Compared to DnD, there's not a lot intuitive tools for character or campaign building. Obviously Starfinder is fairly new, especially being a bit unique in its science fantasy setting, but as a new GM it would be really nice to have character / encounter / world-building pieces all in one.
We have roll20, but its UI is very... disappointing. It becomes a slough to jump between the unresponsive menus and awfully lackluster options (and overall unattractive interface). I also checked out Hero Labs, but between the pricing and that it doesn't have all current sources, it's pretty much not an option.
So in a space that doesn't have many decent alternatives, it almost seems backwards not to support something, in a world where people are friends with others across the globe. To draw comparisons, DnD 5e has DnD Beyond, which is actually fairly intuitive and makes character tracking really nice for both online and in-person play, however I don't particularly want to play 5e over Pathfinder or Starfinder.
We recently got Archives of Nethys (which is really quite nice, just lacking a simple search function for Starfinder...), so it would be great if they continued to at least support growing tools, especially for character and campaign management. Do we have any word from Paizo on the subject?
|
Behold! the official forum for Paizo’s official online tool, Game Space.
After that, I think they’ve decided the better course for them is to license the content. Sometimes you just run into something you aren’t good at...
|
|
In all seriousness Paizo has run into two issues over the years:
1. When they try to do too much internally, everything suffers as people are shuffled from place to place.
2. When they partner with a company that is less consumer-facing, Paizo takes more heat for things that go wrong, like delays, and has to devote resources to correcting problems and assuaging angry customers.
The result is that Paizo has tended to license their IP for projects outside their Core Competency. Such as character builders or virtual tabletops.
Behold! the official forum for Paizo’s official online tool, Game Space.
After that, I think they’ve decided the better course for them is to license the content. Sometimes you just run into something you aren’t good at...
I appreciate the responses, everyone.
I'd way rather have Paizo working on FAQ updates and new material first, though.
I mean, I'm all for that too, but I don't think it's unfair to expect some sort of online support for those of us who can't game in-person.
The result is that Paizo has tended to license their IP for projects outside their Core Competency. Such as character builders or virtual tabletops.
I'm definitely for that, but they seem a bit slow on the draw to this market. Of course I don't know the ins and outs of this business, but if WotC can provide all sorts of cool tools and partnerships, I wish Paizo would embrace even just outsourcing it all to a tried-and-true development team.
Looks like it is on indefinite hold.
Thanks for this link, I found Fantasy Grounds through it, and though it doesn't seem like the prettiest interface I'll definitely want to look into it as an alternative to roll20.
Especially being that they partner with them in the past, though I don't know if that partnership still holds today. I'm surprised I hadn't heard of them, that being the case.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The community has settled pretty hard on the almost free roll 20. It would be hard to get us to budge. You'd be trying to re invent the wheel and hope it winds up better.
We have roll20, but its UI is very... disappointing. It becomes a slough to jump between the unresponsive menus and awfully lackluster options ]
I'm a philistine when it comes to aesthetics. But as to responsiveness have you tried using macros rather than character sheets?
Roll 20 starfinders has enough roll 20 games going that you can pretty much order a DM for the time you need if there isn't anything on the warhorn.
Roll 20 starfinders has enough roll 20 games going that you can pretty much order a DM for the time you need if there isn't anything on the warhorn.
You can? News to me! Most of the Warhorn games don't really work with my schedule.
Roll20 has a grid you can place over a map, tokens, and dice. For playing the game, what more do you want? There are character sheets too, in case you're playing with people you don't trust not to cheat for some reason.
I know, I know - you get the basics, but there's a LOT of room for improvement, largely revolving around the atrocious UI. I really don't have the energy to think through all of the issues, but essentially it boils down to how long it takes to get fairly simple information - loading between content is obtuse and there's no decent way to quickly store information.
It's a decent product, but 6 years of development and counting for what I assume is the largest in the industry, where their first feature is titled "elegantly simple" - there's nothing "elegant" about it.
In part, having some history in web development and design, my patience wears a bit thin for the age of the company, with what (I feel as) useless features are getting added recently while there's already existing features that need a lot of polish.
As far as a character builder goes, Lone Wolf is currently being slowed down by a certain misadventure called "trying to keep up with a playtest".
While that makes sense, it doesn't assuage the inconvenience. The pricing, though, is probably the biggest concern. I don't want my friends to have to each pay ~$50 to get complete functionality. Now if I could just have a few friends use my "books" at a time, like I do IRL, that would be a lot more justifiable of a purchase.