With yesterday’s announcement that Smite Works, the creators of +Fantasy Grounds, had acquired (the still in testing) Tabletop Connect VTT, I started thinking about things I would like to see in the future of Fantasy Grounds. Some of these are connected with Tabletop Connect, but most aren’t.
Also look for a video around Saturday that look at the differences between the two VTT and some thoughts on what I think Smite Works may incorporate from the Tabletop Connect platform … this all depends on if I can get the Windows laptop to screen cast.
The List
1. Season Passes for Organized Play Recently FG “sold” a Dungeons & Dragons 5e Adventurer’s League module on their site to the public. This was amazing because, despite WOTC supporting and accepting FG Adventurer’s League games into the official rankings, there has been no digital support for the adventures. What this means is that all the conversion work was done on the part of the Adventurer’s League DM which can be difficult because of how WOTC formats the Adventurer’s League pdf files.
What I would like to see is Smite Works, WOTC, Paizo, and Tops to take a cue from the current trend in video game DLC and offer season passes to Organized Play adventures. This would mean for a single fee, a DM/GM can purchase a complete set of adventures for his organized play league that would be automatically added to his account when they become available.
2. Tabletop Connect’s Dungeon Builder While I am not a fan of 3d dungeon styles that both Tabletop Connect and WOTC attempted to implement, I do think a built in 2d creator using the same tools as TTC’s 3d set would be a wonderful quick map generator for DMs/GMs who run their games on the fly. This would also open up a new retail avenue for map and tile creators like +Frank Turfler.
3. More official support and rulesets from various creators/systems This is my pipe dream in a way. I would love to see more official rulesets with full libraries. Right now official support for FG is rather limited to d20 variants and a few oddball but popular systems like Savage Worlds and Fate. I would like to see more variety of systems and games like AGE, HERO system, World of Darkness, Shadowrun, Swords & Wizardry, etc. Yes community created rulesets do exist but with few exceptions they are rather bare bones.
4. In System VOIP Yes, it is easy to use Skype, Hangouts, or some other third party VOIP, but just the simplicity of loading up a single program is alluring.
5. Sharing Features Looking at number 3, I can’t help but wish for a system in game to share more than just the maps, notes, and images that can be preloaded into Fantasy Grounds. I suppose, what I am saying is I would like to see the ability for a GM or player to share a pdf or word file through the client, much in the same fashion as Hangouts allows. This would make homebrew classes and rules more easily accessible, to players and GMs who don’t have the time or ability to incorporate that information into FGs pre-existing systems.
While a list, I should say nothing is in any order. I personally think numbers 1 and 3 are the most important as they all for more player and GM options and help open up Fantasy Grounds and VTTs to a larger range of players.
