The VTT (Patreon)

Hey everyone, 

Geoff, General Manager of MCDM here. Last year MCDM and DMHub started working together to build a set of digital tools that we have so far been referring to as “The VTT.” We know it needs a cooler name than that, because it really is turning into more than just a Virtual Tabletop. Internally we have started calling it the Codex, but we will see if that sticks. We want to share a bit about what we have been up to and a few of our goals that have become more clear.

First, some goals:

• Directors shouldn’t have to buy our RPG a second time to use our digital tools.

• It should be fast and easy for a Director to get their players into an adventure they have prepared.

• Creators should be able to share or even sell their creations, ideally in a built in marketplace.

• We want to make the simple stuff easy and the complex stuff possible. 

That last bullet could use a bit of extra clarity. We want all the things you do often (drawing a map, running combat, building out a challenging encounter, managing a horde of goblins) to work really really well in the Codex and not require a bunch of time or knowledge. Now if you want to build a custom interface or a novel new feature, we can’t make that easy because we can’t read your mind, but we can have tools that make it possible.

Building the Codex remains an ambitious stretch goal, but we strongly believe that a custom-designed tool built from the ground-up to work with our game is the best solution. It will allow us to tailor the user experience to the needs of the community and the game.

Potential Feature Set:

We have regular brainstorming sessions on what features in the Codex might compliment the RPG. We have already come up with plenty of exciting ideas, and if you are following along, you have probably seen them being shared via Discord and Twitter.

A couple of highlights:

• A Tactical Battle Mat: We are making a game about heroes who fight monsters, so the Codex needs to do that well. This includes automated dice rolling, initiative tracking, character movement, and targeting. The Codex guides users through the rules—particularly helpful for welcoming new players to the table—but also gives players and Directors the flexibility to override things when they need to.

• Character Management: The ability to create characters quickly and easily and play using character sheets. Things like Victories, Heroic Resources, and Stamina will automatically be tracked.

• Encounter Building: Naturally, we plan to include the encounter system we’re making for the RPG in the Codex. As the design team is still very much figuring this out for the core game, we don’t yet know what this will look like.

• Document Management and Sharing: The ability to share documents and handouts with your playgroup. It’s more fun when we can all see the menu at The Green Dragon Inn.

• Chat System: Chat in or out of character, with our chat system recognizing the RPG’s language rules. Share dice rolls, portions of documents, ability descriptions and more to the robust chat system.

• Map Creation: An advanced map creation tool that allows you to paint terrain, build gorgeous dungeons and buildings out of shapes, and place props with advanced properties. Maps can be imported and exported, and map updates are displayed to everyone in real time!

• Content Sharing & Marketplace: Content you create can be shared privately with friends or publicly with the community. Commercial content can be developed and sold on the marketplace. We’re constantly amazed and inspired by what our community can come up with, and we want to encourage and support this creativity.

• Advanced Custom Lighting: Lights and vision are calculated in real-time and look gorgeous. Dynamic shadows based on time of day. Imported props have shadows and vision calculated automatically from their images.

• Rules Compendium: Rules for classes, ancestries, items, etc. are all found in the compendium and can be customized and added to. Brew your own content and customize the rules of your game.

• Modding. A Lua-based modding system allowing you to extensively customize and add rules and features.

• Distribution. We plan to distribute the Codex primarily as an app on Steam that will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

This outlines our plan as it stands today, but things will evolve as the core RPG evolves. We are aiming to have early access to the codex for Patrons as it’s part of the dev process, but we don’t yet know when that will be.

-Geoff