Playing TTRPGs on Shard Tabletop
Get a Three Month FREE SUBSCRIPTION for GMs and Players!!!
Hi everyone, and welcome to the latest issue of Lazy Wolves, the newsletter for Lazy Wolf Studios and the Thrones & Bones games for Tales of the Valiant and Dungeons & Dragons.
Last night I played my first roleplaying game using Shard Tabletop as my VTT. I’d messed around on Shard a little before, because Shard is currently the only VTT hosting Lazy Wolf Studios’ Thrones & Bones adventures and supplements. But I hadn’t run anything myself there until last night (I’ve been using Roll20 since 2020).
And I was blown away.
I’m going to talk about my experience. And then, at the end of this article, courtesy of Shard, I’m going to give you FREE COUPONS FOR THREE MONTH SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR PLAYERS AND GMS!!!!
Shard Tabletop is a VTT built specifically for 5th edition (and it’s variant Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press). And because it’s purpose built for one game system, and maybe because it’s relatively new (and so can come in and take advantage of innovations hammered out elsewhere), it is just such an amazing, GM-friendly experience. Everything works so smoothly and so well.
Previously, when I played online (which I do every Wednesday), I had to have so many windows open. DnDBeyond for character management, my VTT, a PDF for reading the adventure (because I found it awkward to read on the VTT), all the monsters in the encounter in a pop up, and, if I wasn’t using DnDBeyond’s Encounter tracker, a pencil and notepad to track initiative. Plus Zoom. It was a lot to wrangle even with two screens.
With Shard, everything but Zoom is in one window.
Here’s what it looks like for the GM:
On the left, you’ve got your encounter tracker and chat log.
In the middle, the battle map.
On the right, the adventure itself.
Monster initiative is automatically rolled when monsters are added to an encounter. PCs roll their initiative from their characters sheet, and then it goes into the tracker on the left.
And as you click the “down” Turn arrow, the character sheet or stat block of the PC or monster whose turn it is appears on the right (where, of course, you can roll out of the stat block). Here you can see an encounter when it is a PC’s turn.
Everything in the chat log is also rollable (that’s where you apply advantage/disadvantage etc…)
Also, if you look at the left column, you’ll see “Divine Favor 10” under Brunhilde Sigridsdottir’s name. She’s a cleric who has applied Divine Favor to her weapon, and it is good for 10 more rounds. The 1d4 additional damage will now be added automatically to her rolls and go away when it expires.
I just rolled an attack from her. Now I’ve clicked on a Scrumble Cat Swarm as her target. Look at what happens.
You’ll notice that you can apply full or half damage—to account for any resistances—as well as the options to add conditions, kill outright, hide, remove, set as a friend, etc…
Also, when you drag tokens across the map, an arrow calculating the distance appears!
Five minutes into our game, one of my players announced that he was in love with Shard, and another said that he would switch VTTs and use it for his own upcoming Thrones & Bones campaign.
There are so many other quality of life features, like a Search function that actually works, the ability to load in new maps quickly, groups of monsters that roll their DEX saves against area of effect spells and then when you click them again, apply all their damage appropriately based on the result of their individual saves (full or half)… One of my favorite innovations is the ability for the GM to put a treasure chest on the map, select what’s in it, then hide it on the map, and at the end of the encounter, to grant it to the players, where it goes in a “Shared Treasure” folder until they claim individual items (and claiming coins automatically divides them equally!).
I’m just two hours of play in, and I’m in love.
Most importantly, it was just so, so effortless, so very GM-friendly!
And you can try it for yourself!
Here is a link for three free months of the Shard Adventurer Subscription.
Here is a link for three free months of the Shard Game Master Subscription.
Pick your package and give it a spin.
And, if you want to run a Thrones & Bones campaign in Shard, here is a SPECIAL COUPON good for one week for a 25% DISCOUNT on both The Player’s Guide to Norrøngard and the 1st level adventure Banner of the Bull.
So grab the free subscription of your choice, pick up your Player’s Guide and adventure, and dive in!
Thanks so much for being here, and as the Norrønur say…
Be healthy!
