GATE

Picture it: it's Friday night, and the party is all here to start the new DnD session. Only this time you're online, trying to use Roll20. You're the DM, and it's your first time using the website. You realize you don't have a "picture" required to launch the campaign, so you open the only jpg on your desktop--a photo of a plate of lasagna you made, for some reason--and click launch the game. *Finally,* you think to yourself. *We can play online now, cool!* Only it's not cool. You get into the open game. Three of your players aren't here, because they don't know how to create an account, because they've never used the internet before--especially that one guy, Larry, who's 58 years old. You realize after launching the game for the first time that your Firefox browser which you haven't updated in the last 3 years is unsupported. So you pause for another ten minutes as you update, or load Edge (it's actually a good browser now guys I promise,) and launch the game again. Uh-oh. You get in, but the grid you need is tiny and blank. *Why did they make it so small?* You think, as you peruse the endless amount of menus and options desperately trying to find a way to increase the grid size to no avail. Larry is still having problems connecting because he's using Internet Explorer--unaware that he should've upgraded his Windows XP laptop 18 years ago. On top of that, your profile picture is also a plate of lasagna. The players are all just chatting now. No one's paying attention to the game, because it's been 25 minutes and you haven't figured out yet how to make the grid bigger, how to make tokens for people, or how to get Larry in here--because that's all you really wanted this website to do. Well, with GATE, you don't have to bother with all that nonsense anymore! Just make your DM name in the menu, pick a color, click "Host" and voila. Welcome to an infinite grid size, a big fat token button that you can press and then give it a name, size, skin and assign it to your players, an easy-to-see area at the top where you can click to go between "draw" mode for drawing stuff with a marker, "Select" mode to click and move your tokens, "Erase" mode to get rid of all the phallic-shaped objects your party is inevitably going to create, and "Measure" mode for when you just can't figure out if that wizard token you made is within 30" of blowing up that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Mike with a fireball. Just tell your players to hop into GATE, search for your room name--"Larry quit using Internet Explorer"--and you're playing DnD now. When you hop into a regular in-person game of DnD all you need is a grid map, a few markers to draw buildings and stuff, and some tokens for the players and NPC's. Well, GATE provides all of that without all the extra pomp, extraneous menus and connection issues that Roll20 is always adding. 5/5 with rice.

A clean and simple battlemat for tabletop rpgs that allows you to draw, use tokens, and import maps. Only the GM needs to own the game, the players only need to download the demo. It is dirt cheap, so give it a try.

I think this tool is really good for D&D 5e, but that's it. I've got no need for disadvantage/advantage rolls. Changing the favourite roll each time, for Vampire or Shadowrun, or Pokemon Tabletop Unite that use X dice, is just a workaround. Having the 5e monsters and the 5e spells built in the client; I'd rather have my own "text document" inside where I can write some important data. (like, pasting the aboleth statblock, but if I want to play pokemon then the pokemon's stats and moveset) Tokens also come prepared exclusively for DnD 5e with the temporary hit points, hit points and stuff like that. Each token doesn't have it's own sheet, nor a place to write information into. Dice rolls also don't have a feature to count rolls higher than a certain number when rolling multiple dice. Overall, it is a fairly good tool for DnD 5e, I'd just wish the compatibility with other systems was better.

As a DM with a budget spent almost entirely on source books, GATE has offered a wonderful alternative to the 50 dollar licenses and 10 dollar monthly subscriptions of most mainline VTTs

The word to describe GATE is, Simple. GATE is a great VTT for any new or veteran GM looking to get into 3D depictions of their worlds and do more complex encounters, such as naval combat. It may not be flashy or have all the bells and whistles that some other VTTs have, but that's what I enjoy. I can sit down for 30 mins, build an encounter, save the session. Then a week later, play it with all my friends with a single click. Are there bugs? Yes. Are there things that could be improved? Yes. However, Banshee Cat is still working on the project diligently and responds to feedback frequently. So you can play on Roll20, Foundry, or FG... But there is great power and fun in Simplicity. Keep up all the great work!

I recently stumbled onto this little gem (only 95mb!) and was pleasantly surprised. I've played many sessions with other virtual tabletops, and I've never found anything easier to use than this. Admittedly, the software is "bare-bones"; but features are being added continuously with regular updates. Best of all, the game has a friendly, active discord (https://discord.gg/Jwa3Mjz3) where you can talk to other users and the developer directly! Definitively worth the $5; the players only need the free demo to join a session!

For $5 you can't beat it, really, however there are some features that are either not present or not intuitive that I would certainly like to see added. I would recommend this tool for the purpose it is intended even if these features never showed up, though. - Snap for drawing, both grid intersection to grid intersection, and sub intersections. - rubber stamp. Draw one door, use it anywhere over and over - fill, and pattern fill. If you are drawing a subterranean level, you should be able to either fill solid walls or paint a pattern in (ideally, ability to create fill patterns would be awesome, but preset would be fine) If these are in there, I guess then I would recommend some work on making the menu system a little more intuitive. There are just things I noticed in 15 minutes of review. Like I said, I think for $5 you cant beat this game. Especially if all your players don't also have to buy it. I would suggest asking some to buy it though, just to support the dev in this effort.

As a dm this is a useful tool if a bit empty on small quality of life aspects it offers a grid and hex layout drawing tool measurement tool and erasing tool it provides a large number of token images an easy to look through spellbook for 5e and monster manual if anything it just needs a couple minor things like a box tool to make an easy square or other shapes and a couple additions to the environment tool instead of just changing sky colour all in all 8/10 i recommend

A great piece of software that doesn't get in your way. We transitioned from theater of the mind to GATE because my players wanted a more graphic representation of the maps, and it was a very easy transition. You can import maps, draw your own, and easily save board states. There are a few lingering bugs, but I know the dev is actively working to isolate them. Definitely recommend. 9 million times easier that d&d beyond or any of the other laborious services.

GATE is great for playing a game of DnD with your friends. You can import your own art or even use your own. Why complicate your gaming sessions were each player needs to learn a specific program. If you know how to play on a table with a grid system and markers, you are good to go!