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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

#81

Post by Ensorceled »

I like this, quick and simple to use. For example, adding images to tokens was a breeze .

Couple of suggestions from a heavy user of Roll20 ...

Too many menus and all look slightly different: you have left and right panels, the menu and the hover tool bar. Put the menu at the top of the right panel and, if you close it, have a simple There appears to be no way for the DM to fix a mistake such as a player accidentally ending their turn early.

Some data entry tasks (e.g. setting character scores) have unnecessary steps, like I have to click "Set Strength" instead of just having a pull down. And I have to set each stat individually and click update instead of setting all 6 and then have one update button. Stats really should also have a point buy and standard array options, most people I know use one of these.

Same will spell selection ... each spell slot is a selection instead of a "Pick 6 1st Level Spells" or "Pick 2 Cantrips" multi-select.

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

#83

Post by YakiSauce »

Ensorceled wrote: post #81

I like this, quick and simple to use. For example, adding images to tokens was a breeze . Couple of suggestions from a heavy user of Roll20 ... Too many menus and all look slightly different: you have left and right panels, the menu and the hover tool bar. Put the menu at the top of the right panel and, if you close it, have a simple There appears to be no way for the DM to fix a mistake such as a player accidentally…

Wow, great feedback. Thanks! Someone else suggested something similar about the main menu and the right sidebar. I can't quite picture what that would look like but I'll definitely experiment with it. And on merging the left and right sidebars, I have considered that but couldn't really figure out a way to make it work - I don't want people to ever miss the action thats happening the left sidebar. Everything else makes total sense to me - agreed on all of them. Thanks again for checking it out!

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

#84

Post by Ensorceled »

YakiSauce wrote: post #83
Ensorceled wrote: post #81

I like this, quick and simple to use. For example, adding images to tokens was a breeze . Couple of suggestions from a heavy user of Roll20 ... Too many menus and all look slightly different: you have left and right panels, the menu and the hover tool bar. Put the menu at the top of the right panel and, if you close it, have a simple There appears to be no way for the DM to fix a mistake such as a player accidentally…

Wow, great feedback. Thanks! Someone else suggested something similar about the main menu and the right sidebar. I can't quite picture what that would look like but I'll definitely experiment with it. And on merging the left and right sidebars, I have considered that but couldn't really figure out a way to make it work - I don't want people to ever miss the action thats happening the left sidebar. Everything else mak…

The title of the right bar could just be the menu pull down showing the current selection instead.

[ Yeah, for the player the left bar being the "battle log" and the right bar being their character isn't a bad UX if the rest of the clutter is reduced.

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

#85

Post by todoG »

YakiSauce wrote: post #83
Ensorceled wrote: post #81

I like this, quick and simple to use. For example, adding images to tokens was a breeze . Couple of suggestions from a heavy user of Roll20 ... Too many menus and all look slightly different: you have left and right panels, the menu and the hover tool bar. Put the menu at the top of the right panel and, if you close it, have a simple There appears to be no way for the DM to fix a mistake such as a player accidentally…

Wow, great feedback. Thanks! Someone else suggested something similar about the main menu and the right sidebar. I can't quite picture what that would look like but I'll definitely experiment with it. And on merging the left and right sidebars, I have considered that but couldn't really figure out a way to make it work - I don't want people to ever miss the action thats happening the left sidebar. Everything else mak…

Might be worth looking at how Godot let's users position right/left side bars. Leave it up to users what the final composition looks like. Focus on opinionated logic that enables endless menu composition, not deciding your users preferences.

Perhaps add a notification icon for when users need to be made aware some result is ready for their review/acknowledgement.

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

#86

Post by Aeolun »

Capricorn2481 wrote: post #33
treyd wrote: post #7

I always thought it was bizarre that there's no serious selfhostable FOSS virtual tabletop software [1]. The overlap between the two communities is very large and passionate. Foundry is selfhostable but it's a clunky proprietary node.js application and there's a ton of janky UI issues. Roll20 is far worse. I presume that this Diceright project is better since it's actually using a canvas. But why doesn't someone just…

> I always thought it was bizarre that there's no serious selfhostable FOSS virtual tabletop software > Foundry is selfhostable but it's a clunky proprietary node.js application and there's a ton of janky UI issues. I don't think it's that bizarre when a genuinely good product gets this kinda reception. It's a thankless job

Foundry is amazing. But it’s only amazing compared to the competition. I’ve ran a campaign on there for the first time yesterday, and the UI is just…

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

#87

Post by mNovak »

bbor wrote: post #66
mNovak wrote: post #45

Very cool. I've seen a lot of these out there for DnD specifically, and am always impressed by how polished they seem, but I've long since wished there was a better way to play WH40k or other wargames online. The closest thing seems to be Tabletop Simulator, which just feels strange as a full 3D simulator. It strikes me as slightly ironic, since games like 40k are traditionally extremely high $ investment hobbies, so…

I agree! I think it’s super doable to annotate a real game with modern image segmentation running on a video feed paired with rock-solid modern TTS as dice are read, turns are declared, etc. From there, it’s just a hop skip and jump to a virtual tabletop, AR set pieces, and (IMO the holy grail) non-local AR games using real pieces. It’s such a procedural, probabilistic, simplified-spatially game; seems perfect for si…

I mean, I would settle for a simple RTS style 2D web interface! A lobby and match making, if I'm really ambitious.

Unit rules are a special problem--Wahapedia has a csv download of unit and weapon rules.. I think there were several thousand in 9th edition.

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

#88

Post by dragonwriter »

tomlagier wrote: post #79
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…

My counterpoint to this is just that DDB is not a super usable piece of software (it's slow, buggy, and expensive). It's got the massive advantage of having the rights to sell D&D content, but there's definitely room for disruption in that market.

They also have the advantage of the rights to create and use derivatives of D&D content, which unlicensed competitors don't.

Which somewhat limits the room for disruption in that (D&D-specific, not RPG VTT more generally) market.

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