area to just end up talking to an NPC about the next job, or try selling what we got. The maps look great but it has taken something away from the experience. Less is def more when it comes to maps.
Yes I think we fell into that trap also. It's easy to do. I'm trying to make sure we don't do that quite so much.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
It also takes so much more prep time, as a DM I would rather use that time to think up story, npc's etc :)
There's video of Mike Pondsmith GMing Cyberpunk Red over Zoom last year, no VTT or map at all. Completely theater of the mind. Maps are good for a reference for the GM to make or explain some time constraints, or obstacles, and calculate response times ("to get there, you have to get through this turf whose gang has big beefs with all of you"). But moving tokens around on a map is bogging. I want to say even the chase rules in CP encourage you to think of distance in a relative abstract way and thereby giving the GM the opportunity to introduce chaos as rolls dictate. That said, a lot of recent GMs for whatever reason, I think the integration of VTT tools into their game play, do feel almost compelled to have everything drawn out on a map. The fact that VTT capabilities are actually shaping game play rather than simply being used by the GM to play how they want to play is actually a pretty cyberpunk premise.
CP is funny, it can be very technical/cruchy (actual rules for human shields for example) but the violence inherent in the game is so random it's really impossible for the GM to prep battlemap style unless they were rail roading so the GM usually has to make it up on the fly with rough sketches ("you're all going violent? Ok, so the office is sorta set up like this (draws big square with squares, rectangles, circles and Xs and PC initials, keep in mind these walls are thin and those bullets are going to go somewhere."). I think consequently it hits the sweet spot for me in considerable action mechanics combined with on the fly thinking.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I think thats the reason for him mapping out every location, the knowledge that at any time we could just start shooting, there is a sense that we almost need the VTT to understand where everyone is.
The problem with an open world and simulationist approach, is well, there's this movie "Syncechdoche, New York" that speaks to the problem therein. A more productive use of time would be just getting a sense of basic architectural principles to understand how floor plans work (always a fan of expanding real world knowledge for gaming), so you can just sketch out common floor plans as events happen. I'd actually say for CP, everything you need to know about firearms is readily accessible on YouTube and isn't necessary because FNFF does good work. So GM prep time I'd say would be better just getting fluent in architecture and interior design (I mean not a license, but the principles aren't that hard to pick up, they're actually taught to some tactical teams that have to enter building with little time to study blueprints, so they're literally taught to "read rooms" and anticipate what's beyond doors and corridors) AND an understanding how "business" works (contract speak, stocks, pay scales, brand management, conflicts ... all the contentious stuff in CP that leads to actual warfare in the game). I think that makes a more capable GM than knowing exactly where every taco stand in Night City is and they're Yelp rating.
As a DM I don't have a comprehensive inventory of every environ in Baldur's Gate. I do have some stock scenes in my head and notes to plop in when things happen, but the where isn't predetermined. It's sort of mental sleight of hand, convincing players something has been waiting for the players to come across in a developed world, where really it wasn't fixed anywhere until it was needed to support the action. Sort of Schroedinger's Quantum Theory of DM/GMing.
That said, if your GM enjoys that level of granular management, have fun with it. But if it's experienced as a bog by everyone at table, change up the game. There's a good guide "Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads" RTalsorian I think still has in print, at least in PDF, that's sort of an edition agnostic GM's guide. Some of the aggression encouraged I think is a bit over the top, but it does provide a manual for thinking on your feet, kinda like logic models a GM can get a feel for and keep in their internal toolbox. It's geared for CP, but I think it does provide a healthy mindset mental framework for GMs looking for how to maintain an aggressive game and keeping the players loving it. Not entirely my style, but my old CP game someone would always chime in "are you sure?" whenever a character went to draw a weapon, so I'm a little appreciative of it.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
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InsidersThanks! I'm glad to hear that the transition to The Forge was as smooth as I hoped it would be :) With regards to rolling real dice, I suggest you check out "grape juice's" manual rolls module (not sure on the status of it at the moment but this is his patreon : https://www.patreon.com/foundry_grape_juice). He's been working on a setup where you just set up your phone above the dice tray, then when you make a roll in Foundry, it would turn on the phone's camera, asks you to roll, then using a neural net/machine learning to detect the dice results and plugs that right into Foundry as if it was roll from the app, but actually lets you do the rolls manually and just reads the results with the camera. It's pretty neat. I'll poke him and see what's the status on his project and will let you know, cause it sounds like it was made for you :D
(here's a recent showcase he posted of the object detection algorithm : https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/757875312125149255/780768227696967700/output.webp )
In the meantime, he has this which prompts you actually to enter the results manually, which can do the job for you: https://gitlab.com/jesusafier/grape_juice-manual-roll
I like FoundryVTT, bought the app and even support the dev via patreon.
Given that I found another VTT I'm trying and like the simplicity of it and the fact that I can run it from my Mac and iPad. It's called Encounter+ (EncounterPlus). I used it from mac on my last session sharing the 'external window' to Zoom and it worked quite well.
https://encounter.plus/
It may have been as smooth as you hoped but I would not have dared hope it to be that smooth. Even my module settings were retained somehow... that was way beyond my expectations.
Well, I don't really have a good way to set up the phone to record the dice tray but... that is an awesome application. I used to do a lot of programming on simulating animal groups like fish schools and bird flocks so I have some (very limited) understanding of what would go into an app like this, and it sounds amazing. If I acquire a way to show my die rolls on camera I might try it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thanks, KaKaRoToDM! I'm sold on Foundry + Forge. Hasta la vista, Roll20.
Yup, having done my own Foundry for 9 months, and Forge for 2 weeks, I am never going back. Forge is just too painless, and I am too lazy. ;)
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
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InsidersThat's really nice to hear. I feel like your sentence right there should be a testimonial that we put on the Forge's website :D
Welcome to the Forge and the world of painless gaming!
Feel free to use the line... though I'm not sure I come off very well in it... LOL.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
This sounds fantastic. I'm personally a little bit more "old school" and love the feel of dice in my tray. Not to mention my superstitious perspectives ;). Thanks for sharing this, I will absolutely check it out.
Jeremiah, the MindfulDM
I have seen a lot of talk by people wanting DnD beyond to create their own VTT, personally unless it was free I doubt I would use it, DnD is not the only roleplay system I use so Foundry is perfect for me because it allows me to switch easily between systems within a single tool and I know many of my friends feel the same, what I would much prefer is for DnD beyond to continue providing seamless integration with other VTT systems or even make a public set of API's available so anyone can integrate with the site and write there own tools to use the data they have access to in their own way. I imagine the API exists because Avrae must use it in Discord.
Someone is going to make a lot of money one of these days by creating a robust featured VTT that's plug and play and doesn't require you to be a computer coder to figure out and run.
Foundry doesn't require you to be a computer coder to figure out and run. Just get it hosted on the Forge... It's a few bucks a month and super user friendly. Everything is point and click.
And whatever you like or dislike about Roll 20, I'm not sure why it would take computer coding ability to figure out how to run it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
So to clarify if I buy FoundryVTT + Forge I can import my Ghosts of Saltmarsh from DDB (what about FGU or Roll20) into forge an voila it works in Foundry with all their bells and whistles?
As currently constituted no, you could not do that. You could of course manually import everything. If you are a KaKaRoTo Patreon supporter you could import authorized content into Foundry via his Roll20 converter. This will still require some organizational behind the scenes work for you most likely. Soon to come for patreon supporters is beta access to a DND Beyond importer which will import owned DnD Beyond content into Foundry/Forge for a nominal fee. That being said, in my opinion the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.
There are a number of online modules and tools that allow you to do this no problem. Do a search on Google, my friends and I host our own foundry instances on AWS (benifit as if working in a tech company lol) and we have found several tools on GitHub that can be used to extract the data from our DnD beyond accounts and import it into our foundry instance.