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Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

diceright.com

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Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#101

Post by wolverine876 »

audiodude wrote: post #96

A bit tangential, but I'm not sure I could ever play D&D on a VTT. I understand the allure of playing over the internet in general, because you can pick outlandish times and don't have to be geographically collocated. But for me, D&D is more than moving tokens around, it's primarily about the roleplay, about acting out a character and seeing someone's full facial, verbal, and non-verbal responses. If I want to push t…

Another way to look at VTTs is that they take care of the grunt work and give you more time for the things you want.

Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#102

Post by bigstrat2003 »

audiodude wrote: post #96

A bit tangential, but I'm not sure I could ever play D&D on a VTT. I understand the allure of playing over the internet in general, because you can pick outlandish times and don't have to be geographically collocated. But for me, D&D is more than moving tokens around, it's primarily about the roleplay, about acting out a character and seeing someone's full facial, verbal, and non-verbal responses. If I want to push t…

Like YakiSauce said, for most people playing on roll20 (or similar) it's not their first choice. They can play online, or not at all. For what it's worth though, roll20 does support video as well as voice, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I'm guessing other platforms would as well.

Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#103

Post by bigstrat2003 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #27
Arch485 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not entirely accurate. D&D _is_ a choose your own adventure, and there's not necessarily a way to "win"^1. However, the DM is not technically supposed to just "change the rules as you go" to decide whether or not something is successful (that said, everyone has their own house rules etc. etc.). ^1: Your DM can define an end goal/win condition for your campaign, though.

> However, the DM is not technically supposed to just "change the rules as you go" to decide whether or not something is successful That's...highly variable. Page 236 of the 5th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide addresses three valid approaches with pros and cons (nominally to the dice, but because of the role the dice play implicitly to the rules as a whole) ranging from using the rules, stats, and dice rolls for every…

I would still say that in no case is the DM supposed to just change the rules as they go along. Whatever the method used by the DM, it should really be consistently applied.

Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#104

Post by nmeagent »

audiodude wrote: post #96

A bit tangential, but I'm not sure I could ever play D&D on a VTT. I understand the allure of playing over the internet in general, because you can pick outlandish times and don't have to be geographically collocated. But for me, D&D is more than moving tokens around, it's primarily about the roleplay, about acting out a character and seeing someone's full facial, verbal, and non-verbal responses. If I want to push t…

Why not do both? I run a five-player in-person D&D 5e campaign with a VTT (Foundry) and it works out pretty well for us. We offload much of the bookkeeping, tokens, maps, etc. to the VTT and still keep the in-person RP experience.

Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#105

Post by garba_dlm »

YakiSauce wrote: post #13
manbash wrote: post #8

This looks like a really awesome project. But, I can't understand if this is a subscription service or I can simply self-host. I don't want to sign up without having that information first.

Great question. So far, I've just been doing this myself as a side project so I haven't spent much time thinking through how I would or could monetize it (open to suggestions on that). That being said, I think eventually, it would probably have to be some kind of subscription, if there's any real interest in it. It's not really built to be self hosted right now unfortunately.

my suggestion is don't monetize

you already did it which in a way means it's already paid for. just donate it. open source it? set it free

but it's your choice to make.

Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#106

Post by eks391 »

jbaczuk wrote: post #9

I "played" D&D once with some people who play quite a bit, and was confused. Maybe I was expecting more clear rules of how to "win"? It seemed like it was more of a "choose you're own adventure" story rather than a game since the dungeon master is able to change the rules as you go and pretty much decide whether or not you are "successful" with whatever goals are established at the beginning. Is that accurate? In the…

When I first started playing I had the same reaction as you. I was trying to win and the rules didn't seem clear. I continued not because I liked the game, but because I enjoyed the company of my friends, even if the activity didn't make sense to me.

Now, whether as DM or player, I enjoy it not as a game to win, but as a story to explore. Like an interactive movie. Even when I am the author of the plot as DM, I can't predict what my players will do, and it becomes an enjoyable discovery as they force plot twists from their end.

Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#108

Post by sbergot »

rcarr wrote: post #35

Personally, I would market this and build it out for any other TTRPG system but Dungeons & Dragons. I absolutely love Dungeons & Dragons but I think the writing is on the wall that DnD Beyond is going to get the lion's share of all digital DnD spending, especially for newer players. There's always going to be holdouts who don't like the corporate direction, but the majority are going to use DnD Beyond because of how…

As someone playing non-dnd games, I have to recognize that the market share for DnD 5e is so big that it make sense to target that even with DnD beyond. It's like wondering if you are making a gaming platform whether you should target linux since windows is covered by steam. The answer is: you should still target windows.

The other option is to make it game agnostic and focus only on the map part.

Re: Show HN: I built a virtual tabletop for playing Dungeons and Dragons

#109

Post by Dave3of5 »

Would be cooler if you could make the map rather than just upload an image. I.e. grassy base add roads trees ...etc. Even better if it could randomly generate these maps.

I find that players don't care too much about the map other than figuring out where they are in relation to the enemies and suchlike.

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