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?

YouTube: Shard VTT

While on the Roll20 VTT, I sought a way to play Tales of the Valiant on Roll20. Well, things have fallen apart between Roll20 and ToV this year, and even a character sheet for use with ToV is nowhere to be found.

But Shard supports ToV.

The Shard VTT also has subscription options for the complete Kobold Press library.

Please, please, please do not make me switch VTTs! I am bought in over on Roll20! This sucks!

Then, being so used to the Roll20 system, I bounced off Shard pretty hard—until I watched the above video, which made the entire system seem so easy. I like Mr. Tarrasque; he shares many of my game preferences and has infectious energy and enthusiasm. Please watch and subscribe!

Shard is an interesting VTT; it is just built for 5E. While Roll20 does a bunch of games, the support for "alternate versions of 5E" sort of sucks. Sure, I can play GURPS in Roll20, but playing any other version of 5E except D&D? Let's say Ultramodern20, Level Up A5E, or Tales of the Valiant? I suspect it is not easy with the Roll20 API, as character support and sheets are best supported by Official D&D. I wish ToV had come to Roll20, and the backend API support for different flavors of 5E was better.

With Shard? I can convert a character between ToV and D&D (2014 and 2024) with a button on the character sheet. The backend API for supporting 5E character sheets and applying a rule system is much better. If all you play is 5E, give Shard a try.

At first, with the sample starter adventure, I was put off by Shard since the city map and the starting pieces did not look all that great. Shard needs a better "new user" starter adventure experience. I don't want an ugly town map with a few dozen confusing encounters; give me a battle with goblins in a forest. Pre-generate four characters, and put the goblins in an encounter for the GM to reveal and run. Give me something simple, but make it look amazing.

Once you start playing adventures and getting your maps created, the system looks identical to Roll20. That starter adventure needs to be updated.

The cost per player for a whole ToV experience is also far less than that of D&D Beyond. If you go with a player-focused Tabletop Adventurer plan (2.99 per month) plus a subscription to every ToV player book (3.99 per month), you are talking a $7 per month cost per player, and you get all the books as long as you are subscribed. I love this option, and it makes the service compelling.

Solo players will also need a GM subscription (6.99 per month), which will be more. There is also a "sharing" option for GMs, like Roll20, where players can access the GM's books when they join a game (the pro plan allows sharing in 5 games). If you go "whole hog" as a ToV GM, this is about $25 per month for a complete Kobold Press library, but this is also far less than the thousands of dollars you could spend buying virtual books on a digital service. Subscribing is the way to go, since books are constantly added to the collection.

They have sales, so if you ever wanted to buy books, you can. A VTT is like an MMO subscription for me, and the entire VTT economy is morphing into that. I wish Roll20 had subscription offerings to publishers like this. Also, not owning digital goods is actually a benefit. If a VTT ever shuts down, you lose that investment. Subscriptions are the smart way to go.

This is another area where Shard wins.

Oh, and I own my PDFs with Tales of the Valiant, whereas I don't with D&D. This is another clear win. A PDF is not "digital content" since I can burn it to a DVD and open it forever without a subscription. A PDF is a physical good in digital form (a digital good). Content? You don't own that. It is rented, but content on VTTs should be rented since it isn't forever. A complete subscription for a 5E fantasy game, where new books are added, and I am not spending hundreds of dollars on Roll20 to buy each book? That is a win.

Shard is cheaper than a Roll20 habit.

In a perfect world, when you buy the book from the Kobold Press store (or choose an option to), you should get it unlocked in Shard or any other VTT of your choosing in the future. The publisher should hold the VTT rights, which should be linked to your store account.

I hear you, Foundry people! I will get to that VTT. There are many passionate Foundry people out there who love that system, too. The purpose is to look at Shard and its support of ToV, along with the Kobold-verse of 5E books.

Shard VTT, current pricing, April 2025

So, free players can have up to 6 characters and join one game, and a GM can share a complete library. That seems fair, and while a little less generous than Roll20, it is enough to get players sold on a game.

Tales of the Valiant is the Pepsi to D&D's Coke. It does not have a significant market share, but it also works and tastes. The best part of the game is owning my PDFs, but subscription models to own and play with the books are also convenient. Being the small guy does have its advantages and lets them try innovative things like this, which I appreciate.

I still like Roll20 for a few things, but for 5E and ToV, I am currently looking elsewhere.

As for D&D, I have moved on, and I prefer a system where I can own PDFs and subscribe to the library. ToV is a (mostly) drama-free system, without Wizards, and one that is better for my campaign settings.

Freak & D: The Mutant Game

D&D isn't one game anymore.

It is a mutant mix of everything.

You get groups that will base their play on a stable version of the game, most likely 2014, and they will take the best from everything else, including 2024, ToV, A5E, and various third-party books.

Since 2024 has not set the world on fire, the community collectively shrugged its shoulders, took the 2024 books, and used them as "patch notes" for their 2014 games. Sure, they may pick up a book, but so many are deeply bought into 2014 that they will not leave unless a new edition with a radical design shift comes along and changes everything.

You can do most of 2024, the best changes, while staying in 2014 with a page of errata. 2014 is arguably better and closer to classic D&D, with alignment, humanoid monsters, and races still in the older game. The whole background, ancestry, species, etc., character creation complicates character creation. It isn't D&D. I don't mind in other games, but we don't need this many "false choices" in D&D when the "do whatever you want" system in Tasha's was much better for classic D&D, or sticking with the racial ability score bonuses.

Only a dozen or so spells are broken. A few multiclass combos are broken, and this can be fixed with the limitations on action surge and the "one leveled spell" per turn limit. Most issues are fixed by limiting multiclassing to a roleplaying context instead of letting people build characters like an ARPG.

With a page of fixes, 2014 is the superior game.

Even Roll20's D&D with extra DM Guild content vastly differs from 2014 or 2024. The game is bizarre, built out of a Frankenstein patchwork of books and Roll20 supplements. While it is based on D&D 2014, the game is more like this strange, generic 5E unique to Roll20.

Roll20 D&D is nothing like D&D Beyond D&D once you fully kit the game. It is a freakish game, with almost a random assortment of spells, races, and subclass choices.

Add a page of community-sourced house rules to the game, and you have something superior to D&D 2024. These house rules can pull in the best D&D 2024 patches, but ignore all the problematic changes.  Monks from 2024 and rangers from ToV are in the same party. Modded 2014 D&D with house rules is a better game.

Orcs and humanoids are still monsters, alignment is still here, half-orcs and half-elves have not been erased, and the game feels classic, yet wholly random and freakish.

It is Freak & D.

It is even different from A5E, which feels more like B/X D&D than mutant Roll20 D&D. Some of the best rules from this version are must-haves for F&D, and there is a lot from this game that will get pulled in, such as counter spell rules, exploration challenges, and much more.

ToV also feels vastly different, like another version of the basic game, like the D&D Rules Compendium. We have excellent class designs here; you are free to use them. I saw a game with the ToV ranger, the 2024 monk, and a few other classes from other books and publishers in one party.

However, the D&D game inside Roll20, fully modded with third-party content, is one of the closest things you can get to experiencing a version of F&D you can look at and play in the wild. Without VTTs, people have stopped caring and are mixing every game with every game and calling it 5E.

D&D feels like it died, and we are left picking through the game's ruins and modding it to be whatever we like. 2024 isn't a new version; it is the patch notes that people choose the best parts from and mostly ignore. D&D is a boneyard system these days, where we pick and choose parts to cobble together a game. This is the OGL fallout. Wizards lost that fight.

I wonder if D&D even has one set of defined rules anymore.

Everything is this generic "5E roleplaying," and the base version of that is "whatever 5E rulebook you happen to own." SRD included.

Even the base version does not matter anymore. What is your base game? 2014? ToV? A5E? 2024? The 5.1 SRD? Do you stick to one VTT's character designer, and that is your game?

That is the exception if you are a purist and want to play in one system, like a ToV or A5E table. It is nice since you have one "source of truth." I like the fixes that both the ToV and A5E teams made. I can play Roll20 D&D, which is a different version of 2014. I wish Roll20 supported both A5E and ToV (I know about the ToV announcement and it sucks).

Roll20 Solo: Going Digital

As an experiment, I took down my gaming table, removed all the giant maps, cleared everything off, plopped down a large monitor, and hooked up a computer. I also managed the cables to make it all look nice.

I left room for books and a dice tray, but no physical maps or figures were on the table - just the monitor and computer. I then fired up Roll20 and used that as my "game table" on the computer.

I mostly play solo, so giving up my game table for another "computer workstation" was a radical change. But I promised myself no "PC gaming" here; this is just a virtual game table setup, as if I were streaming and DM-ing from this table. This is why I left a lot of empty room on the table, no knick-knacks, no piles of notebooks, no figures, and no clutter.

I have a part of the table reserved for books I use during play. On the other side of the table, I have one dice tray with a premium set of dice, in case I want to roll something off VTT from a table in a book or check my yes/no oracle dice. Nothing else goes on this table.

One monitor. One laptop. A mouse and mousepad.

The rest of the 60x30 table is empty for gaming books and dice, as I need them. I clear it off when I'm not playing a game and put it on a shelf.

During the session, I limited my computer apps to my music player, Roll20, the windows it can spawn, and my PDF reader. This computer just needs to run a webpage, so it did not need to be anything fancy—just a machine that works well enough and can get my session running. I uninstalled programs that distract me, compete for time, or give me "other fun things to do." Social media use is not allowed on this machine during my play time.

I embraced "distraction-free gaming" and kept it simple. Like Shadowdark's rules design, I tossed out anything I did not need or that distracted from the experience.

It feels strange to use Roll20 as a solo gamer, and I know, find a group! But in the odd times I play, having something that 'saves my game" and provides a log of everything that happened last session is invaluable.

I also like Roll20 since it is more than "just D&D." This gives me a VTT and character sheets for many games, and I can also "wing it" if I want and just play without official character sheets. You can't buy GURPS or have "official support" on Roll20, but there is a good community-created character sheet, and it is not hard to make it work well on this system.

It also feels strange to use the dropdown to set "my current player" or even "set myself as referee." However, I still do this since going back and reading my chat log, rolls, attacks, damage, skill rolls, and other information I type in is invaluable. This means "talking to myself as DM" in the chat, just to keep track of what is happening, the start of encounters, and the results of actions, but I keep my notes and "flowery language" to the point, so it is not too much work.

A DM and players "must announce what is happening or their current action."

As a DM, describe the results of attacks or skill rolls.

As a player, clearly state actions.

Also, as a DM, let player skill rolls "simmer a while." If a player makes a successful check to sneak or hide, if that check succeeds, don't keep rolling a skill check every turn. Let the result stay around for a while until the situation changes. I made a sneak roll for agility for a player, rolled a 19 vs. a DC 15, and let that player remain hidden for the scene, even when they followed the monsters into another scene.

Thematically and story-wise, that skill roll should have a reasonable narrative duration.

You don't roll for every foot of progress when climbing a rope.

This method also reduced the pain of playing on a VTT since making endless rolls for every little thing, every step of the way, and every minute of the day is a terrible, grindy, slow, and sickening way to play. This is also the problem of "passive skills" since they assume an "always on" mindset; they imply that dice rolls for everything should always happen every turn. In my story, that character "creeping and following" made an excellent die roll, giving the character "sneaky status" until things change, making sense and speeding play.

You are a terrible referee if you force players to roll for the same thing twice (and nothing has changed). All you are trying to do is screw the players with the dice. Roll once and let it stand.

On the flip side, if the players fail, let that stand, and don't let them roll for the same thing twice. Find another way, another skill, or just figure out how to move forward.

Your dice rolls should mean something.

You get one die roll and stand by it.

Stop playing with the dice and rolling them repeatedly until you get the desired result. Your dice will lose their power. Imagine playing Monopoly that way.

That isn't gaming.

If you ever need to re-roll for a better result, stop and say, "GM Fiat!" Then, just say what happens without rolling another die. You will save a lot of heartache this way, and your dice will retain their mystical powers.

I treat the chat logs as my game log; typing them all in seems painful. Later, however, coming back and reading "what I said as DM" and "how a character reacted" makes the little extra effort worth it. Typing "I sneak to the treasure chest" as a character, creating a roll, and having the DM say, "You sneak over and find..." seems like more work at the time, but later on when I fire up the session again, the game is right there, and what I typed in becomes my journal.

When you play solo, it is not all "free-form mind play," that is one of the quickest ways to fail at solo gaming. Without a journal, I find my solo games all fall apart. With my Roll20 games and chat logs and having the character sheets stored online, I see everything is waiting for me to return to it and pick up right where I left off. I can have a few games running at a time.

When I started this, it seemed utterly counterintuitive.

• Why would I give up my gaming table?
• I love figures, dice, maps, and pawns!
• Nothing beats tactile, real-world play!
• The online tools and character sheets never work right!
• This is going to be more work and hassle for no benefit!

And then, I made the commitment. I am "going digital" while keeping my books and ability to roll dice outside the machine. I knew this was the right choice when I discovered how much dust was gathering on my table. My games take zero space in my room, I can switch between a few of them, and I am learning to work with the tools and systems so I will be ready to play online with others, should that come up.

I am playing more now.

I use my physical books, PDFs, and real-world dice much more. Even when gaming on a monitor, I still like to have my real-world books and dice to use, and they help me feel like I am playing the game.

Going digital was one of the best decisions I have made regarding gaming.