Connected Cloud Challenge - IoT Gaming Table - Blog Post 3 - Game Platform
By Brian Childers - April 2020
Now that we have explored the game dice mechanics, let us turn to an exploration in what gaming platforms would be suitable for the IoT gaming table. We are looking to implement the Dungeons and Dragons 5E ruleset when we consider gaming platforms. These gaming platforms were featured on the Wizard Coast's D&D PC/Mac page.
"Roll virtual dice with your friends all over the world!" is the promising tag line that leads off the product description on the D&D PC/Mac page. Fantasy Grounds offers a monthly subscription or a one time purchase. The official D&D content offering is robust, enabling Fantasy Grounds users to hit the ground running in running a D&D campaign. The software does require running on a PC/Mac and there are no web-browser equivalents. Platforms: Steam, Mac, Linux and Windows PC. [1]
"Play Dungeons & Dragons with friends across the world on the award-winning Roll20 virtual tabletop. It's free-to-use, browser based, and features a full suite of tools to quickly build characters, roll dice, and run any campaign." is first description encountered when reading about this gaming platform. Unlike Fantasy Grounds, end users can utilize a web-browser, opening the possibility for running D&D virtually using a tablet. As such, it makes sense that they offer a subscription only option - as it it would need to cover the cost of the web-based gameplay. Platform: Web-browser [2]
Like Fantasy Grounds, D20Pro is a client/server based solution, running on Mac, Linux and Windows PC. Unlike Fantasy Grounds, it does not offer a Steam-powered option. Additionally, the official D&D content is somewhat sparse, as their market place online only lists the D&D Players Handbook as being the official content available. Platforms: Mac, Linux and Windows PC. [3]
Apart from these three, there were no other platforms considered as they were not featured on the Wizards of the Coast D&D page. All three platforms offer APIs - which is the key requirement to extending the Virtual Table Top (VTT) experience.
I am not making a recommendation on which gaming platform to purchase / subscribe to as all three feature needed APIs. For the purpose of my project and personal requirements, I have selected Fantasy Grounds as my target gaming platform for the implementation of this project.
Connected Cloud Challenge - IoT Gaming Table - Summary