What does /tg/ think of digital tools and implementations of traditional games, such as Tabletop Simulator, roll20, TCG/boardgame arena and others?
>>98188979They make running and prepping actually possible in 2026. Especially with the right plugins and such.I can play games with my friends all over the world at any time without having to struggle with snacks, logistics, scheduling, and so on. Prep is also easier and faster, I can use pre-made macros for roll20 to make gameplay faster and easier. I can use google sheets and docs to keep track of things. Good stuff. /tg/ contrarians will whine that it "isn't a real game if it's online" but that's hogwash. Like, I'll tell you this, the Perfect Draw game I'm in would suck if we didn't have DuelingBook, it adds so much to the experience to have actual representations of our cards. And having quick easy access to a top--down battlemap where I can see everyone's HP in other games is crucial to strategy in combat, and helps us explore and look around maps. It also lets me as a GM import maps I find online quickly and easily.
>>98188979Without roll20 or TTS I straight up wouldn't be in the hobby anymore. In many ways they're annoyingly fiddly, but they let me play with groups spread all over the country so it is what it is. I wish roll20's dynamic lighting system wasn't such a bitch to set up though, and that Fog of War actually worked for TTS.
>>98188999>/tg/ contrarians will whine that it "isn't a real game if it's onlineMy irl community says the same thing lol, they even have these stats-tracking apps and sound very smug when saying they managed to play a total of 10 games during a month, meanwhile I get to play over 50 on TTS and yet they claim I did not play them lol
>>98188979I play TTRPGs on Tabletop Simulator. I love it. I'd say it's about 70% as good as in-person. We switched to online during Covid and folks have moved, my group is now much wider, and playing in person is no longer a real option. So it's online or not at all, for our table. My players even make miniatures on Heroforge that we import to the table. Pic related is how our Spelljammer table stands at the end of the last session we played. It's not what we're playing, at the moment, but the table is a good example of a game that's pretty far along.I prefer TTS over others like foundry and roll20. I've used them all. TTS gets the closest to replicating a table with dice and maps and minis and books. The others all video-game-ize TTRPGs in a way that I find distasteful. I get it: they're "quality of life" features. And hey, if that's your thing? Have at it. For me? I don't want those features. I want to play irl, and can't, and want the thing that gets me closest to an irl table--inconveniences and all. One of our most-common issues is people accidentally rolling the dice off the table. That'd never happen on roll20 where you type a command or click a button. It's just an inconvenience and adds nothing to the actual playing of the game. And I like that it can happen. I like that we have to think about it.
>>98189209After thousands of hours in TTS, I stopped finding it fiddly, learning the hotkeys and changing some settings makes it so much better, like learning commands in Excel.
>>98188979In-person play will always be superior, but online has its uses. Friends far away, games so niche you won't get local interest in them, games you'd rather do through text, etc.>owlbear.rodeoThey enshitiffied it a bunch some time ago, but still good if all you need is drawing, moving shit around and dice.>FoundryVTTOne-time purchase, self-hosting, fancier dice, can do a lot more stuff that I've never ventured into.>Roll20Icky, personally.
>>98190593Oh yeah, I know this is more of a fixation of mine, but Foundry has a module for PDF form fillable character sheets. So you can make them look exactly like irl, instead of relying on a digital approximation.
It's better than nothing but I prefer in person games with my actual IRL friends.The host has a filament printer, I have a resin printer so I make the minis and he most of the terrain.But even without all those gimmicks, just sitting there with the boys and rolling dice is fun and I'm glad to get to do this every week for hours.2nd best thing is playing online with your friends but playing online with strangers sounds like hell to me.
>>98188979I like them to play with friends when we can't hang out, I've never had any experience playing with complete strangers though, has /tg/ ever done something like that?
>>98188979Mixed.On one hand, it's nice to have as an option for when you want to play a multiplayer game but no bros to play with. On the other, tactile sensation and in person sessions are so dramatically superior to screen based play that digital variants make games seem worse than they are. Note that super fiddly bullshit like Gloomhaven are superior in a digital format.
>>98188979I used Maptool for fucking ages because everyone lived in different cities. Now we can play physically in the same space and I have forgotten about VTTs entirely
>>98188979Quite fond of them. Though, I'll throw in something that, while not intended for tabletop gaming, is quite helpful in certain cases. If your game is set in the real world, Google Earth Pro is free. Been using it for WoD.
>>98188979I've used both FoundryVTT and Tabletop Simulator for games. I've got about 1.2k hours in TTS as both a player and GM, and have used it to run 100+ sessions of a variety of different systems. My experience with Foundry is limited to about 40 sessions, of which the majority are Pathfinder 2e.>Tabletop SimulatorMy preference of the two for games. The 3D space is great, and the abundance of models and terrain lets you have actually interesting combat terrain instead of flat 2D spaces that feel homogenous. It's especially good for games with lots of ranged options. It's also good for wargames, and you can play anything on it if you have the PDFs on hand.Downside is there's no automation, but if you're not a brainlet (or running some complicated shit), that's not a huge issue. It sucks for people with weak PCs, models can go missing, and hitboxes are frequently very wonky.>FoundryVTTThe automation is nice, as is the ease of importing maps and tokens, but that's really it for me. It's too fiddly and too much of a programmers tool. I feel like I'm fighting the platform to get shit done half the time, and doing anything with it is unintuitive if you're not a computer autist.Hit all programmers with hellfire missiles.Many systems are also totally gatekept behind paywalls, and their base programs are functionally useless without shilling out cash for the system, which can be a pain in the ass if you've already paid for the PDF or physical copy.>tldrBoth are good, but I prefer TTS.
I've used TTS for both Delta Green and various OSR games (DCC, LotFP, etc).I like the virtual appeal of it, but a lot of the functionality is obtuse or fiddly. And lots of community made assets have disappeared due to hosts shutting down. Apparently they are basically updating it to a v2.0 but DESU, I'd rather just play in person. Tabletop kinda loses something over voice chat.
>>98193127LotFP - "World of the Lost" campaign
We are 4 players in 4 countries having been friends for over 10 years. I wouldn't get to play at all if we didn't have online tools. I'd trade it to play with them in person, but I'd rather play online with them than in person with strangers. So I do. We have a lot of fun.
>>98188979I have been using Foundry for a couple of years and honestly I think it has made my players spoiled. They all expect fully detailed maps for every fucking situation, character tokens for everyone, and everything to be set up and work flawlessly so I end up having to do a ton of prep and shit. When I played in real life I used little wooden boardgame pieces on a quickly drawn map and nobody cared at all. It's supposed to be easier but I'm having to do 10x the prep compared to face to face games.
>>98192264Yes. My table picks up folks from /lfg/ on reddit sometimes. It's hit or miss. I'd say it's a pretty even split between:- People who will show interest and you'll never see again- Sincere people w/ a 90+ IQ who can play just fine- Immature/emotional-spastics who you'll have to ban
>>98193161This is a real problem and I feel you on it. I use Inkarnate to make all my maps. Honestly? Just use AI sometimes. It's fine, who gives a shit.
>>98188979I like it. I use it to play battletech with my wife when we don't want to go all in with the scenery and minis.
>>98193161>x10 prep timethat's the thing that burned me out of GMing games over discord, roll20 and TTS. It seems also that players tend to loose focus more quickly, and we can only do 2 to 3 hours session tops before everyone get distracted, whereas when we play IRL, we can chug 4 to 6 hours games with little to no loss of focus.
>>98188979TTS It's my preferred method of playing RPGs (Roll20 is trash) & MTG. It's not bad for wargaming but maps/models can be a bit of an issue. I haven't played since the new update, I read they are adding paid mods and I hope it kills the game so they revert on it.They've also barely made any meaningful changes to the game that actually help with wargaming or TTRPGs.
>>98193127locally host assets after downloading them
>>98193161just draw on a grid and if they complain explain to them
I prefer real life to TTS, but TTS has let me stay in contact with my friends and play games while we were working in different states/countries. I've never played with strangers on TTS except for a card game or two, so i cant say much about that, but it was invaluable for my close friend group.
My favorite part of TTS is that people have made working booster packs for several TCGs. I can just spawn a starting deck with a bro, open up some packs and play just like we did when we were kids without spending a single cent buying more cards.I have joined some of the hosts on 4chan that randomly pop up, at least in my experience 90% of the anons are chill guys who just want to have fun.
I would be down for a thread to play board games and RPGs on Tabletop Sim with fellow anons. /bgg/ is not one to like playing digitally from my experience.
>>98198113I know /v/ runs a weekend TTS session, so I wouldn't be opposed to seeing /tg/ weeklies.
>>98198113>>98198119Heaven knows it's no fun to open the game and only be able to browse the open unlocked games in the lobby before closing the game again. The vast majority of sessions are closed, meaning you have to already know who you're playing with/how to get into a room.
>>98198131The death of the public chat on TTS really was a big hit to the game for people who don't want to join several discords in order to play with strangers. Back then you'd still have mostly password locked games but most of the host would use the public chat to provide the passwords for those who wanted a specific game.I remember joining a couple playtesting sessions of people trying to make their own games, they weren't too good but it was a fun little organic experience I don't think I one can find anymore.
