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So, I've been hearing good things about Foundry lately. Is it good for most things? If it is, I'm wondering what steps I'd need to take to get it set up to facilitate games of Nobilis/Glitch. Based on my looking at the site, getting a module together would want a programmer. Are there people who do that kind of thing freelance?
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Dec 29, 2021 17:35
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Rand Brittain posted:So, I've been hearing good things about Foundry lately. Is it good for most things? There's two components to Foundry: setting up the server, and setting up the game. Setting up the server is pretty easy, assuming the GM has a nice computer. It's mostly "follow the installation instructions", though if you gently caress something up or have some weird configuration, you end up in "fixing computers" territory. If the GM is not the host, then you either need to set it up on a server (a computer thing), or you need to have a player with a nice computer who turns on the game for the GM to do their work. Setting up the game is easy if someone else has made a systems module for it. I don't see any Moran modules on their, so yeah, that's going to be a programming thing and a pain in the rear end.
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Dec 29, 2021 17:53
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L5R guy with a scorpion clan mon tat did a mass shooting. So just so you guys know. https://www.thedailybeast.com/sixth-person-dies-after-deadly-denver-killing-spree-police-say
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Dec 29, 2021 17:57
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FirstAidKite posted:The pdf also included a coupon code for their line of "gaming scents" to really set the mood of any tabletop game night. You all meet in *checks scent supply feverishly* an Italian restaurant, the waiter there warns you that they’ve been having a rat problem in the public park. DalaranJ fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Dec 29, 2021 |
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Dec 29, 2021 18:51
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So why is Elysium the Bath & Body Works? [Storyteller shifts nervously.]
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Dec 29, 2021 18:59
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Fallorn posted:L5R guy with a scorpion clan mon tat did a mass shooting. So just so you guys know.
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Dec 29, 2021 20:44
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The big problem with Foundry is that it's exposing a server written in Node/JavaScript on your personal computer. That's potentially pretty dangerous, although there's ways around it. You can also get hosted Foundry but the cost is the same as the highest level of Roll20. It seems to be heavily going for PF2e support, and it is better at that than Roll20, although not ideal (for some reason status trackers never feel the need to track when statusses end, which can be an important issue. Oh, and they always forget that PF2e has one naggy little rule, the Corrosive rune, which means you have to track HP for everyone's armor. I don't know why they put that in. This isn't Hackmaster.) I'm not sure why you'd want to use a VTT for an abstract TotM game but there's no reason it couldn't support them.
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Dec 29, 2021 20:57
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hyphz posted:The big problem with Foundry is that it's exposing a server written in Node/JavaScript on your personal computer. That's potentially pretty dangerous, although there's ways around it. You can also get hosted Foundry but the cost is the same as the highest level of Roll20. Could be worse. Could be Java!  quote:I'm not sure why you'd want to use a VTT for an abstract TotM game but there's no reason it couldn't support them. It can be helpful for sharing more impressionistic images, even if you're not moving tokens around. And then, while you're there, might as well have a diceroller, right? And a way of pointing things out to other people?
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Dec 29, 2021 21:00
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hyphz posted:The big problem with Foundry is that it's exposing a server written in Node/JavaScript on your personal computer. That's potentially pretty dangerous, although there's ways around it. You can also get hosted Foundry but the cost is the same as the highest level of Roll20. My hosted foundry (through forge-vtt) was $4 CAD a month, which was less than the middle level of Roll20.
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Dec 29, 2021 21:01
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hyphz posted:It seems to be heavily going for PF2e support, and it is better at that than Roll20, although not ideal (for some reason status trackers never feel the need to track when statusses end, which can be an important issue. Oh, and they always forget that PF2e has one naggy little rule, the Corrosive rune, which means you have to track HP for everyone's armor. I don't know why they put that in. This isn't Hackmaster.) There is literally 0 chance I would ever track that
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Dec 29, 2021 21:14
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hyphz posted:The big problem with Foundry is that it's exposing a server written in Node/JavaScript on your personal computer. That's potentially pretty dangerous, although there's ways around it. You can also get hosted Foundry but the cost is the same as the highest level of Roll20. There are guides to using the free tier of cloud services like Oracle or Amazon to host Foundry externally for free.
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Dec 30, 2021 05:06
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bewilderment posted:There are guides to using the free tier of cloud services like Oracle or Amazon to host Foundry externally for free. Yeah, that's what I ended up doing. Haven't had a chance to test it under full use yet, but I've been impressed overall
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Dec 30, 2021 05:35
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hyphz posted:I'm not sure why you'd want to use a VTT for an abstract TotM game but there's no reason it couldn't support them. Also bigger maps and easier transitions between them. If I recall correctly roll20 doesn't support having players on different maps, foundry does. A friend is running Blades in the dark in both foundry and roll20. Ironically roll20's blades character sheets and rule support is better, so we're using foundry for the fluffy stuff and roll20 for the crunch, which is pretty much the opposite of how I'd usually pitch the two VTTS.
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Dec 30, 2021 06:22
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I haven’t run anything on a grid or real map in ages, but it can still be useful to be able to like back-of-napkin rough sketch out some sort of local geography just for clarity. Or I had a short-lived roll20 game years ago where I’d sometimes just throw up a map, ask players to draw any stuff they want on it and then go and have a smoke or something. It lead to some cool set-pieces cause it basically gave my players the chance to just spitball their ultimate final showdown setting, and the amount of times they’d draw dongs on the map was waaaaaaaaaay lower than I thought it was going to be.
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Dec 30, 2021 06:39
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Rand Brittain posted:So, I've been hearing good things about Foundry lately. Is it good for most things? I've played about half a dozen different games on Foundry so far with different GMs and the only consistent thing, across every game and system, is that the GM has had to sink hours and hours getting things setup and configured, and then fight the system constantly from there. It does a lot of neat things (and a lot of things I'd rather it didn't), but just using R20 for game lines with decent support has been faster and cleaner, even if there's some manual button pushing. I'd tell you to just try it out, but I don't think they've got anything like a trial/demo yet.
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Dec 30, 2021 06:45
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FirstAidKite posted:The pdf also included a coupon code for their line of "gaming scents" to really set the mood of any tabletop game night. Adventure Scents crack me up. I went to their booth a couple Gen Cons back and did not bring back any gamer potpourri, but I did get this themed cookbook of equal utility; https://oddfishgames.com/products/cooking-with-dice-the-acid-test
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Dec 30, 2021 07:11
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Parkreiner posted:Adventure Scents crack me up. I went to their booth a couple Gen Cons back and did not bring back any gamer potpourri, but I did get this themed cookbook of equal utility; What are your thoughts on the cookbook, I am considering picking up the pdf maybe some day but definitely not anytime soon.
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Dec 30, 2021 08:07
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Toshimo posted:I've played about half a dozen different games on Foundry so far with different GMs and the only consistent thing, across every game and system, is that the GM has had to sink hours and hours getting things setup and configured, and then fight the system constantly from there. idk, aside from learning to use the UI it has been pretty smooth sailing for me with PF2 In general if you aren't sure about how to do something in foundry you can just end up doing the rolls manually and it's nbd just like you would anywhere else Andrast fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Dec 30, 2021 |
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Dec 30, 2021 08:25
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It seems like it comes up constantly: while I'd have zero knowledge to write an OP, do folks think there'd be value in a VTT thread? A thread specifically to cover all the virtual tabletops, exactly what they can do, how to set them up, how each one works with different games, pros and cons, all that poo poo?
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Dec 30, 2021 08:26
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Leperflesh posted:It seems like it comes up constantly: while I'd have zero knowledge to write an OP, do folks think there'd be value in a VTT thread? A thread specifically to cover all the virtual tabletops, exactly what they can do, how to set them up, how each one works with different games, pros and cons, all that poo poo? It can't hurt, though might need to be something remade now and then instead of a megathread. Since I can't see an OP being useful 3 or 4 years after it's written when it comes to reviewing the VTT landscape
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Dec 30, 2021 08:28
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The information would be valuable, but I'm not sure a thread would sustain enough of a rate of posting to be usefully visible unless it was stickied.
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Dec 30, 2021 09:13
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Leperflesh posted:It seems like it comes up constantly: while I'd have zero knowledge to write an OP, do folks think there'd be value in a VTT thread? A thread specifically to cover all the virtual tabletops, exactly what they can do, how to set them up, how each one works with different games, pros and cons, all that poo poo? I can contribute to the Foundry section, I've been using it for a year for few different systems.
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Dec 30, 2021 10:26
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I've been interested in Fari https://fari.app/ recently as a 'no frills' app. It started off as a Fate VTT but now it supports some other big systems, for an extremely limited definition of 'support': premade character sheets (with room to add in custom skills for games like Fate and DnD), a dice roller and that's basically it. Has a whiteboard integrated; does not have any form of login or local storage. If you want persistency you save the file and then next session you load the file back up. Seems interesting for when you just want a game and don't want too much fuss.
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Dec 30, 2021 11:45
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Coolness Averted posted:Player facing (and DM only) notes and journal entries. I've several times heard that the BitD support in Roll20 is considered an exemplar of the best support it can provide for a game.
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Dec 30, 2021 18:18
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Yup, anything that group of folks has done (Blades in the Dark, Band of Blades, Agon) has gotten best-in-class Roll20 support. Ironsworn and Starforged also have absurdly good Roll20 sheets, to the point where those games probably owe their popularity to it.
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Dec 30, 2021 19:31
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bewilderment posted:I've been interested in Fari https://fari.app/ recently as a 'no frills' app. Huh. I had no idea they had a VTT because I've been using them as a directory of games with SRDs.
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Dec 30, 2021 19:37
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Are there any games that have really stand-out support, particularly in terms of automation, on one VTT or another? I was recently disappointed by Foundry VTT's support for D&D 4E* but I hear LANCER has official support, and at this point I'd much rather run a good-enough system with automated bookkeeping / stat block importing / rules enforcement through a VTT than a great one with none. *there's a third-party module being worked on by one guy, loaded with spelling mistakes and "that hasn't been implemented yet" error messages -- still pretty impressive for hobbyist/volunteer work, but not good enough for me to try to migrate my group over from roll20 to use it
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Dec 30, 2021 19:43
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Like 90% of VTT scripts are done by volunteers, it's just that the structure required (especially in Roll20) is so goddamn messy that it's difficult for them to share work. I've wondered about this for a while for character generators but almost any generic character generator comes down to a horrible inner platform because of the amount of exceptions in most RPG rules.
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Dec 30, 2021 20:46
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VTT really suffers from the fact that there's no "clear winner" in terms of features, ease of use, and cost. No reason to really invest in one platform when there are a half dozen of them and your userbase is split between them.
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Dec 30, 2021 23:45
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ninjoatse.cx posted:VTT really suffers from the fact that there's no "clear winner" in terms of features, ease of use, and cost. No reason to really invest in one platform when there are a half dozen of them and your userbase is split between them. There being no clear winner is a good thing - where there is one everything rapidly stagnates. The problem is much more that portability differences means that people can't easily move between them and they all share many common traits.
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Dec 31, 2021 00:22
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:
Lancer doesn't have 'official' support in the same way that, say, Free League has official modules for T2K or Forbidden Lands. It's just worked on by fans. After a little time of reading guides I managed to get something like this set up as kind of a snapshot of the addons I installed beyond just the Lancer rules support module:  The Barbrawl module handles the HP and heat bars. In the top right is the Token Action HUD which was set up for DnD5e originally but has Lancer support, so I can click Weapons->Assault Rifle or Systems->Siege Stabilizers. On the bottom left is the action tracker. It doesn't actually hook into anything or do anything, it just helps you click to keep track of what actions you've taken. The hover-over tooltip is Token Tooltip Alt which is set up nicely to show all the relevant stats when hovered over. And yes, the game supports full COMPCON importing for PCs. Since NPCs can't be exported you still have to manually 'create' those, but at least you can upload your own LCPs so you have access to whatever you would have in CompCon.
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Dec 31, 2021 01:04
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ninjoatse.cx posted:VTT really suffers from the fact that there's no "clear winner" in terms of features, ease of use, and cost. No reason to really invest in one platform when there are a half dozen of them and your userbase is split between them. yeah there is. tabletop simulator baby!!!!!!!!!! lets go!!!!!!!!!! (moving poorly rendered 3d model of sonic that someone insisted they should use for a fig glitches collision and causes a nearby tree to fly around the screen violently and lags everyone)
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Dec 31, 2021 02:40
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pog boyfriend posted:yeah there is. tabletop simulator baby!!!!!!!!!! lets go!!!!!!!!!! (moving poorly rendered 3d model of sonic that someone insisted they should use for a fig glitches collision and causes a nearby tree to fly around the screen violently and lags everyone) My players discovered the table flip button before I did 
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Dec 31, 2021 05:23
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ninjoatse.cx posted:VTT really suffers from the fact that there's no "clear winner" in terms of features, ease of use, and cost. No reason to really invest in one platform when there are a half dozen of them and your userbase is split between them. That is a good thing! One of the worst things about the modern internet is how most services are coalesced into a single provider.
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Dec 31, 2021 11:08
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FirstAidKite posted:What are your thoughts on the cookbook, I am considering picking up the pdf maybe some day but definitely not anytime soon. I haven’t actually used it or anything, it was more of a self-gag-gift. I’ll post more if I can figure out where I put it.
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Dec 31, 2021 12:04
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It's kinda not a good thing. The closest analogies are video game consoles if everyone would need to have the same console to play together. Crossplay is much better for the lifecycle of any given game, but barring that, having everyone on one system is the best way for a gaming system to thrive.
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Dec 31, 2021 22:26
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ninjoatse.cx posted:It's kinda not a good thing. The closest analogies are video game consoles if everyone would need to have the same console to play together. Crossplay is much better for the lifecycle of any given game, but barring that, having everyone on one system is the best way for a gaming system to thrive. Well, that's a reverse implication. If everyone is playing one system by definition it is thriving. But it is also probably strangling technology development, since competitors that might innovate are locked out by network effect. This of course is already the case for game systems (D&D) and software tools for some systems (Pathbuilder) Honestly with most VTTs being able to play together only matters if there's a cost for players, otherwise downloading a new client or visiting a different URL isn't much of a problem.
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Dec 31, 2021 22:39
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I think most of the innovation needs to come on the end for the person running the game. Better features with the least complexity possible. An intuitive interface with resources at your fingertips would be a godsend, but there are only a few VTTs for a few systems for a few scenarios where that exists. It should really be strived for. You can build your own with those in mind, but then..
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Dec 31, 2021 23:03
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ninjoatse.cx posted:It's kinda not a good thing. The closest analogies are video game consoles if everyone would need to have the same console to play together. Crossplay is much better for the lifecycle of any given game, but barring that, having everyone on one system is the best way for a gaming system to thrive. Except no crossplay is specifically because a clear winner (in previous gens Microsoft, currently Sony) realized stopping crossplay hurts the competition more than it would help them. If WotC's official stuff was an incredibly small slice of the pie, part of the way they'd have to lure you into buying stuff through their online service would be saying "buy the digital version of this book/pay a sub and you can import everything into the following VTTS!"
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Dec 31, 2021 23:08
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ninjoatse.cx posted:I think most of the innovation needs to come on the end for the person running the game. Better features with the least complexity possible. An intuitive interface with resources at your fingertips would be a godsend, but there are only a few VTTs for a few systems for a few scenarios where that exists. It should really be strived for. Yes, this seems to be a classic problem too. Most VTTs are heavily chat driven and involve a lot of typing in search boxes but they will not take the jump into being completely keyboard driven because it's seen as "unfriendly" when it's actually just removing blinkenlights.
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Dec 31, 2021 23:12
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