D20 Epic VTT has grown tremendously over the past several months, and I wanted to take some time to talk about the bigger picture of what we're actually building.
Not just another list of development updates.
Not another list of technical systems.
Instead, I want to talk about what I want it to actually feel like to sit down and play a tabletop RPG using D20 Epic VTT.
Because ultimately, that's what matters.
A DM shouldn't need to understand what is happening behind the scenes. A player shouldn't care how many systems are communicating with each other.
You should be able to join your campaign, open your character, see your friends, roll some dice, explore the map, fight some monsters, make terrible decisions, and have a good time.
That's the experience we're working toward.
For the Dungeon Master: Your Campaign, Your Way
One of the biggest goals behind D20 Epic VTT is giving the DM control without making everything unnecessarily complicated.
Every DM runs games differently.
Some want detailed tactical combat.
Some want maps primarily for exploration.
Some reveal monster information freely, while others keep almost everything hidden.
Some build enormous worlds with hundreds of NPCs, locations, documents, maps, and custom items.
D20 Epic VTT is being designed to accommodate those different styles rather than tell the DM there is one "correct" way to run a game.
Building Your Campaign Space
The campaign is intended to become the DM's central workspace.
Maps, tokens, character sheets, journals, PDFs, campaign information, compendium content, and other resources can be available without constantly bouncing between different programs.
Upload your maps.
Bring in your tokens.
Keep campaign documents available.
Write your notes.
Prepare encounters.
Manage your players.
Then when game night arrives, everything is already there.
That's the goal.
Drop a Map In and Start Building
Maps are obviously a huge part of most virtual tabletops.
D20 Epic VTT gives the DM a game space where maps, tokens, lighting, hidden information, effects, and other elements can exist independently.
That means the map doesn't have to be one giant flattened image containing everything.
Tokens can move independently.
Lighting can change.
DM information can remain hidden.
Environmental effects can be added.
Overhead objects can interact with characters moving underneath them.
And we're working toward making map setup substantially easier.
Making Lighting Less Painful
Dynamic lighting is incredibly useful, but setting it up can also become one of those jobs that eats into preparation time.
One of our biggest experimental features is automatic map lighting detection.
The idea is simple from the DM's perspective:
Choose a map.
Let D20 Epic VTT analyze it.
Have the system attempt to identify walls and boundaries.
Preview the result.
Make corrections if necessary.
Accept it.
We're still developing this technology, and it has a long way to go, but the goal is very straightforward:
Spend less time tracing walls and more time preparing your actual game.
Manual lighting tools will still be important because no automated system is going to understand every unusual fantasy map perfectly.
The point isn't to take control away from the DM.
It's to give the DM a head start.
Control What Your Players Know
Different groups want different levels of information.
D20 Epic VTT is being designed to let the DM decide what players can see.
Maybe you want players to see enemy health information.
Maybe you don't.
Maybe you want them to know when an enemy becomes badly injured without knowing its exact remaining HP.
Systems such as Bloodied, triggered around half health, can provide that middle ground.
Fog and concealment tools can control what parts of the environment players are allowed to see.
DM-specific layers can hold information that players shouldn't know yet.
The goal is to let the DM control the mystery.
A Map That Reacts to the Game
I don't want maps to simply be backgrounds.
We're experimenting with ways for the environment to feel more alive.
One example is our canopy and transparency system.
Imagine moving your character underneath a large tree canopy or roof and having the overhead portion disappear or become transparent so you can see what is happening underneath it.
Lighting can change what a character sees.
Vision types can change how environments appear.
Fog can conceal unexplored areas.
Weather can transform the atmosphere.
These systems are intended to make the map feel like part of the game rather than a picture underneath the tokens.
Weather and Atmosphere
Sometimes you don't need another mechanical system.
You just need the scene to feel right.
A quiet village during a rainstorm feels different from the same village under clear skies.
A battlefield covered in drifting ash feels different.
A forest filled with fireflies feels different.
We're building environmental effects for things such as rain, heavy rain, snow, blizzards, fog, dust, sandstorms, ash, leaves, cherry blossoms and other natural effects.
And because fantasy games aren't limited by reality, we're also exploring effects such as magical sparkles, floating runes, wisps, Fey lights, shadow mist, holy light, necrotic ash, blood rain, and floating souls.
The DM can potentially control the intensity of these effects rather than simply switching them on or off.
Sometimes atmosphere is part of storytelling.
I want DMs to have tools for that too.
For the Player: Your Character Should Feel Like Yours
The player experience is just as important.
When you join a campaign, your character is your connection to that world.
So I want the character sheet to feel like more than a spreadsheet.
We're building sheets with sections for statistics, biography information, inventory, equipment, notes and other character information.
But we're also working toward customization.
Players will be able to personalize aspects of their sheets with things such as theme colors and character backgrounds.
Does changing your character sheet background affect whether you defeat the dragon?
Absolutely not.
Do players love customizing their characters?
Absolutely.
Sometimes those little features are part of what makes a platform enjoyable.
Your Inventory Should Actually Be Useful
We're working toward inventories that interact with the rest of the VTT.
Instead of everything being manually typed into a text field, items can eventually exist as individual records.
That opens the door to something much more convenient.
Find an item.
Add it to the character.
Equip it.
Use it.
The same philosophy applies to spells, equipment, weapons, armor and other character resources as our compendium continues to grow.
The goal is to gradually reduce repetitive bookkeeping without taking control away from the player.
The Compendium Should Help You Play
We're putting a significant amount of work into the D20 Epic VTT compendium.
But the exciting part isn't simply having a searchable encyclopedia.
The exciting part is what happens when the compendium connects to everything else.
A DM finds a creature and eventually brings it into the campaign.
A player finds an item and adds it to their inventory.
A spell can become part of a character.
Equipment can become something the character actually owns.
And DMs will be able to create campaign-specific content for things that aren't included in the standard compendium.
That last part is extremely important to me.
Tabletop RPGs thrive on homebrew.
If your campaign contains a ridiculous magical sword called the Flaming Butter Knife of Eternal Doom, you shouldn't be told that you can't add it because it isn't in an official database.
Create it.
It's your campaign.
Combat Without Losing Track of Everything
Virtual tabletops can become incredibly busy during combat.
You've got initiative.
HP.
Conditions.
Movement.
Spell ranges.
Tokens.
Dice.
Character sheets.
Chat.
And usually five people talking at the same time.
We're trying to make those pieces communicate with each other.
Tokens can carry character information.
Token images can appear in initiative.
HP can connect with character information.
Conditions can be displayed.
Players can trace movement.
Spell and effect templates can help show which grid spaces are actually affected.
Instead of asking:
"Wait, where did you start?"
Movement tracing can help show it.
Instead of everyone debating whether the fireball touches that square, templates can help visualize the affected area.
The VTT shouldn't play the game for you.
It should make the game easier to understand.
Rolling Dice Should Still Be Fun
There is something satisfying about throwing dice.
So while digital dice could technically just generate a number and display it on the screen, that's not nearly as much fun.
D20 Epic VTT is developing a 3D dice system where dice can physically roll, collide, bounce and settle.
Multiple dice can roll together.
The final result is also highlighted in chat so nobody has to stare at eight pieces of spinning geometry trying to calculate what actually happened.
DMs can make hidden rolls when necessary.
We're also planning more customization as development continues.
Because if you're going to roll a natural 1 at the worst possible moment, it should at least look good while it happens.
Chat Should Feel Like It Belongs in 2026
Campaign chat is another area where we're putting a lot of attention.
Players communicate very differently online today than they did when some of the earliest virtual tabletops were created.
D20 Epic VTT chat is being developed with things such as:
GIFs, emojis, images, dice results, character messages, hidden rolls and chat bubbles.
If enabled, a character's message can even appear as a bubble associated with their token on the map.
It isn't necessary.
It's just fun.
And I don't think every feature needs to solve a massive technical problem.
Sometimes a feature deserves to exist because players will enjoy using it.
Private Conversations During the Game
We're also building private messaging into campaigns.
A player can communicate privately with the DM.
Selected players can communicate together.
The DM can provide information to specific people without announcing it to everyone else.
That can create some really interesting roleplaying situations.
Maybe the rogue notices something nobody else sees.
Maybe one character hears a mysterious voice.
Maybe two players are secretly planning something spectacularly stupid.
The rest of the table doesn't necessarily need to know.
This also gives groups another way to communicate without filling voice chat with side conversations.
Keep Your Game Resources Close
We're building campaign libraries so important resources can stay accessible during play.
PDF support has already been introduced, allowing supported PDF documents to be viewed from within the campaign environment.
Journals are also becoming much more capable.
They can be moved and resized and can contain formatted text, tables, bullet points and images.
DMs can maintain private information and choose when journal content should be shown to players.
That means journals can eventually become things like:
Quest information, handouts, lore, location descriptions, NPC information, letters, clues, session notes and campaign records.
Again, the goal is simple:
Less jumping between programs during your game.
Your Purchased Content Should Be Easy to Use
Development has also begun on the D20 Epic VTT Marketplace.
We're starting with two of the most important VTT asset categories:
Maps and tokens.
The long-term experience we're aiming for is straightforward.
You find something you like.
You purchase it.
It becomes available through your library.
You use it in your campaign.
Behind the scenes, making that happen securely requires a lot of work.
But the player or DM shouldn't have to care about that complexity.
They should just see the thing they bought.
Built for Different Ways of Playing
D20 Epic VTT isn't intended to permanently belong to only one tabletop RPG system.
Our early development has a strong focus on D&D-style play and legally available 5e-compatible material, but the platform is being designed with additional tabletop systems in mind.
We're also exploring support for games such as Pathfinder and other systems as the platform develops.
Different games have different rules, character sheets and requirements, so this will continue to expand gradually.
But the larger goal is important:
D20 Epic VTT should be a tabletop platform, not just a single-game application.
Homebrew Is Welcome
One of my priorities is making sure DMs aren't trapped by whatever content we provide.
If something isn't in the compendium, the eventual answer shouldn't simply be:
"Sorry."
DMs need the ability to create their own campaign content.
Custom items.
Custom equipment.
Custom creatures.
Custom spells.
Custom information.
Entire homebrew worlds.
The VTT should support the DM's imagination rather than become another obstacle in front of it.
What I Want Game Night to Eventually Look Like
This is probably the easiest way to explain the vision.
The DM logs in before the session.
Their campaign is waiting.
Maps are organized.
Tokens are available.
Notes and PDFs are accessible.
The DM loads tonight's map.
Lighting has already been prepared or automatic detection gives them a starting point.
They adjust a couple of walls.
Maybe tonight's adventure takes place during a thunderstorm, so they add heavy rain.
Players begin joining.
Each player opens their character sheet.
One has a dark red character theme.
Another has artwork behind their sheet.
Somebody immediately posts a GIF in chat because apparently that's how we're starting tonight.
The party enters the dungeon.
The characters with normal vision see darkness.
The character with darkvision sees the environment differently.
They move through the map.
Their movement paths can be followed.
The DM reveals new areas.
A fight begins.
Initiative appears with the combatants.
Tokens display the information the DM has chosen to reveal.
Someone casts an area spell and its template shows which spaces are affected.
Dice roll across the screen.
The result appears in chat.
A monster drops below half health and becomes Bloodied.
The DM privately messages one player:
"You notice something moving behind the statue."
Nobody else sees it.
The player messages back.
And then makes an absolutely terrible decision.
That's the experience I'm trying to build.
Not a collection of isolated buttons.
A tabletop environment where all of these little systems work together during the game.
D20 Epic VTT Is Still in Development
I also want to continue being transparent about where we are.
D20 Epic VTT is still very much a work in progress.
Some systems already work.
Some are partially functional.
Some are experimental.
Others are still part of the larger roadmap.
Features will change as we test them.
Interfaces will be redesigned.
Things will break.
Things that worked yesterday will occasionally decide that today they have developed free will.
That's development.
The important thing is that the project continues moving forward.
We've already progressed from basic interfaces and isolated features into multiplayer connections, interactive campaign systems, character tools, lighting, dice, chat, journals, PDFs, compendium development, marketplace development and much more.
There is still a long road between where we are today and where I want D20 Epic VTT to be.
But that road is getting shorter.
Why I'm Building It This Way
I've spent a lot of time around tabletop RPGs, both playing and creating.
And one thing I keep coming back to is that a VTT shouldn't become the center of the game.
The people should be the center of the game.
The technology should disappear into the background as much as possible.
The DM should be telling the story.
Players should be thinking about what their characters are doing.
People should be laughing, planning, exploring and rolling dice.
The software should simply make those things easier.
That's what I want D20 Epic VTT to become.
Powerful enough for the DM.
Personal enough for the player.
Flexible enough for homebrew.
Visual enough to help bring a world to life.
And simple enough that the technology doesn't become the adventure.
We're Still Building
There is a lot more coming.
More character development.
More map tools.
More automation.
More compendium integration.
More marketplace development.
More customization.
More multiplayer testing.
More DM tools.
More player features.
And probably quite a few ideas that haven't even made it onto the development board yet.
D20 Epic VTT isn't finished.
But it is becoming real.
And I'm incredibly excited to keep showing you what we're building.
Thank you to everyone following the development, sharing our work, supporting D20 Epic Level LLC, giving feedback, or simply watching the project grow.
This is only the beginning of D20 Epic VTT.