When your investigators have gathered, and it’s time to start rolling the dice, the last thing you should worry about for your Monster of the Week campaign is which virtual tabletop will best support it! Lucky for you, StartPlaying is here to help not just with connecting you to new players, but with handy little articles like this one!
One VTT to Rule them all
The best VTT for a Monster of the Week campaign is still Roll20. Thus far, Evil Hat Productions has yet to extend its official support to any other virtual tabletop for their game systems despite selling PDF versions of its game through multiple sources like DrivethroughRPG and itch.io. With the company limiting their official partnership to only the Roll20 version of their system, it has made it the winner of which is the best virtual tabletop for the game by default. Even still, the team at Roll20 does a great job of organizing all the systems information in a simple-to-navigate way. All tokens associated with the core text and a bit of art to help you set the atmosphere for your monster hunting adventure will be preloaded into your library as soon as you purchase the game on their marketplace. Everything is polished and convenient for both GMs and their players, which makes the price being slightly elevated from the PDF version worth the investment.
Like most other virtual tabletops, you will also have the convenience of sharing your Monster of the Week digital library with your players. It’s simply a matter of assigning your player's character sheets and you will have them up and running with completed characters in a matter of minutes. If you only have one table of 5 or fewer players (not including yourself as the GM) then you can skate by on the free plan, which is honestly pretty great if you only have one table to attend to. Otherwise, you will need to purchase the Roll20 subscription that best fits your needs if you’re looking to have a larger table or multiple gaming groups.
What About Foundry and Tabletop Simulator?
Foundry and Tabletop Simulator, do offer modules for Monster of the Week. Both, however, are fan-made modules and lack the support for bug fixes and regular updates that come with the main virtual tabletop software being updated over time. Depending on which version you download of either virtual tabletop program, the modules may not work at all. Foundry’s base software has had a full edition upgrade since it’s Monster of the Week module was last updated January 16, 2022. Tabletop Simulator was last updated March 22, 2023 and from the comments in the Steam forums it looks like the creator of the mod has fully abandoned it. It is still possible to try and use these mods, but it will require downloading outdated versions of the base software for both virtual tabletops, or rebuilding the mods yourself to meet the new requirements of the updated software. For a system which only takes players a few minutes to create their characters and start rolling dice, going through all that effort to get them working is probably not the best use of a Game Master's time.
Another Contender for Best VTT Could be on the Horizon
As a final honorable mention to alternatives, the demo of Talespire looks very promising for GMs who want a visually immersive experience. The virtual tabletop is system agnostic, despite most of the current marketing images focusing on high fantasy, D&D style games. I took some time to comb through the forums and the developer’s website and from the looks of it the developers are actively working with the community to make the virtual tabletop easy to mod, making it a promising future prospect for those seeking a gaming experience with video game quality graphics and terrain.
Unfortunately, we’ll still have some time ahead up us before Talespire’s full release is complete and as of the publishing of this post, the best resource for running a Monster of the Week in a virtual environment is still Roll20. Using the officially supported virtual tabletop is going to save you time and the headache of troubleshooting and/or modding an out of date virtual tabletop so you can focus your time on crafting the perfect monster mystery for your players.
Sara Roberts is a TTRPG content creator best known for their immersive storytelling as the GM of the Luck & Chaos podcast and original TTRPG character cosplay content on TikTok and Instagram.
