I find this as an intriguing step towards merging traditional VTT with a PC game.
I like trying new VTTs. I tried it - well, not all, but a lot. From roll20, through Fantasy Grounds and Foundry (which is the best traditional VTT, of course, and now we can fight :D), Role, Talespire, various browser based ones like Tableplop to the ones trying to do something new like Alchemy (which I think fails in its goal of clean design and is a horrible clickfest and now we can fight again :D)
Regarding Fablecraft. The basic stuff you want from VTT is there and on high level - clean, intuitive UI, avoidance of clickfest, supports videocalls, ability to upload your own materials from battlemaps, scenes for theatre of the mind, portraits, music tracks... You can add walls for sight blocking to battle maps and there is even some import feature to upload maps with walls already created somewhere else. I didnt pay that much attention to it yet.
I am noticing, however subjectively and incompmletely, two tendencies in VTT communities - some people love all the tools and visualisation and automation and some just want VTT to be as inobtrusive and "invisible" as possible to focus on the social element and liken the online session to the in-person one.
My first impression, without trying to play it in a group, is, that even though this is a lot closer to a videogame than other VTTs, it's not taking away your attention from the actual conversation. This is done by two things - the panel with player video windows, which can be even put into forefront, and that UI is intuitive enugh so you dont have to focus on it too much.
Only concern is regarding combat system, the most "videogamey" feature, as I can imagine (but dont know for sure yet), that it can lure you to limit the conversation and focus on the gameplay. Movement, ability animations, selector of your own spells etc. to a degree visually provide so many information, that conversation might be partially redundant. It's not a problem, it's just a thought.
So far it focuses fully on its own campaign setting and rpg ruleset, which - I guess - can be always seen as disappointing, as we RPG players looove to try new and new things and are obsessed with trying all the gazillion RPG systems out there...
On the other hand, it allows to present the possibilities of implementation RPG ruleset into the software. Rules are easy to slip into, tutorials are perfectly done, non-bothering...
Long story short - this works very, very well and is vey sufficient even now. Good for traditional group play and solo playing as well.
As it is in active development, as EA suggests, things are still missing. For example documentation - on website or discord you can find documentation about the setting and basic ruleset without character advancement, though some character advancement is present within the software itself. That's ok. It's EA. It's in active development. It will all come and on Discord they told it will be sooner than later.
Try it. It's for free. It's beautiful. It has wonderfully positive vibe, so unless you insist on grimdark, you might enjoy it more than you think. Starting adventure is beautifully handled and works both as tutorial to software, the rpg and to a storytelling as well. I love it
