An in-development website called The Token Vault will give you the power to create custom avatars for online Dungeons & Dragons games. Or any TTRPG system, for that matter. The developers are collecting art of varying genres and styles from several creators so that users have a catalogue of characters to turn into tokens. The project is already funded through Kickstarter, and is set for a December 2020 release.
Fans of tabletop games have found their hobby impacted in a way that video gamers haven’t. Many Holiday 2020 games are being delayed, sure, but previously unsung games are also thriving. It turns out forced isolation creates a lot of time to play video games. Tabletop gamers, however, have had to put away all their beloved mini figures and adjust to playing exclusively through chat and digital platforms like Roll20.
Part of playing on a virtual tabletop is using “tokens” – small pictures meant to fit into a grid and represent the player characters. Several sites already exist that let you create tokens from jpegs, but The Token Vault has more ambitious ideas.
Its creators want to give users an easy browser-based menu of tokens to choose from. These tokens can then be customized to wear different armor, have different backgrounds, and even have facial features like beards. TTRPG players often put a great deal of investment into their character’s mini figure. Maybe not money-wise, but they’ll spend time painting them to match the image they picture in their mind. Or it does manifest with money, as some players pay extra to get customized figures that have their character’s wild hair or pet cat. By giving customization options, The Token Vault recreates some of that attachment with digital figures.
You can try out a sample version of the customizer on the Token Vault’s site. It’s unclear if the token editor will be free at launch, support a free version with paid extras, or require some kind of subscription. The Kickstarter page seems to suggest that a pay-per-token model will be in effect. If online D&D games are going to be a thing for a while, it might be a worthwhile investment.
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