TaleSpire

TaleSpire
N/A
Metacritic
93
Steam
87.224
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$24.99
Release date
14 April 2021
Steam reviews score
Total
93 (3 221 votes)
Recent
92 (38 votes)

TaleSpire is a beautiful way to play pen and paper RPGs online. Bring your stories to life and embark upon campaigns together with your friends, regardless of where you are in the world.

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TaleSpire system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 10
  • Processor: 64bit
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Graphics card with DX11.2 (shader model 5.0) capabilities.
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
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Manchester
Manchester

A must-have product for DMs. My players started using the environment more and takes a lot of prep work off of me. If players want to control their own character, they'll have to buy it. But I've been using screenshare and it's been great for us. There are mods available to get monsters not yet added. But honestly, they have a great selection already.

DoubleDongle
DoubleDongle

Perfectly usable as-is. I'd complain that it feels complicated, but A: It needs to be complex to cover everything and it's kind of unavoidable, and B: It's pretty easy to use improperly yet effectively. You don't really have to dive deeper than laying out a location and streaming your game to the party as you move their minis around for them if you don't want to. It's better if they have it and join properly, and you hide stuff with correctly, and track stats and use initiative properly, but there are smooth-brain noob solutions to skip all of these details.
Also, the in-game dice rolling mechanics are delightful. You can build a dice tower into the terrain, it's great.

Arilon
Arilon

Love it for our DND sessions. Makes my life as a DM so much better. Players are enjoying also. Small bugs and issues here and there. Nothing game breaking and I'm sure they'll be addressed before full launch.

The Corellian
The Corellian

I feel bad giving Talespire a NOT RECOMMENDED review since it has some really nice devs and is the best program in its class. I use this regularly for multiple campaigns I'm running and it looks gorgeous. It creates wonderful 3D spaces for my players to play in and explore, which is wonderful. HOWEVER....

Big problems up front:
1) Everyone needs to buy it to use it, AND be able to to run it (which I will get to in a second)
2) It simply doesn't run or at all on low end computers and not at all for Macs
3) You basically have to mod it to do anything interesting with it because thats how you get all of the cool custom minis outside the very small pool you are given.
4) Because its Early Access, modding becomes problematic. Getting non-gamers to juggle constantly updating mod packs that get broken every time there's a major update makes this often times unusable, and often hours before game time.

I really love being able to use Talespire to showcase Heroforge minis for my players and see the 3D spaces, but I am realizing just how much extra work I have to spend upkeeping this dang thing. Not only does it take forever to build all of my maps out, but babysitting the mods requires literal daily attention and I gave up on trying to get my players to actually use the game themselves and I just have to stream it to them. I'm realizing more and more that while gorgeous, it sucks away the time I should be spending writing actual content.

I'm starting a new campaign up in a little bit and won't be using Talespire because it is just too much hassle.
I would recommend checking this program out eventually once it leaves EA, but honestly D&D One is coming out in like 2 years and they will have their own digital tabletop built into DnDBeyond, so you should probably just wait on that. That being said, it IS decently easy to use and creates beautiful sets, so if you don't mind putting in a tremendous amount of extra work and you have a setting that fits the style, it can be enjoyable to mess around in. I've run about 30 sessions in Talespire now spanning about the same number of maps and there's quite a bit you can do with this.

I plan on making my 3rd campaign theater of the mind only after getting major burn out from using this, moving my 1st campaign back to Roll 20, and keeping my 2nd campaign that is basically JUST combat on here. Really where Talespire thrives is high combat campaigns. For heavy roleplay stuff, its a giant time sync and I found myself being heavily restrictive in my writing based on available assets.

CannonFodder
CannonFodder

Has great potential as a map making tool, but at the moment there are so many limitations that it is frustrating to use.
- Tiles can't be placed at a 45 degree angle and there are no angled walls.
- There are no water tiles (or glass or windows). Why??????
- Props can't be resized (neither can tiles, but props are the big issue)
- Can't zoom out far enough on large maps
- Can't rotate view quite enough to get a plan view of the map
- Zooming in too far applies a blur filter
- No way to hide the mini-base for a character, e.g. to make a statue.
- No way to create your own props, or creatures, or tiles
- No way to have a quick access library of your own pre-built slabs inside the program
- A bunch of the in tool controls have no tool-tips
- Limited control of the sun location and no option for alternative distant light sources.
- No control over colours of anything or strength of lighting props.
- No custom sky box import.

Having said that, some of the hacks people have been using to get around all the limitations are impressive.

Maybe check back in another 12 months.

BasicallyFlexin
BasicallyFlexin

please fix the camera angles and being able to see and move characters maybe a lock on feature? the game looks cool but is an overall disappointment every time i try to do any prep I'm hurting my neck because of your stupid camera and its causing me migraines please i paid too much money for this game for it to be causing me physical pain and be un-useable for me

Theed
Theed

This game is not for the poor, if you want custom content, then you gotta pay for each individual piece. If you want to play DND with friends, play on something else

Anonymous
Anonymous

I love how easy it is to make your own scenes quickly. If they could make items able to be rotated at all angles and then joined together so that if we wanted to make it one object that could be then converted to a character that would be great.

Shyklops Von K
Shyklops Von K

Best system agnostic VTT there is and it's getting better pretty much every day. The devs continue to listen to feedback and provide features and assets that people actually want. The fact that maps and slabs can be freely shared means that people can take full advantage of this systems potential, even if they don't have countless hours to build intricate maps. If you play a TTRPG virtually, this is an incredible tool.

Faethana Faetris
Faethana Faetris

It's convenient for playing D&D when you can't afford or don't have the skill to make physical playing boards

Slendy Nerd
Slendy Nerd

I REALLY wanted to like this software. I'm DMing a campaign and I wanted it to be impressive to my players. Instead it was just more effort for little gain. The worlds and characters looked beautiful, and the cinematic mode combined with players casting COULD have added to the realism if they were easier to implement.
But... the usability is still FAR too primitive. The controls feel very clunky, the map building process takes a long time, and most importantly... NO CHARACTER SHEETS! Having players roll initiative or anything else, but with no modifier or record of the result is very annoying.
I can see the potential, and I really hope it gets better... but until the downloadable maps become way more plentiful, whole buildings can be placed in build mode, character sheets and rolls + modifiers are built in, and the UI made more intuitive, I cannot recommend this to anyone except VERY dedicated DMs and players.

Komodo Dojo
Komodo Dojo

Used this software as a virtual environment for my campaigns and my group loved it! The flexibility of creating your own environments, lighting, dungeons, etc really make this worth it! PLUS it's early access and they're working on new stuff all the time! The integration with Hero Forge is fantastic as well, it really makes players feel like they're IN the environment.

10/10 would recommend to any digital leaning DM

Adamantiumspork
Adamantiumspork

The system works great for building terrain, you can import your Heroforge characters into it, and they are adding new items and features still. We use it for D&D 5e and Mothership, but you could use it for just about anything as long as you're creative.

There are also websites where folk upload their maps that you can import into your own game, which is amazing for running the preset adventure modules.

an eggsalad sandwich
an eggsalad sandwich

This software is great as a generic model for TTRPGs. I don't expect it to survive the feature contest with wizards of the coast, which is a real shame. This is a great product in early access and most of the complaints are related to it being short on content. Despite the criticisms, there have been pretty frequent content updates given the price of the product. Wizards won't need the seed money and are probably going to put out something very 5e/one-dnd specific with subscription or p2unlock features, which this doesn't do. The free workshop entries are amazing and I don't expect that kind of feature to be available for the inevitable sub-pricing/content unlocking that WotC will want to implement. Extra credit to them for integrating heroforge content and recent default figures to try to bridge that gap.

Biggest criticisms I hear are that there aren't enough figures and it costs money to start, but I've been using it as context for some scenes or background moments and not necessarily requiring everyone in my party to own it, which works really great with a shared discord stream.

I love this toolset and wish the devs the best, but I'm scared for it's longevity given how successful it is and how much the big players need to compete with it.

WinterSolace
WinterSolace

I know this is in early access, and from what I did mess around with, I'm very excited to see where this goes. Some of the building is a little janky, as you'd expect in early access, but I really enjoyed building taverns and houses. Sometimes things placed down would be placed on top of other objects if you were too far away, which wasn't too big of a deal.

Pre-made maps would be an interesting add to this, for those who are lazy or want a pre-built map to adjust to their liking. Or being able to upload maps others have created.
Being able to program ai into the miniatures would be interesting as well. (ie. giving them a path to walk along) to give some life to the npcs/creatures.

The planes are my biggest complaint, as it didn't like to play well and I often had to readjust things to be on the same level as everything else. I hope it does get some qol in the future.

Izlude
Izlude

With the onset of D&D's new live service stuff, I rest easy knowing this wonderfully deep tabletop simulator will be there to cross the boundaries with its assets and opportunities with every future content patch. Honestly, its the best roleplaying purchase I've made in a long time, and with so many of my close friends spread across the country, it will likely always be a mandatory part of our games.

iROCK
iROCK

A better Dungeons and Dragon multiplayer experience does not exist. Tale Spire is a revolutionary way of playing one of the greatest table top games of all time.

Killersneek07
Killersneek07

I am enjoying this so far, pretty easy to use. I don't like that everyone in my campaign needs to buy it so we just use it as for visual aid. That being said the art is very good. I would like to see a way to increase the sizes of minis, Giants cant be giant enough!

HoingoBoingotheMoingus
HoingoBoingoth…

Such a fun and visually pleasing way to have ttrpg sessions. Very user friendly and i love the hero forge connection. can't wait to see where this goes

Nix_Deimos
Nix_Deimos

I only run this VTT with my D&D campaigns and, now that they have Cyberpunk stuff, I will now use Talespire for Shadowrun.

CunningLinguist
CunningLinguist

this is sweet for dnd we can use it when were all together or in different houses with discord. super helpful to play campaigns especially with everyone's busy schedule

scrongus
scrongus

Fantastic tool for playing D&D digitally. It can be extremely time consuming to build maps but well worth the effort. Lack of a lot of more contemporary set pieces, and generally leans more into fantasy and sci-fi which completely makes sense. Looks great, plays great, with a minor learning curve for starters.

NikkiTTG
NikkiTTG

Somewhere around 150 hours or so of play time into this, and I can safely say that even during EA this is worth the investment. With the cyberpunk pack out, and being slowly added to, I can now run all my games in this system if I so wish. There are even ways to upload custom STL files with Heroforge built in! Unfortunately we are waiting on the official mod support, which I feel should be higher on the docket, as well as dealing with some minor bugs and missing QoL features (different square distances per board when?)

All around worth it to buy in now if you want to start prepping a campaign or are joining a friends, however expect bugs and weirdness until the official release.

Bolten Godsong
Bolten Godsong

This has been a fantastic purchase. And they actually listen to the fans too. I had put in a recommendation for having them implement the new lasso feature a couple months ago and seeing it implemented today spurred me into writing a review. This game is a must have for all online table top gaming

Dimitri the Heretic
Dimitri the Heretic

Fantastic tool with really good models and improvements on the way. Can't wait to see what they bring to the future.

pazackus
pazackus

Great virtual tabletop for my D&D crew. I expected it to be super buggy and really difficult to learn. I'm glad to report that it hasn't crashed on me, and it's user-friendly. I am a dummy and I just had to watch a couple of tutorials on YT and I got the basics. I love it, and my players love it!

Roknar
Roknar

Ok I have a bunch of hours in this now and although I don't like leaving a review in early access I will give this a positive early access review for one reason and ONE REASON ONLY.

This game has potential, but DO NOT BUY it for what is in the game now! Only if you wish to support the development.

Virtually any of it's competitors put this game to shame in terms of features. In content, polish, pace of development...etc.
The devs have some archaic ideas and seem unable to set their priorities right. They would really need a publisher...
They're way overdue on delivering kickstarter promises (that their competitors have btw) and it seems to get only slower, not faster.

And despite all of that I give it a positive review. Just go look at Istallri's showreels.
At it's best, the game is simple to use, powerful and looks downright gorgeous.
Want to blast a hole in that random wall? go right ahead. The lack of animations is not a con against this game either. It keeps things simple and it works. This is the closest I've seen so far to a genuine table top experience. (Tabletop simulator is janky as all hell, this is smooth)

Could it have more animations? Sure, but for this game, I would honestly consider it a feature rather than an issue.
Although I guess it is something you will love or hate.

I am giving it a positive review, because I really want this game to succeed, but really really think twice before paying for it. It is one sneeze away from staying in development hell forever with it's content creators going elsewhere.
I haven't experienced any noteworthy bug in 200 hours, that's good. And it runs smoothly, but I also have a stupidly overspecced rig for this. But feature wise?...whoa mama, pretty sad.

Modding - planned
miniature creator - planned
rules - planned
sheets - planned
(non janky) fog of war - planned
inventory - planned (seriously?!)
weather - planned
status effect - planned
world maps? - not even on the roadmap... never mind overlays.

you starting to see the issue there?

Lord Neuker
Lord Neuker

I freaking love Talespire. It has been an amazing way to play TTRPG's with my friends and family, especially virtually. They've done a very good job of making it feel like a tabletop with miniatures instead of overly "gamifying" the experience so that you don't lose the magic of storytelling and roleplay. At the same time though, especially playing virtually over Discord, Zoom, etc..., it creates a beautiful, engaging and inspiring environment to set the tone for each session instead of staring at each others portraits the whole time. Some people complain that it is incomplete and that features are missing. Well that's the nature of it being in Early Access, right? But here's the thing. While I know "Early Access" gets a bad wrap from games that do little to nothing to push towards a final product, the devs at Bouncyrock do not fall into that category AT ALL. Go hop on their discord and see how involved they are with the community and how often they are releasing new features and updates every month. I am amazed at how much they chat with and listen to the ideas and suggestions from the community. These guys are treating early access the absolute right way and I can see that they are working to make a product that both they and the community are passionate about. K I'm done.

Owlbeardo
Owlbeardo

It's powerful and beautiful, but not easy either to learn or to master. I feel like the professional mappers and 3D artists, architects specifically can achieve incredible things here, however for an average user it might be on the cusp of usability because the UI at times is unintuitive and it will squeeze your graphics card HARD if you're going for something bigger than 50x50x20 (and I've got rtx 3050).

However, it's on Steam, which makes it very convenient and it have had decent progress over the years and it seems like there's only more to come!

I personally seriously want Dungeon Alchemist integration though and maybe make navigation easier: planes make no sense to me and these sliders are very hard to use in building mode. A feature to be able to build the plan in 2D and then quickly transform it into 3D would've been amazing too.

VOnFire
VOnFire

Very good, only suggestion I may ask for is an ability for my players to join free. Not all of them have the money to spend on this. But this is also a great tool for DMs to fully build their world and let their players explore.

Phoetus
Phoetus

If you're a TT gamer who has a vision of the FEWWWWCHUUURE you must purchase this.

Seriously. This is an amazing toolset and while I haven't done a lot other than operate as a PC, this thing is fantastic. My group is a mix of online and live and TaleSpire is perfect for that kind of situation. At a live game, the DM uses a projector and screen and this operates as a live map while we, the players, utilize laser pointers to indicate where we're moving and what we're attacking. Playing remotely is as natural as any RPG and the DM/host can easily allow player control of their own pieces. It works great and, once you get used to it, adds a lot of immersion for the remote players.

Support this! If you are an olde gamer like me you may remember the NWN Aurora toolset for building custom adventures and this feels like a modernized/simplified version of that. It has a wide array of mods and allows custom 3D models (just have to be the right format). I could go on, but I have a game to get to.

BUY THIS!

BathToast
BathToast

A great VTT marred by a needless rejection of 2D characters

I want to start by saying that this, in its own right, is a great VTT. However, the develoment team seems to have a completely unnecessary hatred for "Paper Models" or 2D models and claim on the FAQ that it "Murders the Feel of the game" and generally seem to have a strange ire against them. If this were for technical reasons I'd understand, but they're deliberately refusing a widely requested feature that would immensely help this games accessibility to newer players or players with less money. Adding a "Paper" token as an option is NOT going to "Murder the feel of the game", I'd say that what murders the immersion and feeling far more is plopping down a random token and telling your players "yeah this goblin is actually a giant combat mech" or having to generally make do with mismatched tokens. 2D tokens are a quick and dirty way of doing improvized fights, and should be added to the game in a way that doesnt REQUIRE modding and offer a quick way to dump an image into the game and put it on a token on the fly.

Some people dont have the money to buy a ton of Hero Forge minis for every custom enemy, and Hero Forge has limitations. So if its not within the confines of HF or your budget then your completely SOL entirely. Drawing is easy, 3D modelling is far from easy. Not to mention one of the few good examples of a 2D Mini I've found is locked behind someones patreon, and mods can be broken by updates from time to time.

By not supporting 2D figures, the folks working on TaleSpire are effectively gating people who dont want to spend a ton of money on 3D Figures, which is half the point of a VTT anyway: you dont have to spend a bunch of money on figures its all virtual.

Again, I'd understand if there was a technical reason for this. However, the general census i've seen from the steam community pages, the FAQ, and it seems the discord is effectively: "no i dont wanna because i dont like them" and frankly, I cant get behind refusing a widely requested feature that is simply quality of life because of what is effectively developers bias it seems. Sure you can mod it like they suggest, but again: that requires going outside the realm of an out of the box experience and not all users are savvy enough to do this.

What they have, especially their build tools and ambiance options, is nearly unparalleled and they're certainly in the lead for the 3D VTT market. However, competitors are starting to enter the ring and as its stands: I cannot, will not, and never will reccomend TaleSpire to anyone until they add such a simple accessibility option without the requirement of having to mod your game to do so. If it were up to me, i'd refund Talespire if i was able to, as well as the copies my friends bought because I showed interest in using this for my upcoming campaign. However, a bit late for that. So a word of caution for those who homebrew or like to do custom models: Dont get it.

This has ultimately forced me to switch to Foundry, a 2D VTT, that offers a wealth of features and options out of the box and a great overall experience. Furthermore, its a one time purchase for the DM of 50 dollars. While twice as much as Talespire: it only has to be bought by one person. If you're interested in other 3D VTTs, Constructo - Dungeon Builder is going into Kickstarter in Sept 2022, and it looks very promising. It will be free with a subscription for additional models to build maps with and also will feature Hero Forge Support just like Talespire. I encourage anyone who is curious to give it a look.

Talespire devs, I salute you for a job well done otherwise. You have a fantastic system here. However, don't knee cap it just because of one feature. Listen to the people asking for it, please.

serve_the_overmind
serve_the_overmind

Awesome, intuitive map/dungeon builder with a great resin mini figurine aesthetic. Super easy to use. Obvs still early access, but even for early access I've been impressed. Not as robust as something like Roll20 in terms of game mechanics or having a one-stop shop for your DMing needs, but probably the best map/dungeon builder I've ever come across. Certainly the best looking.

Nikčina is sus
Nikčina is sus

It is the best terrain tool I've seen so far. Jam-packed with content and being constantly updated are just the tip of the iceberg. Only gripe with this is the mini's, but i guess that is "fixed" with the heroforge connectivity, and the slightly hard to grasp UI. Without a video, you could be a bit lost.

Devildog44
Devildog44

really cool 3d builder, any complaints I have are only because its early access. Lots of good features worth the $25 so far and excited for future features

Recksaa
Recksaa

makes roll 20 look like a bitch

Konisu
Konisu

The absolute best way to make dnd maps on pc

Techno Maestro
Techno Maestro

TaleSpire is what I *want* a Virtual Tabletop to be; maps are easy to build, the lighting and texture work is well done, and the UI is actually remarkably clean.

The problem, of course, is that as of this review, TaleSpire lacks TaleWeaver - the supposed ability to import your own models and content into the system. This is what Virtual Tabletop systems live and die upon; if you cannot import your own content, you'll be making do with "this counts as a X instead of Y" situations the whole way forward. And with so many other tabletop programs that allow for user made content, the glaring lack of this is so painful to deal with that I can't recommend it at all.

I haven't refunded it because Early Access of course means lacking features, and TaleWeaver is on it's way according to the roadmap, but until it arrives, I won't be using this.

NeptuniusDex
NeptuniusDex

Talespire provides a very modern way in which to play D&D, but still keeps everything great about classic game play. What impresses me most is the amazing detail in the graphics.

Couchy Rick
Couchy Rick

its got a couple bugs like it says but its mainly just with the consistancy of multi select but that may also have been my mnouse just got a new cheap one lets see how it goes but other then that uts fenominal move partws play with friends and to boot make enemies and players play on board AND they just added support with hero forge with there digital token pieces !
check it out tons of assets forfree to use its like a simplified version of using unity id compare it to

Slowner
Slowner

Every aspiring DM should check out Talespire.
I am a 12 year DM (For context).

I have used countless tools/software/etc in my time creating worlds for eager adventurers, but none have ever come close to the ease of access and super simple interfaces of Talespire. Even competing products look like cheap imitations now to me. Its all too commonplace in the world of commercialism that a company produces a software only to turn it around and charge 5-30$ for DLC packs that include content that should for all intents and purposes have come with the software. Or even worse, spit directly in the face of their consumers by blocking any attempts at creating custom content for the software. Talespire has taken the interesting approach of having wide open arms to their modders and even potential works with other companies to provide the best experience possible for it's users. The recent team-up with HeroForge makes it even easier than ever before to get custom designed models into the VTT and their open support of modding communities that revolve around the game shows that they are committed to providing a truly compelling experience for people that are like the developers themselves; fans of fantasy worlds they can explore with their friends.

Every few updates brings an absolute mouthful of new content drops, features and improvements. This tool has revolutionized the next step for VTTs in my eyes and has created countless memories for me and many friend groups. I have ran five campaigns exclusively through Talespire and each time my players come back to me to tell me how incredible it was to experience things in that much level of detail. Having a physical anagram to represent their world helps better align player visions and imagery of your created worlds, Seeing spells cast on their screens feels refreshing and exciting. Rolling dice on the virtual tables, or even designing the players their own virtual dice rolling towers were all some of my own personal favorite tidbits.

Chedmurderface
Chedmurderface

Truly awesome stuff.
The game is already usable in terms of enjoying it with your friends, so there's really no reason to wait if you are interested.
Looking forward to modding and other future updates such as FoW.

becauseican2.lm
becauseican2.lm

I like how interactive it is and it's getting better and better all the time. I love being able to import my hero forge minis.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Let's play D&DEEEEEE! Let's make MAAAAAPS! 3D you say?! YES!

cogger45
cogger45

Our dnd group have been using talespire since it came out, it's very useful for dms to build battlemaps, towns castles and fortresses and yes dungeons!. There is also mods and characters minis to use aswell, thanks to the creators and steam for giving the online community something so diverse and useful.

Gramboru
Gramboru

One ofthe best VTT programs around, its intuitive and makes the game run a lot more smoothly for the characters involved 10/10, keep up the good work guys!

Trixer
Trixer

As long as you live by the motto "Teach players to play the game and not teach them were to click on their character sheet" Then TaleSpire is for you! It instantly transports you back to a time when DMs made foam maps and we all moved minis around a table until our mothers called us home to sleep for school the next day!

There is no true review that can fully describe what the players feel when they first load into your talespire games using custom minis from hero forge... Its just.. what we have always wanted! Let dndbeyond or some other tool keep track of character details and game mechanics and let Talespire do what its suppose to do, be the most epic VTT for any game system ever!

IWINTERBORNI
IWINTERBORNI

Best way to play Virtual TTRPGs I've seen. The support keeps coming with tons of free resources. While I wish there was built in support for D&D 5e that hasn't limited us, and there's options out there to mod this to include 5e support via D&D Beyond. Heroforge integration is sick, my players took advantage and bought their own minis (if they chose too). Best way to simulate in person minis use I've seen. Can't wait to see the long promised Cyberpunk resources so SciFi support occurs!

BulletBill93
BulletBill93

The look is amazing and I've never had a better online tabletop experience.

14CentsShort
14CentsShort

My friend joey jizzed his pants when he saw the new update

Engineer Gaming
Engineer Gaming

there is no tutorial ):
I want to know how to use it, but i dont know how

Squeakel™
Squeakel™

FINALLY
This is the one boios, its finally the best map maker.

Slick -suspension of disbelief- enhancing graphical design

Easy to understand and use UI

Easy to manipulate objects after placing

And most importantly, enough tokens that you can actually fill up most of an environment in a single, neat theme.

They even allow a free demo so only the DM needs to own the game, the players can simply download the demo.

CONs;
quality tokens take time to produce and the developers may not produce ones for your favorite settings first. But this is an "issue" all map making softwares have.

Shootysaurus Rex
Shootysaurus Rex

Talespire has a very easy to grasp interface and works terrifically for making 3d battle maps for TTRPGs. Having used it for nearly a year to run an online DND campaign, i would truly recommend it to anyone wanting to play DND who is also creative or not because you can go to their site and straight up still already made A+ maps to use. Can't wait to see how much extra stuff they'll add in the future

SadAccidents
SadAccidents

Best online tabletop rpg system Ive seen and its still in early access. Very good game ngl.

Littleflamey
Littleflamey

Dungeons and Dragons over call has never been more fun. Sure it takes a while (Especially if you're the GM) to get a hang of the controls but that's half the fun! All the stuff in this game is great. From zombies to goblins from swords to bows they've got it all. Can't wait to see what the add in the future

subetai99
subetai99

Awesome for tabletop RPB recreation!

GH0$+
GH0$+

The game works great, has a chrome extension to work with D&D beyond, and offers a lot of tile sets to build with.

Grail
Grail

looks nice. annoying UI. unintuitive. incredibly steep learning curve.

that_archer_girl
that_archer_girl

Talespire is amazing for *actually* grasping size comparisons and visualization of spaces. The Hero Forge compatibility and new scifi update added a ton of content and more options as well. So far my only complaint is that there needs to be a way to mark AOE effects that stay in place on the map for others to see. It makes keeping track of spells somewhat annoying, but we've been using the measure tool and it's doable.

Sigh
Sigh

Absolutely amazing, cannot wait for more models and assets!!!!

Downwell: The Movie
Downwell: The Movie

Such a great method for making and playing maps, so much fun to be able to play around with verticality and involve that in the gameplay!

GhostDogSicario
GhostDogSicario

Has worked great for our online sessions. Linking with HeroForge is pretty nice as well. Some bugs, but overall worth the investment.

PyGy
PyGy

Lots of potential, cannot recommend right now.

I see a lot of time and effort put into this program, but unfortunately it is not work a 25 dollar price tag right now. The things I was able to do in it are not what I would expect for the money right now. I understand it is being developed currently and is only in early access but it is too clunky to use as a battle map, which I assume is its main purpose.

As a visuals-only map maker, it is very beautiful and with some clever map-making tricks, you can make it look *almost* as nice as the screenshots they provide. It cannot currently be used reliably for a session or campaign however.

Crusader Europa
Crusader Europa

This is the best thing added to DND since pen and paper

GGButterknives
GGButterknives

Great vtt map designer. Constant updates. Open to use any system as a companion.

⊚

This program is worth every cent. It has many miniatures and building blocks for you to use, as well as much atmospheric content to help set the mood. As a game master, I plan to run a session with it some time soon. It is great and the potential it has is even greater. The added fact that you can add a hero-forge character is also amazing. I recommend you get this if you have people you plan on playing with. I will say that although it has a lot of amazing tiles to build with, theres still a lot to expand in terms of minitures and other aspects but for an early access it is great.

WARNING: You cannot run this game without the internet. I read somewhere that the devs do plan on making it runnable online, but you do need an internet connection to run this. fear not though, as since I'm in the country, I have a very poor connection and this program still works like wonders.

The Goomba LNR
The Goomba LNR

So, after over 100 hours of using this "game", I think it has great potential. it has one of the best level editors for making TTRPGs games like DnD but there are a few bad things I have to say about it. 1, it is not free for players which is a problem as for people that don't plan to DM they are missing out on most of the stuff, (my personal solution would be so players can join games but not be able to make ones see any of the assets apart form then they are in a game that someone is DMing)
2, there is no way to add/import custom content (at least at the moment) this game has a lot of cool miniatures but I'm sure both players and DMs want to add their own creations from NPCs too player models, and everything in between.
saying all this game is still in Early Access and many things can change. I would say it's a great Level-Editor Tool, but if you want to buy make sure you have players who are willing to buy it, as i have bought this game for my players and then most of them stopped talking to me and we never played the game. SO buy it at your own risk

FunWithCerberus
FunWithCerberus

CANNOT WAIT TO SEE WHAT THEY DO TO MAKE THIS THE BEST DND PLATFORM

RetroRayys
RetroRayys

It is a wonder full tool for bringing your dnd games to live and in its current state worth the price but i do hope they add more fantacy blocks and items for city building, towns, and homes to add some divercity

Kaleidio
Kaleidio

It lacks everything a VTT needs.
Quite frankly, I am not really sure what to use this for, unless you play D&D only with basic rule monsters and sheets on paper.
But it probably does have it's uses.

LazerusZ
LazerusZ

This is a fun game to use for DND. I have some experience with building maps to play on, but most of my experience is from being the player. The DM can make large maps, and establish fogs of war for individual players. I find this even more immersive than playing with theater of the mind as individually players can see and learn things that now needs to be figured out how to communicate that information. It just adds another layer to the game of DND. I was able to install my own character model from Hero Forge, it did not work right away, and I had access to other character models for some reason. Eventually the game just connected the correct model. Making maps presents itself as fairly easy. There also seems to be the option to load in pre-made models, but I did not get to do this yet, our GM did. There have been some issues where some players cannot see things moved around or added mid game, but most issues have been fixed through closing and reloading the game. Some of my peers have found the game to be demanding, and had to choose between being on discord, or being able to have Talespire open. The work around has been for some of us to stream the game in Discord, which has worked just fine. Personally, there have been none of those issues on my end, so those are not necessarily my complaints. I play a druid currently and we just discovered the Morph feature which has added more depth to my character in game.

AbstractDark
AbstractDark

Lovely lovely lovely. I just wish there were more building options, like for pirate ships/airships and such.

NAMCINOS
NAMCINOS

TaleSpire is an AWESOME way to play tabletop games online but not being able to be a player for free KILLS it for me. I can't justify the purchase for my players or potential players when so many other platforms are free for players. If the official D&D 3D online tabletop is free for players I suspect the vast majority of people will use that instead. If your players are down to purchase it as well then it's definitely worth a try especially if you value that tabletop feel. Free seats for players please!

Kagitar Shadowscale
Kagitar Shadowscale

It's pretty good honestly, I just wish they added character sheets, monster stats, and make it to where if a DM buys it he can invite a few players even if there is a cap of 3-4 then it's more probable that others will see how awesome it is and invest in it, I am a DM and Purchased it fully and I love what it has so far and I look forward to what will be added in it's future, the community that has purchased it is small compared to what it could be IF the creators of it do that one simple thing of allowing free players Cap of 4 even I'm sure many more people will invest into it AND into Heroforge since you do support Custom Mini's.

Doctor Dome
Doctor Dome

Great tool for running and playing tabletop games that is getting better as time goes on. Biggest issues is the lack of good tutorials and the difficulty of adding custom elements for games. Beyond that, the tool is easy to use, once learned, and allows for tons of creativity and easy sharing between creators on various forums and repos.

8.5/10

pistolpete10
pistolpete10

i liked the original content and goal of this, i had hoped for a while that someone would do some easy to use cyberpunk assets and my long wait payed off. i am very happy with the tools and the assets. for sure going to keep using this for my sessions.

Skyelar
Skyelar

I waited until running my first full session in TaleSpire until reviewing but I have been really happy with TaleSpire so far. A couple of key points to note at the top for visibility:
- Each player must own their own copy of TaleSpire to fully enjoy the experience but we got away with two people owning a copy, One DM who manages enemies and creates maps, and one player who shares their screen with everyone and moves all the player tokens for each player. This system ended up working pretty well as we had a few players with budgets that just don't always allow to try out a new VTT. So, if you can have at least two party members (the DM and 1 PC) then I would recommend giving it a shot.
- The development team is small but dedicated, communicative, and often release updates requested by the community. (Newly added a massive cyberpunk asset pack for example), however this does mean that new features take time to come out.
- There are also great community made maps and assets (excluding minis) on several different websites. You can copy paste something you like directly from a browser into TaleSpire seamlessly and this is a fantastic feature for quickly adding new maps and assets in between sessions, or to see what others have made.
- Finally, there is custom miniature integration with HeroForge, but this can get a bit pricey to make all the minis necessary for a long campaign. There is a decent amount of placeholder minis available with base TaleSpire and we have been fine using placeholders but large scenes tend to need repeated minis if you want to represent a crowd (for example).
Overall, I have been extremely happy with TaleSpire and the community resources available therein. To fully create your own world (with custom minis) you may feel inclined to buy custom minis through HeroForge or seek out mods to add more, but overall if you can get one player and one DM on board, I think TaleSpire can facilitate a great campaign.
For additional context, I ran a traditional fantasy DnD 5e session with roleplay and combat encounters. My group said they enjoyed this system much more than previous sessions using theater of the mind combat.

darkslayer0905
darkslayer0905

Generally I have a rule against buying a product while it is in alpha. The exception being if in the current state it has enough features that I would be satisfied if nothing else was ever added. Talespire reaches and exceeds that burden. Even without mods this tool is incredible, I've just gotten lost in rebuilding my roll20 maps in 3D. I love the height and depth it adds to a map, the intricate but simple tools.

And lets talk about the modding community, these guys, gals, and non-binary pals are SSS grade in both talent and passion. Highly recommend you pick up thunderstore when you grab this software and join the modding discord.

Talestavern.com is another really good resource, basically a gallery to go and download other people's creations.

Roll20 has been good to my group, but I'm pushing to make the leap to Talespire.

Gradydad
Gradydad

Extremely slow updates, and when they do come out it tends to be only a few props or models that are extremely thematically specific, and which you'll probably never use. If this were released 5 years earlier it would be great, but at the rate it's going now it is simply unrealistic to say that it has any chance to compete with competitors, especially with the Official D&D VTT coming out soon.

Devs, if you're reading this, get on the ball. Double, even triple your modelling team. You have the budget to do it. If you can't put out content fast enough, then set up Workshop and let the users do it themselves.

Leamich
Leamich

Amazing graphics attention to detail great way with hold campaigns with your friends an or family i'd hand it a 10 out of 10 an recomend it to anyone whom whishes to embark on their own jernouies or even just to have fun an create some wicked modules

Longshank69
Longshank69

Great tool for tabletop gaming online I highly recommend this works as a great interface for D & D

Feiff
Feiff

Great platform. Enormous potential. Lots and lots of stuff getting added. Can really recommend this to anyone who like to build their own virtual maps that can be used for either exploration, general gameplay or as battlemaps.

Chileaxe
Chileaxe

Very nice and solid little Dungeon Builder. Would honestly make for a good tool to visualize your dungeons. Not to mention it's just kinda fun building dungeons with it.

raldanash
raldanash

Although it takes a while to create a scene or a board, the end result is usually gorgeous and the process almost meditative...

Pootin Doodads
Pootin Doodads

I like this, it cuts a lot of prep time for me and combat feels so much better in 3d, the measurement tools come with cone and sphere versions for easy spell targeting. look up some guides on how to get started building, or skip that step and just to to talestavern and browse maps in there. if you're playing a module, someone probably already made the maps for it.

even if only the GM has a copy of the game, you can still stream it on discord to your players and be their camera. if at least one player also has it, use their perspective for the stream so you can still do GM stuff without revealing anything like the stat wheels of your NPCs or hidden monsters in the GM layer.

only thing that sucks is no in-engine mini customization, hate that I have to pay heroforge for it, but oh well. 25 bucks for the game is already cheap for what I've gotten out of it, and heroforge pro gets you 5 minis and a pack of NPCs each month so it's not that egregious.

Lopideon
Lopideon

Works well for building small battlemaps or large worldmaps.

yBe
yBe

It's a 3D-Mapbuilder.
As long as the creators shell out content, this can't fail and beats every 2D map any day.
I use it with OBS, build an Overlay and stream the virtual camera into Discord fro my Group. It's absolutely perfect for that, though, you can of course play with your whole group directly inside TaleSpire, but I don't like giving my players control. The risk of being distracted is too big. But that's just my take :)

Building maps is A LOT of fun and works really fast. Recreating maps from Adventure Paths, everything is possible. I'm hoping for some more game mechanics, but really, all I need is more assets.

Grant1997
Grant1997

this is brilliant for my dnd games love how easy it is to create maps only thing i would like is maybe a way to edit the minis colour and or other features of the minis

Sir Fuckwit the Pink
Sir Fuckwit the Pink

To be further fleshed out when I have the time... for now, know that this software is a godsend

MeltyGoblin
MeltyGoblin

A VTT with a very "tabletop" focused art style that lets you create your virtual DnD and tables that you could only dream of. If you really enjoy the aesthetic of miniatures on a table, this gives you the ability to create your own worlds that would only be possible IRL if you had an infinite supply of painted terrain. A good community around the game with online resources for player created maps for your use, as well as integration with hero forge for customization gives you lots of leeway to customize your maps and world. With terrain steadily being added in by the devs over time the game is in a really good place right now. With a little creativity you can create just about anything. The building can be cumbersome sometimes, getting hiden areas to be properly hidden without making your world look blank can be a challenge, and clipping items into each other for a more custom look, or to prevent everything from looking to samey can take a lot of time, but there are some insanely detailed and impressive maps out there for this game. Biggest con is it requires everyone to purchase a copy, which is a big up front ask for a group of 4-5 people. But if everyone is on board, I've had a great time DMing my games in talespire.

Safety_101
Safety_101

Easy to use and beautiful fully customizable 3d maps. The DNDBeyond integration is very easy to use as well

Ren
Ren

TL:DR Version: As a DM, I have fallen in love with Talespire.

It gives you access to everything you need to build an amazing world to run your campaigns in. You have a wide variety of Tiles to build with, atmospheric lighting, sound, and DM tools to make things easier for you as you're running the game. The dev team has been constantly putting out updates, fixes, and adding additional props and minis (it is EA after all) But even with some limits at the moment, the content is there. Additionally, the support from the Devs, for the community and the ease of access to a wide availability of user created (Want to share something you've built? Copy paste the code to a friend or visit the community websites to copy/paste something straight to your game and import full maps!) content make preparing sessions a breeze even if you're not the best at building your own set pieces.

My players have had nothing but praise for the experience Talespire has provided them, and many of them wish we could meet more often for sessions because they enjoy it too much... if such a term exists. The immersion is wonderful and the bards will sing praises to bouncyrock till the nine hells freeze over.

I think my only feedback would be that it's a little rough to have the entire party buy the game in order to play together. Since this is mainly a tool for the DM to create and run their world, having the players each pay $30 in order to play feels a bit steep considering it's around the price of the PHB, but I still willingly bought a couple of my players their copy because I want to support the Devs on this one.

TopDeck
TopDeck

Fantastic virtual table top tool. I can only speak for my experience as a player, but it's done so much for my immersion in the game.

Coffee Man
Coffee Man

A wonderful tool for aspiring DMs that do not have the ability to purchase terrain and minatures for D&D battle maps.

Muggz
Muggz

Very good VTT with a lot of room for creativity! 10/10

Arkl1te
Arkl1te

I've had a hard time using the map editor. The tutorials aren't good enough. I didn't know it was possible to import unless I asked, it's just weird to use. In short, the UI/UX is seriously lacking here. I was picturing the easiness of The Sims 1 while building an entire house and placing objects here and there. By the time of editing what's already placed, TaleSpire feels more of a chore than something to have passion using.

I didn't even get to play because I was merely testing the waters before asking my friends to buy it. Now I requested a refund.

Juzo Biwa
Juzo Biwa

amazing looks and details just have to put in the time to make it beautiful am looking forward to maybe making mountains a bit easier to design i seem to be struggling to do so.

Smallfavor
Smallfavor

I love this VTT. I spend hours on hours in here making maps and playing DND. Like most players, they hardly ever stay on tract. This is never a problem with Tales Tavern and Tales Bizarre available to import community made maps on the fly. With the constant updates and Dev support, I couldn't be happier. Heroforge integration, polymorph feature, and the Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk release are a few things released in the past month. I'm excited to see what comes next.

MangoFeliz
MangoFeliz

I have great expectations with this software!
Keep up the good work guys!

Vindico
Vindico

I have 20 hours in this game and I haven't even started my first campaign yet.

CULT|icycalm
CULT|icycalm

TALESPIRE IS FINISHED

What sustains a program like TaleSpire?

The community of creators it attracts. Without them, the cool designs of people like Istallri cease being produced, and all that's left is garbage sets that "homebrew" GMs foist on their poor players. And TaleSpire is about to start losing these creators, because next spring they will start migrating to French-developed first-person VR VTT, Menyr: https://culture.vg/forum/topic?t=7734

Menyr offers from day 1 absolutely everything that the TaleSpire team seems utterly incapable of adding to their program. No longer will creators have to waste dozens of hours trying to turn unnaturally blocky tiles into something that looks kind of natural by clipping countless props all over them (and tanking performance in the process), they will simply click a couple of buttons and fully-realized forests and mountains will materialize for dozens of square miles as if by magic, the magic of digital computing that the TaleSpire devs seem to struggle to handle.

Menyr will offer from day 1 perfect fog-of-war that the TaleSpire team seems incapable of implementing, or even prioritizing. And on top of that, Menyr will offer first-person and even VR viewmodes, exactly as I asked for in my controversial but massively popular Reddit thread that Bouncyrock banned me for: https://www.reddit.com/r/talespire/comments/thf5kg/fogofwar_debacle_wou…

For the above and many more reasons, it is unavoidable that the best TaleSpire creators will migrate to Menyr next spring once it hits beta, and that's when TaleSpire will be finished.

If it sounds like I am loving this, I am not. In my 1962-2022 GOTY Awards I even declared TaleSpire 2021 GOTY: https://culture.vg/reviews/awards/game-of-the-year.html

My massive TaleSpire forum thread has been the most comprehensive news source for the game for two years: https://culture.vg/forum/topic?t=7276

Even being treated like garbage by the developers across half a dozen social platforms hasn't dimmed my love for the program. I understand they're nerds and they need to be nerding, and I don't resent them for it. But I do resent their laziness and incompetence that will shortly sink their project. It all fully dawned on me when I watched their latest dev stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgL9pUX1I1E

Skip to 12:50 when poor demongund asks them for the 1,001st time to give him a blue tile for his water-related projects. I couldn't believe their reaction. They have been seeing this request for MONTHS now, for over a YEAR probably, and they still don't seem to have a proper response let alone a plan for it. All they can do is mumble while scratching their beards. I couldn't believe these are the developers of this project! Such a little thing he's asking them for, and they don't even know where to BEGIN to deal with it. And if they can't deal with THIS, how will they ever give us the SHIPS that everyone's been asking for, or any more advanced features? On their roadmap they say "some day we'll have natural-looking foam terrain or whatever". Is that sometime this decade, or century? Is it before or after Menyr delivers Elden Ring-level graphics to VTTs?

I've been waiting for the promised weather effects for TWO YEARS now. They will probably never come, or if they come it'll be some lame simplistic effect. Meanwhile Menyr can conjure entire SNOW STORMS that shake trees and obscure everything! And it can do this RIGHT NOW. Who will wait for these two slow dudes to learn enough programming to get anywhere near that? No one will wait. Everyone will migrate, and TaleSpire will be finished.

It's a shame because TaleSpire's artstyle has grown on me, and though I will ultimately prefer Baldur's Gate III- and Elden Ring-level art (and full animation including proper running that Menyr supports, and not this stupid "jumping" every tile that Bouncyrock are forcing on us), I wouldn't mind playing the odd campaign in TaleSpire's retro artstyle. The ARTIST they have working on this (they only have one) is the only guy on the team who has REALLY been knocking it out of the park with asset pack after asset pack, and I will miss his work. I could import it into Menyr, but it would look out of place there next to much sharper and animated assets. So deep down I AM hoping that TaleSpire somehow survives the onslaught of next-gen VTTs that Menyr is about to unleash, but I am not hopeful. If Istallri and co. stop making sets, it doesn't matter how many tiles and props and minis the artist makes, since there won't be any more good sets to use them in. Such a sad story.

But ultimately, that artist and countless others will start offering their works on Menyr's marketplace, and whole magical universes will materialize there right before our eyes, all the while the Bouncyrock people will be scratching their beards and wondering how it happened, and why they were left out. But it is very easy to understand why they'll be left out.

There are nearly a DOZEN 3D VTTs on Steam already, and NONE of them have any good creators except TaleSpire because this genre is so small that there aren't enough of them to go around, so the best program vacuums them all up. 3D building is tough and time-consuming, and 3D modeling is even tougher. There isn't enough demand in the market for multiple such projects even if they are equal, let alone when there's a massive feature-disparity between them.

TaleSpire is finished, and I told the developers months ago that this is what will happen, and I am telling them again now, but all they can think of in response to criticism is BAN BAN BAN. Soon enough though they will have no one to ban, because they'll have no players.

Shiri Taberu
Shiri Taberu

Best way to play online d&d in my opinion a lot more work for your standard dm but this mixed with a hero forge subscription is amazing.

Dwdal
Dwdal

the best platform for your rpg experience!

i fucking love decal tools
i fucking love…

Very intuitive, great pricepoint, and really easy to import external content. Hands down the best VTT on the market right now.

ChillNoble
ChillNoble

wish the steam workshop worked

jake.1995
jake.1995

great start. cant wait for more. would be amazing to have a dnd beyond functionality!

LordZulkir
LordZulkir

THIS IS FAR MORE MAGNIFICENT THAN THE TRAILER LETS ON!!!!

This is not so much of a game, as it is what you can create inside of it to make your game come alive. This takes everything about building mini's like in D&D / Warhammer 40k, including the characters and buildings and game-maps, MASHES IT ALL TOGETHER, and tells you to "Go nuts!".

I've done some mathematics, and the game map size (whilst broken up) has the capacity for 154 square miles, or 398.858 square kilometers of game space, with 1 million assets PER BOARD! (There are specifics to this, but this is basic-ified).

Does it have D&D rules? not yet. Will it? Yes. (Confirmed by Devs).
Does it look beautiful? ABSO-####ING-LUTELY!!!
Does it have mod support? significantly far more mod support than one can suggest or even comprehend for an EA program!
Is it Fun? Oh you bet your ass!!!

The only limit? is your imagination, LITERALLY. even with mods, you can create an entire world purely based on YOUR idea's. There is so much to this that this review alone cannot tell you everything.

But let me say this: GIVE IT A TRY!!! even in early access it is worth at least 3 times its price in value alone. Mods make it 5 times worth its current base value!

get it and give it a try! There's no cost to it other than purchasing the main software (for now as of writing)

Ms.Baguette
Ms.Baguette

I'm loving this dnd tool right now :D
I'm hoping also that we get to scale the assets in the building process :)

BloodboundX
BloodboundX

A useful tool that allowed me to wean off socializing and dungeons and dragons while COVID stopped regular sessions.

Sagata
Sagata

With an expensive price tag, especially to get people in, I cannot recommend this product. Not being able to import any of your own objects, or pictures or anything just sucks. The heroforge implimentation, when they charge $8 per mini, is a complete rip and not at all cost effective for a dm or their players.

I instead -HIGHLY- recommend going to foundryvtt, for a single purchase as a GM, then head over to https://theripper93.com/#/module/levels-3d-preview . This guy has a patreon, and for $8, you can make foundry do everything that talespire does, and then some.; including the import of your own models. There is a learning curve, but its far more worth your dollar.

tytheawesome97
tytheawesome97

New staple to my Table Top Game

beardalaxy
beardalaxy

This is a very powerful and really unique tool for creating maps for tabletop games. With great power comes a bit of a learning curve, but having things in 3D with rulers and everything makes figuring out range on spells and such so much easier. Visualizing how battles look has never been easier.

The only thing this is missing that I'd like to see added is labels. Currently, there is no way to add text to minis to show status effects, which is something a simpler tabletop simulator like DungeonFog has. I'd really appreciate that as it makes the flow a lot easier when status effects start to pile up in large fights with high level PCs and enemies.

Rithe
Rithe

I run a weekly D&D group and this thing has been a god send.
helps with combat encounters and also lets me add that personal touch to locations should my players want their own room. The online arcives for maps is also really really useful for seeing how other people have dealt with any problems I might have with regards to maps feeling to flat or to empty

all in all it's fantastic!

AisarthDK
AisarthDK

Visually the best VTT app for running great campaigns and oneshots!

Smadam Smavage
Smadam Smavage

TaleSpire is a very promising concept, I love the idea of being able to create my own campaigns and have the engine do all the work for rolls, stats, etc in gameplay. The tools are a bit finicky but overall very usable. I really want to recommend this game, but let's get real here; a game of DND usually consists of at least 4 people. One DM, and 3 players. At the very least.

If you have 3 friends who are willing to drop £20 on the game, each, just to play then that's great. Go for it, all of you buy it. But on the more realistic side of things, no. That's not going to happen. The game really needs to go free to play, pay to build. Or some kind of way to just allow other people to play with you without them owning the game, like a browser app or something. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but something needs to change to make this game worth it.

TL/DR: Game needs to drastically drop in price, or go free to play but pay to build. It's not worth it otherwise.

jeanetteobrien761
jeanetteobrien761

if you love d&d like me then this is for you

BlazinPancak
BlazinPancak

10/10 still early access but it's perfect regardless

K2 Saint
K2 Saint

It still needs a bit of work or integrations to be a standalone way to play D&D or any other tabletop game in that type of genre. But the building and things it has so far is perfect! So easy to piece together a quick building or dungeon.
And I love the fact that you can link your Heroforge straight to the game to use your custom built minis.

I would love to see in future updates more animations for the minis and futuristic assests added as i would love to run a StarWars 5e in this software!

agent chubo
agent chubo

Very good game i love how i can make any type of map i want and all my friends thinks its great the only problem is buying it for everyone but in the end its a great game.

j.stancliffe
j.stancliffe

Content updates, look and feel, game options and ease of use A*

MilkMan05
MilkMan05

This game I believe is one of the better dnd board makers. As the game keeps getting updates I feel as it will only get better. With the ability to cover up parts of the maps being released, and the ability to bring in custom tokens is a great plus.

JBDaBeast411
JBDaBeast411

My friends and I use this all the time but not how its supposed to be used. I display my laptop onto the living room tv for all my friends to see. They play DND as usual but i have to control the movement. That may seem like too much since being a DM can already be a lot, but many players said that it felt like we were all playing a video game together. It helps players that dont have the creativity to picture whats going on to rely on the game so they can pay more attention to the story or think about what bad ass move theyll do against the enemy. I can explain how much this has helped me and my friends become so invested into DND. If your a dungeon master with some time on your hands I would 100% recommend this. This can make almost any dnd game, if applied correctly, more fun than you couldve ever imagined. Love the creators for making this application and I hope they keep up the amazing work.

JMan15
JMan15

This game has been the best program for my buddies and I to use when we play Pathfinder and DnD

Denzus
Denzus

My group has been using this platform for a couple months now, and I've been building most of the maps. I really enjoy using TaleSpire for our DnD campaign! It's a bit bare bones for now, but I see great things in the future!

Think of it as simply as a digital version of building a tabletop board to play on. Just build a map, move pieces and bits around, and it's about that simple. You can make incredible settings, but it's not a "game", just a way of representing the board. Don't bother with turn modes or anything, just play as you normally would and move figures around as needed.

For negative reviews that criticize the frequency of updates: new content is a bit slow sure, but over on the TaleSpire discord the devs are posting updates like every other day. Tons and tons of bug fixing and stability stuff. I have confidence in their dedication to improving and maintaining this project. I'd rather the game be bug-free than constantly updated but unstable.

Also, dear devs, PLEASE add Area of Affect markers ASAP! It's a pain to have to use measuring tools or random objects to represent something like a sphere of darkness. Just simple little rings and boxes that you can plop down of various tile sizes for now would be fine while you make something better.

Noxious Ghoul
Noxious Ghoul

It's like RPG Lego's, fantastic fun and has a pretty good in-game dice and combat system for tracking PC's/NPC's alike. Looks like a large portion of the reason why this game is good is due to community support releasing maps, and hopefully in the future new assets.

black_gringo1
black_gringo1

Bit buggy but once I figure it out with full function it is going to be sick. Hopefully they put a plethora of different monsters in. There are very few monsters but a lot of 5D races. Hoping for more without the need for an expansion. Or if they do publish another group of assets they'll at least bring a load of stuff to the table instead of just like the bigger asset function. HIT IT HARD BOIS.

Hrtchu
Hrtchu

i likes the easy of use and detail

andrewbearranger
andrewbearranger

I enjoy Tale Spire and think it is worth getting. The only issue is each player at the VTT needs to purchase a copy, but it is worth the investment hands down (especially if you regularly use Hero Forge)

Short
Short

get this if you want to make dnd maps but don't have the moneys

Master Max
Master Max

I don't think there's enough content or controls for the level of detail that'd I'd like to personally have. I don't think that this warrants a negative review, I just don't think that the game is quite where it needs to be for where I'd enjoy it. I hope that they'll add more set pieces in the future.

If you're really big on creating props for your D&D games, or even just making sets for fun, just know that the level of detail in specific props, the placement or controls themselves might be too limited.

The Sleepy One
The Sleepy One

I love this app theres no limits to your imagination you can create everything you want , but theres one thing that would be awesome to add ... a first person perspective it would be useful for when you enter forest cause when u want to explore it you cant see where you are going with your token ( switching between first and 3rd person would make it even more immerssive ) .

WooooooMann
WooooooMann

Woooooo. I wanna make a world in a world IN ANOTHER WORLD. Looking forward in the world building and building a story around it. Going to use my skills in editing and fantasy and DND concept world build. For the future I would like to Host and GM my world(s). DM me to bother me to play. :)

Jawzilla
Jawzilla

An amazing RPG tool with a ton of potential ahead of it. Visuals are stunning and It's seriously fun to build maps in this! In the future I can't wait to see more animations and spells, and hopefully workshop support.

IvoryViper
IvoryViper

This is great, However it's got a long way to go. there's some bugs that need fixed (Bugs arent that bad) and a ton of content that needs to be added (like more animations, game pieces, and board pieces) but with the help of the community and the resources that you can find online I know that this is going to fantastic given some time.

hotmomjugs
hotmomjugs

This is not a game. False advert

T8or
T8or

UI is a bit jank, and the controls are getting there. A very solid engine.

Bisexual Wombat
Bisexual Wombat

Probably one of the best virtual tabletops on the market as of now. While there is a fee for entry, the benefits out weigh it. Custom miniature support from Heroforge as of now, a suitably expansive collection of tilesets and premade minis with broad application, VFX, SFX, the list goes on, and with the developers actively adding more to it, it might be the gold standard for paid VTT's as of now. You want an upgrade for your battle maps and overall TTRPG experience? This is the Tabletop you need!

thndrstorm23
thndrstorm23

My video card becomes taxed and overheated then crashes. I've tried various methods of stopping this but I'm afraid this game is not working right. I REALLY like it a ton however and really wished it worked right

Anonymous
Anonymous

very good game only a few bugs that i have found but over all really good

DapperDave
DapperDave

So I finally caved in after seeing Zeebashew praise it so often and bought the game. The best way I can describe it is building in minecraft. Currently we don't have everything but with what we do have it's so easy to be creative and make unique things. My first board I made was for my party's apartment so I had to meld some paintings and levers into a tv with some pipes and boxes being the soundsystem, a mirror and some books into a laptop and making a modern kitchen. It works great with only some minor bugs and the constant syncing means even if it does crash you don't lose your progress. Overall it's both an amazing tool and just scarily addicting at how easy it is to get sucked into building maps for hours

Spawn of Bane
Spawn of Bane

It's been great for our D&D sessions! and constantly being improved with QoL updates. Recently including hero-forge integration for miniatures which is great! Solely because of this i've purchased a subscription to Heroforge.

Naliky
Naliky

Great way to create you own style and build excitement for every D&D session.

Mermaid Gundam
Mermaid Gundam

Mermaid Gundam supports these fine products.

Ok, but the actual review:
~ So far this is a great tool for DMing, and I'm overwhelmingly excited to use it. Still doing test runs though to see if it works with the way I want to run my campaign though. There are a few Cons though that I'll list in degree of not good, though keep in mind I have a 90% positive opinion of this game. There's actually too much good for me to list.

Cons:
~ So the biggest flaw of Talespire is that it seems to be completely reliant on cloud storage. You need to be online to access and edit your maps. There is no save feature, it's all autosave, and you have to hope your internet connection is stable while you work. We ABSOLUTELY NEED to be able to control saves, and offline functionality is something that I can only see improving user experience.
~ The default music that you can plug into your maps is super repetitive. Yes you can just play your own songs in the background, but if this is a feature that the devs want to invest time and resources on, then they're going to want to make the songs longer and something players are actually going to want to use.
~ Lastly, there are certain types of tiles that some sets have that others don't, but I think they're adding more tiles, so that'll probable be addressed.

Finally, this is neither a pro nor con, but this is something that I think would make Talespire the perfect tool. Random generators for simple things like open fields or maybe even dungeons. Dunno if that's even doable, but letting it randomly generate a forest for those misc encounters would be amazing.

Senseislim
Senseislim

Astonishingly good and powerful. Downside: Players must have a copy as well to fully use it for gameplay.

Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd

Fantastic for bringing my DnD campaign to life.

CVLR
CVLR

All that's missing is a 3d holographic display.

billyclear316
billyclear316

If your players dont ditch its great

Dathalind
Dathalind

Great engine platform to build out and create a world for playing to play/roleplay and explore, easy to use. A bit of a time commitment depending on how much you are building, but lots of great options so far and can't wait to see more and more come to this game.

Also, having the ability to get a digital version of a HeroForge character ported into this platform, i'm super excited to be able to create so many customer characters and NPC's to bring over.

GamerMan7799
GamerMan7799

Great for roleplay games. Building huge maps can get a bit annoying, but with support for custom models it is great for online games. If the team manages to parnter with a sheet source like Roll20, it will be the perfect product.

Tmalandog
Tmalandog

Overall excellent world builder.

Pros:
- Graphics are nice.
- Placing objects feels good, with a little jolt and bobble as you hover over things.
- Wide variety of assets to choose from, which allow you to create varied worlds.
- Atmospheric adjustment, allowing the DM to create the right mood.

Cons:
- NO GRID SNAPPING TOGGLE. Devs, please allow grid snapping toggle, so i can place terrain in awkward spots. This will alleviate awkward gaps in walls and flooring.
- No workshop. Workshop support would be wonderful for this game, giving it more community envolvment.
- Elevation building: Building on the ground is very easy with click and drag, but building up isn't as intuitive. Please work on making building up on the Y axis easier... Maybe a toggle that allows the user to only move on X axis, or only move on Y Axis.

Overall, really great and fun, can't wait to start using this in my sessions.

When this comes out fully, im sure the price will be way higher, given the amount of polish it already has. Grab it while it's cheap!

The Rampaging Tides
The Rampaging Tides

Has a lot to go in terms of being a full fledged tabletop simulator, but what is there is good. Needs more models of various sorts, and definetely more maps, either prebuilt or user created.

Namathra
Namathra

So, as a DM who runs and has been running a long term homebrew 5e D&D campaign with a solid group of players (6 person group + myself for over 3 years on the same campaign now), one of the largest time-saving areas I'm constantly on the look for is for Map and Visual aid options, especially since the entire campaign is conducted over discord.

Talespire as it currently is sadly comes off as 3 things to me, pretty, cumbersome, and limited without much more to speak about it. While the 3D aspects of it and the gameplay side is a nice touch, you pretty quickly run into hard limitations, especially if your intent is to run a campaign with lots of water, circular maps, or custom vehicles like skyships or unique siege engines. This will largely work for the majority of your run of the mill dungeons and interior locations, and a decent number of outside locations, but you will have hard limitations of things you simply cannot create with this map maker.

The actual build interface unfortunately feels clunky to me to compound the issue and gets in the way of actually building. Essentially to compare this to another product, I'd call this more visually aesthetic and less functionally diverse than something like Dungeon Painter Studio.

I can't recommend this to other people until the libraries are greatly expanded and the UI is further stream-lined.

System Console
System Console

Simply amazing!! Can't wait to get around this.

Badmoon84
Badmoon84

It's not what I expected. A world builder at the start of the game? Sorry, will wait til there is an active campaign running. Then maybe I'll change my review. I'm too lazy to build a world right now.

Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell

It has some oddities in terms of functionality on occasion, but that's very rare. I've used this tool extensively for my campaigns and it's invaluable for setting mood and making combat more engaging. I don't personally use the player/multiplayer at all, I just stream the map to my players and move the characters as needed. So, I can't speak on that functionality but I assume it's effective.

I HIGHLY recommend this for any DMs out there who want to try it. Well worth the money.

NFC3SPECTRO 1911 TTV
NFC3SPECTRO 1911 TTV

Almost a dream come true, I hope it has many, many more assets and from different narratives, the possibility to create and import your own assets and the like, the creative possibilities are immense when this tool is ready!

I recommend its support, however I don't know how this product is in terms of playable material, but as a concept it's a masterpiece for the world of virtual tabletop RPG!

If in the prosperous future it becomes like the table top simulator it will be something amazing!!!!

Congratulations to the creators.

====================

Quase a realização de um sonho, espero que tenha muito mas muito mais assets e de diversas narrativas, possibilidade de criar e importar próprios assets e afins, as possibilidades criativas são imensas quando esta ferramente estiver pronta!

Recomendo o apoio da mesma, contudo não sei como está este produto em termos de material jogável, mas como conceito é uma obra prima para o mundo do RPG de mesa virtual!

Se em futuro próspero vir a tornar-se como o table top simulator será algo incrível!!!!

Parabéns aos idealizadores.

All Father
All Father

Best option for online DnD imo. Ive tried roll 20 and fantasy grounds and its not even close. It may be difficult to get your whole group to buy into this but its 100% worth it

Penndracos
Penndracos

Very much worth the money. Wish i had this back in the day would have made games a whole lot more fun.

Abelhawk
Abelhawk

The controls in TaleSpire are not very intuitive. It's too easy to accidentally stack tiles at weird vertical angles, it's too hard to see where certain things are being placed, and in general the menus and UI are not made in a smart, user-friendly way. The tutorial says to move a miniature on the grid you press Shift+WASD, but WASD also moves the camera at the same time. Picking up a tile turns the cursor into a brush to place more tiles instead of just moving the existing one. The "delete" button doesn't delete tiles. Stuff like that gets frustrating fast.

I would like to see every button, slider, and asset have a tooltip pop up that says what it does. I'd like to see the toolbars and menus arranged in a more sensible arrangement. I don't get why games like this are designed from the ground up with brand-new control systems instead of being based off of ones that work really well already, like the Sims.

There are other lacking aspects of it too that just feel unpolished. The music does not loop seamlessly; indeed, the tracks are only about a minute long and have about a 10-minute fade in/fade out/pause in between each play, which gets really annoying fast. The miniatures swing around unnaturally when moving from tile to tile. There are only two attack methods: "attack" and "magic missile"—not even arrows even though there are miniatures with bows.

It's great that the developers are releasing assets monthly, but I think they should focus more on making the controls easier to use first, and then implementing systems for players to make their OWN minis. It doesn't have to be as advanced as HeroForge, but having a basic equipment, pose, and model combination for each race, class, and gender could go a long way.

Anyway, I know this is in early access, but these are my complaints that are keeping me from enjoying it right now. You can look at the more positive comments to see the good things about it. I'm sure this will be an amazing tool if they clean things up, don't focus too much on assets alone, and implement a more intuitive design.

hunterwagley
hunterwagley

Very Robust, YET Very Simple to Use! Looking forward to see how this develops

Kendoxii
Kendoxii

Its really good...not more to say

CooljaNitez
CooljaNitez

Cant wait to see the full product! Its so awsome to use. It takes a little getting use to, but its so versatile!

7isAnOddNumber
7isAnOddNumber

Excellent for building maps, too bad I have no friends to play it with

jbh008
jbh008

Absolutely phenomenal way to play RPGs together.

KingofSorts
KingofSorts

Dear Developers. I have been pleasantly surprised by your game. And look forward to seeing it realise it´s full potential.

Speaking about full potential. Add corn.

ayvos the milkman
ayvos the milkman

very useful tool for dms to make 3d maps, i really like it. however, it is impossible to make diagonal or curved walls, any water other than the global water height, any customization for minis unless you want to spend an additional $8.00 for each figure, and doors that are in the middle of the grid.

Sleepy Slotto
Sleepy Slotto

Great tool, everything works really well for an early access game. Haven't experienced any bugs as of yet.
Lots of mods that should imo become a part of the base game like the boats and a whole lot of the minis. Hope they add a lot more great things before release :)

Czeching Vibes
Czeching Vibes

Some things are a little bit buggy, but that's to be expected in early access. Overall, I think this software is headed in a really good direction, and i'm excited to be a part of it when it still has so much room to grow. If you're considering this as a GM but aren't sure if your party would enjoy it, you can always use some screen-sharing software like Discord to just run a combat or two. You can't add players to control their own characters without them owning the game, but you can move their miniatures for them on the GM screen, though it comes at the expense of surprises that you can add behind the scenes while they engage in combat or explore the set.

Even if you aren't using this to run a game or anything, just the building itself is so much fun. Resources like Talesbazaar and Talestavern allow users to share their boards and slabs, so if you're just a creative builder, you can make maps and publish them for people to use in their campaigns! The ambiance settings are also downloaded with the map, so you can set things like fog density, the lighting, time of day, sounds effects, and even music to run in the background, all of which can be changed by the one who downloads the map if they have a different idea of how the map should feel, but love how it looks.

Overall, this is a really charming game, and I think it has a really cool future within the TTRPG space. I'm excited to see where it goes, and to see the maps and boards that people create as time goes on.

TL,DR: Cool game, good community, a little buggy, but very exciting room to expand and polish. Worth getting if you're interested in the idea.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Best virtual platform for D&D that I've used. Still has bugs to work out (early release) but the potential is enormous. Once you learn the tricks to quickly copy and paste builds together, you will make massive worlds to explore and play in that are so immersive that your players won't be tempted by their other windows!

CocoGoat
CocoGoat

The only D&D map builder that isn't a money sink to obtain assets. Makes DM'ing online very fun.

kmc979
kmc979

I had been using tabletop simulator for quite a while, and my group decided to try a D&D game in talespire. I haven't loaded up TTS since. The assets are kind of limited, but you're going to be able to do just about anything you want to do in a fantasy setting. There's also a great online library of D&D maps that people have uploaded. This is a great program. I highly recommend it. It's updated often, and I've never encountered a bug that I couldn't work around. The dev team is also really good about letting people know what they're working on.

Kiljoy1337
Kiljoy1337

Amazing game.
Map making is easy and fun! Whether you're playing with friends in-game or streaming it and using it as a reference battlemap.
10/10 love and will be buying it for my friends.

FoulHand
FoulHand

Sadly disappointed. This could have changed how we play D&D forever. This could have been the best dungeon building software ever. But it’s not. Not even close. It seems like the devs are relying on modders to make up for what they’re not doing. Simple things that are absolute necessities will not be included. You can not use this to faithfully recreate your favorite D&D maps. You can use it to somewhat resemble them so long as every wall and building is at right angles! The walls are 2.5 feet thick and you can’t modify there height, width, etc. You can’t place the walls or doors on the middle of a line. There are no curved or diagonal tiles or wall sections. You can’t place water beyond a set sea level. You can’t customize the color of minis or item textures. If you are thinking you’ll have this huge library of awesome assets to play with, you won’t. You won’t get to choose between a bullseye lantern, a gold lantern, an iron lantern, or a broken lantern. You’ll just have the one lantern and you better be happy with it. Need a 2.5’ or 10’ window for your tavern? Tough, you only get one window type for your tavern set. Your map shows a 10 foot wide by 5 foot long entrance with a double door? Better make it 20 foot by 10 foot or the assets won’t fit and the massive 2.5 foot thick walls will kill most of your space turning your 10 foot wide area into a 5 foot wide area. Need a 2.5 foot by 2.5 foot tile? Nope. Fog of war? Looks like the devs never even considered it. Want a secret door in that wall that you can interact with. Lol, funny, better hope the modders want one too.
This game may very well be great one day. But it will be great because of the modders, which is sad. For Pete sake, at least give us curved walls and curved stairs.
Pass on this one. Maybe pick it up in 5 years when there’s plenty of mods.
The real heart break is that I really really really wanted to love this! At the moment, it’s really not much better than trying to run a d&d game in Minecraft. It makes me sick that such an amazing opportunity is being wasted here.

muqdara95
muqdara95

Really amazing what you can build in this software, every update makes me more excited for the potential - also loved seeing TaleSpire on Dimension 20. Go Bouncy Rock!!

zacfoley06
zacfoley06

its good for mapping out plans

Kazmund
Kazmund

I picked Talespire back up again after over a year to see the state of the game. It's evident they've done some work, but I don't think it will ever be the total tabletop experience the store page depicts it to be. Also, the "monthly updates" have trickled off.
You take your chances with early access and I hope I'm wrong about Talespire when it is finally released. I'll check it out again then - and change my review if it warrants it - but for now steer clear if you were looking at it.

Blucarpet
Blucarpet

TaleSpire has a lot of things going for it. It's simple and easy to use. Connecting to other players is painless. As someone with 15 years of Dungeons and Dragons experience, I love how it accelerates combat and adds tactical depth at the same time. It's easy to understand height, distance, and cover in an engine like this. It could be an incredible tool that elevates the game experience.

At the same time, I cannot recommend talespire. I've been burned by many an early access game, and the painfully sparse update frequency of the developers does not bode well for the game. Speaking as a dungeon master, Talespire greatly increases your workload. The player base cares more about building a custom miniature in heroforge than actual role-play. Your players will soon lose tolerance for verbal descriptions of environments and characters, demanding to see it. The game saps that imaginative part of D&D. The move from imagination to a video game also demolished my creativity. I felt compelled to design only combat encounters, as talespire provides little improvement to dialogue or exploration mechanics. I withdrew from play in one campaign, and ended my own campaign after only a few months of play, completely burned out from D&D.

Perhaps it's not fair to Talespire to blame it for my negative D&D experience, but I am convinced it is at least partly to blame. Time will tell if the developers continue to support this game, but even if it is released from early access, with all the tilesets and assests to run whatever sort of tabletop game you want (which it currently absolutely does not), I think you need to really ask yourself as a Dungeon Master if this product will add to your playgroup's enjoyment of D&D, because it did not do it for mine.

Morbidfray
Morbidfray

This is a really neat map building program. the detailed tiles are very fun to look at and makes an immersive world to play in.

VHazz
VHazz

if you enjoy building worlds and campaigns for your dnd friends. this might fit your bill

Blue the cat
Blue the cat

its a good game and is worth the price

Tophandour
Tophandour

Fun 3D map creator with some great potential of developing into an all-around highly useful TTRPG tool

Savage.Cow
Savage.Cow

Fantastic VTT. Great lighting and building system. Frequent updates.

☣☢SkaBooM!!!☢☣
☣☢SkaBooM!!!☢☣

As far as pen and paper D&D is concerned, this is an amazing tool for conducting games over the internet. As a DM I am extremely happy with the outcome so far in our campaign and look forward to new assets and features to be added in the future.

There is room for improvement but at the time of this review the game is still in early access, I truly can only see things getting better for this tool.

GammaOri
GammaOri

This game is amazing. The future of Long Distance TTRPing. Handsdown worth the money.

YungStrudel
YungStrudel

It's one of the best virtual table tops I've ever used.

spcnorman
spcnorman

Now that you can import Hero Forge mini's this became a more viable VTT for my group. If you want a more tactile feel to your games and the ability to have flying minis and the players be able to read the map. Also tales tavern copy and pasting boards are amazing. If you are running a module the maps are probably already there. That make prep work a breeze. The only downside that I see is that it has a one time cost. So wait for a sale and then grab it.

poofefer
poofefer

This rules for making fun maps to run over discord! It gets everyone so much more invested in the combat, great visualization tool.

Saklloaq
Saklloaq

If I was the DM this would be so cool to theoretically use

MYDRIPPYNOODLE
MYDRIPPYNOODLE

I absolutely stand behind TaleSpire as it has taken playing D&D to a whole new level. You don't have to spend time to make maps if you're in a hurry, slide over to tales tavern and see some of the amazing things people are making! But if you are into building, then I think you will really enjoy it. There is so much you can do with assets, that really, its all in how creative you're trying to get. Also with Heroforge integration, in my opinion there isn't anything out there that compares..... You can even make rolls in game off your character sheet with the right add ons to your web browser. 10/10 cant wait for more assets and to see where this game goes!

WatchWolf
WatchWolf

So far a fantastic 3d map builder. More features are slated for release. Solid to play in as well.

JuniperGlitch
JuniperGlitch

The RPG Engine does everything Talespire does and is cheaper, easier to run, and easier to use. Foundry's 3d Canvas addon allows you to have something akin to Talespire while also having macros and autorollers for your dice. When Talespire debuted on Kickstarter, it was practically one of a kind. There was no other software that allowed you to run 3d tabletop games as well as Talespire could. Now? It's the worst option. Hell, I'd run a game on Tabletop simulator before I'd run it on this hunk of wasted opportunity. The devs had everything they needed to knock this out of the park, and they wasted it. There's been no substantial updates since this software came out. Sure, new monsters and maybe a few more medieval bullshit tiles, but at the core, there's nothing changing. Talespire still can't even use a character sheet. A character sheet. Literally the thing you have to go to in ever god damn tabletop game anytime you need a check. There's no support for it. something integral to the very core of the damn game you are trying to play, and it still hasn't been added in at all. It's mindboggling how the devs manage to fuck this up so hard. I want to point out something else as well, The RPG Engine has been in development since the beginning of 2022. It has a single developer working on it, and it's already past Talespire. 3d Canvas for Foundry has had a single dev working on it for 8 months I believe, and is in a similar state. Talespire has been in development since 2019, and still doesn't have character sheets. Years of development at this point, and they still can't even figure out how to make a sheet a paper work digitally. Tabletop simulator has character sheets. A game that most people use to play board games with has proper functioning sheets. Whereas a software that's supposed to be explicitly for tabletop rpg's can't even figure that out.

TL;DR
It's a tabletop software that can't even use a character sheet. Looks pretty, but is empty and will always be empty unless the devs seriously change. Consider The RPG Engine if you want something like this but actually being developed.

InventorY
InventorY

great for dungeons and ttrpgs in general

u r veri aprishated
u r veri aprishated

It's a neat map-maker. The measurement tool is most appreciated too!
However, it needs a bit more assets. Too little assets make it harder to make a map with certain interior or exterior environments, forcing users to rely on mods.

Keai可爱
Keai可爱

It all started as a decent software but then they cut out function of importing from random dungeon generator online, now you can't even open from programs like alchemist. So you are pretty much stuck with doing everything by hand and it takes forever. They need to make it possible ti import ready made maps from AI generated sources.

BlooDHunter
BlooDHunter

I love everything about this program. I love the potential of it as well. However, I unfortunately have to refund this product due to the game completely freezing up after around 30 mins of use, not once, not twice, every single time. To the point actually where 15 seconds after that it directly crashes my whole PC and the PC isn't responsive until i hard plug it out and back into electricity.

I am aware that something must be wrong here with either the program or my PC however, I am a simple man and i like simple things. I want to turn on and for it to work. I have mid to high end pc with ryzen 5 3600 and RX 5700 gpu with 32 GB of ddr 4 and i have all requirements to use this. So it's a decent PC that should be able to easily run this.

I will give it a shot in a year or two after its further along in development progress. For now, very fun and useable; just not useable for me.
Give it a go.

Modifikator
Modifikator

More assets and custom minis editor and this game will be best tool for playing dnd campaigns.

65davefrancis
65davefrancis

Sadly, this could have been a fantastic virtual tabletop simulator: I'm going to bear in mind that this is an alpha release, but it's been in development for years and the glaring omission here is the amount of content. There are simply not enough prefabs to make decent maps out of. Everything begins to look the same and you just end up with generic looking maps which are more Minecraft than Mines of Moria.

It's a heroic effort by a limited number of developers, but is it ever going to live up to the promise ? I sadly doubt it. Whilst wishing Bouncyrock well, I have to say I'm very disappointed by the limited creative possibilities the existing prefabs give you.

Big-BUNGUS
Big-BUNGUS

this is an a amazing D&D tool but the problem is you need friends to play with and i don't have any friends

Logan J. Fisher
Logan J. Fisher

While I can't currently recommend Talespire because of weaknesses with its current state, I do see a ton of potential here and look forward to the day that I'll be able to change this review to a positive recommendation. This game has a TON of potential, and I'm happy to support the devs, but there are various problems and limitations that need to be fixed before the final release.

Refining asset placement (e.g. making it easier to place building assets NOT on the grid should you so choose - stairs in particular), adding Steam workshop support, adding a player inventory, shop system, adding a customizable equipped items system, and adding a customizable character sheet system would really bring this to a top-tier TTRPG system.

Not strictly necessary, but I'd like to see an improved system for designing terrain. Dynamically raising and lowering terrain (and allowing structures to be placed below 0) sort of like Rollercoaster Tycoon would be fantastic.

While the bulk of the game should probably be designed around 5e and PF2 systems, I'd love to see options to customize those systems as one sees fit. For example, I like to have certain magic items act as runes that can enchant mundane items rather than acting as usable magic items themselves (I call ones that are directly usable "artifacts" and one that are used to enchant mundane items "enchantments"). Also, I like to have potions auto-refill via actions or time (like in Dark Souls or Witcher 3) rather than being totally consumed upon use.

planarbox
planarbox

Great idea, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I got it to open exactly once (every other time I'm stuck on the loading screen) and creating maps by hand is a real pain. Mostly just dissapointed it's too buggy to use, and when I could use it I was met with frustration.

tjthewho
tjthewho

map pretty. pretty map. moving map. SOUND ON MAP. fire.

JamminToast
JamminToast

This is too good to be true sometimes and other times its not good enough but thats because people want too much at times. This allows me to spend time with my brother and thats all I could ask for!

Pendragon
Pendragon

I started using this to make maps and play RPG style games. I now stopped using it entirely, because they never integrated seamless character sheets, just some vague non-descriptive quantitative stats. They pretty much lied about integrating custom minis in the game, I didn't realise I had to purchase Heroforge minis and then link it to this game. What a drag. Its only good for making maps and the community are great at creating them. Apart from that, this game will only ever be a sandbox for making maps and if you can't find a group. Oh well, bad luck. That's why I have reverted back to making my own tabletop maps that I make with my own rule sets using my own custom software, because talespire is very clunky to play with and limited in what you can do apart from making good maps. Additionally, how long do games last in early access these days? Seems like another marketing trick for bad development. Good luck.

Dynamite_Adam
Dynamite_Adam

Useful. Jump in now so they can hopefully push out some more updates

Byuknight
Byuknight

Love this. Brings so much life into TT gaming

Inoza
Inoza

I with there were diffrent color roof tiles of the same styles but thats about my only compliant.

Kungen
Kungen

Every negative review for Talespire is either:
1) I don't pay any attention to the dev team or any news
2) I don't know how to use tool because my brain not so good so it bad game

This is easily one of if not the best terrain tool out there. People complaining about not having character sheet integration (yes I'm talking about you Pendragon) or blaming Talespire for their bad d&d experience and objectively lying about the update frequency (yep, that's you Blucarpet) are possibly the worst reviews I've ever seen for any game on Steam ever.

Does this game have character sheets? No. Have the devs said this will be implemented by release? Yes. Does it have Heroforge integration? Yes. Will Heroforge be taking away from the devs own custom mini creator? No. Do the devs push out an update every single day? Tbh, sometimes. Besides the month of June, Talespire has seen weekly (sometimes daily) updates since it's start in early access. If you buy this expecting a finished product then, tbh, there is something wrong with you. This game is in early access, in development. It is not finished, and is not soon to be finished. Support this great dev team, don't complain (though reporting bugs or suggesting improvements is welcome), and lastly, find a table that is full of good people trying to play TTRPG's and don't blame it on a 3D software. smdh.

Lastly, Talespire is a decently complex software and making good maps can be difficult. The system is not perfected, it still needs some work and if you jump in without looking at a guide online or watching some videos on its use it will probably be difficult or at least daunting jumping straight in. Once you get some basics under your belt it becomes exceptionally easy to build maps. Also, if there is a terrain not in the game that you want... Wait! Because they come out with FREE content packs about once a month!

ZKT_Matsilpar
ZKT_Matsilpar

I only recommend it for making maps at the moment (07/02/22 - Build B106E56FB)

Developers team are very active and keep updating the app, so who knows in the future it will be a good platform to play

reaperoflight1
reaperoflight1

Great gaming tool for multiple game systems.

xX_lowly_Xx
xX_lowly_Xx

if they keep adding features at the pace they are this will eventually be a brilliant tool in every digital dm's kit. pretty cool piece of software, would be sick to be able to upload your own audio files to use in game. heroforge support is really cool, seeing your custom minis in game.

cinnamontoastman2020
cinnamontoastman2020

Its an excellently crafted game that needs much more attention