Online D&D Sessions and The Future of D&D and Generative AI: Andrew Clayton from Foundry VTT

Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM.

Today, I sit down with Andre Clayton, founder of Foundry VTT to chat about VTTS, virtual D&D sessions, and AI.

Thanks for listening.

Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome back to How to be a Better DM, the

official podcast of Monsters.Rent.

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I'm your host today, Justin Lewis.

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Today we are going to talk about how to

weave better stories for yourself and your

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players playing Dungeons and Dragons.

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And today we are probably going to be

talking about doing that online, because

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today I have a very special guest.

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I'm joined by Andrew Clayton of the

Foundry VTT team.

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So how's it going, Andrew?

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doing great.

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Thank you so much, Justin.

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I really appreciate the invitation to join

the show.

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And I'm looking forward to chatting with

you and your community about a topic that

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I care a lot about.

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Excellent.

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Uh, let's, let's dive right in.

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Um, first let's give the listener, if

they're not familiar with Foundry or, uh,

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VTTs in general, or you yourself, Andrew

Clayton, um, you know, give the listener

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just a brief background of all of those

things, uh, as far as you see fit.

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Sure, happy to do that.

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So Foundry Virtual Tabletop is a software

for playing games like D&D, including D&D,

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but many games as well, online in a

self-hosted virtual tabletop environment

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where we have a pretty unique business

model.

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It's a one-time purchase with a perpetual

license.

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So you as the game master can purchase the

software, and then you own it.

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forever and you get all of the updates we

release to the software.

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Your players don't have to purchase the

software.

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You just connect via a web browser.

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So it's all web-based.

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It's built using modern web technologies.

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And one of our proudest and strongest

attributes is our very developer-friendly

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API that allows for the development of

modules and systems that augment.

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the software.

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And that's what allows Foundry to have so

many different game systems supported,

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like over 250 different game systems that

you can play on Foundry and over 2,500

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different modules that you can install

that expand or augment or enhance the

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functionality of the software in some way

or another.

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And so we're a tool that's really designed

to allow GMs to tell powerful and

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immersive and memorable

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stories with a really high level of

production value using a lot of great

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tooling that lets you deliver experiences

that really bring your player into the

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action and really help enhance their

imagination or comprehension of a scene

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that you're, that you're depicting.

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And, yeah, and we love building the

software.

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I am the original creator of the software.

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But now there's a whole team of us

involved in making Foundry VTT.

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And we've got all kinds of projects that

were involved in, in addition to making

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the core software with regards to content

partnerships with amazing publishers like

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Paizo, we're just releasing Kingmaker for

Foundry VTT right now for Pathfinder 2E.

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We've got some other really big projects

that are ongoing or underway or coming out

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soon.

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We've got a brand new version of the

software that we're working on creating.

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So we're very, very busy and yeah, you

know, we're up to a whole lot, but

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Um, if you're not familiar with Foundry,

the best place to start is at our website,

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which is foundryvtt.com.

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And on the homepage, there's a nice sort

of, uh, introductory video that gives you

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like a, uh, an introductory tour to, to

everything that Foundry has to offer.

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And, uh, that's probably a great place to

start if you're not already familiar, but

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I hope it's something that many of you

already use or know about or are thinking

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about and, and for those of you who

aren't,

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familiar with it yet.

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I hope you discover it to be something

that is a godsend to you that can really

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help you and your groups if you find

yourself playing online.

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Or in person.

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It can be good for that too.

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Yeah, actually, it is a great software if

you use Battlemaps, but you use like TV

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screens or things like that as the

Battlemaps.

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That's a great way to pair it in person.

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Our listener can range from, you know,

never been a DM and they're preparing to

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be a DM to people who have reached out to

me saying, yeah, they played, you know,

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first edition D&D and they've kind of been

doing it this whole time.

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So I'm curious and I'm sure they're

curious too.

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What sparked the idea for Foundry and what

made you actually decide to make it happen

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because that's a very long road in between

those two instances.

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Yeah, so I guess most of my life I've been

really involved in gaming, both tabletop

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computer gaming.

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I think that's an important background

that leads me a little bit to the software

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side of things.

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And I've always had sort of tech hobby

projects going on, something or other.

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And so it was several years ago in...

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between projects and the gaming group I

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was playing with, we were thinking about

starting a new campaign and we had

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historically been playing on using some

other online tools because we played

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remotely, we played online and you know,

we'd had a good but not great experience

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with other products and you know, there

were a lot of things that kind of I as the

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DM of that

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group really wished, like, oh, I wish I

could do this, or, oh, it would be so cool

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if I could do this, or wouldn't it be

awesome if, like, when we were exploring

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these maps, I could do this other thing?

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And all of those ideas just kind of built

up to a point where I was like, well,

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maybe I'll try putting something together.

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And it was a sort of good moment of

opportunity where web technologies were at

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a place of some

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maturity, some, some technologies had

reached a place where they were really

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good choices to work with.

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So, you know, modern HTML, canvas, web GL,

um, new, you know, new JavaScript

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features, web sockets, uh, you know, I, I

won't get into the, the gory technical

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details aside from to say like a lot of

the building blocks to make a good VTT

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were available to, you know, to work with.

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And it was sort of a matter of thinking

about what would

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be a good way to formulate the software

and my ideas in a way that could take

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advantage of those technologies and really

harness their potential.

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And so Foundry was born pretty quickly

after that because it turned out that it

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actually was really working to put these

ideas into practice and start putting

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something together.

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And before long, there was kind of a

viable prototype.

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And then I faced some very serious...

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decisions about like how seriously do I

want to pursue this because not only, you

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know, was it something that was looking

very promising for me and what I wanted,

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but it turns out that as I was sharing it

around, you know, a little friend group

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and, you know, everyone's response to it

was very positive.

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And so I had to decide like, well, you

know, maybe I should see how many people

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are interested in this.

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So I started a Patreon membership where I

could share details about the project.

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you know, people started following along

and staying tuned and being interested and

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really engaged with what I was doing.

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And, uh, and everything really grew from

there.

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And I think, um, you know, as, as terrible

as like:

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for a lot of people, um, you know, the

timing kind of did, I guess, work out a

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little bit for, for this project, at least

that, you know, there I was kind of

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a year and a half, two years into

development of this new thing and suddenly

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everyone's kind of thinking, oh, maybe we

need to start playing online now.

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And so that kind of helped to really grow

the community around Foundry and bring a

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lot of people to the community.

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And yeah, the rest is history, I guess, as

they say, the launch of the product went

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well and so I started growing the team and

now there's, there's nine of us that,

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that developed the core Foundry software

and then probably another nine or 10

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beyond that are working on various content

related projects.

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So it's been a whirlwind couple of years

going from just this being an idea for my

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own group to a business with employees and

full-time everyone.

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And yeah, it's been a big change in my

life and a really exciting one.

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And I'm really thankful that I...

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you know, got a little bit lucky, you

know, sort of right place, right idea,

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right time, but also had the, you know,

the courage to kind of go after it and see

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what I could do.

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I'll tell you, so I used to do, this isn't

my first podcast.

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It's not even my second.

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Um, my first podcast was a personal

development podcast and I, we often talked

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about business and I'll tell you hearing

your story a little bit, definitely.

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I have the edge to kind of dig into that,

but we might have to do that off screen

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or, or something.

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We all know that, uh, the world was

basically waiting at home for

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thumbs.

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And so we all, you know, played online

D&D.

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But now why should someone consider online

D&D and or, sorry, not and or, but, you

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know, add it to the list of things that

they should do instead of just doing

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in-person.

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Does that make sense?

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Mm-hmm, it does.

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I mean, I think I'd start by saying, if

you have an in-person group that you love

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and that meets regularly and that you have

a great relationship with the people at

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the table, cherish that, do not let it go.

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You have something special and be thankful

for that.

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That doesn't mean you can't play online or

you.

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can't also play online with other friends

or another group or anything else, but I

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would be wrong to sort of disavow the

magic of the in-person experience.

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But the reality is that's not practical

for everyone.

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And there's so many more reasons why

playing in person doesn't work out than

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reasons why it does.

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The timing doesn't work or the location

doesn't work or.

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You don't actually like the people that

much or you're not really vibing and

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you're not wanting to tell the same sort

of stories.

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And it turns out that there's people

online that do wanna tell the same sort of

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stories that you do, that you do have a

great relationship with where your

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schedule does match up with.

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And the only thing that doesn't match is

you just don't happen to live in the same

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town.

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And so, I think the thing to ask yourself

is...

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how important is the location bit versus

all of the other things that go into

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having an amazing role-playing experience?

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And sometimes the stars line up and

everything works out that in-person group

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is, that's the dream, I think.

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But there's lots of great reasons to look

online, to find the right kind of game for

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you, the right game system for you, the

right time to play, the right at-table

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expectations or tone or storytelling.

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And those are things that are a lot easier

to find when you have the whole universe

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of TTRPG players to, you know, to connect

with and to draw from, then, then just who

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happens to live down the street.

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So, um, yeah, I mean, I guess that's kind

of part of the way I think about it, but,

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you know, I would also say that for groups

that maybe have the choice, like we could

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do either, or, you know, um, I think that

the experience of playing online is a

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little bit different.

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It leans into some things a little bit

more heavily and it

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maybe shies away from some things a little

bit more heavily.

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And so I do think it is subtly, but

importantly, a little bit of a different

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game experience.

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And I think that that's something that

suits people very well.

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It's also something that can cause

frustration to people and maybe just like

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that mode of play isn't for you.

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And so if you've tried it, you probably

know which camp you're in.

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And if you haven't, then, you know, I

think it's interesting to discover like,

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what the differences are and what you like

about it and what you don't.

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And of course, the quality of your

experience will depend a lot on the

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people, the platform, the story.

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So, you know, it's hard to judge anything

like this is for me or this isn't for me,

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but it's nuanced in a lot of ways.

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I couldn't agree more, honestly, just

thinking about:

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of playing D&D or tabletop games as far as

a DM, maybe not the biggest hurdle, but

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definitely the first hurdle is finding

players, first of all, getting people to

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say, yeah, I'd love to play with you.

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And I mean, logically, like you said, when

you open up your field to anyone, you're

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going

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right, who has connection to the internet.

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It makes it a lot easier to find people.

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And actually to that end, I would

recommend to the listener, you should work

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on being good at both versions of

gameplay, right, in person or online and

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work at enjoying both because if you can

do that, you will always be able to find

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players and campaigns and stuff like it's

just a better way to be rather than

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limiting yourself to one or the other.

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in my personal opinion.

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So you did mention there are nuances to

both online and in person.

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And I actually wanted to talk about that,

dig in a little bit.

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So what would you say are some of the

challenges that you might have to overcome

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when doing online play?

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And what are some really cool things that

you can do online that you can't do or

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maybe would be really awkward or weird to

do in person?

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you're probably gonna have to cut me off

at some point because I bet I could talk

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about this for hours.

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I think about this a lot because it really

informs in a large sense, like what is it

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that we're trying to build?

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What is our product and who is it for and

why?

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Because it's very difficult to do

everything and.

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You know, if you try and be everything for

everybody, you probably aren't going to

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really succeed at, you know, at whatever

your main focus is or your core mission

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is.

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So, in the interest of time, I guess my

answer will be from the perspective of

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Foundry Virtual Tabletop.

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But I will say that like, that answer is

not the universal answer for playing

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online.

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That's just my answer with respect to the

software that we make.

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Um, I think that playing online is really

fascinating because it changes a lot of

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the expectations for the game master in

an, in a, in a meaningful way in terms of

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expectations around preparation,

expectations around capacity to improvise

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expectations around what happens when the

players go off script.

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Um,

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I think that one of the things about

playing online, especially in Foundry, is

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it's such a fantastic platform for visual,

auditory, immersive storytelling.

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It really leans into the fact that when

you're digital, you have all of these

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amazing assets that you can draw from maps

and artwork and portraits and tokens and

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music.

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And all of these things can...

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help you tell your story in a way that is

so visually engaging and immersive.

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But part of what happens as a result of

that is that there is like a little bit of

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expectation sometimes to like prepare all

of those things.

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You know, it's one thing to say like, oh,

I have a collection of 75,000 tokens.

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It's probably about what I have.

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you know, in terms of like individual

images of like different creatures or

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characters that you can use, but the

pressure to like prepare, you know, which

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ones are we going to use or which maps are

ready to go or which pieces of artwork are

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the ones that we're using this week.

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There's, there can be kind of just more

expectation on the GM sometimes to set

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those things up and to do prep work before

the session than there is when you're just

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playing in person and like.

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everyone kind of knows you're not gonna

have those things.

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You're not gonna have the beautiful

printout map, maybe every once in a while,

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but usually no.

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You're not gonna have the perfect mini for

every creature that you encounter.

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You're not gonna have this beautiful

illustrated artwork that you put up on the

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wall for every scene that your party

explores.

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And so the expectations just shift a

little bit.

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And I think this is something that...

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some GMs really lean into because they

love the idea that like, this is my hobby

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and I'm happy to prep six hours for a four

hour session because I freaking love it.

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And I just like want that moment of those

four hours with my friends to be like just

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amazing.

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But that's not for everybody and it

doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be,

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but you know, I think like there is a.

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And I don't want anyone to get the wrong

idea about our software.

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Like there's nothing inherently about

Foundry that requires you to spend that

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amount of time preparing for a game

session.

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But it is sort of like the social contract

that exists online with so many artists

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making amazing artwork and musicians

making music and putting it all at your

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fingertips.

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It sort of is like raising the bar and

raising the stakes about...

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what's available to you and therefore like

what you might be expected to, to engage

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with or to prepare to present to your

players.

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And so it's a really interesting paradox.

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I think that like with that increased

power comes sort of increased obligation

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and like does playing online make playing

easier?

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It's complicated.

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Yes.

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Question mark.

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It does.

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It can, but it also

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doesn't, and it also can't sometimes,

because it means that you find yourself

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spending more time on some other things.

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But maybe the time that you're spending on

prep is time that you're not spending on a

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long commute to drive to wherever your

game night is or something like that.

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So there's puts and takes everywhere.

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But I do think it's really different.

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And I think that we try and lean into

allowing

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the sort of most spectacular experience

that they can.

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And so, you know, we do kind of build a

power tool like for the GM that wants to

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go that extra mile and do all of that

prep.

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Like we want to give that game master as

much capability and power as they can

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handle in the software.

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And then at the same time, we wanna think

about like, how can we make set up and how

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can we make things easier and accessible

to people that, you know, any, whether

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you're, you know.

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sort of hardcore about that or not.

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Anything we can make faster and easier and

more approachable is a win for everybody.

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But yeah, you know, it's just a really

interesting situation where like, because

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we are that kind of, I guess power tool is

a sort of fair way to think about it.

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It comes along with a lot of extra, you

know, considerations about like how you

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use it and the time that you spend with

it.

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And is that something that you

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Enjoy or is that something that comes as a

tax to you that makes you feel like

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you're, you know, you're paying more for

your gaming experience and different

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people respond different.

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Those are really interesting points you

bring up.

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And the first thing that comes to mind is

that you're absolutely right in that it is

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a power tool, right?

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Like if you are going to use a VTT, right,

you have already made the decision that

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you are going to try and go a little bit

more all out than maybe, you know, the

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average DM.

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And that's because, and I've said this on

other podcast episodes before, but at its

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core,

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a role playing game, right?

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Like the barest bearer of a role playing

game just consists of a story, people,

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something to record the story maybe, and

an agreed upon set of rules, right?

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And I know people who do, you know,

theater of the mind over the phone or on

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Zoom calls, right?

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If you're going to use a VTT, then you've

already made that decision to try and make

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it spectacular.

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right?

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And the next thought that comes to my mind

is also, we have so much content that we

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can consume in the form of, you know,

shows like Critical Role, Dimension 20,

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High Rollers from the UK, you know, things

like that, that are a little bit more

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towards that spectacular level and seeing

tools like these VTTs, we do start to

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think, you know, why can't I do that?

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So I definitely agree with everything

you're saying.

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And as far as the accessibility, that was

one thing I did want to

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So as a technological neophyte, I would

kind of think of VTTs and think, what are,

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in your opinion, what are the technical

specifications you'd have to have for your

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computer to just run a VTT fairly well

without technical issues?

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And what are some ways that you could

hopefully mitigate any technical issues

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that might pop up?

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Yeah, sure.

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Great question.

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So different VTTs are going to be

different in that regard.

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Some of them are built using a game engine

like Unreal or Unity where everyone has to

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install a piece of software.

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Some are just very lightweight web-based.

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You just pop onto a website and you go.

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Foundry is a little bit in the middle, I

would say, in terms of it's not the most

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lightweight, but it is relatively

lightweight because it's easy for the

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Game Master to install and everyone else

just joins with a web browser.

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In terms of our technical system

requirements, they're relatively modest,

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but because Foundry is a tool that really

leaves it up to the GM, how big do you go?

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The requirements for people playing do

depend on sort of what...

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the game master does.

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So for example, Foundry can do things

like, it can use big like video maps, or

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it can use map images that are extremely

large, like 16,000 pixel square.

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But that doesn't mean that everyone can do

that.

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So like on your laptop or on your

computer, you have a GPU, whether it's

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integrated or a discrete card.

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And that GPU has like a maximum size that

it can do.

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And so, you know, it really does depend a

little bit on what your GM is doing, but

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:

for like basic usage, you know, any, any

laptop or PC that you purchased in the

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:

last, you know, six or seven years is

going to work just fine with Foundry VTT,

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:

um, we're, we don't have a spectacularly

high bar in terms of technical

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:

requirements.

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One of the

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:

probably the biggest technical requirement

that we do have that is a struggle for

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:

some of our users is the nature of

networking because, we unlike some other

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:

platforms, we are self-hosted.

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:

That is a blessing, but that is also a

challenge in some ways.

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:

What that means is that as the DM, you're

running Foundry on your computer.

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:

all of the files that you're using, the

maps, the music, the tokens, it's all

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:

stuff that you have right on your

computer.

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:

You own your own files and you use your

own files and you own your own data.

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:

It's not like some cloud service that

like, if you stop paying for it, you lose

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:

it.

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:

Or if the website goes down, you can't run

your session because like someone else's

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:

website went out.

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:

The great thing about it being self-hosted

is

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:

you know, you're in control, it's your

computer and you can play as long as your

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:

computer is working.

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:

And there's something that like is

empowering about that.

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:

But it also means that among other things,

your players need to be able to connect to

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:

your computer.

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:

And we don't actually control your home

wireless network or your home router.

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:

And so, you know, we can't solve some

problems for people in terms of like...

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:

how your player gets connected to you.

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:

We have a lot of support for working

through that and troubleshooting it.

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:

It can be as easy as you have to do

nothing.

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:

It can be as difficult as you have to go

to your router and add a port forwarding

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:

rule.

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:

And that is technically daunting to

people.

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:

So yeah, there's pros and cons of it.

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:

We do have, I should be clear, we do have

a couple of really great partnered hosting

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:

service providers where

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:

If for whatever reason you don't want to

or can't navigate the technical

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:

requirement of hosting Foundry yourself,

you can pay a modest amount and one of our

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:

partners will host a server for you that

is always available for you and your

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:

friends to log into with zero headaches

attached.

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:

But yeah, these are the sorts of things

that are tough to navigate.

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:

And it is tough sometimes with...

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:

users who might not necessarily

understand, like, why can't you make it

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:

just work?

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:

And, you know, it's tough to not always

have a great answer to that.

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:

It's like, because the Internet is a

little bit complicated and, you know, how

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:

traffic gets from one place to another,

it's not as simple as you might think.

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:

On the heels of that somewhat technical

question, I think, you know, we're coming

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:

down to the end of our talk today.

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:

I do want to ask one question before we

sort of wrap up that is also technical,

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:

maybe, but what AI is sort of this

buzzword right now, you know, artificial

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:

intelligence, all that jazz.

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:

AI or generative experiences as it

pertains to VTTs.

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:

Yeah, great question.

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:

Tough question, I think.

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:

generative models are evolving and

improving faster than most of us are able

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:

to really comprehend and keep up with.

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:

I think the improvements in quality of

output from generative models is really

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:

impressive.

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:

Now, there are very crucially and very

importantly,

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:

issues at play here in terms of how those

results are produced and how we should

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:

feel about them.

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:

But setting those aside for a moment, and

that is a fairly big but, you know,

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:

focusing a little bit more on the

technology itself, I think that generative

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:

assets, generative content is inevitably

going to be part of

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:

the landscape of role playing.

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:

I think it's unavoidable.

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:

I think that...

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:

you know, there's a certain hallmark of

role playing experiences about, you know,

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:

improvisation and collaborative

storytelling and the desire to communicate

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:

ideas, creative ideas, quickly in a way

that allows everyone at the table to then,

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:

you know, intake those ideas, be inspired

by them, and then respond.

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:

And one of the amazing things about

generative, whether it's text or image or

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:

video or even audio, the ability for it to

take an idea and then give you something

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:

tangible to react to or respond to that

expands upon that idea or heightens it or

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:

takes it to a next level of depth.

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:

I think there's not.

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:

clear answers about how this is going to

work or how it's going to affect the way

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:

that people role play, but I think it's

inevitable that it will.

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:

The ability for, as the DM, for you to be

in real time, live improvising and say,

437

:

you walk into the town and there's a

market and in front of the market, there's

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:

a juggler who's juggling balls woven of

all of the different elements of magic,

439

:

fire and frost and...

440

:

electricity and thunderbolts of force

erupting out and the crowd is watching

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:

with rapt attention as a little pickpocket

goes around and takes coins from

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:

unsuspecting people's garments.

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:

And you're just saying that, and as you're

saying it, an image is displayed of that

444

:

very scene.

445

:

Like interpreting voice into prompt and

interpreting prompt into image.

446

:

and interpreting image into a stimulus

that then comes back to your storytelling

447

:

and that people can respond to, it's

unbelievably powerful conceptually.

448

:

And I think it's something that will

change the way that we role play for sure.

449

:

Now, what's it take to get there?

450

:

I think, you know, there's technical

challenges to solve, like how would...

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:

a technology platform, make it to where

you can have that kind of experience where

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:

the GM says the thing and lo and behold,

the image of it appears and everyone's

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:

like, I see it now I'm there.

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:

How do you get there?

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:

Well, there's technical problems to solve.

456

:

But you know, as I said, there's also, you

know, ethical problems to solve and you

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:

know, how that artwork gets generated.

458

:

is a very contentious and rightfully so

topic.

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:

And so I think, you know, while the

technical, the technology problem is one

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:

that's very exciting to me, to others,

it's a problem that is not really

461

:

appropriate to try and, you know, bring to

life until I think some of the, you know,

462

:

the ethical concerns about.

463

:

sourcing of training data about generation

of results about, credit or compensation

464

:

or even consent of the people whose work

has been used to create these results is

465

:

better handled.

466

:

And so, we're at the cutting edge of this

stuff and it cuts in addition to being

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:

exciting.

468

:

And so I think, I'm very excited about

where this might lead.

469

:

Um, but you know, I think it's going to be

a little bit of time until it becomes

470

:

normative, but I do think it's inevitable

that this is really going to fundamentally

471

:

alter the way that we play games.

472

:

Absolutely.

473

:

I definitely think the world in five, 10

years is going to look a lot more like the

474

:

Jetsons.

475

:

Maybe not so much in flying cars or Rosie

the robot, but I don't know.

476

:

Things are definitely changing.

477

:

But thank you so much, Andrew, for joining

me on this conversation and talking to my

478

:

listener here.

479

:

Before we let you go, can you tell my

listener how can they reach out to you,

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:

support you, see what you're up to, and

possibly connect with you?

481

:

Absolutely.

482

:

So the best place to start is at

foundryvtt.com.

483

:

So if you're not familiar with our

software yet, that's the best place to go.

484

:

If you are familiar or you want to get

more involved, we have an official Discord

485

:

server, discord.gg slash foundryvtt.

486

:

We have an amazing community where, you

know, like-minded TCRPG enthusiasts who

487

:

love technology and love foundryvtt.

488

:

And

489

:

are eager to share their tips and tricks

and experiences with you, help out, are

490

:

able to be found.

491

:

It's a really wonderful community.

492

:

I encourage everyone to check it out.

493

:

We are available on socials, Twitter slash

Foundry VTT, YouTube, Foundry VTT, Twitch.

494

:

We have a Twitch channel.

495

:

We'll be live on Twitch next week with a

development.

496

:

update of our latest and greatest

versions, very exciting announcements and

497

:

first looks and things coming there.

498

:

And yeah, we have a Patreon as well, as I

mentioned earlier in the in the podcast,

499

:

this all sort of started on Patreon, we do

still have a Patreon for anyone who just

500

:

loves what we're doing so much that you

want to like show a little bit extra

501

:

support or something, you can do that

there.

502

:

It's it's incredibly appreciated.

503

:

It is not required.

504

:

The whole

505

:

business model that we operate on is a

one-time purchase.

506

:

You don't have to subscribe to anything.

507

:

It's just if you love what we're doing so

much that you want to shower us with your

508

:

affection, you may do so at your

discretion.

509

:

And yeah, the best place to interact with

me and the team is on our Discord server.

510

:

We're very active there, and we love

chatting with the community about what

511

:

we're doing.

512

:

So do check it out, and I hope to see you

there.

513

:

Excellent.

514

:

Well, listener, I hope you enjoyed today's

conversation and I am 100% certain that

515

:

you learned something today or at least

have something to chew on mentally and

516

:

hopefully it nourishes your body and soul.

517

:

We'll be back next week for another

amazing episode.

518

:

Until then, friend, let's go ahead and

roll initiative.

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