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UPDATE: With a final 60% favor for Dungeondraft that appears to be where I'll putting the priority of my focus for now (with Foundry coming after asap). I'd love to be able to help put together a team of users who have already begun, or would be interested in beginning to convert our content to dungeondraft-readiness. Crowdsourcing this effort will make it easier on my end, go more quickly overall, and thereby allow us to all get to a state of usability sooner and move on to other necessary projects too.

If interested in participating on this team, please send me an email (info@venatusmaps.com) with your name, discord information, and whether you have previous experience converting to dungeondraft or not.

Over the last couple of months I've been trying to carve out space for myself to work on other ways that my content is accessed outside of the regular churn of creating 5 high-detail maps and assets each month. The overhaul of the Compilation post and the release of a far more comprehensive Map Archive are prime examples of this. 

Two other directions I've been eyeing in the midst of that (both due to many requests I've received surrounding them) are the integration of my content onto two other 3rd party platforms: Dungeondraft and Foundry VTT. I imagine a great number of you are already familiar with either or both already, but rolling out content on to either would serve considerably different purposes and for those you not familiar with them, here's a rough summary of how I would intend to approach each:

Dungeondraft: A well-known map-making software that boasts a user-friendly user interface. Me spending time building out content here would result in downloadable packs of existing assets (and eventually, future ones as well) that are already prebuilt into the software. This would mean seamless texture squares, drag+drop assets, all of the asset content that you're already familiar with me, but packaged in the considerably easier to use mapmaking software. 

Foundry VTT: A VTT platform that's soared into popularity throughout 2020, Foundry offers a much more robust game-management system than what I've seen available through virtually any other VTT platform. While I imagine there are a good deal of you already using it and may even be using my content there for your games, that does require you to take on the work of building out some of the more complex elements of the map in order to fully take advantage of what the platform offers. Me spending time building out content here would result in downloadable packs of existing maps, but with all of the bells and whistles already built for you in Foundry (wall detection, doors, staircases, dynamic lighting, circumstantial effects, etc.)

I've gotten to play around with both and familiarize myself with the basics of both platforms, but while Dungeondraft would allow much-easier assemblage of maps, Foundry would offer pre-built maps on a specific VTT plaform, catering to what would likely be different crowds. 

So my question is this: while I ultimately intend to pursue both eventually, my time is limited when not creating maps and assets. Would you rather see me prioritize Dungeondraft or Foundry VTT for content integration?

Comments

Anonymous

Dungeondraft for the win

Anonymous

I actually good with either options. I use both Fantasy Grounds, Maptools, and Foundry VTT and I just modify maps in GIMP and the scales them and then put them in which ever VTT I'm using.

Gezzer

I'm heavily invested in Fantasy Grounds so Foundry doesn't really interest me. While I currently hand build my maps (paint.net) I'm more than willing to look at any system that would reduce the time it takes (3-6 hours usually) so I voted for Dungeondraft. But I notice it doesn't have a VTT option for FG so I wonder how much I'll use it.

Anonymous

I believe investing in Dungeondraft first is probably the option that benefits the broadest set of people. Dungeondraft maps can be used in Foundry, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and pretty much any other VTT platform. Also, making it easier for people to create their own maps using your assets is probably a more viable long-term solution than making fully-featured complete maps, just due to the fact that one can make as many maps as one needs with assets, but only has so many complete maps. This is actually a pretty unique take from me, as I usually prefer the complete maps, because they are a lot easier to use than the assets for me, but Dungeondraft actually makes them very usable, as I am a lot more comfortable using it than say Gimp.

Morgan Carr

foundry is the way forward.

Anonymous

Dungeondraft users would benefit most from this! All your assets fit the built in Art style pretty much perfectly.

Anonymous

I've already been looking into converting your assets for Dungeondraft, so that would be amazing!

Anonymous

I'm going with Dungeondraft because we use Roll 20 as our VTT since all my players connect differently (computer, iPad, etc) and Foundry doesn't support that.

Phergus

I believe I saw that someone had developed a converter/importer for FGU. Check the DD website at the bottom.

Phergus

Going with DD does give VTT support (including Foundry) via the universal VTT export option.

Gezzer

It's pretty much the same for me. I love the maps, but only really utilize half at the most since I'm running a homebrew. It's also a "sandbox" type game without any really set in stone quests. So most of my maps are more generic to allow me to use them in as many different situations as I can, which limits the use of the patron maps for me. I do find them inspiring so I'm not complaining. But anything that makes map making easier is a big plus for me.

Gezzer

I did. It's really sparse with the information it seems, and there's no mention of any FG orientated programs. It seems the linked site is more of a sales page than an actual information page. If you have a link to a page with more info I'd really appreciate it if you'd share it with me.

Anonymous

A little late to the party (I think I forgot to post my comment way back), but I'm also going to put in a suggestion for Arkenforge's Master's Toolkit. PNG File type, 256 ppi, 256 pixel grid. I've been adding a bunch of your maps and individual assets into my content library for the Toolkit for some time, with just a little resizing.