Conclave Virtual Tabletop

Not what I expected. Huge security issue. People can browse your files from the upload button.

I've been DMing longer than most folks reading this post have been alive, from 1st Ed with Greyhawk's hex maps to Dark Sun's blood stained sands, and everything in between (except 4Ed, it sucked) And that's just D&D, not mentioning Werewolf, Vampire, all the WW games, plus Shadow run, Cyberpunk And lest we forget Call of Cthulhu. All need a game space to play combat, not theatre of the mind with everybody talking, rolling dice on social encounters and WTF is the Bard doing in the stables? But a place to put the mini's, the mooks, the BBG and all importantly, the battlemap. I've been dragging around rolled up grid maps for eons, along with dry erase pens, if you know the hassle, you know. So enter Covid, and now everybody wants to play remote, been using Fantasy Grounds, D20, lots of maps to move tokens around on, then Hero Forge opened the doors, and now we've got our 3d printed custom minis, with digital exports to VTT, and Conclave is currently one of the few that can port your mini in (although this is becoming more common) and have it look bad ass. This is not a game system, this will NOT teach you how to play a game, nor run one. You will have to provide your players story, and when to roll what dice and what modifiers...everybody better have their own character sheet, and they should. .pdf is easy peezy, to say nothing of the .jpg, .mp4, and .png support for maps, tokens, and standees. And I can connect 6 players for free with Steam Link, while we play on my 40" TV screen and use our own touch pads or phones (android or ios)to select our characters, move them, roll dice...as well as folks connecting from remote? And for, what...$20 bucks? Grognard Approved

The system has some good features: - Single price buy in. - Simple interface. - Well thought out Theme and UI - A great setup for fog of war with a cool fog effect. It also has some rather annoying issues: - No matter how low I make the sensitivity I seem to zoom around at 1000 miles an hour. - Switching between tools feels quite clunky, not sure why they do have hotkeys but just feels a little odd (This could just be me) - The UI for the settings pages have a transparent background making them quite hard to see. - Although the controls are quite clear there are a lot of hotkeys, im not sure hotkeys are the right idea for a virtual tabletop. (Again could also be personal preference.) And even some REALLY BAD issues: - Currently other players seem to be able to browse my system by just clicking around and loading maps/tokens this is pretty scary. Things I think could be improved. - It represents its self as a good way to play by just handing over a controller but it would be great if we could stream a player view from the main account to a second monitor, similar to how owl bear can work would be great. Overall I think the price is good for what you get but with some tweaks I think it could be great

I was able to test this product before launch. The best way I can describe Conclave is that it’s a blend between a traditional VTT and something like Tabletop Simulator. It’s got the 3D environment aspects that allow you to commit mini murder (knocking minis around or completely over), rolling dice, etc. It also has classic VTT tools like measurements, fog of war, etc. To keep it simple. what you get with Conclave: - Measurement tools - Fog of war - Dice roller - Initiative tracker (health and a couple other stats too) - Map importer - Mini importer of all types (3D, flat tokens, or standees) - Layers to hide and unhide minis - Lighting and weather effects What you don’t get: - A second screen for player (vs DM) view - Character sheets Do I mind not having these things? Not really. I did all my setup before players joined in with Steam remote play and I was able to hide and unhide minis with layers when I needed. It advertises itself to be a shared “tabletop” experience and it sticks to It in that area. For the character sheets, a lot of my group tracks their stats w/ various apps so this works out fine. It also keeps the app system agnostic if we want to try something else besides DnD. I have some suggestions for future features. But I’d definitely recommend this tool to other DM’s looking for a quick setup.

I really can't recommend this right now. The essential functions are /just/ difficult enough to make me not want to push on. Getting a basic Dyson Map to scale to the right size was a real challenge. It seems to have it's own ideas about when to let you move tokens. I figured out how to add figures to the turn order, but not take them out. I really wanted a vtt that had basic functions and hosted content on my own computer, so I had really high hopes for this. It's just not the right one right now.

SO CLOSE, BUT NOT QUITE I've been looking forward to this game for months, really hoping it was going to be the VTT of my dreams, but it's just not quite there. I'm hoping they will do some bug fixes and updates in the future, but until then I can't really recommend this, which is such a shame. Feels like it needed more time in Beta. I'm going to list my pros and cons here in hopes the developers can get an idea of what could be updated. If I see some of these changes implemented, I would be more than happy to change my review and make this my VTT of choice. CONS (** are things that basically made the game unusable for me) -Players couldn't get in via Steam Remote Play, were just stuck with a "Combustion Engine" loading screen. Maybe this was a Steam issue? A tutorial would help.** -A complete tutorial would be great. It's just not intuitive enough as is for most people.** -Preferences being a separate loading tab is odd. I feel like it could just be up with the other setting options at the top in the scene/game? Not a deal-breaker, just weird. -My tokens would just randomly slide around like they were on ice, moving by themselves, whether or not Snap to Grid was on.** -No idea why, but it takes several clicks to select a token to move it. Again, not a deal breaker, just frustrating. -When I load my game scene, if I go to "Change environment and light settings" it automatically resets my scene settings (environment and light) I already had.** -When you update anything in preferences, it resizes the window to full screen for no reason. -I was told by the developers a while ago this program would allow you to import your own music files. This is not the case. Maybe this is a future update? -You can resize the grid and tokens, but not the map (as far as I could tell). I guess that still works, but feels kinda clunky compared to just dragging the map to be larger or smaller. -Standee did not work for me. I tried to import a picture, and while it shows up on the icon in the corner, it doesn't show up on the actual game piece. - To see a character's health you have to click on them, but then the overlay pops up every time, blocking the view of the game. I think just having the health always showing or making it a toggle-able feature (for example if you don't want players to see the monster's health) would work better. -Health bar is HUGE and doesn't scale with tokens. Blocks too much of the game view to even use, but I like the idea. -Once you upload a map/mp4, the "delete" option doesn't work, the file remains. -You can delete icon jpegs, however, it does not remove from all scenes like it promises it will. PROS -Fog of war worked great once I figured it out (There's an extra button you have to click). -Visuals look good, and being able to save and load multiple scenes is great. -The lighting and environment effects usually work well and look really cool for such a simple trick. Very immersive. -Measurement and dice rolling worked perfectly and looked great. -Animated maps worked perfectly. The ability to upload mp4 files opens up so many possibilities. If it could import the audio from the MP4 files as well as video, that would be super helpful. -I like how they had different options for characters (tokens, standee, 3D). Very versatile. -They included several free 3D characters, which was awesome, and they work like real game pieces in physical space. -I like that you can move the setting overlays around. -Special effects (like "kill this character" and "status effects") are super fun, and turn order worked great, with a place for HP and AC. Just the simple details, nothing too over complicated, but very effective. Honestly a tutorial, steam remote play actually working (maybe this is a Steam thing, not a game thing), and the tokens not sliding around would have made this still usable. It's a shame! I feel like this game has great bones and with some updates could easily become a popular favorite in the VTT gaming community.

Just what I was looking for! I've already put together a scene for our first encounter and it was super easy to set up. :) I really like that animated maps are supported. Crosshead Studios makes some really great ones and they import in perfectly. What to expect: - Easy to import in maps (even animated maps) - Easy to set up character minis with portraits, standee images, etc - Hero Forge access works and I was able to use all the minis I've purchased previously Definitely recommend this tool!

If your just starting out playing DnD in a VTT setting, this isn't a bad option. It's a little particular about what it will let you import, but that's not too hard to figure out. It is a very simple (and slightly janky system) that is really meant to replace your physical table so that you can play any TTRPG. You still have to bring your own maps and pictures/minis and there are no built in rules, so you still have to be the governing body as a GM for your game. It does have a dice rolling feature that allows you to plugin your total requisite modifier, but I didn't really like it so I just have my players roll in DnDBeyond or on the Honor System. It does also pose a security risk if you let your players control their characters as that gives them the ability to do everything you can as the GM, so you either need to run a program to protect yourself while playing or I recommend just streaming it and you control everything while your players dictate what they want to do. Aside from that and the occasional system errors if you click around too fast while interacting with pieces, it is a very simple, cheap and mostly user-friendly system for those just starting out in the VTT space.

I have limited space for TTRPGs so I don’t want to spend the time setting up and tearing down for some solo RPGs after work. I wanted something simple and easy to use and I found Conclave. I’ve followed the development and it’s turned into something that’s perfect for my needs. The fact that I can invite a friend online for some adventures is an added bonus.

I have been really excited about this because i travel a lot and still want to be able to connect and play with my crew. I have been using it for about an hour and a half now and love it. Lots of functionality without being so complicated that it is cumbersome and i haven't even scratched the surface. The design is fantastic. Great product. I am hooked. I have already noticed responsive developer support as well and that is always a plus.