Is this playable?

[Monster Tamer Bloba]

I have had this for a long time now and was wondering if it has gotten to the point where I run a game using it, has any ran a game with this yet? If so do you have any tips?

[Chaos]

I ran quite a few games with TaleSpire now and i can honestly say, that it is a great tool for visualization.
Your players can get a lot more immersed when actually seeing a 3D map instead of a 2D and move around in it.

Thanks to the Symbiotes (Addon/Mods) you can get a lot of extra tools and info right inside the game.

If you want to see how your group likes it, just set up a session with just you as the GM and maybe stream through Discord. Just be careful not to show too much hidden stuff through your GM view :)

The only thing i would really love to have, its in the works afaik, is a fog of war or something to limit the viewrange of players in dark places.

[Lemurian]

I'm just building myself (2000 hours and counting) and I see my maps are used all the time, so there are plenty of active games out there. Youtube and Twitch also has plenty of Talespire streams, but they are rarely tagged with TaleSpire. It's best as a visualization tool complimented with the 100+ symbiotes (mods) available.

My best tip would be that you can download thousands of free maps and creations now thanks to the online libraries and the new community content. I cover it in my latest tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEUjautkyLQ

Grabbing a free map is super easy, allowing you to focus on prepping your game.

There's also a really great Discord community where you can get better answers about how to run games. :-)

[Jonathan]

Its fantastic, the community made monsters/enemies helps to keep it fresh. It doesn't have too many building blocks yet but if you're creative you'll manage fine. I'm using it purely for combat purposes as my group can't meet in person very often.

[Anarch]

Talespire's visuals and mood are nice, but what do people do for handling the actual guts of a campaign played through it? Character sheets? Journals? Region maps? Hexcrawlling? etc., etc.?

Are most people just playing basic 5E games or something? There seem to be many variables that Talespire doesn't help or try to address with online games.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Anarch:

Talespire's visuals and mood are nice, but what do people do for handling the actual guts of a campaign played through it? Character sheets? Journals? Region maps? Hexcrawlling? etc., etc.?

Talespire is meant to simulate, but in a way that would be impractical to achieve in reality, the physical minis and scenery that you might put on a table if you're not playing TotM. For the actual playing of the game you're supposed to use pen and paper or external programs or if you really want to program your own symbiote (plugin) for talespire to get the ruleset of your game in.

[grindyz]

Our group roll like so:

I am GMing so I picked up the $25.00 game and also bought a $50.00 4 pack of seats.

Our players are using the guest version of TaleSpire (free).

We communicate while gaming using Jitsi video chat (free, browser-based) on our phones or laptops.

The campaign is homebrew / Golarian Pathfinder 2E.
We each use a paid version of Pathbuilder2E ($5.99 one time, browser-based) for our character sheets.
As I am GMing I also use the Pathbuilder2E Encounter Builder, Archives Of Nethys, paper notebook, or LibreOffice writer for notes.

I build the TaleSpire maps that we use or borrow and modify other "Boards" and "Slabs" that are available for free. We have been using community created or TaleSpire game minis mostly.

We run both TaleSpire and Pathbuilder2E on our desktops and just pull up the different tabs as needed, or we utilize two monitors.

[Anarch]

Originally posted by grindyz:

Our group roll like so:

We run both TaleSpire and Pathbuilder2E on our desktops and just pull up the different tabs as needed, or we utilize two monitors.

You've got the benefit of a well developed ecosystem for PF2 outside of Talespire, so that makes it a lot easier. Sounds like it could work well.

The great irony I find is that Talespire intends to deepen immersion yet forces players to constantly move their attention away in order to actually play the game.

And why are basic, game-standard things missing like a visible grid for players, and the ability to easily add a modifier to an existing die? I want to like and use Talespire, but I find that I keep bumping my head on its low ceiling.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Anarch:

The great irony I find is that Talespire intends to deepen immersion yet forces players to constantly move their attention away in order to actually play the game.

It would be nice if they ever ported this over to VR, then you could have windows open for the out of talespire info while still actually being in talespire. Though likely by the time they get around to that they'll have more actual utility in talespire itself.

[Tinkuwu]

Roll20 seems to still be the better option. 2D art may be limited, but I feel like if you keep a good style on all the art, your players can still be just as immersed. Pair that with dynamic lighting for $6 a month, or $60 a year, I believe it's the better option, even if the price might be a little high in the long run. I've been using Roll20 since 2015, and it's hard to find something that can work as well as it can.

Basically what I need is: Something that's not going to nickel and dime me for every feature (I want the ability to upload my own assets and not have to pay for seats). I also need something that is available for mobile. Roll20 seems to be the only option for mobile users, as I have one player who likes to play, but attempting to switch to anything not supported on mobile would just ruin them, since they don't have an entire PC to play. On top of that, if they did have one, I'm not gonna force them to buy a seat to play on an alternate software.

[Anarch]

Originally posted by Tinkuwu:

Roll20 seems to still be the better option.

Have you tried Foundry? It positively crushes Roll20 in every way and only costs a one-time fee (unless you host a server through a service), and players can join for free. The community and mod support is phenomenal as well. Roll20 has become an archaic, clunky mess that you couldn't pay me to use anymore.

(Foundry can work for mobile users as long as you don't go crazy with maps, effects, etc. Players use it through a browser.)

[Gracey Face]

Yes, as Anarch says both Foundry and Fantasy Grounds are simply better than Roll20, and foundry can also work mobile. Foundry also has a 3D mod called 3D canvas, though you're not going to be able to use that mobile I don't t hink, so it even gets past the "2D limitation" that you mention.

[grindyz]

Originally posted by Anarch:

Originally posted by grindyz:

Our group roll like so:

We run both TaleSpire and Pathbuilder2E on our desktops and just pull up the different tabs as needed, or we utilize two monitors.

You've got the benefit of a well developed ecosystem for PF2 outside of Talespire, so that makes it a lot easier. Sounds like it could work well.

The great irony I find is that Talespire intends to deepen immersion yet forces players to constantly move their attention away in order to actually play the game.

And why are basic, game-standard things missing like a visible grid for players, and the ability to easily add a modifier to an existing die? I want to like and use Talespire, but I find that I keep bumping my head on its low ceiling.

I would also prefer a "one stop shopping experience" as that is easier to get more friends and family involved. I'll be checking out MENYR for our group when that becomes available.

[Anarch]

Originally posted by grindyz:

I'll be checking out MENYR for our group when that becomes available.

MENYR looks interesting, and it's hard to beat the price tag (though maybe they'll "DLC" everyone to death). Thanks for putting it on the radar.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by grindyz:

I'll be checking out MENYR for our group when that becomes available.

Never heard of that before you mentioned it. There seems to be no coverage of it at all, the only videos about it on youtube are from the official channel for example. It looks like a bit of a scam to be honest, like someone just putting storebought assets in a bare bones UE game. If it ends up being what the creator says it is going to be though it'll be a pretty amazing product.

[Wizard Level 1]

Yes, it's playable, but it is seriously lacking.

Flailing mod support (should have gone with Steamworkshop integration), annoying access to community made creations spread across half a dozen websites (again, should have gone with Steam Workshop), extremely lackluster updates, and no way to invite people to play without them owning the program or us paying $15 PER seat to allow them to play (we don't get ANY seats from the initial purchase). All of that makes this program very difficult for me to recommend even for those that have already purchased it.

It's beautiful, it runs well even on lower end PC's, but it is in dire need of producer to help steer the developers and keep them on track. This has been in early access for 4 years and I am astonished at how little has been done to progress the functionality since I bought it all the way back then.

Lastly that the way the developers seem to disregard criticism is highly frustrating. When this came out in early access they were saying they wanted to develop it with our input to make the best experience possible, to make sure we would be getting all the stuff we need to run our games, then they promptly began to ignore all of our requests and get side tracked by things we were not asking for, or at least not asking loudly for. We STILL don't have basic functions like a journal, a player or GM note pad, or any kind of Pin that the DM can put on the map so they can keep track of what going on where.