GATE

With Roll20 running out of free storage space and the beefier VTTs chugging on the weaker machines, GATE really came in clutch as a clean tool that allows for plug & play multiplayer for my campaign. Not to knock other projects, but this really is the right toolset for our needs right now.

If you're looking for a simple to understand VTT and primarily play 5e, then it's genuinely a great product for its price. Maps can be loaded on the fly, as well as tokens. I haven't palyed around with 3d models yet, but I imagine it'll be quite convenient for immersion purposes, especially for people who use HeroForge. Map creation, character sheets, music and rolling are all handled via external means in my game, so GATE primarily serves as our battlemat, and I can appreciate the lack of bloat here.

Can't fail to mention how responsive the dev team is - I suggested an artwork sharing feature in the Discussions tab, and it was added to the game in a very quick timeframe. Wishing all the best to Banshee Cat in continuing to develop this VTT!

And for everyone else - it is a steal for its price if you're in a similar situation as me (i.e. playing mostly 5e and using VTTs mostly for battlemaps, area/world maps and showing off scenes)

I bought gate a year or so back, and it was a simple product then. It was just a grid with some colored markers, in essence. I recently picked it up again and found they added a bunch of really nice features. 3d and 2d art support, better drawing tools, dice rollers. Most of this is good for me, as I am terrible at drawing freehand.

After several updates a lot of my gripes with the program are resolved. The developer is very responsive to community requests and bug reports.

Overall I'd say this is a nice, simple-to-use, product with helpful features. Solid for working most games, but has some unneeded stuff outside playing D&D/PF.

The word to describe GATE is, Simple.

GATE is a great VTT for any new or veteran GM looking to get into 3D depictions of their worlds and do more complex encounters, such as naval combat. It may not be flashy or have all the bells and whistles that some other VTTs have, but that's what I enjoy.

I can sit down for 30 mins, build an encounter, save the session. Then a week later, play it with all my friends with a single click.

Are there bugs? Yes.
Are there things that could be improved? Yes.

However, Banshee Cat is still working on the project diligently and responds to feedback frequently.

So you can play on Roll20, Foundry, or FG... But there is great power and fun in Simplicity.

Keep up all the great work!

Best VTT out there hands down. All the same features of TTS, but an INFINITE table (Finally!), good controls and hotkeys, great fast drawing tools, and as the cherry on top, the developers haven't made anything hateful comments yet!

Great for Game Masters who prefer to rapidly improvise maps and content.

I have used GATE for two sessions. Primary use is for encounters and that is about it. 3D is a bit wonky to me but 2D is legit. Screenshot map from pdf of your choosing, upload, add fog of war, add tokens, and run through the encounter. Found this very simple. Not just limited to 5e either for the way I use it at least.

A great piece of software that doesn't get in your way. We transitioned from theater of the mind to GATE because my players wanted a more graphic representation of the maps, and it was a very easy transition. You can import maps, draw your own, and easily save board states.

There are a few lingering bugs, but I know the dev is actively working to isolate them. Definitely recommend. 9 million times easier that d&d beyond or any of the other laborious services.

Je suis un fier Français, et c'est la meilleure façon de jouer à DnD.

This is an excellent game to use with your D&D campaign. It's simple to use, and covers all the basics you need for a grid based map. Also the dev does frequent updates to fix issues and add new features. You definitely can't go wrong for the price!

Ran the final battle in a mini-campaign for a 4 PC party tonight in this program. It wasn't perfect, two players weren't able to connect and we ended up streaming from Jitsi for them. Worked fine for the other two with no issues. I don't know what's up with that.

As a DM, I really like it overall. Thin and light. Easy to set up and get rolling. Love the pseudo 3D. It'll be amazing when/if they work out some of the bugs.

A buggy bug ridden cheap rip off of Fantasy Grounds.

Doesn't even work right. No one uses it. Save your money.

For $5 you can't beat it, really, however there are some features that are either not present or not intuitive that I would certainly like to see added. I would recommend this tool for the purpose it is intended even if these features never showed up, though.
- Snap for drawing, both grid intersection to grid intersection, and sub intersections.
- rubber stamp. Draw one door, use it anywhere over and over
- fill, and pattern fill. If you are drawing a subterranean level, you should be able to either fill solid walls or paint a pattern in (ideally, ability to create fill patterns would be awesome, but preset would be fine)

If these are in there, I guess then I would recommend some work on making the menu system a little more intuitive.

There are just things I noticed in 15 minutes of review. Like I said, I think for $5 you cant beat this game. Especially if all your players don't also have to buy it. I would suggest asking some to buy it though, just to support the dev in this effort.

A fantastic, simple basis for Tabletop Roleplaying or other grid-and-dice based games. The developer is extremely responsive to feedback both through the in-game submission form and their Discord (go join the discord, do it now). Feedback I have provided, or that I've seen others provide, has resulted in patching very soon after it was submitted (when possible, of course) and has always resulted in quick, meaningful responses.

If you're uncertain about getting the game then use the demo and run a private (single player) session to get a feel for things. The demo was previously geared toward allowing players to join a host user that bought the full game, but was updated upon suggestion. The developer even left this new private session mode unrestricted as far as content or usage goes.

I strongly believe this engine will only continue to improve with time and more user feedback and cannot recommend enough that you give it a try or purchase.

As a DM with a budget spent almost entirely on source books, GATE has offered a wonderful alternative to the 50 dollar licenses and 10 dollar monthly subscriptions of most mainline VTTs

GATE is a really awesome program that lets you play any TTRPG like it was the good ol' days. Gate trys its best to be as simplistic as possible while also offering quality of life features. You can upload your own files for maps and tokens or draw your maps on the virtual table top and use the preset tokens or use content other users have uploaded onto steam; change the grid type and the color of the grid as well as the color of the sky box to compliment your map; set your favorite rolls, type in a custom roll in the chat, or use the basic die buttons; and access a compendium for SRD monsters and spells. I really enjoyed using this program for my Halloween one-shot this year, and it looks and feels a lot nicer than roll20 imho.

I think this tool is really good for D&D 5e, but that's it. I've got no need for disadvantage/advantage rolls. Changing the favourite roll each time, for Vampire or Shadowrun, or Pokemon Tabletop Unite that use X dice, is just a workaround. Having the 5e monsters and the 5e spells built in the client; I'd rather have my own "text document" inside where I can write some important data. (like, pasting the aboleth statblock, but if I want to play pokemon then the pokemon's stats and moveset)

Tokens also come prepared exclusively for DnD 5e with the temporary hit points, hit points and stuff like that. Each token doesn't have it's own sheet, nor a place to write information into. Dice rolls also don't have a feature to count rolls higher than a certain number when rolling multiple dice.

Overall, it is a fairly good tool for DnD 5e, I'd just wish the compatibility with other systems was better.

As a dm this is a useful tool if a bit empty on small quality of life aspects

it offers a grid and hex layout
drawing tool measurement tool and erasing tool
it provides a large number of token images
an easy to look through spellbook for 5e and monster manual

if anything it just needs a couple minor things like a box tool to make an easy square or other shapes and a couple additions to the environment tool instead of just changing sky colour

all in all 8/10 i recommend

I recently stumbled onto this little gem (only 95mb!) and was pleasantly surprised.
I've played many sessions with other virtual tabletops, and I've never found anything easier to use than this.
Admittedly, the software is "bare-bones"; but features are being added continuously with regular updates.
Best of all, the game has a friendly, active discord (https://discord.gg/Jwa3Mjz3) where you can talk to other users and the developer directly!
Definitively worth the $5; the players only need the free demo to join a session!

A fantastic resource for quickly and easily jumping into tabletop games with your friends. Our group of friends mainly uses it for D&D and it's super straight forward to use with everything you need to jump straight into the action. No messy interfaces, no online account needed, just boot up GATE and go.

The GM can also upload maps and other files and players have access to character tokens to make the experience that much more immersive. I would definitely recommend giving GATE a try for your next tabletop adventure.

A clean and simple battlemat for tabletop rpgs that allows you to draw, use tokens, and import maps. Only the GM needs to own the game, the players only need to download the demo. It is dirt cheap, so give it a try.

Picture it: it's Friday night, and the party is all here to start the new DnD session. Only this time you're online, trying to use Roll20.

You're the DM, and it's your first time using the website. You realize you don't have a "picture" required to launch the campaign, so you open the only jpg on your desktop--a photo of a plate of lasagna you made, for some reason--and click launch the game. *Finally,* you think to yourself. *We can play online now, cool!*

Only it's not cool. You get into the open game. Three of your players aren't here, because they don't know how to create an account, because they've never used the internet before--especially that one guy, Larry, who's 58 years old. You realize after launching the game for the first time that your Firefox browser which you haven't updated in the last 3 years is unsupported. So you pause for another ten minutes as you update, or load Edge (it's actually a good browser now guys I promise,) and launch the game again.

Uh-oh. You get in, but the grid you need is tiny and blank. *Why did they make it so small?* You think, as you peruse the endless amount of menus and options desperately trying to find a way to increase the grid size to no avail. Larry is still having problems connecting because he's using Internet Explorer--unaware that he should've upgraded his Windows XP laptop 18 years ago. On top of that, your profile picture is also a plate of lasagna.

The players are all just chatting now. No one's paying attention to the game, because it's been 25 minutes and you haven't figured out yet how to make the grid bigger, how to make tokens for people, or how to get Larry in here--because that's all you really wanted this website to do.

Well, with GATE, you don't have to bother with all that nonsense anymore! Just make your DM name in the menu, pick a color, click "Host" and voila. Welcome to an infinite grid size, a big fat token button that you can press and then give it a name, size, skin and assign it to your players, an easy-to-see area at the top where you can click to go between "draw" mode for drawing stuff with a marker, "Select" mode to click and move your tokens, "Erase" mode to get rid of all the phallic-shaped objects your party is inevitably going to create, and "Measure" mode for when you just can't figure out if that wizard token you made is within 30" of blowing up that asshole Mike with a fireball. Just tell your players to hop into GATE, search for your room name--"Larry quit using Internet Explorer"--and you're playing DnD now.

When you hop into a regular in-person game of DnD all you need is a grid map, a few markers to draw buildings and stuff, and some tokens for the players and NPC's. Well, GATE provides all of that without all the extra pomp, extraneous menus and connection issues that Roll20 is always adding. 5/5 with rice.