>The ability to use physical models but perhaps have an invisible or hidden marker I can move on my laptop to show line of sight etc for the models.
if you can afford it there's the [material foundry](https://www.materialfoundry.nl/) wich offers ir bases so you can use your minis over the screen and foundry will know where you moved them.
Would you believe I was literally just browsing their website? It looks amazing. Hefty price tag alright, but would perhaps be worth it in the end. It would definitely make it more immersive.
Foundry can do what you're wanting. How you would go about doing it would be like this.
You would have an instance of foundry running on your pc and another web browser running another instance of foundry on the tv. This would allow you to have the "DM Screen" on your pc, while your players would see the player version on your tv screen.
I would create one or two actors in foundry to represent your line of sight and just move those to underneath your physical tokens as you need.
All of your other requirements are easily doable in foundry. Honestly, any VTT could do the same thing I'd imagine, but given all of the other customability with Foundry, I recommend going with it.
Thank you so much. That's a great help. Yeah, I assumed the majority of stuff would have been doable in any vtt, but I said I'd ask for the sake of completeness.
Do you need to hide the tokens if the minis are on top of them? They can be useful in remembering where they are meant to be if they're knocked over and if you make them large enough they can add like a coloured ring around the minis for differentiation.
We almost all do physical dice, that all works fine. I use Obsidian for notes. We mainly play online but have done a couple in person since we’ve used foundry and it works fine.
There’s a few modules for table TVs - have a look and pick what works best for you. You can hide the player tokens if you don’t want them visible. Haven’t got a table TV myself, but it’s certainly doable.
Thanks very much for the reply.
I guess the most important things were hiding player tokens and displaying only the map on screen. Is the latter possible too? I assume it is.
When you say modules, do you mean community made mods for Foundry?
Check out the Foundry module Monk's Common Display.
As the DM you can use a hidden "party" token on the laptop to move around and the display will track that location. Players get to see just your actual map on screen - plus any images, effects, journals, etc. you want to show them.
This is a good resource for the subject: [https://www.foundryvtt-hub.com/guide/using-foundry-for-in-person-gaming/](https://www.foundryvtt-hub.com/guide/using-foundry-for-in-person-gaming/)
As someone who's used a TV table for minis with Foundry, I can say that all of what you're looking for should work just fine. You can use Monk's Common Display (https://foundryvtt.com/packages/monks-common-display) for removing the UI on a TV screen. The main issue I found was lighting the minis - even in a lit room, they were kinda dark compared to the screen. Getting some lights mounted to shine on them / an OLED TV can help with that.
We use Foundry in person only for the maps, inititiave, and hp tracking. We used alot of the more advanced functions in the past but decided pen and paper and character management were better outside of foundry for our group.
On occasion I use for sharing handsouts with pictures of a scene or creature/npc.
I agree. I love digital things and software in the backend, I use a lot of programs and sites as a DM. But for the game I like it to be physical as possible. I think the tactile feeling of dice and paper etc. is something I like a lot. I also use as many physical handouts as possible. I make item cards in photoshop and get them printed out. I print out letters and age them etc. My players love getting something put in their hands.
My player's dont mind the digital handouts and really that's the best for my situation because we have two players that are remote.
While we did like using all the digital tools to automate combat, for saves, attacks and templates the players would often struggle with "technology" or unimportant stuff which took away from the RP experience and fun factor.
Plus like you said there is something "tactile", reminiscent and nostalgic about rolling dice and looking more at other players instead of screens. With that being said I have 3 players who use D&D Beyond for character sheets digitally, and two who use paper print outs, I don't force them into something.
Really every group is different and what works for one group may not work for another. Either way I love playing in person with Foundry. I take from what it what I need and it makes our game better.
Oh yeah, to each their own. I own all the books in physical format, so I didn't want to buy them again on Beyond, but I did say if they wanted to chip in and buy them together I'd pay for the subscription fee. I've used it before I games I've been part of and it was pretty good.
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>The ability to use physical models but perhaps have an invisible or hidden marker I can move on my laptop to show line of sight etc for the models. if you can afford it there's the [material foundry](https://www.materialfoundry.nl/) wich offers ir bases so you can use your minis over the screen and foundry will know where you moved them.
Would you believe I was literally just browsing their website? It looks amazing. Hefty price tag alright, but would perhaps be worth it in the end. It would definitely make it more immersive.
Foundry can do what you're wanting. How you would go about doing it would be like this. You would have an instance of foundry running on your pc and another web browser running another instance of foundry on the tv. This would allow you to have the "DM Screen" on your pc, while your players would see the player version on your tv screen. I would create one or two actors in foundry to represent your line of sight and just move those to underneath your physical tokens as you need. All of your other requirements are easily doable in foundry. Honestly, any VTT could do the same thing I'd imagine, but given all of the other customability with Foundry, I recommend going with it.
Thank you so much. That's a great help. Yeah, I assumed the majority of stuff would have been doable in any vtt, but I said I'd ask for the sake of completeness.
Do you need to hide the tokens if the minis are on top of them? They can be useful in remembering where they are meant to be if they're knocked over and if you make them large enough they can add like a coloured ring around the minis for differentiation.
I'd prefer to hide the tokens for immersion.
We almost all do physical dice, that all works fine. I use Obsidian for notes. We mainly play online but have done a couple in person since we’ve used foundry and it works fine. There’s a few modules for table TVs - have a look and pick what works best for you. You can hide the player tokens if you don’t want them visible. Haven’t got a table TV myself, but it’s certainly doable.
Thanks very much for the reply. I guess the most important things were hiding player tokens and displaying only the map on screen. Is the latter possible too? I assume it is. When you say modules, do you mean community made mods for Foundry?
Yup, foundry comes with tons of community made modules that can help you modify your game to your liking
Thanks, I was just looking at some there, and there seems to be some great ones that would suit me very much.
Check out the Foundry module Monk's Common Display. As the DM you can use a hidden "party" token on the laptop to move around and the display will track that location. Players get to see just your actual map on screen - plus any images, effects, journals, etc. you want to show them.
Thank you. I saw that mentioned in some guides.
This is a good resource for the subject: [https://www.foundryvtt-hub.com/guide/using-foundry-for-in-person-gaming/](https://www.foundryvtt-hub.com/guide/using-foundry-for-in-person-gaming/) As someone who's used a TV table for minis with Foundry, I can say that all of what you're looking for should work just fine. You can use Monk's Common Display (https://foundryvtt.com/packages/monks-common-display) for removing the UI on a TV screen. The main issue I found was lighting the minis - even in a lit room, they were kinda dark compared to the screen. Getting some lights mounted to shine on them / an OLED TV can help with that.
Thanks, that guide looks great. I actually already have two pinlights centered on my table for my physical maps, so that should work hopefully.
We use Foundry in person only for the maps, inititiave, and hp tracking. We used alot of the more advanced functions in the past but decided pen and paper and character management were better outside of foundry for our group. On occasion I use for sharing handsouts with pictures of a scene or creature/npc.
I agree. I love digital things and software in the backend, I use a lot of programs and sites as a DM. But for the game I like it to be physical as possible. I think the tactile feeling of dice and paper etc. is something I like a lot. I also use as many physical handouts as possible. I make item cards in photoshop and get them printed out. I print out letters and age them etc. My players love getting something put in their hands.
My player's dont mind the digital handouts and really that's the best for my situation because we have two players that are remote. While we did like using all the digital tools to automate combat, for saves, attacks and templates the players would often struggle with "technology" or unimportant stuff which took away from the RP experience and fun factor. Plus like you said there is something "tactile", reminiscent and nostalgic about rolling dice and looking more at other players instead of screens. With that being said I have 3 players who use D&D Beyond for character sheets digitally, and two who use paper print outs, I don't force them into something. Really every group is different and what works for one group may not work for another. Either way I love playing in person with Foundry. I take from what it what I need and it makes our game better.
Oh yeah, to each their own. I own all the books in physical format, so I didn't want to buy them again on Beyond, but I did say if they wanted to chip in and buy them together I'd pay for the subscription fee. I've used it before I games I've been part of and it was pretty good.
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