A Look Back...

2020 brought a lot of things, unexpected and otherwise. We’re proud of how far we have come, and we’d like to pause for a moment and take a look at all the progress we have made together.

• Updated Interface
  • Through continuous iteration and improvement, we’ve further optimized both the GM’s interface as well as the player’s interface.
  • Looking ahead, we plan to improve this further, adding more modularity and additional features (Audio/Video, here we come!)
• Character Sheets
  • Character sheets and related features have gone through near-continuous development. Most notably:
    • Several UI updates
    • Stats / Actions updates, several related syntax upgrades
    • Multiple HP/Resource bars
  • Looking ahead, we plan to improve the tools used for adding text and items to sheets, as well as continuing to add support for many more systems
• Special Effects / Dynamic Lighting
  • Our offering of game effects to immerse your players continues to expand:
    • Several new mask effects added for Dynamic Lighting
    • Major performance updates to allow a smoother experience on larger maps
    • Fog of War
    • Light Sources
  • Special effects and immersion tools are one of our more exciting topics, we plan to improve this offering by adding to the existing options and developing complementary features
• System Support
  • In the beginning of 2020, we had just 7 character templates for a handful of systems
  • By the end of 2020, we grew to 56 templates for 40+ systems in 4 different languages:
  • Looking to the future, we plan to expand our offering to include official content in the form of character collections for a variety of systems
  • The way character templates are displayed will be getting an overhaul to reduce clutter and make it easier to find the best option for your system and language

Our progress was mighty, and we could not have done it without the support of each and every one of you. The upcoming year promises to bring many more good things for the Astral Community.

Thanks for supporting us throughout it all, and we’re looking forward to elevating your tabletop gaming to the next level. We’re proud to say we’re only just getting started...!

We’re Going Global!

Since we’ve returned in 2021, we’ve been tirelessly working behind the scenes to better serve our international community! Along with our localization and translation plans, we’re expanding our regional capabilities.

International community members can look forward to having faster response times and better connection stability. Expect to hear more in the near future, so stay tuned.

New Assets for Supporters

Wait, what moon phase are we in? Mark the full moon when dealing with these cursed characters.

All paid supporters unlocked 120 new tokens in total this week. These were-creatures come in all shapes and sizes, including in-between transformations!

As always, you can also purchase this pack from the marketplace.

New on the Marketplace

We would like to formally welcome The Goblin Explorer to the Astral Marketplace! Check out the latest releases this week!

Planned Downtime Announcements

As we grow, we’ll need to occasionally plan downtime during low traffic hours during back-end upgrades to our infrastructure.

Planned downtime will be announced in advance in the form of a banner on your homescreen. Keep an eye out for such announcements, as community members will need to save their work before the downtime begins.

Changelog

Enhancements

• Cthulhu Hack Template added
  • Thanks to Community Member Lindan for submitting this template!
• Pocket Fantasy RPG Template added
  • Thanks to Community Member Checco for submitting this template!
• Kult: Divinity Lost Template added
  • Thanks to Community Member Roflo for submitting this template!
• Scarlet Heroes Template added
  • Thanks to Community Member Michael B for submitting this template!

Fixed

Thank you to everyone who reported issues this week.

• PF2E character templates updated
  • Changed the name of the “HP” stat to “maxHP” to more accurately reflect what it is.
  • Changed the default max HP from 8 to 16.
  • Changing default Armor Class dex cap to “+5”, that way it doesn’t impede people by default where it was at “+0”.
  • Added stats to show the damage bonus to weapons, like the STR bonus melee weapons get.
  • Removed adding DEX to ranged attack damage, as generally DEX is not added to this.
  • The five conditions added to this sheet in V2.0 are all status penalties, meaning they do not stack. Only the highest value is applied when multiple might apply. The sheet now correctly does this.
  • Thanks to VestOfHolding for this continued and valuable support!
• Barbarian Class Specific Template for D&D 5E no longer uses Dex for thrown weapons
• In “Official Content” in KB as well as the Mage template in D&D’s character collection, Ice Storm no longer has syntax errors
• Players now have a Bug Report option in their player avatar menu

📣 We're Listening

We're continuing to look at the forums for feature requests, support tickets, and Discord to hear what you all have to say. Please don't hesitate to reach out and voice your feedback. Our table always has an open seat, let us know what you think.

That's all for now!

Thanks for reading and for being a dedicated Astralnaut! We look forward to bringing you more updates from the Astral Plane.

- Team Astral