Alchemy VTT: What is it? Is it any Good? Can we use it for SoloRPG Play? (Video barely answers Qs)

[@DesertDwellerSoloGaming]

Video 39 of me liking and then commenting on every new upload to tell the viewers that the Man Alone Podcast is absolutely some of that sweet, unhinged audio/vocal-honey. Psssst. Name the song that changed your perspective on life the most.

[@Jimalcoatl]

Crazy Train - Ozzy Osborne

[@dirkvoltaar]

Tori Amos - Cloud On My Tongue

[@chewbacca7856]

311 amber

[@druidichabit9181]

Love Yours - J Cole. Doesn’t necessarily change my perspective but always reminds me of what’s important

[@amanisalone]

@@DesertDwellerSoloGaming Maggot Brain by Funkadelic

[@Jimalcoatl]

Stopping the sale of PDFs is fine; removing them from users' libraries is not fine.

[@danielcarrasco5251]

One thousand percent

[@MrTrollMedic]

Alchemy looks so cool, I'm mesmerized every time I see it. But the fact that there's no self-hosting option or a one-time perpetual license option is killing it for me. Foundry lets me host my own server, and it's a one time purchase. I really don't want to "rent" the systems I have but own them.

[@corybanticfire]

I got the free league bundle for alchemy vtt and got the pdfs out of it. I haven't really had a chance to test alchemy of solo stuff. SaaS is definitely a turn off.

[@cmdreltonpoole6303]

The most technological thing I use during roleplay is a Texas TI-84 calculator for when I cannot into math. RPGs are a great way to pastime to get OFF your devices.

[@ricardo.mazeto]

Way better than that buggy ass program. 😂

[@druidichabit9181]

“Does anyone-oh wait you’re not here right now, you’re in the future” that cracked me up! I wish you could have the attacks actually go up against the opponent and have the ac be checked and damage be added. I also think there’s something interesting with these VTTs for solo where maybe one day you can add a sort of point and click adventure making exploring the world feel more tactile, I just think they aren’t quite there yet

[@robw4736]

I have Foundry and Alchemy. They both seem to have a learning curve, and neither one seems to do exactly what I want them to. Foundry seems more versatile, but less engaging. Alchemy looks amazing, but doesn't seem that you can actually do as much 'in game.' I think you can roll up characters in Foundry, but you have to manually fill in the character sheets. It seems in Alchemy, all the actual character generation has to be done 'manually', then transferred over. Right now, it feels like they are just trying to figure it all out. I'm continuing to support both in the hopes that they will figure it all out sooner rather than later. On a side note, Free League has had a kind of indecisive relationships with PDFs. At one point they sold them separately from their physical products, then they shifted to providing the PDF when you bought the physical copy from them (which is how Mongoose does it, I think).

[@the_Mike_d]

I've been using Fantasy Grounds Unity for a few years now and I've tried other VTTs. I think they all have their benefits (and problems) but for me it mostly comes down to the games you or your friends want to play and what each platform supports. There's a learning curve with all of them. After you get the hang of it, FGU isn't bad, but the learning curve was kinda steep initially.

[@LordThanatosOfHades]

Fantastic video. I keep checking out Alchemy every few months, but every time I do, I decide that it's so close, but it's not for me. It should be - I'm a sucker for style, even at the cost of substance - but it just seems... clunky? I don't know, it's like, the UI is really cluttered, it doesn't feel intuitive, it's way too slow for my liking. Beautiful, yes, but what parts of it can't be replicated with a really nice animated webp? The audio does make me a little jealous, though. 'Death by a thousand paper-cuts' is probably the best way to put it. Perhaps it will improve enough at some point that I'll decide to switch over. For now, I'll stick with Foundry - so far it's meeting my needs for Solo (Mythic, Ironsworn, Starforged, Free League stuff) and my GMing needs - though how good it is with minimal config does depend on whether there's a great module for the system you want or if there's an official module. Luckily most of my needs are covered by both categories, Free League has some great official modules I've been trying out.

[@LordThanatosOfHades]

Also, I really wish it became standard practice to include PDFs with purchases for online tools. Some systems do it, and it's a huge boon when they do. It takes away a lot of the uncertainty in spending that much money. Knowing that you can download it and access the PDF even if the VTT goes down, is inaccessible, or you decide to switch and use something else is a huge boon to my comfort putting down that large an amount of money.

[@boltfan43]

I think the d66 into a 1d36 with a result of 8 was just a list of 36 items and the 8 was the eighth row of the d66 table, which would have been a 23.

[@druidichabit9181]

GAHDDAMN yah boy just keeps comin with the hits!!!

[@adub_from_253]

“I have a lot of poop files on my computer”. Heeheehee made me giggle like the middle schooler I am apparently. But, wow, the visuals on Alchemy are amazing! Also love that you can add music/sounds.

[@MikeRenouf]

"That Excel file really isn't my poop tracker ..." Uh huh.. 😉

[@SerpC]

Thanks for showing it off and sharing your opinions. I also bought that bundle, mostly for the PDFs but hey since i have the VTT modules i thought maybe I'd use them if i ever run one of these. If the PDFs weren't included I wouldn't have bought it, and wouldn't have bought any other versions either (so Free League didn't lose any money from me for this bundle). Given the minor papercuts you experienced though I'm thinking i might be better off going with a simpler VTT. I'm running a guided mode Ironsworn: Starforged game on Roll20 and while it's nice to just click a button and immediately see the result the character sheets have multiple tabs and switching tabs switches it for everyone. So I cant look at one of the PC's assets while their player is looking at the basic moves list. I want a VTT that lets you see everyone's character sheets at once. Have you seen of the impressive Solo RP set ups people have done using Miro, the infinite digitlal whiteboard tool? Miro lacks a good die roller though, since it's focused on corporate rather than tabletop. I hear Owlbear Rodeo also has an infinite canvas, so that's the one I want to try for my next campaign. Just put down images of the character sheet and have the players write on them on the canvas, next to whatever map we're using.

[@MikeRenouf]

I feel like this system would be 1000% better if there was an 'build random' button for everything. Quickly need an NPC? click create character and it has no skills, no inventory, no art asset. If there was a button to randomly build the NPC with suitable assets, or even to build a scene with a random map and flavour text, that would be so powerful.

[@dirkvoltaar]

Jesus, Alan Omen! Slow your roll! I haven’t even finished the last video! Bring on the ladle emoji.

[@scottmuck2781]

I bought the Free League Alchemy bundle. I'm trying to figure out how to play solo. Best I have so far is having created a second account and adding that as the player. Once I added that "player," I am able to use all of the player functions logged into my GM account instead of creating an NPC as player. Still working on it, though.

[@N8ThaGr8r]

Everytime i hear you describe Year Zero rules it sounds like someone fused shadowrun and FATE

[@juauke]

Great video! I've been very curious about Alchemy, I only used Owlbear Rodeo and a little of Foundry And played quite a lot in Roll20

[@adub_from_253]

Also, the idea that I could have a freaking LADEL as a weapon…Cozy Cottage Gore? buh dum ching

[@PichulRixth]

Nah you’re right. With digital tools or VTTs the expectation is that it works! Otherwise why am I using it?! If I have to fix it or use a hybrid approach with paper and physical dice, why bother.

[@SaintSolo]

I wish I had you as a GM that would be wicked sick bud (vermont accent)

[@N8ThaGr8r]

Im curious if you've tried Campfire or a similar program?

[@bleaquehaus]

I'm hoping they'll connect with Runehammer. Trying to get my group to adopt ICRPG.

[@dirkvoltaar]

I was actually just looking for that! I'm using ICRPG with my group. I love it. They LOVE it!

[@Ykesha]

I don't know if its the screen resolution you captured it from but the VTT looks ways too cluttered and smashed together. The ui is actually just painful to look at after a few minutes.

[@ricardo.mazeto]

The UI is terrible. To make a test, you click the attribute on the left, then have to move the pointer all the way to the center of the screen to click that tiny "test" button. Terrible.

[@ike_d5402]

Alchemy looks great, but just like every other VTT it is only 90% of what you need. There is a lot of ho-hum with these things. I have high hopes, though, because it's _very_ pretty for sure.

[@splurgy.]

I use sojour as my solo vtt of choice.

[@crapphone7744]

And this is why I'm not a fan of VTT. They all almost work. Almost. Every session at some point devolves into oh wait hang on click click no that's not it, hang on, oh yeah here it is, now, what was it you were going to do with the ring again Frodo?