Thursday, May 29, 2025

Shard VTT: They Give Me the Tools?

I play the Black Flag system (Tales of the Valiant) on Shard VTT. I want to create a Drow character. ToV doesn't have Drow? Well, that sucks. And I can't port one in from my 5E content?

I may use an Elf lineage with a Shadowed heritage.

It isn't perfect but...

Wait. What's this?

Do they give me the same tools the developers use? Can I create my own extensions and add things to my books? I can take a copy of an Elf lineage, rename it to a Drow, and add all the special powers and abilities from my 5E source material. The Shard VTT lets me do this? With the same tools the developers use?

Can I DIY everything I want? I hope so.

What about special powers, like giving all Drow the dancing lights cantrip, plus the two other once-per-day spells at 3rd (faerie fire) and 5th (darkness) levels? Given out at those levels, they don't appear on the character sheet early? And with a once-per-day checkbox on the character sheet?

Does it do that? It does.

And I can give the Drow weapon proficiencies, too? I can.

Can I add art, type all the information, and make it look nice? Does this work in the character creator in my account, and can I use it for all of my characters? And does this work with Tales of the Valiant now? Yes, I can. I added a custom race to my ToV information, which works in my character creation tools. I always wanted this with Hero Lab, all this other software, and other VTTs. It is so easy, and I figured it out in about 30 minutes.

My Drow lineage (CC-SRD) is now in Tales of the Valiant. One less reason to stay with D&D.

Can I create more custom heritages, backgrounds, and other things? Can I make other lineages, like monsters and some of my favorite 4E races, and play them in ToV, too? Yes. I went in and created a character. My Drow heritage was in there, and I could pick it, and all the custom powers and flavor text were automatically added to my character sheet.

This is awesome.

Can I port in Star Frontiers races if I get the Esper Genesis 5E science fiction game? Yes. I just did, and gave my Vrusk character all the abilities from the book, converted into 5E. I even made the Vrusk carapace add two to AC, and the Comprehension ability gives all Vrusk proficiency in the Insight skill. Well, here is that 5E version of Star Frontiers I always wanted.

I have the tools. I can do anything I want.

Shard is even more awesome now.

Why was I using Roll20 for 5E again?

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