Could RPG Stories be the David 3D VTT that kills the Goliath WotC 3D VTT?
Director Agis Angeleye discusses features, challenges and the future of his 3D virtual tabletop.
Note: The current Kickstarter expansion for RPG Stories can be found here.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bravealice/rpg-stories-vtt-expansion-the-wrath-of-devs?ref=d7xfmp
Hi Agis, can you tell us who you are and what RPG Stories is?
Hello Dave, my name is Agis Angeleye and I am the director of Brave Alice Games. RPG Stories is our flagship product and it is a 3D-World Builder / VTT that supports all eras of Tabletop RPGs. We just launched our 1st Expansion Kickstarter, where we invite seasoned users and newcomers to pledge for several amazing new 3D models and coding features that will improve the overall experience!
What was the exact moment when you decided that you would create a 3D virtual tabletop for RPGs?
The very exact moment was after the 20th disconnection in a row I had in another VTT. (laughs). Actually, I’ve just created my new studio and we were discussing what our first project would be. I wanted it to be related to Tabletop Roleplaying Games and…that was the moment that hit me. Back then we only knew Talespire which was following a more DnD path and a different art style and Dungeon Alchemist which has no multiplayer or VTT service. I thought, how cool would it be to create something that the user will be able to quickly build scenes and then get to play as well in these scenes?
What are the user features in RPG Stories that you are the most proud of?
That is a tough question. I will randomly pick 3.
The first one is that we support certain game themes. We have more than 6,000 models and the users can build anything from DnD-like themes to anything Modern, Sci-fi, and Cyberpunk. We are not another world builder that focuses 80% on DnD and also has some modern and sci-fi models.
The second is the Multiplayer we have and how stable it is. We released it 5 months ago, we test and play every day, and still zero disconnections. That was my biggest dream. I remember telling the devs, “Can we make it so stable that only if the internet drops, one will disconnect”. Well, it happened!
The third, I guess would be the fact that the world-builder is online during sessions. The GM can move things, and bring new things in. This gives you the ability to express yourself and your theatricality as a GM. Loving it.
How easy or hard is it to install and run RPG Stories? What devices and operating systems can I use?
It works through Steam so it is super easy. You click install and… it gets installed. We support medium spec PCs and Macs. Also Linux, but not officially. For those who know, you need Proton. In general, we spend hours per month for optimizations and we focus a lot on performance. We understand that TTRPG players are not PC gamers necessarily and probably do not have high-end PCs. Medium spec PCs/Macs will do!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard would it be to have an RPG Stories player portal phone app?
The answer here is 1 and 10 at the same time. It is super easy for us to create one but at the same time we do not see enough requests for such a thing and that makes it difficult in a way. We see people in our Discord server connecting, so we guess the spark is there. In general, although we know we have a strong product, we are not famous out there. As a small indie studio, it can be hard to reach people fast.
How many people do you think are using RPG Stories for any of the games right now?
We know that 5k+ people have RPG Stories VTT installed and that every day a party or two are playing online. We grow every day and we are proud of it. Word of mouth is our greatest weapon.
Okay, I have to address the dragon in the room, Wizard of the Coast’s 3D VTT project. By their own admission, they will be aggressively pursuing subscriptions and microtransactions in order to make good on promises to investors for a recurring purchasing environment. How do you think your company, Brave Alice, differs in its approach to doing business with its 3D VTT?
RPG Stories is a one-off price software. We offer 3 different versions to cover the needs of every user.
There is the Player’s version, which has a small demo of the world-builder and allows the user to create a character and join a game hosted by a GM. These users cannot host games.
There is the GM Version, which is the full package. It features the 3D world-builder, and the ability to host as a GM or join as a player.
Finally, we have a free demo on our Steam page and a special DLC called “Unlock Player Seats”. This DLC upgrades a GM version and allows the GM to invite people who use the free demo. Basically with this one, we wanted to reach the pro GMs who do not want their clients to pay for the software.
Now, RPG Stories also allows quest writing within the software. Our “microtransactions” are these quests. We sell pre-built quests to users who do not want to spend time to build things. But since our exports are commercial-free, anyone can sell quests. Not only Brave Alice.
In general, we see RPG Stories VTT as the project that will bring us to the industry. We really want this to become the community’s VTT. That is why the commercial license and that is why we listen to our users, we allow them to vote for features and new models. We hope more people will believe in this model.
Do you have any prediction of the knock-on effects a successful WotC VTT would have on RPG Stories?
I’ve answered this question so many times and every time I say the same thing. I hope it won’t backlash at some point (laughs). So 1st of all RPG Stories VTT fully supports Alien, Walking Dead, Call of Cthulhu, Cypher Games, Cyberpunk, Blade Runner, HeroQuest, and…Dungeons & Dragons. Users can build and play these games with the original dice. With our “Wrath of Devs” campaign we aim to bring in Star Wars, steampunk, Western themes, and rulesets for all these games. I do not see how a successful WotC VTT can shut us down because we are not a D&D-focused platform.
What might knock us down is the lack of marketing. We see products that are amazing but offer way less than we do making half a million dollars on Kickstarter due to marketing and we struggle with smaller budgets. This is slowly changing though. The community spreads the word and we are not going anywhere anytime soon.
Finally, if I had to predict what will happen with WotC VTT, is that it is doomed to fail. Mostly cause of the specs that will be needed to play. I hope I am not wrong and people will make fun of me! (laughs)
What are the new features that will be added to RPG Stories through this latest Kickstarter, Wrath of Devs, and how soon will they be available?
Alright, so newcomers will receive the original/current version right away. There is no waiting time for that. All the rest will be coming via monthly updates. This is how we work. Every month we deliver 2 to 3 major new features. So I guess by September everything will be done. It depends on how many stretch goals we will reach of course. I strongly encourage people to go check our Kickstarter to see more.
In bullet points the new features we propose are:
Character Sheets & Rulesets for most popular games
Faster Ways to Build with procedurally generated maps and pre-built maps
Features that will help with the theatricality during sessions (for example new camera views, presentation modes, sfx, etc)
New Themed Models (5k new 3D assets and characters/monsters, by using Kitbash 3D Library)
A. Roman EmpireB. Underwater & Seaworld
C. Nowadays Modern era
D. DarkCyberpunk
E. Ruins for all Eras and WastelandsF. Star Wars
I’ll be honest here, the feature I’m most excited about is procedurally generated maps. I want to be able to pick a few parameters, click a button, and have a village, or a decently sized dungeon. Where do you think you’ll land in terms of specificity when it comes to user parameters for a pregenerated map?
Yes, I get that. Being able to build really fast is super important. So here is what we do. We will have a set of choices for the user, like “Forest, Dark Forest, Dungeon style A, B, C, Modern City, Village, Spaceship interior, etc etc”. The user will be able to choose one from their collection and just draw in the 3D scene the scale and…“poof” they get it done. Of course, they will be able to manually change things later on.
The most amazing thing in our case is that we will allow users to manually create and share their own options for procedural scenes. Thus, a user will be able to choose as many models as they want, set the frequency for each model, and tell the system, “Hey I want you to combine these and create a scene”.
For the record, and because we know we are hardcore fans of our manual tools. We will never stop supporting heavy manual work for people who love spending hours combining models and focusing on detail.
How much technical knowledge do you need to create your own assets for the VTT and post them to Steam?
The funny answer is that if you played with Lego when you were a toddler, you can create custom objects in RPG Stories.
No seriously, you just multi-select the objects you want to group, give a name, and upload it. Steam Workshop is a very user-friendly feature for all games.
Can you create and share entire collections of maps bundled in something like a campaign?
Yes, apart from custom models you can save the whole project, with your written quest in the Journal, the environment, and save it - upload it on Steam Workshop, but also export it in a single file and pass it around through your channels.
What amount of storage space does RPG Stories currently require, and what might the game look like in terms of size if you were to get everything into the game that you ever wanted?
It is 8.73GB…as I mentioned before we prioritize optimizations a lot. If I had to make a guess and if everything goes well for us with the Wrath of Devs Kickstarter…hmmm…let’s say 14GB.
What are your thoughts on making at least the player interface of the game VR-ready?
In principle, we love the idea and we know how to achieve it. On the other hand, we do not see people asking for it. We feel that until the headset becomes smaller and more comfortable, VR is not quite there for TT RPGs. It is on our to-do list but in the far future, I guess. For now we feel that our upcoming 1st person view will do the trick!
What about making it AR-friendly, where the goggles are designed to add the map onto a real surface in front of the user?
This is way closer to what we would like. Again though we want to focus first on features that will help the users who play online to feel more like home. More like they are around the table. For instance, we are a 3D VTT and we just allowed 2D upload and 2D gaming. Also, we want to bring in better 3d textures so that our maps can be printed on paper, and why not later STLs?
How often do you release patch updates to fix minor problems that crop up in the course of weeks and months (a natural feature of all software ever made)?
Oh weekly, sometimes daily. This is our biggest selling point I guess. The community team but also the devs are super active. We reply to everything right away and when a bug is reported it gets fixed ASAP. We’ve been asked several times “When do you guys sleep?” I don’t know, we just love what we do. The same thing applies to other products we have like the Fantasy Adventure Builder app.
Have you considered approaching any particular game creator or publisher about featuring a brand-specific game or RPG-related trademark?
This is what we’ve done with our app called “Fantasy Adventure Builder” which is basically a digital version of the “Tome of Adventure Design” book by Matt Finch, the creator of Swords & Wizardry, a 1st edition clone.
In this Kickstarter, we collaborate with various other creators who will give their quests for us to implement in RPG Stories VTT.
We also collaborate with HeroForge and we support their API, which was something requested by most backers back in 2022.
What are your thoughts on multi-language support for RPG Stories?
If you only knew what you just asked (laughs). This is a debate we have in almost every meeting with the team. We will do it eventually, but since RPG Stories is a tool to create worlds and then click on dice or click to move, we basically need to translate the UI prompts, like “Hit Left Click to Walk”, and it seems a bit irrelevant at the moment. If we get funded in this campaign and we bring rulesets in, then localization will be our very next move, yes.
What are the best resources for how to learn how to use RPG Stories?
I suppose our tutorial videos on YouTube are a good starting point if one wants to get into more advanced features. In general, though every UI element or button has instructions and mentions all the hotkeys plus we have a smart “Tips System” implemented. The user gets tips on screen as they work according to what they are trying to do. Our system, for instance, identifies that the user is trying to place a door in the scene, and starts throwing tips that deal with door placement, hotkeys, faster ways to do it, etc.
What are some things you’d love to add to RPG Stories if your current Kickstarter campaign, Wrath of Devs, is a huge success?
Like Huge Huge success right? Like we get funded and we hit all stretch goals and more? Hmm…Probably a super AI system that will be using our models (not the evil AI we all hate) and the user will be able to write prompts to build things.
Like “Hey RPG Stories, give me a dungeon with 7 rooms that have some cave parts, 3 level 5 monsters, 6 traps, 7 doors, no torches, and a broken wall in the final room”. A second later….there you go! Built!
But to be honest, if this huge success comes the first thing I will do will be to give a very long holiday to the team, an assistant to each of them and a bonus. They deserve the world!
And that is way I will ask your readers to visit and back our Wrath of Devs Kickstarter!
Whats it like playing a D&D game with so much visuals?
Does it feel like a computer game?
I play by post on discord and use alot of pictures... and maps...
But this is next level?
How would you describe the experince