Most Fleixbile VTT for Traveller-based Gaming

[kaladorn]

I've been kicking around OTUs, myTUs, and every sort of TU-ish environments since 1981. I once had a pretty good server/client app (for the time, iPC, iGM) that could support scripting, had a way to make deckplans, and did visibility, included whispers to single players or multiple, and I think (long time now) it had audio support. I've always bent and modified rules, rewritten/created new careers, using varying damage mechanics over the years, etc.

My main needs from a VTT are:
- ability to share a map with players and be able to reveal it bit-by-bit to players (if that means I have to markup images to show walls, doors, etc, that's okay)
- grid and/or measuring tools
- ability to use tokens and import new ones
- ability to provide customized character sheet (I'll code it in HTML5 if that's necessary or learn a tagging system if I must)
- chat with the ability to talk to individuals, group, or all
- way to export chats (individual, group, all)
- should not require a monthly payment (I don't play very regularly, or I do for short times, then won't for six months or more, then back again... I'd not want to pay for the times I wasn't playing often and I don't want to have to re-create any work that I do every time if I had to 'enable' an account then let it die, then 'enable' a new one)
- I'm okay with hosting a server app if necessary
- I'm okay with paying a one time fee for the tool

Nice to haves:
- lock movement of tokens (GM only move)
- ability to program scripts to roll checks, etc. and other scripting would be useful too
- file transfer if it doesn't interfere with the apps (I can throw up my own Http file server)
- It wouldn't hurt to have a place I can track my NPC's states for combat
- I would love some of the really nice visuals I have seen from some of the games, but if they won't easily accomodate my homebrew rules, careers, etc. and even sometimes slight variations on the die conventions, it won't work for me... so unless there was some fairly complete scripting (that didn't require me building a massive DOM tree to define what a character sheet should look like... I tried that one one site for some minor variations from standard D&D and it was beyond horrific and I program for a living)

Don't need:
- audio - Discord, Skype, Google Meets, you name it already do that

What will not work at all:
- Very tight integration with a particular ruleset that thinks it knows how I want to build/represent characters, decides how combat works, etc.

Thoughts on candidates?

MapTool was something I used at one point which may be good enough I suppose.

Foundry and FGU looked good, but they seemed likely to be very tightly bound to rulesets in a great deal of ways....? Or not? (I don't really know just guessing)

 

[AndrewW]

Thoughts on candidates?

MapTool was something I used at one point which may be good enough I suppose.

Yes, MapTool should fit the bill can do those and most of the nice to have's as well.

 

[adzling]

FGU can do all the stuff below:

- ability to share a map with players and be able to reveal it bit-by-bit to players (if that means I have to markup images to show walls, doors, etc, that's okay)
- grid and/or measuring tools
- ability to use tokens and import new ones
- ability to provide customized character sheet (I'll code it in HTML5 if that's necessary or learn a tagging system if I must)
- chat with the ability to talk to individuals, group, or all
- way to export chats (individual, group, all)
- should not require a monthly payment (I don't play very regularly, or I do for short times, then won't for six months or more, then back again... I'd not want to pay for the times I wasn't playing often and I don't want to have to re-create any work that I do every time if I had to 'enable' an account then let it die, then 'enable' a new one)
- I'm okay with hosting a server app if necessary
- I'm okay with paying a one time fee for the tool
- lock movement of tokens (GM only move)
- ability to program scripts to roll checks, etc. and other scripting would be useful too
- It wouldn't hurt to have a place I can track my NPC's states for combat
- I would love some of the really nice visuals

FGU has a tight integration with traveller mg2e however you are free to just roll dice and add whatever modifiers/ boons/ banes you want, you're not forced to roll anything in particular.

You would build PCs out side of FGU and then manually enter them into the program (that's what we did).

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[agentwigggles]

Foundry is the most flexible, but you have to be willing to put in tens to scores of hours to get anywhere with it. And you have to be somewhat capable programer with it.
Fantasy Grounds wants you to play Traveller and has a lot of tools to help automate to facilitate that play. Like auto rolling crits for space ships.

 

[kaladorn]

FGU can do all the stuff below:

- ability to share a map with players and be able to reveal it bit-by-bit to players (if that means I have to markup images to show walls, doors, etc, that's okay)
- grid and/or measuring tools
- ability to use tokens and import new ones
- ability to provide customized character sheet (I'll code it in HTML5 if that's necessary or learn a tagging system if I must)
- chat with the ability to talk to individuals, group, or all
- way to export chats (individual, group, all)
- should not require a monthly payment (I don't play very regularly, or I do for short times, then won't for six months or more, then back again... I'd not want to pay for the times I wasn't playing often and I don't want to have to re-create any work that I do every time if I had to 'enable' an account then let it die, then 'enable' a new one)
- I'm okay with hosting a server app if necessary
- I'm okay with paying a one time fee for the tool
- lock movement of tokens (GM only move)
- ability to program scripts to roll checks, etc. and other scripting would be useful too
- It wouldn't hurt to have a place I can track my NPC's states for combat
- I would love some of the really nice visuals

FGU has a tight integration with traveller mg2e however you are free to just roll dice and add whatever modifiers/ boons/ banes you want, you're not forced to roll anything in particular.

You would build PCs out side of FGU and then manually enter them into the program (that's what we did).

Let me know if you have any questions.

I don't know FGU, but from other strongly-coupled VTTs & rulesets, I have seen a lot of automation behaviours in the character sheets which are great *if you aren't doing anything a bit different*. If it is, modfications can be a 15+ roll on 2D6 with computer 2.... aka impossible...

Are the character sheets on FGU just places where static information lives and can be extracted from or are they more active (and thus less forgiving for new things like new stat, different weapon ranges, etc)?

T.

 

[kaladorn]

Foundry is the most flexible, but you have to be willing to put in tens to scores of hours to get anywhere with it. And you have to be somewhat capable programer with it.
Fantasy Grounds wants you to play Traveller and has a lot of tools to help automate to facilitate that play. Like auto rolling crits for space ships.

I'm experimenting with MapTool and Token Tool now but there are a lot of things to learn about their model. I believe its scripting is fairly capable, but (like learning AnyDice to do bizarre things is difficult) there will be substantive investment - learning all the options, the syntax and whether you want to attach scripts to Tokens, Campaigns, Global, or two or three other options.

Mostly I'd like to be able to:
- have a different range table for weapons (and different weapon skills)
- have a state based damage system with particular penalties more than a 'hit point' approach
- different armour mechanics and penetration mechanics
- different initiative math (more like Spycraft's dynamic initiative where actions chosen will drive subsequent initiative or even the one being executed)
- ship combat I'll need to make rolls with skills but will not look much like any Traveller version (other than the one in one of the starter modules which had a huge ship being swarmed by small player snubfighters - the big ship wasn't actually fighting them so much as it was terrain they were fighting around... it was a plot device more than a wargame style foe)
- be able to use my own aliens/humans/etc.
- slightly different task system, still 2D6 + stat and/or attribute bonus (asset), but more levels with less distance between vs. MT's difficulty levels being 4 points apart which is not granular enough (using 2 points per difficulty level)

Mhat will be strongly traveller:
2D6 mechanics
careers (though mine might not be fixed terms, more veriable as was present in 2300 A.D. (original rules) and might have fixed skill packages so we don't get Marines who don't know vacc suit or any form of space weapon more than a Cutlass...)
multiple careers
Travelling, experiencing new places and cultures, trying to give them some depth

I think if I have an ability to modify a character sheet, had some way to identify and use in a script my own skills and stats, and I could script my own combat tasks (to speed things up), that'd cover a lot of it. (With the map and fog of war, etc).

 

[esmdev]

I don't know FGU, but from other strongly-coupled VTTs & rulesets, I have seen a lot of automation behaviours in the character sheets which are great *if you aren't doing anything a bit different*. If it is, modfications can be a 15+ roll on 2D6 with computer 2.... aka impossible...

Are the character sheets on FGU just places where static information lives and can be extracted from or are they more active (and thus less forgiving for new things like new stat, different weapon ranges, etc)?

T.

The MGT2 ruleset on FGU is really flexible. It has options to turn on/off companion characteristics, you can select a specific characteristic for a skill in the character sheet as a default, and if you need a different characteristic for a specific roll you can just click an override that is at the bottom of the window.

There are preset difficulty buttons you can click, or you can enter your own difficulty. Plus a series of buttons allow you to quickly click typical modifiers or you can enter your own modifier if you need that.

So if you wanted you could set up a 15+ on 2d6 using computer 2 setting - for the default characteristic modifier and it would give you what you listed above.

I wanted to add a few skills to my campaign, so I created a separate development campaign, added the skills and then used FGU's built in module builder, then went to the game campaign and loaded the module. I can use that module in any MGT2 campaign I run forever. I tend to build new npcs, gear, starships, skills, careers, star systems, etc., in a cluster of development campaigns so that I can use whatever I want in new campaigns.

The best thing about FGU is there is a dedicated developer who is constantly working on improving the ruleset. Every month or two he releases and upgrade and fills in between the upgrades with bug fixes or modifications based on user suggestions.

All the core books except the Vehicle Handbook are currently supported to one level or another. There is lots still being done but it quite robust. At the moment support for the Companion is the current thrust, with the Vehicle handbook next in line.

The month of January was a big Traveller month at the Fantasy Grounds Academy with several symposium with the developer, some of his co-developers, MongooseMatt, some of the third party content developers and such. There were some how to classes and some one shot games. Beyond just having the VTT there is a lot of support that the other VTTs don't really have.

 

[agentwigggles]

Foundry is the most flexible, but you have to be willing to put in tens to scores of hours to get anywhere with it. And you have to be somewhat capable programer with it.
Fantasy Grounds wants you to play Traveller and has a lot of tools to help automate to facilitate that play. Like auto rolling crits for space ships.

I'm experimenting with MapTool and Token Tool now but there are a lot of things to learn about their model. I believe its scripting is fairly capable, but (like learning AnyDice to do bizarre things is difficult) there will be substantive investment - learning all the options, the syntax and whether you want to attach scripts to Tokens, Campaigns, Global, or two or three other options.

Mostly I'd like to be able to:
- have a different range table for weapons (and different weapon skills)
- have a state based damage system with particular penalties more than a 'hit point' approach
- different armour mechanics and penetration mechanics
- different initiative math (more like Spycraft's dynamic initiative where actions chosen will drive subsequent initiative or even the one being executed)
- ship combat I'll need to make rolls with skills but will not look much like any Traveller version (other than the one in one of the starter modules which had a huge ship being swarmed by small player snubfighters - the big ship wasn't actually fighting them so much as it was terrain they were fighting around... it was a plot device more than a wargame style foe)
- be able to use my own aliens/humans/etc.
- slightly different task system, still 2D6 + stat and/or attribute bonus (asset), but more levels with less distance between vs. MT's difficulty levels being 4 points apart which is not granular enough (using 2 points per difficulty level)

Mhat will be strongly traveller:
2D6 mechanics
careers (though mine might not be fixed terms, more veriable as was present in 2300 A.D. (original rules) and might have fixed skill packages so we don't get Marines who don't know vacc suit or any form of space weapon more than a Cutlass...)
multiple careers
Travelling, experiencing new places and cultures, trying to give them some depth

I think if I have an ability to modify a character sheet, had some way to identify and use in a script my own skills and stats, and I could script my own combat tasks (to speed things up), that'd cover a lot of it. (With the map and fog of war, etc).

It sounds like you're making a wholly original game. I don't know why your asking on here.
With that said Foundry is what you want. If you're willing to put in the time, you can make kinda whatever you want with it.