So you wanted a free alternative to paid private VTTs? Well this MIGHT be what you were looking for, can't be used for commercial purposes but from what they say it's easier to deploy than MaPTools.

Disclaimer, I just found out about this news today and haven't tried it yet myself.

https://blog.owlbear.rodeo/owlbear-rodeo-legacy-edition/

On other news the Owlbear Rodeo 2.0 Beta is now live and you can test it:

https://blog.owlbear.rodeo/owlbear-rodeo-2-0-beta-released/

I've actually been using it for a while.  I like it.  It is mainly just a battlemap for miniatures, a dice roller and a way to post pictures and maps during games.  It's very simple because it doesn't try to do too much like many of the others.  There are some other minor bells and whistles as well, like being able to have music in the background. 

For people who are looking for just a simple battlemap program and dice roller for their online gaming, it's great.  Very easy to use.

Does it offer basic features like a roll log yet?

I tried it way back and it was awful due to how few features it had compared to roll20.

Quote from: bendis on July 01, 2023, 11:38:50 AM
Does it offer basic features like a roll log yet?

I tried it way back and it was awful due to how few features it had compared to roll20.

I honestly don't know, but since you can try it for free why not do so?

Quote from: bendis on July 01, 2023, 11:38:50 AM
Does it offer basic features like a roll log yet?

I tried it way back and it was awful due to how few features it had compared to roll20.

No it does not, but that's the whole point. It is purposely minimal, so that the learning curve is flat and there's few dials and knobs to get in the way.

I've used it for a few years and it's great for what it is. But if you need rich features like Roll20 etc, it's not for you.

Owlbear rodeo is mainly for people who play online with some voice program like Discord or Skype, have their character sheets in front of them, their books or GM screen off to the side and just want a battle map area that they can draw on and move their miniatures around on.  It also has a dice roller and acts as a "tabletop" for the GM to put out pictures of NPCs or places or overland travel maps.  That's it.  That's all it tries to be. 

Many people that I have heard from over the years are terrified of playing online because when they see some of these programs and their learning curve, they just say  "F- It" I'm not getting into that.  Owlbear Rodeo is for those people giving them just a simple, low learning curve battlemap "portal".  I am in no way affiliated with the guys who make this program, I wouldn't know them from Adam, but I really like this program's simplicity.  I would like to see some dice macros available in the future, but who knows. 

Below is a picture of a Paleomythic RPG game that I ran with Owlbear Rodeo using a battlemap I got from the internet and adding some Primal Man tokens and huts that I created.  This is basically what the program is and what it does.

About as close as one can virtually get to unfurling a battle board when needed in a traditional setting.

Tried quite a few and for touch pad, Owlbear is perfect.

Can't wait to see what branches are made off the source.

Thread title is wrong.  It's absolutely NOT open source.  You can tell this because it has a non-commercial clause in it.

https://opensource.org/faq/

It's still good that it's available of course, and I believe it will allow people to run Owlbear Rodeo in the mode you previously needed to use their official server for. 

It's distinct from their newer product, which is always designed to use an official server.

Quote from: Greg Bruni on July 01, 2023, 08:47:15 PM
Owlbear rodeo is mainly for people who play online with some voice program like Discord or Skype, have their character sheets in front of them, their books or GM screen off to the side and just want a battle map area that they can draw on and move their miniatures around on.  It also has a dice roller and acts as a "tabletop" for the GM to put out pictures of NPCs or places or overland travel maps.  That's it.  That's all it tries to be. 

Many people that I have heard from over the years are terrified of playing online because when they see some of these programs and their learning curve, they just say  "F- It" I'm not getting into that.  Owlbear Rodeo is for those people giving them just a simple, low learning curve battlemap "portal".  I am in no way affiliated with the guys who make this program, I wouldn't know them from Adam, but I really like this program's simplicity.  I would like to see some dice macros available in the future, but who knows. 

Below is a picture of a Paleomythic RPG game that I ran with Owlbear Rodeo using a battlemap I got from the internet and adding some Primal Man tokens and huts that I created.  This is basically what the program is and what it does.

Thank you for this explanation. Are they keeping the simplicity in version 2.0?

I believe so.  They are working on doing some tweaks to the dice.  I hope they come up with some single button macros for dice rolling.

2.0 is a little more complicated. There are "rooms" and scenes. Room are a collection of scenes, and scenes are what 1.0 used to be. It looks like they want to make it easier to handle multiple scenes per session.

There are now different classes of token, like mounts.

Also, they added extensions and it looks like anyone can create an extension for character sheets, map tools, etc.

It still looks minimalist though. And subscription now of course, but with a free option.