Deck n Roll

News and interviews about Draw Steel and MCDM. New episodes twice a month. Hosted by Jon de Nor. Episodes drop on the 5th, a roundup of all the news from MCDM, and features from the MCDM community, and on the 20th, interviews with people from the community. Links goblinpoints.com - Official website youtube.com - Youtube channel spotify.com - Spotify feed podcasts.apple.com - Apple Podcasts feed

FreeVTT is a browser-based virtual tabletop (VTT) application designed to facilitate the play of tabletop role-playing games. Positioned as an accessible alternative to subscription-based platforms, FreeVTT operates entirely free of charge and requires no user registration. The platform is built with a focus on user privacy and local data management, utilizing the user's device for storage rather than centralized cloud servers. It provides a suite of essential digital tabletop utilities, including map rendering, token manipulation, and combat tracking, without implementing premium feature tiers. Description FreeVTT functions as a digital tabletop environment intended for both remote and in-person game sessions. In contrast to many prominent VTT platforms that mandate account creation and rely on external servers to host campaigns, FreeVTT functions entirely within the local cache of the user's web browser. This architectural choice ensures that no user data is collected or transmitted, enabling immediate gameplay without a login process. Furthermore, the application integrates open-license rule systems directly into its interface, providing accessible compendiums for the 2014 and 2024 editions of Dungeons & Dragons 5e, alongside Pathfinder Second Edition. System Overview & Key Features Local Storage Architecture The platform is engineered on a strict "privacy-first" framework. All campaign data—including imported maps, custom tokens, and character statistics—is saved locally to the user's specific device. This design eliminates the necessity for cloud storage, user accounts, or persistent internet connections to access previously prepared game materials. Map and Grid Management Game Masters possess the ability to upload custom image files to serve as digital battleground maps. The application includes integrated tools to overlay and align customizable grids onto these images, facilitating precise distance measurement and token movement during tactical combat encounters. Dynamic Lighting FreeVTT incorporates dynamic lighting capabilities, a feature frequently restricted to paid premium tiers on competing virtual tabletops. This mechanic allows Game Masters to establish line-of-sight restrictions and simulate realistic environmental lighting based on token positioning and physical barriers on the map. Integrated Combat Tracking The software provides built-in utilities for the management of combat sequences. This includes a digital dice roller, an automated initiative tracker to govern turn order, and individual token overlays that allow users to monitor essential character statistics such as Hit Points (HP) and Armor Class (AC) in real time. Open License Compendiums To expedite game preparation, FreeVTT natively integrates System Reference Document (SRD) content for prominent role-playing systems. Users can directly reference rules, bestiaries, and items from the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Creative Commons SRDs (both 2014 and 2024 iterations), as well as content published under the Pathfinder 2E Open RPG Creative (ORC) License. Campaign Export and Import Because the application strictly utilizes local browser storage, campaigns do not automatically synchronize across multiple devices. To address this, FreeVTT includes robust export and import functions. Users can package their entire campaign database into a single downloadable file, which can then be manually transferred and uploaded to a different device or web browser. Additional links freevtt.com - Official application portal

Another month, another big update. Happy April everyone.  We have been busy in the background improving Groupfinder to make it an even better place to find players or groups. But in addition to your finding journey, we have also finalized our current version of the library, which will help you all with discovering old and new tools and platforms, content creators, communities and will introduce you to various game systems.  For those, who might be interested - we recently published an article where we examined the statistics and listed the most popular systems according to your posts and groups. The library This is a big one. The library is a comprehensive collection of various tabletop gaming related resources. Whether you are looking for a virtual tabletop to run your games on, or need help creating a map for your campaigns. If you want to learn more about the hobby and discover various content creators, whether a Youtube channel for second-monitor viewing, blogs to read up on various news, guides, tips or other ideas, artists to hire to commission your character's unique artwork, or even podcasts to listen to - the library is the place to find those. Game systems You know Dungeons & Dragons, but do you know about the other systems that exist? Some more specialized in combat, others with more story-driven focus. Or do you want to run a vampire-themed game? Or something set in the space? Take a look at the various game systems, read about them and perhaps you will head back to your own player profile and add some additional systems that you would like to try out. Tools & Platforms The hobby-space is filled with creative people creating various tools for various purposes: mapbuilding, character creation, virtual tabletops, music and sounds, generators, worldbuilding and more. See if there are tools to make your or your group's life easier. Creators Whether you like to watch Youtube videos, listen to podcasts or read blog articles - this is your place to learn more about the nitty-gritty of the hobby. Whether to keep up with the news regarding the TTRPG hobby, follow along someone else's actual play journey or read about the ins and outs of the hobby. Or if you are looking for an artist to commission for an artwork - we have some of those as well. Communities & Events Hosting a public tabletop-related event and want people to discover and join it? Spread the word. Or if you are running a Discord or other type of a community, whether online or offline - this is the place to get the word out. Gather people and grow with the hobby. /images/general-media/1775848937_OGEqvwGB.jpgThe library is evergrowing. Submit your own projects or entries. All the library entries are sorted by recommended first. The more recommendations the entry has, the better it's position will be in their category. If you are interested in featuring your entry, you can get in touch with us and we'll tell you more about how you can get your post to be discovered by more people. As you can currently see, the library in some categories is quite empty. We invite everyone to submit their entry to it. Read more about how to submit here. And visit the library Layout changes In addition, during the past month we have slightly updated the way player and group posts look. Hopefully this will help you introduce yourself or your group a bit better. If you are curious about how to improve your profile even more - go ahead and read this guide article here. In addition to the post layout, you can see our updated footer, providing a better navigation to various bits and pieces of the platform. Also the creator spotlight section has been updated to provide a more clear layout to learn more about various projects in the hobby space. If you have a project you would like to spotlight, you can read more about the whole process here. These spotlighted projects are what help us keep working on the platform, cover our running costs and help us keep it free forever. We polished the chat with a few visual and functional improvements. Users can now @mention someone in the group chat. You can also react to a post, to show support or your feelings towards whatever thing they said. Wide As you can see, the whole platform is now wider (Or if you are on mobile, you can't see. But take our word for it). This improvement will help us provide a better user experience, as our interface is less busy now. The header has been updated and now includes the link to the library. On mobile, you have a brand new menu - again to provide a clearer visual experience and help you navigate the platform even better. Notifications Want to stay updated when someone contacts you? Or a game/player is added that might be interesting to you? You can head over to the Account page and adjust your notifications there. Notifications in the mobile app provide a better preview of what the notification is all about, so you can either swipe it away or open it, should it be important. /images/general-media/1775849670_l0NrsMZa.jpgDon't let yourself get overwhelmed with notifications or e-mails. Choose what is relevant to you and stay in the loop. Unofficial iOS app If you are an iPhone user, you can now see a message at the bottom of the page, that will guide you towards adding our unofficial Groupfinder app on your phone. It will send you relevant notifications and help you keep up with all the important bits. That wraps it up for now Thank you to all who have found their way to Groupfinder. If you have any feedback regarding the platform, please let us know, it doesn't have to be a long in-depth commentary or structured letter. Just get in touch with us or send me a mail (holger@groupfinder.eu) and I promise to read all of your mails.  Whether to praise us, or to let us know of a feature the platform is missing, we welcome both. And as a final note - if you have found Groupfinder to be helpful to you so far. Or you want to help it become even more popular (so you have more players/games to choose from) - spread the word. Tell people on Reddit, Facebook, X, Bluesky, Discord or any other channel about Groupfinder. We will love you to bits. Till next time.