Has anyone tried out this virtual tabletop thing?  It seems to be relatively new, and it has a partnership with DTRPG.  I'm wondering folks here have tried it and have any thoughts about it?  And perhaps some comparison to other VTTs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.

Doesn't work too well on Safari and they send way too many emails even after telling them not to.

Quote from: brettmb;1098503Doesn't work too well on Safari and they send way too many emails even after telling them not to.

Spam for their services or spam for other products?  Or are you saying that their news/updates emails are constant?

Quote from: pdboddy;1098513Spam for their services or spam for other products?  Or are you saying that their news/updates emails are constant?

I signed up on July 13. There are now 6 emails from them, not including the account setup. For their services.

It's also not very intuitive. I really wanted to like it.

Quote from: brettmb;1098515I signed up on July 13. There are now 6 emails from them, not including the account setup. For their services.

It's also not very intuitive. I really wanted to like it.

Interesting.  It's only 6 emails in about four weeks.  Dunno if that is terrible or not.

As for being not intuitive, do you mean the UI?

Quote from: pdboddy;1098517Interesting.  It's only 6 emails in about four weeks.  Dunno if that is terrible or not.

As for being not intuitive, do you mean the UI?

I don't expect more than one per month for something of this sort. It's not like I'm buying coffee or something that runs out.

I gave up trying to figure out how to place stuff and just do anything really.

Quote from: brettmb;1098518I don't expect more than one per month for something of this sort. It's not like I'm buying coffee or something that runs out.

I gave up trying to figure out how to place stuff and just do anything really.

Have you tried Tabletop Simulator? Is it easier or harder than that if you have?

Quote from: Omega;1098601Have you tried Tabletop Simulator? Is it easier or harder than that if you have?

I don't believe I tried that one. The only reason I checked this one out is because it was linked from drivethrurpg.

Quote from: Omega;1098601Have you tried Tabletop Simulator? Is it easier or harder than that if you have?

Tabletop Simulator is the only VTT I've ever actually liked, due to the tactile nature of dice rolling/minis/etc. and being able to import images and maps either from your drive or even just a link. It's also nice to be able to throw up a moody backdrop for the "room" itself, so you can immerse yourselves in a forest, ruins, space, whatever in addition to "theme-ing" the table itself. The ability to scale the 3d minis and import others is really nice too.

The downside is that, unless your game already has a plugin, you are likely to have to create sheets and doohickeys, etc. ahead of time or just use the "tablets" available in-game to look at character sheets online or whatever.

On a more general note, I like Tabletop Simulator because it feels like a more traditional gaming experience (in other words, more like you're actually sitting at a table together and chucking dice); other VTTs have always felt to me a bit like staring at a boring-looking videogame, complete with poorly organized chat channels and esoteric interfaces. The upside to those, of course, is that you can program macros to speed gameplay (if you use a system where such a thing is beneficial).

Generally speaking I find Discord with a game-specific dice bot to be far, far more utilitarian than VTTs in general. Then again, Discord is far better with theatre-of-the-mind and I can't imagine it being very convenient to use if you're using battlemaps (though for maps only specifying loose "zones" and for quick sketches it's pretty straightforward).

Quote from: Antiquation!;1098606Tabletop Simulator is the only VTT I've ever actually liked, due to the tactile nature of dice rolling/minis/etc. and being able to import images and maps either from your drive or even just a link. It's also nice to be able to throw up a moody backdrop for the "room" itself, so you can immerse yourselves in a forest, ruins, space, whatever in addition to "theme-ing" the table itself. The ability to scale the 3d minis and import others is really nice too.

The downside is that, unless your game already has a plugin, you are likely to have to create sheets and doohickeys, etc. ahead of time or just use the "tablets" available in-game to look at character sheets online or whatever.

On a more general note, I like Tabletop Simulator because it feels like a more traditional gaming experience (in other words, more like you're actually sitting at a table together and chucking dice); other VTTs have always felt to me a bit like staring at a boring-looking videogame, complete with poorly organized chat channels and esoteric interfaces. The upside to those, of course, is that you can program macros to speed gameplay (if you use a system where such a thing is beneficial).

Generally speaking I find Discord with a game-specific dice bot to be far, far more utilitarian than VTTs in general. Then again, Discord is far better with theatre-of-the-mind and I can't imagine it being very convenient to use if you're using battlemaps (though for maps only specifying loose "zones" and for quick sketches it's pretty straightforward).

I've watched a few Twitch and YouTube streams of TTS, and while it does look neat, there always seems to be a bit of lag in such games.  It could be that people were using PCs not able to stream and run TTS at the same time, but it irritated me just watching.

As for Discord, yeah, it could do for many different RPGs, but the first time you need a map that has to be updated 'live', things will slow to a crawl.  Though if someone comes up with some sort of attachment or bot that does that, Discord will make for a very good VTT.

Quote from: pdboddy;1098613I've watched a few Twitch and YouTube streams of TTS, and while it does look neat, there always seems to be a bit of lag in such games.  It could be that people were using PCs not able to stream and run TTS at the same time, but it irritated me just watching.

Hm, interesting. I don't recall experiencing any such issues, but I also built and regularly upgrade my fairly swanky desktop PC so that might have been part of it. Of course, there is some inherent "lag" in play speed using TTS anyway simply because you're not just clicking icons, using hotkeys and etc., you're actually "physically" moving pieces, looking at your sheet, rolling dice, all that jazz.

Quote from: pdboddy;1098613As for Discord, yeah, it could do for many different RPGs, but the first time you need a map that has to be updated 'live', things will slow to a crawl.  Though if someone comes up with some sort of attachment or bot that does that, Discord will make for a very good VTT.

Yeah, for live-update battle maps I can't imagine it working well at all unless paired with an actual VTT (and at that point, why bother with Discord at all except for possibly voice?). People have been very clever with the dice bots; the one I used for playing GURPS online is swanky enough to have pre-programmed utilities for virtually every possible calculation, as well as gear and index lookups, template listings, etc. I figure I've used maybe a quarter of its full utility thus far. It's convenient and comprehensive enough that I actively miss it when playing face-to-face.

Quote from: pdboddy;1098613I've watched a few Twitch and YouTube streams of TTS, and while it does look neat, there always seems to be a bit of lag in such games.  It could be that people were using PCs not able to stream and run TTS at the same time, but it irritated me just watching.

I never had any lag on my ancient comp and seems to run fine on the new. There is sometimes a pause when something is first loading. But not allways.