A little randomness…
This week, we added support for random encounter tables both in design mode and in adventure mode. To help you take advantage of these new features, we also added a new book to everyone’s library called Random Encounters. In it, you will find instructions for creating your own random encounter tables and the first in a series of chapters that will added to the book in the coming weeks.
Adventurers Assemble!
The first adventure for a new campaign arrives today. It’s been written, playtested, edited, mapped, updated and is ready for you to take on.
Chapter 1: Blind Fish kicks off a campaign called Fate of Artanga. The setting is a new world being developed by our in-house team. This module has the task of introducing you to the world, setting the tone, and hopefully providing you a little fun while we are all still in lock down. The campaign itself lands your characters in the middle of a conflict where they will literally decide the fate of a continent.
DM Quick Start
A short post to explain getting started quickly with running an adventure in Shard.
Better with Links
Having digital tools makes it easy to navigate and connect content, making it possible to have information available where and when you need it. We may take this for granted when using professionally authored web sites or applications, but it can be a bit daunting to create these connections when producing your own content. To make this easier in Shard Tabletop we have introduced a feature to not only allow you to make these links but to highlight potential links in your text.
Improved Character Sheet
Based on some great feedback from users, a update to the character sheet has been posted. We heard that it was hard to find skills and savings throws when displayed as a simple text list. As a result the new character sheet now displays those values in a tabular format. We also moved languages and senses to make them easier to read as well.
Token Pilot Project
We are going to provide fantastic art for every creature in Shard Tabletop. This pilot project focused on a handful of creatures from each 5e creature size to nail down the art style that worked best as well as the token borders and backgrounds that provide the best visibility. You can see the results in this screen shot.
The Journey Begins
This week, Hal and I sent out the first round of invites for people to join and try Shard Tabletop. After 18 months of development, we are excited to share our creation with others. We didn’t start out planning to build a service for others. You see, Hal and I have been playing D&D together since 1982. We both have had long experience in the software industry, primarily at Microsoft. Combined with us both having families, there were many years where we just didn’t have the time to play D&D. However, as our kids have grown up and gone off to college, we finally have the time to get back to playing D&D. With our background in software, it didn’t take long for us to start to look for digital tools to help make it easier to play the game together.