If you want to pilot an X-Wing through an asteroid field, discover ancient Jedi secrets, and explore the thrilling Star Wars galaxy with your friends online, you’ll need a virtual tabletop (VTT) to do it. Star Wars 5e offers players more familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons 5e system a path to tell their stories in the Star Wars Universe without having to learn an entirely new TTRPG. However, there are many notable differences, such as all new classes, archetypes, starship combat, and ‘spells,’ which have been split into ‘Tech Powers’ and ‘Force Powers.’ Your choice of VTT is a critical one, as this decision can set up your next game to be extremely fun or extremely frustrating. In pursuit of the best experience possible for you and your friends, let’s see what Star Wars 5e needs from a VTT to thrive and determine which platform is the best fit for this system.
Since Star Wars 5e is built upon the foundations of Dungeons and Dragons 5e, many VTTs are equipped with the tools to facilitate the types of checks, spells, and character abilities present in these games. Beyond its Dungeons and Dragons fundamentals, Star Wars 5e blossoms into an array of new mechanics that may demand special consideration. For example, to navigate the vast Star Wars galaxy, your party is going to need a starship. Star Wars 5e has an expansion dedicated to the mechanics behind starships, their capabilities, statistics, and the unique roles (or ‘deployments’) players can fill as the crew. Moreover, ship-to-ship combat is notably different than traditional D&D combat, as it is typically multiple players working in tandem to control a single ship rather than the classic one-player-one-character style encounters. Therefore, the most suitable VTT for Star Wars 5e will be able to adapt its existing D&D framework to the expansions and alterations made by Star Wars 5e, allowing for these new classes, starship-scale play, and the new forms of combat.
Star Wars is iconic. Even people unfamiliar with the franchise will often recognize Darth Vader or Yoda; they’ll see the Millennium Falcon and know it’s from Star Wars. The aesthetics of Star Wars have long been defined and refined into the lived-in retro-futuristic style we see today. Your VTT should be able to accommodate these essential aesthetics and accurately do justice to the iconography of Star Wars. After all, what is Star Wars without lightsabers? Without extravagant settings like Dagobah or Coruscant? Without countless colorful buttons and switches without labels? Considering the massive amount of downloadable art resources for Star Wars TTRPGs online, a VTT that allows you to upload personal assets for backgrounds and tokens would fulfill this need. One that already comes with Star Wars content would make running the game even easier.
If our ideal VTT for Star Wars 5e is flexible enough to account for the Star-Wars-ification of the Dungeons and Dragons 5e system, and customizable enough to bring the iconic Star Wars galaxy to life, then Foundry VTT is the obvious choice. While the VTT is already optimized for D&D 5e, it is host to countless other game systems, and personalized dice rolling, so it can handle every check you’ll need to make while playing Star Wars 5e. More excitingly, it comes with modules to support a similar Star Wars TTRPG, the FFG Star Wars system. Not only do these modules include various battlemaps, Star Wars items and vehicles, and familiar locals you can use in your Star Wars 5e games, but they also allow you to create your own opening title crawls and hyperspace transitions. With these specialized tools and capabilities, Foundry VTT’s platform is best suited for turning your party's computer screens into a portal to a galaxy, far, far away.
Finn Halpern is a Chicago-based writer, passionate about TTRPGs, nerd culture, and the art of storytelling.
