Desired features in a VTT?

[RedWarlock]

I hate that my head does this, but it's rebelled and wanting me to design a VTT space since Roll20, Foundry, etc, are lacking in what I want.

I'm thinking 3D playspace, Unity in-browser. Assembling chunks of landscape that look like Dwarven Forge floating in a void, primarily, though I could see a random-generated fill function. Integrated character sheet with stats, full turn-based actions, including the ability to "propose" a move from position A to B, allowing the GM to intercede with a required skill check when that move intersects with terrain. 3d tokens, but then you "roll" 3d dice that are table-scale that use the board as the rolling surface, bouncing off terrain and player tokens. (the visual in my head is awesome.)

I'm whackadoo, I know, but I know enough programming to be dangerous, and I have programmer friends. I'm an artist, too, and I have ideas for low-detail default models and an uploadable format for new art. I've got ideas for a mini-hero forge style token editor, too. (Not just humanoids, either, I've got thoughts on configurable monsters and dragons.)

So what do you want to see in a fan-designed VTT? Post your wishlist here!

[Mastikator]

Allow the 3d tokens to be picture holders or be imported. So people can use whatever model/picture they like.

It doesn't need full integration with the rules, but things like distance vectors and turn order on screen, and GM/player roles (GM can control everything, player only can control their own pawn). Viability is an important feature with things like darkvision, blindsight, xray vision, true sight comes into effect. As well as hidden/perceived for each player.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Honestly, the biggest one for me simplicity. I don't have time or brainspace to spend hours learning how to use character sheet integration and lines-of-sight and fifty nuances of how objects behave once placed; nor do I want to have to spend hours fiddling with each map to make it look super fancy. Instead of fancy features, I want a VTT that focuses on getting out of the way and letting you focus on the actual players. The fact that I often run heavily customized or totally homebrew systems makes things worse.

Features I'd look for are things like:

Integrated map-making tools, with a focus on generic elements like https://i.imgur.com/SAj8k3j.png rather than ones drawn in a specific style. At the very least, just give us MS Paint.
A database of handouts, rulebooks, and so on that's easy to navigate and supports PDF uploads.
The ability to really quickly create, place, and label new tokens. When a player summons a demon, I want to be able to drop one into the game with just a few clicks through drop-down menus.
Multiple layers to work with-- something like "background image, structures, props, below-token, token, above-token, and GM."
The ability to connect multiple tokens or map elements and have them be treated as a single object.
Video chat that does the whole zoom-in-on-the-speaker thing so that we can see our friends without taking up so much screen space.
A button to spawn tokens for the entire party at once.


Roll20 does a lot of things well, but needs better token management options and the ability to lock objects in place. Owlbear Rodeo has good token tools (although you can only do square/circular tokens, for some reason, not rectangles) and a nice clean setup, but is a little wonky when it comes to maps, has the world's crappiest dice roller, and no support for handouts.

[Psyren]

Definitely drag-and-drop from a compendium. Player summons a Babau, I pull up the entry with a few clicks and drag it to the arena. Player knocks a wall down, I can replace it with a empty space and strewn rubble on the ground that counts as difficult terrain.

Also dynamic lighting and visibility that I can override. Let me reveal the monsters just to the player who can detect them through walls etc.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Honestly, the biggest one for me simplicity. I don't have time or brainspace to spend hours learning how to use character sheet integration and lines-of-sight and fifty nuances of how objects behave once placed; nor do I want to have to spend hours fiddling with each map to make it look super fancy.

Yes, yes yes, yes...

What most VTTs don't seem to understand is how painful it is to have to run a game AND try and run a VTT at the same time. The good YouTube watch 'em play channels all have SOMEONE ELSE NOT THE DM to run them because it's so hard to do.

So focus on that as a prime design directive.

Another one is "do what VTTs should do, and only what they should do."
1. Don't bother integrating D&D rules. You exist to replicate the top of the table. The only rules there are the rules of physics and fun.
2. Allow the user/GM to quickly drop things in (like players, maps objects) and automatically keep the things on top ON TOP like the character tokens, and keep things on bottom that should stay there.
3. Give me easier and/or more intuitive dice rolling macros.

[Lord Torath]

Roll20 does a lot of things well, but needs better token management options and the ability to lock objects in place. Roll20 does allow the GM to lock objects in place. Right-click on the object, mouse to "Advanced", then down to "Lock Position".

I'm not certain just how new a feature that is, but it's at least a few months old.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Roll20 does allow the GM to lock objects in place. Right-click on the object, mouse to "Advanced", then down to "Lock Position".

I'm not certain just how new a feature that is, but it's at least a few months old.

https://media.tenor.com/Oc4nf8N08jIAAAAC/mind-blow-galaxy.gif

You've changed my life.

[Atranen]

Honestly, the biggest one for me simplicity. I don't have time or brainspace to spend hours learning how to use character sheet integration and lines-of-sight and fifty nuances of how objects behave once placed; nor do I want to have to spend hours fiddling with each map to make it look super fancy. Instead of fancy features, I want a VTT that focuses on getting out of the way and letting you focus on the actual players. The fact that I often run heavily customized or totally homebrew systems makes things worse.

Thirded. There's a big disconnect between:

- people who want to run a d&d game and end up using a VTT
- people who want to use a VTT to run their D&D game

I'm more often the former, and it seems like a neglected audience.

[Telok]

Persistant corpses, arterial blood spray, destructible terrain, import my own models & terrain, scantily clad and/or fully unclothed succubi.

If I'm paying for it I want the good stuff. If it doesn't have the good stuff I'll stick with a free minimalist design that's super easy to use.

[RedWarlock]

So, here's my overall pitch:

3D virtual tabletop, low-poly/pixel style 3D graphics by default (but eventually I'd love to be able to have different style-sets, or even user upload). I'm looking at the Crocotile 3D tool (google it) as a nice quick-edit tool for making the base assets, tweaking in Blender if necessary. My initial thought is Unity, but Unreal is a possibility, though I'm hoping we can get a browser-based implementation.

Focus on mixed-size tile components, and a algorithmic engine that could use a "brush stroke" interface for map-building. A Heroforge-lite miniature builder, including both humanoid and monster minis. I can make a bunch of default character minis, too. (I'm sure we could find artists, as well.)

The GM could create specific scripted interactions, but the base tiles might have some available points of interaction the GM could enable or disable at a glance. By default, there would be pathing options, a gridded display, and different levels of barrier between zones, like being able to ask for a climb check when players want to move their token past a cliff face or swim check through water. 3D grid movement would also be built in.

An integrated character sheet system. Built in compatibility with d20, 5e, Fate, and some flavor of Mutants and Masterminds for modern games. All CC or open license. I'd also like to include my own homebrew system in that mix, but it's not a huge deal, and I'd like the system to be extensible to other systems, for user-input or maybe a licensed package.

[Velaryon]

My ideal VTT would be:

Free to use. Certainly there can be paid premium features, but it needs to offer as much or more than Roll20 for free or it's DOA for me.
System agnostic, or at least easily compatible with a wide variety of game systems, both current and older. I want D&D 5E and 3.X. I want both editions of Pathfinder. I want Star Wars Saga. I want World of Darkness. I want probably half a dozen more at least.
Drag-and-drop functionality for at least the most popular systems. As others have said, I want to be able to pull out an unexpected monster at a moment's notice with minimal effort.
Robust map design features, including a good variety of default assets as well as the ability to upload more as needed.
More intuitive controls than Roll20.

[Hellequin]

Yes, yes yes, yes...

What most VTTs don't seem to understand is how painful it is to have to run a game AND try and run a VTT at the same time. The good YouTube watch 'em play channels all have SOMEONE ELSE NOT THE DM to run them because it's so hard to do.

So focus on that as a prime design directive.

Another one is "do what VTTs should do, and only what they should do."
1. Don't bother integrating D&D rules. You exist to replicate the top of the table. The only rules there are the rules of physics and fun.
2. Allow the user/GM to quickly drop things in (like players, maps objects) and automatically keep the things on top ON TOP like the character tokens, and keep things on bottom that should stay there.
3. Give me easier and/or more intuitive dice rolling macros.


Not sure what you're doing wrong or having difficulty. It's very doable and easy to run a game AND the vtt. I don't even understand how you've separated the two. Are you talking about using a VTT at a face to face group? That I could understand would take some getting used to for the DM, but I've seen that work just fine as well with just a singular DM. I also think you don't understand that a VTT is supposed to replace being at a table entirely, and not an enhancement of said table. If I'm going to run face to face, we're all using good ol' dice and paper. If we're all sitting around using tablets and laptops, we should have just used the VTT period and not messed around with McGuyver'ing a VTT into a table.

[Hellequin]

Thirded. There's a big disconnect between:

- people who want to run a d&d game and end up using a VTT
- people who want to use a VTT to run their D&D game

I'm more often the former, and it seems like a neglected audience.

How is it neglected? You're still offered the exact same resources as the latter. Are you suggesting every VTT should make a "dummy" version? If you're not wanting to use a VTT.. don't. You aren't required to use one to do online gaming. I was stuck in an online game recently where they used Skype and the DM trusted people to be honest about their physical dice rolls.

Basically.. the former doesn't really exist and the latter is more and more becoming the standard. I've DM'ed for ~25years. I just started using a VTT March of 2022. By the end of last year, I fully decided never to do tabletop again. I can do so much more and give such a better immersion and presentation with a VTT than I ever could before. I'm still learning lots of automation because I want to and not that it's necessary. Need proof? Roll20. It's about 5 years behind every other VTT. The features they've added in the last 9 months or so have been in every other VTT for a couple years, and some features you have to pay for via a sub when they are built into the software of the other VTT's. Which is why I left Roll20 aside from it being clunky and severely outdated.

[OldTrees1]

How is it neglected? You're still offered the exact same resources as the latter. Are you suggesting every VTT should make a "dummy" version? If you're not wanting to use a VTT.. don't. You aren't required to use one to do online gaming. I was stuck in an online game recently where they used Skype and the DM trusted people to be honest about their physical dice rolls.

The tools one might want could differ.

I* want a table, a whiteboard, a marker, and some stones. However my group moved online. For an online game, that means using a virtual table instead (also known as a VTT).
*Some oversimplification included.


In contrast some groups, like the opening post, are inspired by the cool things a computer can do if you do a ton of extra work. If they moved offline, they would want a holotable.

In my experience VTTs are optimized for the latter. I suspect this is because those working on a VTT are more likely to be like the latter (see the OP) than the former.


To say it another way, when making a VTT hopefully you are trying to reduce the cost (the extra work the GM and players need to do) and increase the benefit (features). Both are important, but which is more important depends on your audience. I would rate cost reduction higher. The OP would rate increasing the benefits as more important.



That said, Foundry works for me. The simple drawing tool I want to use is too graphically unoptimized, but they have an even more primitive option that does work for me. I see how my interests have been deprioritized or forgotten, but they are still being satisfied to some degree. Are others seeing greater neglect?

[Eldan]

I will x-th simplicity. The main reason why I have pretty much entirely moved to just running things on Discord is that all the VTTs I know just have too much stuff. 90% of the games I play don't have battlemaps. So I want a function where I can just get an empty table, preferably with two clicks or fewer. Then I want to be able to put a few notes, documents and pictures for the player on that empty space, without having to worry about where exactly I put them. I want dice, and under nice to have, I want interactive character sheets for a wide variety of systems. I like all those where I can click "attack with this weapon" or "roll this skill" and it does the calculation for how many dice I roll or what the bonuses are for me.

Currently, I'm using discord to chat and roll dice and google docs to both upload props and images for the players and host character sheets and that's mostly fine. Preferably, I want something that's really no more complicated than that.

[Lord Torath]

Roll20 defaults to a blank map when you start a new game. And it has simple drawing tools - pen, line, rectangle, circle, text. You can import maps and additional graphics if you want, but there's nothing saying you need to.

[Kurald Galain]

Honestly, the biggest one for me simplicity. I don't have time or brainspace to spend hours learning how to use character sheet integration and lines-of-sight and fifty nuances of how objects behave once placed; nor do I want to have to spend hours fiddling with each map to make it look super fancy.

Definitely this.

As an example of how not to do it, Foundry has about twenty different "objects" including three different ones for a spell, the action of casting that spell, and the effect of that spell. It lets you drag/drop these into suitable slots, but if you (e.g.) drag the spell into an action slot, then nothing happens (because you need to find the action instead, and drag that to the action slot). This goes to show that "technically correct is the best kind of correct" does not lead to good interface design.

As another example, the default character sheet for Roll20 is so cumbersome that people ignore it and write their own macros. Granted, Roll20 does have better character sheets, but most players don't know that. And you don't want to require players to write and debug macros before they can play.

KISS principle applies.

[Eldan]

Roll20 defaults to a blank map when you start a new game. And it has simple drawing tools - pen, line, rectangle, circle, text. You can import maps and additional graphics if you want, but there's nothing saying you need to.

Yeah, Roll 20 is fine, used it for a while, but don't even really need that.

Edit: I think what OP can learn from this thread is the existence of focus groups and knowing the right audience for your product.

This is a forum with a lot of old grognards who hate all that fancy new stuff (tm)

[Telok]

Since I can't get the awesome I want in a vtt (at least not easily) I've been using owlbear rodeo. Simple with drag & drops, super easy fog of war, I can scale & set maps to no-grid that removes the need for players to change anything. Didn't have a map one time, switched to a blank, everyone could draw, drag & drop to load & show critters or scenery. In testing it handled a 1.7km long spaceship deckplan ok.

Only thing I'm fuss about is importing my custom dice roller, but its the same work as needed for discord and roll20 can't handle it. So thats a wash. Anyways, I built the dice roller into a webpage on a wiki, a stand alone html file, and integrated it into the pdfs of the rulebook. So its not like theres any issues getting it. Well, the mobile app is fussy and won't install outside a development environment, but thats on me for not having time & attention for it.

[Kardwill]

Then I want to be able to put a few notes, documents and pictures for the player on that empty space, without having to worry about where exactly I put them.

I know some groups that used office/work whiteboards apps like Miro for this kind of "document, character sheets and pictures" games, with very nice results. Investigation-heavy games, for example, need a good whiteboard and document system far more than they need a battlemap.

Of course, work-related apps might not have natively dice-rollers and integrated rulesets ^^