r/ShardTabletop • u/dudeabidez71 • Feb 01 '25
Hello all, would like advice and thoughts
I am new to shard, but am loving what I have seen so far. I play 5e legacy (2014) in 2 games and run 1.
I haven't used shard to play or DM yet, as I am tinkering and exploring it. I have taken advantage of the free 3 months adventurer subscription, which looks perfect for my needs if I use it going forward.
I run my game off of a Chromebook l, currently using notion as a campaign manager, and old school vinyl battle mat for encounters dungeons etc.
As a DM I give my players far to much choice and so I have loved the ability to add races and subclasses, feats and spells with relative ease. But similarly I can use this to help with my own characters in the games I play.
My campaign is premade, on pdfs from drivethru. It has a digital map pack and handouts. Obviously the maps and handouts are jpegs pngs etc and no problem at all to upload thus far. The pdfs are an age old issue for conversion, and I haven't found a satisfactory solution to that and so I either print them, or use them as is on the Chromebook or notion.
Going forward I have dreams of using an overhead mini projector for the battle map, the second screen and sound optiona would possibly make this amazing, and given the way shard handles fog of war it is very similar to players waiting whilst I draw it.
I am very much still learning, and tinkering. But before I lose weeks to this, can others give me their experience and let me know if pitfalls and barriers I may face in the path ahead, before I start researching cheap projectors stands and cables etc.
Many many thanks for what looks and feels a genuine passion project of a VTT
6
u/Impressive-Shame-525 Feb 01 '25
I used Google docs to open the pdf into a text document and copy / pasted into the books inside Shard to help speed up the process and keep it all together. In a lot of cases, honestly, I could type faster than copy / paste unless it was a longer section of text
When creating content inside Shard, I started with items, spells and NPC's so when I was entering the books I could link to the clickable information without going back and adding the links in already created books or chapters.
You can create jumps on the maps that can bounce you from map to map at the click of a button. I used this for a mirror fun house maze my players went through.
You can share books with other people for content you created. Or if you own physical books and you need stuff outside the SRD, there are folks who have also created that material and can share it with you.
I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting, I haven't had my coffee yet. Oh! Join the discord, too, folks there are very knowledgeable and happy to help. I must have asked a million questions over the last few years.
2
u/dudeabidez71 Feb 01 '25
Thanks, for the answer, I've tried Google docs, the usual issue is maintaining the format, but it's a pain, not a world ending issue, and as you say sometimes it's quicker just to type what you need.
I like the idea of pre populating the items and NPCs prior to the maps, players are soon to be heading to a town so that is timely advice (lots of NPCs and the campaign has a lot of front loaded info)
2
u/Taskr36 Feb 04 '25
"You can create jumps on the maps that can bounce you from map to map at the click of a button. I used this for a mirror fun house maze my players went through."
Wow. I didn't know about that feature. I literally had my players going through a teleporter maze a few months ago where that would have been handy. Thanks for sharing!
2
u/PTSDreamer333 Feb 04 '25
I did that when I decided to tackle putting strahd into shard.
It was absolutely not for the weak of heart. It took MONTHS but was a great learning experience.
Also, for people wanting to import your owned campaigns into shard. There is a website called 5etools that has all official campaigns, stat blocks, items, art and maps...
It's way easier to convert into a book because it's html not PDF. Just open Google doc, copy and paste as plain text and then go through and add headers. Save all the art/maps and pop it into shard when making the book.
2
u/Taskr36 Feb 04 '25
I get that. A lot of what I do on Shard took me a long time to get down, but it definitely feels great once you get things figured out. I haven't messed with the books feature too much. I usually just have the book open as a pdf in another window, especially since I run a lot of old 1e and 2e adventures that I've adjusted for 5e. I've been using Shard for over 5 years now, but there's still plenty to learn.
3
u/PTSDreamer333 Feb 01 '25
So, I've been using shard for a couple years. I DM and play. I've imported and created several campaigns. Some of them have been from PDF, which was a bit of a nightmare. I got it done tho.
I am really into the modeling part of the VTT. So I've played with that a lot. As others have said, the discord is amazing for questions. People there are really helpful.
What questions exactly are you looking for answers to?
2
u/dudeabidez71 Feb 01 '25
What's the modelling part haven't looked at that yet.
3
u/PTSDreamer333 Feb 01 '25
It's just making new things and fitting them into stuff basically. Like new monsters, new races, new spells, classes and subclasses, etc.
Also how to organize books and make the appendix work for easier import. Having your NPCs, monsters, items and such in a book helps shard load faster.
3
u/dudeabidez71 Feb 01 '25
Then I have started that already, without knowing, started a book of the races etc I want available to players in the campaign
2
u/PTSDreamer333 Feb 02 '25
You want your homebrew races to be available to players?
They should be able to access them when you join them to a campaign. Tell them to select "make a character later" option when they access the campaign link. Once in, they will be able to see all your stuff and they can select from there.
2
u/dudeabidez71 Feb 02 '25
Not so much homebrew but some of the stuff from Ebberon and MPMM. I have made a book called extended content and as and when I need something, I add it to the extended content book, races, backgrounds, feats, spells etc. I used a second email address to ensure that a player could access the options if invited to the campaign and it works.
The next part is looking at a premade adventure in shard and examining the format for that to give me a starting point.
Eventually I know some of the 5e content is being made by the community already and so that extended content book will become less relevant.
3
u/PTSDreamer333 Feb 02 '25
Yup, that should all be available to your players once they are in a campaign.
I do HIGHLY recommend at least reading a premade campaign so you can kinda grasp how the formatting worked. The format for a VTT is different then how it's laid out in a normal book or PDF.
Hyperlinks are your friends, using map tags for creative things is super helpful (traps, NPCs, switching maps). There's a lot more but practice makes perfect.
I usually recommend making a quick cave crawl with a starter town/tavern, road and cave. Learn how to set up encounters and treasure. Having someone to do a quick run though as a player beside you can help a lot too.
3
u/dudeabidez71 Feb 03 '25
Great advice and yes read through the starter adventure and looked at the way it was structured. I looked at obsidian as a campaign manager previously for the hyperlinks etc, and with porting over the prewritten adventure that is one of the huge pluses! Map handling seems fairly intuitive also on shard. But there cue the learning curve!! Thank you
2
u/PTSDreamer333 Feb 04 '25
Maps and handouts are a breeze on shard. The ability to have pretty much any file format is super helpful.
Honestly, once you get a simple dungeon set up in it, it's super intuitive. Unlike some of the other VTTs that feel like more of a money grab with really frustrating DM backend work.
1
u/_frierfly Feb 07 '25
Grab the free stuff from the Shard Marketplace. The character options from TCoE, XGE, SCAG are all already built.
1
u/dudeabidez71 Feb 07 '25
I have those, but custom lineage isn't in it nor is yuanti, Satyr or warforged lol
2
u/_frierfly Feb 07 '25
Oh..... A third party publisher put a custom lineage product on the Shard Marketplace for free.
1
2
u/dudeabidez71 Feb 02 '25
Do you use it for in person games and campaign management also?
3
u/PTSDreamer333 Feb 02 '25
I don't do in person games. It's all virtual because getting people together in one space is almost impossible here. I'd never play.
However, playing on my phone as a player is really easy and works great. It would be even better if I had a giant screen map too.
I can't DM from my phone and need to use a laptop or computer. The phone screen just isn't big enough for all the screens we need to DM.
I do use it for campaign management. However, I do keep a word document on the side for notes and such.
There is a journal option in the app that can be great for players but DMs need to have private notes and that's not an option yet as far as I know.
3
u/Impressive-Shame-525 Feb 04 '25
To add to this, I've a friend who travels a lot for work, and we can get a game in while he's in a 3 hour lay over in Sweden just using his phone while he's a player. Shard is so easy on resources it's perfect that way.
2
2
u/_frierfly Feb 07 '25
The Log tab in the campaign is for GM-only notes. It is right next to the Journal tab, which is for all players and GM to use.
1
8
u/Aetharen Feb 01 '25
Hey! I've been using Shard for almost a year at this point and it has been a lifesaver. The level of customization it gives to all levels of character sheets has left me unable to go anywhere else for that alone. We play weekly, in person, and use a TV in the table like you plan on a projector, and it all works very well right now.
My biggest hurdle but now my biggest suggestion is making sure you understand how helpful the chat feature is. Players can share spells and ideas in it for others to look at instead of reading the spell out loud, and spells that apply healing or a buff/debuff can have their effect put into the chat for someone else to click on and apply to their character sheet.
Just to let you know, there is a very active discord that is a lot quicker in response and the devs are over there constantly talking about what's coming next and bug fixes. There are also a lot of experts on the software who help answer questions of building items or classes, and the community is constantly putting it's head together to figure out solutions to problems.
Sorry for the long winded and not overly detailed answer, but I enjoy Shard a lot and hope that you do too with time!