On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being "not important at all" and 5 being "very important", how important is a VTT to you?

Can you please state what VTT actually means?

Virtual Table Top, it's basically like playing with miniatures, terrain, etc but essentially in a video game rather than physical stuff.

Personally, I have little interest in a VTT, it would very rarely be used. However, success in that would be good thing for the franchise as a whole, so I'm keeping an eye on it. Half an eye at any rate.

Two out of the five games I either play in or run are totally online and always will be so for those a VTT is vital but we’ve been using AboveVTT for the last four years and any other VTT will have to work very hard to beat the fact it’s free and pulls everything through from DDB. Maps might be it at some point but it still lacks a lot of very basic features 

It is a 'bells and whistles' tool; it is fun, but like this entire site, is not super important to playing the game. I'm in a Discord game where every player uses DDB for their character sheets except for a single player, who insists on paper and pen for theirs. I don't think a VTT will ever be critically important to most people for a game that can be played entirely TotM.

I think a better question might be 'how much do you enjoy VTTs?' and even then, asking on a forum (an already outdated medium) would make me question how much value a poll would provide.

Greetings Tilda_Wildbramble,

Our group uses Arkenforge for our VTT as we are in 3 different states.

We do get together every once in a while, but still use Arkenforge as it was actually designed for in-person sessions as a Digital Battlemap.

Our last Campaign was 100% physical maps and minis with cameras set up for different views (we use Discord to connect).

Cheers!

For D&D I prefer it the combat is tactical enough I think it benefits from battle maps. I'd prefer in person but its an hour and a half drive to my game group for me, and like 40ish minutes for a few others. So zoom and a vtt works. For our call of cthulu game we don't use it as the combat is mostly avoided and isn't as tactical when it happens. Different location for that one so its only a 30-40 minute drive for me there and we meet up in person every once in a while and its always more fun when we do. 

Very important, but there's no need for dndbeyond to be the one who provides it. There are plenty of good alternatives available.

I use a VTT for all games, because my gaming group is way too spread out to meet up in person. That said, it's only particularly important for games with tactical combat (where a battle map is super useful), there are easily available alternatives for the rest of what it does (you could do most of the rest with discord and a wiki).

Quote from Frachese >>

Very important, but there's no need for dndbeyond to be the one who provides it. There are plenty of good alternatives available.

No need, but that does not mean they couldn't put out a better one. I've tried and use forge, and have used d20 and they both are kind of clunky and need a bit more mastery than I want to put into them. If the D&D branded one ends up being easier to use and to make my own maps with I'd switch over. As is, I download maps, slap them in and try to put all the walls etc in right, while trying to make everything line up in a useful way. Much more of my prep time goes to fiddling with the VTTs than id like. They look better than my hand drawn ones on tabletop for sure though. and it creates actual line of sight effects which is nice. 

I use Roll20 because most of my players use the free DDB account and or play on a tablet or mobile device. For the mobile players, one of the others will screen share in Discord so that everyone can see the map and direct where they want their tokens placed. It's not perfect, and my preference would be to have a single platform for all players to be able to access. With me (the DM) on a Mac, and then an assortment of Windows and mobile devices, that's just not going to be possible right now. I had hopes for Sigil, but without support for MacOS, it was never going to be an option for my group. Now, with Sigil going in the tank, we'll continue on with our current setup.

To answer the original question though, a VTT is very important to our game.

I would like to thank everyone for their participation so far. The recent events did spark the question in my mind, but this poll it is about VTTs in general not specifically Sigil or Maps because there are several other options available and have been for a long while now. 

My group used a VTT during the pandemic, but once we could get back in person, we did so immediately. I don’t see us ever wanting to go back to a VTT. Time playing is our chance to relax and not look at a screen — some of us even use paper character sheets. 
I’m glad it’s an option for people that want or need it, but it’s not for me.

I don't like them but i'd be playing in a group of two without one.

Quote from Xalthu >>

My group used a VTT during the pandemic, but once we could get back in person, we did so immediately. I don’t see us ever wanting to go back to a VTT. Time playing is our chance to relax and not look at a screen — some of us even use paper character sheets. 
I’m glad it’s an option for people that want or need it, but it’s not for me.

I wish I lived close enough to my friends for that to be my reality. And I only see it getting worse as I get older and retire in the sadly not so distant future, already getting harassed by AARP. But fixed incomes lead toward me moving to lower cost of living locations than the SF bay area in California. 

Because yes. in person with pen and paper character sheets is my preference. Ideally my house would be the hub for in person so I'd have an excuse to cook some family style meals every game night, get more use out of my smoker, bake more bread etc. 

Quote from MyDudeicus >>

Quote from Xalthu >>

My group used a VTT during the pandemic, but once we could get back in person, we did so immediately. I don’t see us ever wanting to go back to a VTT. Time playing is our chance to relax and not look at a screen — some of us even use paper character sheets. 
I’m glad it’s an option for people that want or need it, but it’s not for me.

 

I wish I lived close enough to my friends for that to be my reality. And I only see it getting worse as I get older and retire in the sadly not so distant future, already getting harassed by AARP. But fixed incomes lead toward me moving to lower cost of living locations than the SF bay area in California. 

Because yes. in person with pen and paper character sheets is my preference. Ideally my house would be the hub for in person so I'd have an excuse to cook some family style meals every game night, get more use out of my smoker, bake more bread etc. 

 You've both made me very hungry and realise I need to really up my DM game from just offering some snacks

Back in the day of 3.5ed we only played in person (day long sessions over the weekend), until people started moving to other countries and then at least one got in via video call.

Since today, my regular gaming group is all over the globe (including myself), when we play we only use VTTs as is the only possible way for us to play (we also are very tactical, so having an interactive map is a must)... so far we've used roll20, maps and foundry/forge.

I haven't found an in person group mostly for lack of trying, an not knowing anyone close to play with confortably, but also because of time. I'm confortable with the playing time i have right now, playing at least once per 1/2 weeks depending on number of ongoing campaings.

Both options have their pros and cons, so its just a matter of taste and situation.

I am active with two groups.  The first we meet every other Saturday night in person and play, alternating campaigns/DM every few months so everyone gets a chance to be a player.  While most in that group use tablets or laptops for DDB character sheets, we still use a physical map and minis.  For that group, a VTT is not necessary.  The other group, I run a campaign about once a month for friends I met playing MMOs.  We live in different parts of the country, and half of that group had never played a TTRPG.  So some type of VTT is pretty much a must.  We use the maps here on DDB because it is easy enough for me to either use a map I have access to or make one in a different program and import it.

The full potential of VTT's is nowhere near reached. 

The VTT's I've played are convenient in certain ways. Maybe they have line of sight, fog of war, dice rolls, you can slap down spell effects on the map, roll all the damage, do the saves and so on.

However, I've yet to see anything that can do all of the above. 

So while VTT's are certainly nice to have, they're by no means essential. If good and used well, they speed up play and reduce discussions of what's where and who's in range and so on.

But eventually, we'll have a VTT that literally does all of it, easily and intuitively - and that will be a massive, massive aid. Already, VTT's makes combat faster and smoother. Once we have something that's really good, it'll be ... just entirely different. Like, it doesn't seem like anyone has considered the possibility of synchronous rounds (basicaly, all players plan out their round at the same time, then the VTT plays out the actions). That would make rounds SO FAST!

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is current generation VTT's are a convenience - but future VTT's are complete and utter game changers. Provided anyone ever get's it right.