TaleSpire

TL;DR: - Requires constant internet connection even for map editor - Missing basic 3D modeling controls like scaling or rotating (pitch & roll) object assets - Quiet limited asset selection and favoring complete assets over kitbashable models (eg. bookshelf vs empty shelf + books ) --- Having looked at some other alternatives I decided to give Talespire a try, after all what works for physical dungeon tiles and with Minecraft blocks should work fantastic as a 3D map editor after all. The tile-based approach that is. As you might guess already I was mostly looking for something to create 3D maps, while Talespires VTT implementation really was of no interest to me. The good: Its mostly quiet easy to use and I managed to get started just with the in-game hotkey hints displayed by the HUD. The artworks and graphics look fantastic and I can see how people both are able to easily create good looking maps with this as well as having fun while doing it. I would say the editor part of Talespire is following the MacOS/Apple philosophy of being easy to use even for novices, but this is also where this product falls short for me. See I'm a Linux user at heart, mostly for the fact that I like to have control over both the ownership and customizability of my tools and this is where the bad things start with Talespire. The bad: The VTT and the mapping tools are tightly integrated, which on first sight sounds awesome as its easy during a session to make changes to the map, but due to some technical (DRM?) decision every session/map is hosted on remote cloud-servers (Photon & AWS), requiring a constant internet connection even for the map editor. I could overlook this issues if at least the map editor was feature-rich enough for me, sadly many features I'd expect from a 3D software are lacking and according to the FAQ/User-Feedback won't be implemented. My biggest gripe here is the weird design decision that you cannot scale objects placed inside your map. There is a workaround to convert them into tokens, but that adds a token base to the object. Also lacking are options to rotate the object in any other axis then the Y-Axis, so no rolling or pitching an object to create clutter or randomness. Which brings me to the next and final nail in the coffin for Talespire in my book: Seeing as Talespire has been in development for about 4 years I expected a vast collection of (official) assets, but for example there is only a very small collection of furnitures. Furthermore, when looking at the available assets it seems like the art team for Talespire is focusing on "feature complete" and ready to use assets instead of creating simple objects that can be combined together to create something new. #Kitbashing In my mind this severely limits the number of things you can do and create with the given assets. In the same vein some features one might expect to be their own objects are already "baked into" the tile-sets themselves, eg. there are no carpets, just a single tile-set that also includes carpeted textures. Sadly this means Talespire is not for me and I have refunded my copy...

As of right now, there is little practical use to this program. I backed it on Kickstarter thinking surely at some point Steam Workshop functionality would be a planned feature, but no, there's just an external website that you need to sign up for to get any user generated content. On top of the lack of ease of use, there is the requirement to have your players pay to play, or for you to pay to host. Either way, there's just no real reason to use this over something free like Roll20, and no reason to use it over other paid options like Tabletop Simulator or Foundry.

As a DM, making it so I have to pay almost 100$ just so I can get my 6 player D&D IRL friends together to play a campaign is brutal. the concept is good but...that's a massive turn off. with the added price tags... I can't suggest this.

Just completed a 3-year long, weekly, homebrew D&D campaign using TaleSpire. I DO recommend this engine if you want a 3D VTT, because it is one of the best and only options. Having 3D battlemaps and the ability to add so much texture and style to the world for my players is hard to pass up. I DO NOT recommend using a 3D VTT. The effort is rarely worth the time investment spent building maps, organizing things, etc. The player and DM effort to actually play is always more than it needs to be, especially when compared to a simpler 2D VTT. Pros: - 3D VTT: This is a great 3D VTT. - Content: There's so many building blocks, built-in minis, etc. The 3rd party support is also great, whether it be sites like TalesTavern or custom minis accessible through TaleSpire itself. - AudioVisuals: Having full lighting effects, being able to control the music and sound effects, and being able to apply visual filters let me really bring some environments to life for my players. Cons: - 3D VTT: Stick to 2D VTTs, they're better. Use a 3D VTT or some other 3D tool if you want to generate some cool images to set the scene for your players, but actually playing a TTRPG in a 3D engine is more trouble than it's worth. - Performance: This program is not optimized at all. As a seasoned game developer myself, I know how hard it can be to fully optimize this type of program. Even still, TaleSpire routinely spikes my players' CPU temps by 20-30 degrees C as soon as it launches. - Crashes/Glitches: Plenty of issues that a cause the engine to crash. Plenty of issues that cause players to have weird graphics behavior. Plenty of issues that prevent people from interacting with their minis or with dice.

[h2]Очень надеюсь, что разработчики читают отзывы игроков. Игра в потенциале может стать лучшим симулятором для D&D, но для этого им ещё нужно немного постараться.[/h2] TaleSpire привлекает своей визуальной составляющей. Впрочем, для меня как мастера, который привык подробно описывать всё через три органа чувств, графика не самое главное. Считаю, что авторы добавили в игру достаточно панелей и блоков, чтобы творцы и мастера могли создавать практически что угодно. Поэтому новые модели, блоки и флажки кажутся мне в этом плане излишними. Единственное, непонятно, почему мастерскую вынесли на сторонние сайты, а не встроили прямо в Steam - это усложняет формирование сообщества. А вот что точно не назовёшь лишним, так это оптимизация. Игра сильно теряет FPS на больших картах, что не может не расстраивать. Ещё более критичная проблема - нестабильность подключения в российском регионе, из‑за чего приходится скачивать дополнительные программы для надёжной связи. Кроме того, не хватает нескольких базовых вещей, заточенных под систему D&D. Например, листов персонажей и, что важнее, ширмы мастера, где можно было бы удобно держать свои заметки и совершать скрытые броски. Сейчас для этого приходится держать открытыми сторонние сайты это неудобно. Ещё хочется, чтобы игра упрощала работу мастера: например, режим, где она сама подсчитывает все модификаторы из листа персонажа при броске куба. Это было бы очень здорово. В общем, разработчики - молодцы, и они способны создать нечто легендарное. Но пока им не хватает оптимизации, а в следующих обновлениях я бы хотел увидеть инструменты, ориентированные именно на D&D, - о них я написал выше. Удачи, ребята, я на вас рассчитываю.

Oof, just skip this one if you want to play with friends Big mistake buying this if you intended to play with friends. Base game is not cheap, bought thinking we would be able to buy & invite friends to join for free. Turns out they need to buy the full game, or I need to buy a 15 dollar pass to let them join. For four people we'd spend AT LEAST $75 with 3 of them not actually getting a game wtf? Sureee if I was a dm with years of experience or lots of money it'd be okay but im not a guy dming all the time, or made of money to buy all this crap. Steam charts are down on this game, I'm I can't believe they got my money, AVOID THIS ONE!!! Screw these greedy goblin devs hope the project continues to fail.

Absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ method of implementing multiplayer - if a player doesn't own a copy of the game, you need to pay an extra 15 dollars PER PLAYER on top of the price of purchasing the game. If you want to run a cookie-cutter game with 1 GM and 4 players, you're going to be spending 85 dollars. God help you if you have a party of 5 or more because you're going to be spending upwards of 100 on this.

Looking back at guides on how to do stuff, players were saying 4 years ago that it needed fog of war. 2 years ago developers said its planned. Currently still no fog of war, so if you want your players to just see everything then this would be the program to use.

While the engine allows you to create diverse environmental settings and provides an enjoyable experience for you it is not the best option. What really sucks is that you need to pay extra to invite guests to your table, meaning additional costs just to play with friends even though FRP is more like a party game. Also, the user interface and display design are not intuitive, which can make using the software frustrating. Meanwhile you can use better alternatives that are available within the same price range.