EZY VTT v1.5.0: Loot on the Map, Animated Areas and Much More

Loot on the map, animated areas and more possibilities for your games

EZY VTT v1.5.0 is out — a major update to the game table and the module builder.

You can now lay loot out on the map for players to pick up into their inventory, create interactive scenery right in the middle of a session, and show fire, smoke, webs and other areas with animated effects. Movement is easier to read, managing scenes and creatures is more convenient, and module authors get far more tools for complex game rules.

Most of the new gameplay features are configured by the module author: they decide which mechanics their game needs and how those mechanics should work.

What's new

Loot now lies right on the map

The GM places an item on the table, and a player drags it onto their character sheet. A dropped weapon, found supplies or a crate someone left behind no longer has to be handed out through a separate menu: the find can actually wait for the characters on the map.

The "Objects on the map" window has a new "Items" section with search across libraries and a choice of quantity. You can place an item by clicking the map or by dragging it from the list. It works in both flat and 3D mode.

To pick up a find, simply drag it from the table onto an open sheet. The item lands in the matching equipment section, and its image disappears from the map for everyone. In place of the loot you can leave an empty crate, debris or another object.

The module author decides who can pick an item up, how close they need to be, and how many pieces sit in one stack. Picking up can be limited to the GM or forbidden entirely: not every machine will fit in a backpack. When something can't be picked up, the table explains why.

Interactive scenery — from the module or created on the fly

Doors, barrels, tables, campfires, statues and pieces of broken wall now have a place of their own on the game table. Objects can be given a size, an image, durability, defense, resistances and behavior when destroyed.

Objects can take part in the rules instead of just decorating the map. A barrel can take damage and break, a campfire can light its surroundings, a wall can block line of sight. According to the author's settings, an object can receive conditions, make saving throws, leave loot behind when destroyed or perform an action. Two linked objects can work as a passage between points, and a body can be left where a creature has fallen.

Scenery also doesn't clutter the regular creature list. Objects whose state really needs tracking get a separate "Damaged objects" group.

Not everything has to be prepared in advance. The GM can create an object during play, give it a look and properties, place it on the map right away, then edit or delete it from the same window. Everyone else gets the scenery too, including players who join later.

In 3D mode an object can use a ready-made three-dimensional model from the module's media library. Without a model it appears as a 3D prop with its own picture. For suitable objects you can also allow resizing directly on the table.

Fire, smoke, webs and other animated areas

Areas now come with 20 ready-made looks. Among them are fire, smoke, ice, lightning, acid, poison gas, web, roots, snow, wind, insects, runes, darkness, holy light and water.

The author picks the look, colour and density and immediately sees the result in a small preview with a grid and a figurine. A wall of fire can be blue and a web can be pink: the appearance isn't tied to a single preset colour.

Animations work in both flat and 3D modes. In 3D they become columns of fire, billows of smoke, ice spikes and other spatial effects. An instant area plays a short animation, while a lasting one stays on the table. Some effects change as rounds pass: snow piles up, ice grows, embers burn down.

On high quality, glowing areas light up their surroundings in their own colour without revealing anything hidden by fog of war. You can choose the quality by hand or leave it to adjust automatically to the load.

Figurines remain easy to tell apart, and areas without a chosen look keep their familiar outline.

Areas that really change what happens at the table

Areas got not just a new look but far more gameplay options.

The set of shapes has grown: a cone, line, wall, ring wall and cube joined the circle, sphere, cylinder and square. The direction is set right on the map. An action can determine everyone standing inside the shape by itself, and a compound area can be assembled from several parts. For suitable rules an area can wrap around corners, taking walls and opaque objects into account.

Lasting areas have more events: appearing, a creature entering, the start and end of a turn, and the end of the area itself. Different actions can be assigned to different events. For example, an area can strike the moment it appears, damage anyone who passes through it, and fire once more as it disappears.

An area can track how long it has existed and how far a character has travelled inside it, follow a target, move on its own or change direction on a separate command.

There are more options for difficult terrain, cover and barriers. An area can slow movement in one direction only, forbid ranged attacks, let some creatures through and stop others. A barrier can require a check, and the rules for entering on foot and arriving by teleportation are configured separately. You can also exclude allies or specific creatures chosen when the action is used.

A successful dodge can now move the figurine to the nearest free spot outside the area. The author chooses which outcomes it applies to. If there is nowhere to go, the character stays put and the table says so.

3D presentation doesn't change how the rules are calculated: whether something is inside an area is still decided in the plane of the floor.

Movement is easier to read

When a module has a movement allowance set up, the route shows not only the distance covered but also what is left. While you are within the available movement the line is green; once it runs out, the line turns red with the exact amount of overspend.

This is a warning, not a restriction. Both players and the GM can still move the figurine further: the table shows the excess but leaves the final decision to the people playing. The hints work in both display modes.

The builder has a separate "Movement" section: the cell scale, the distance per turn and the kinds of movement are all gathered there. On foot, mounted, flying or a custom variant of the system — the author defines the list, and the player switches between the available options from the figurine's menu.

Equipment can unlock a new way of moving and change its range. Once the item is taken off, that option disappears. This way vehicles and other means of travel can be tied to ordinary module items.

Game time works outside combat too

The table has broader support for tracking in-game time. Rests, long-running ability use and time advanced manually by the GM are all counted together with the durations of conditions, areas, summons and temporary items.

Durations can be set in familiar units — rounds, minutes, hours and days. You no longer have to convert a many-hour action or a multi-day effect into a number of rounds yourself.

Repeated checks can also happen on the game clock, and delayed actions can wait not only for combat turns but for a set time. Successive uses of an ability at set intervals can be tracked as well: for example, when an action has to be repeated every day for a permanent result.

A joint rest of several characters counts as one shared stretch of time instead of adding the same time for each participant. Temporary effects expire before resources are restored.

A closed app doesn't mean hours have passed in the game world: real time between launches isn't counted.

More options for actions, reactions and conditions

A single action can now combine several consequences: a roll, a transfer, creating an area, spawning objects and summoning creatures. You can choose which outcomes each consequence applies to — for example, create an area only on a successful use. Combinations of actions without a roll have been expanded too.

There are now opposed rolls, in which the target's result becomes the difficulty for the performer. An extra die can be offered after the main roll, and a hit boost after the attack has actually hit. The player decides for themselves, and the relevant resource is spent on confirmation.

Actions can ask for the target's consent or separately let the target choose not to resist. These are different decisions: declining the effect and voluntarily giving up a defensive roll are configured separately.

Conditions have more ways to change what a character can do: granting extra actions and whole turns, limiting the number of attacks, forbidding reactions or resource recovery. You can set up temporary protection, a reduction of maximum health, protection from lethal damage, recovery from damage dealt, and doubles that intercept attacks.

Repeated saving throws, ending conditions and transitions between conditions have been expanded. A delayed action can be held until the right moment, released with a separate command, or set to trigger automatically after a period — without paying again.

Light, invisibility, detection and countering magic

Conditions can give characters light, and actions can create lit and shadowed areas.

Hidden creatures are shown only to observers who are able to see them. An illusion can be examined and stop being perceived by you personally without revealing anything to the other participants. Detection can also hand out private hints instead of information for the whole table.

To counter other people's abilities there are now cancellation and temporary suppression. An action can end conditions, areas, light and summons, or pause them for a set time. Suppression doesn't remove an effect: its own clock keeps running, and the effect can resume when the suppression ends.

Light and darkness can compete by a strength set by the author. Conditions and areas can forbid individual components of casting, and detection can take the observer's special senses and the target's protection from detection into account.

These rules are configured for a module rather than imposing one particular magic system on it.

Transformations, summoning and unusual spaces

Transformations now have a detailed settings window: the author defines the available forms, the retained characteristics, the available actions, what happens to equipment and the form's pool of health.

A creature can turn into an object and back. Size has become part of the rules as well: changing the matching characteristic changes the space the figurine occupies on the map, and growth can be forbidden if there is no room for it.

Summoned creatures can immediately receive the conditions they need. A link with the summoner lets you see through their eyes and pass suitable ability uses through them. Besides creatures from the bestiary, you can create copies of figurines already on the table, taking their current state and equipment into account.

Out-of-space rooms have been added, with a capacity, a lifetime and boundaries of their own. Such a room can sit in a separate scene, be anchored to an object, and return the characters inside to the outside when it ends. The passage of attacks, abilities, sound and teleportation across the boundary is configured separately.

Pushes, pulls and transfers have appeared for movement, including with companions, between floors and between scenes. Environment rules have been expanded too: you can describe passing through walls, being in liquid, staying on the surface and an air supply counted in game time.

Weapons and equipment are more flexible

Weapons can be assigned compatible ammunition and choose it when reloading. Consumables combine into stacks allowed by the author, while individual pieces of equipment keep their own state.

Items now have switchable actions — for example, unfold or pack up a weapon. The action's label changes together with the item's state.

A temporary enchantment can change one specific item in a character's hands without touching other identical items. Attunement to items with a limit on their number and studying an item with a personal information panel are supported.

Actions and conditions can also make a target drop equipment, and victory rules can pass it to another character while keeping charges and other individual properties.

Complex rules — through the visual builder

Many settings that used to require expert mode are now available in the regular editor windows.

Conditions are built by picking characteristics and comparisons, rolls from dice, numbers and character values, durations from a quantity and a time unit. Colours are chosen from a palette, and the fields you need from a list with clear author-defined names.

Numerous settings for transformations, damage, targets, costs, sustaining, rests, initiative, learnable class options and other rules have been moved into the visual editor.

Complex expressions set earlier are preserved even when a simple builder can't represent them: changing a neighbouring setting doesn't rewrite them.

Working with actions and effects has been reworked. On the left is a list with search, in the centre the selected entry. Settings are split into collapsible sections with fill marks. The editor remembers which sections you collapsed, and deleting requires a second press.

The actions section opens much faster in large modules: the editor no longer tries to show thousands of cards at once.

More order and more room at the table

Scenes and folders no longer have to take up half the screen. The scene panel is more compact and can be collapsed, while folders open in a separate window with search, counters and drag-and-drop of entries.

The creatures window now works as a library for placing them: it shows the module's creatures and how many copies are already on the table. You can drag a creature onto the map right from this window, including in 3D mode.

The side panel shows only the creatures of the current scene — in compact rows with the name, health and condition icons.

Handing out actions has moved into the figurine's menu. A separate window has search, sections, a filter of what has been granted and a counter. Lists of conditions and items are also grouped more conveniently.

Hover over an action or a condition to read a detailed tooltip without opening the editor.

Updated instructions for AI assistants and help for authors

The reference used when creating modules with AI assistants has been greatly expanded. It describes different roll systems, module sections, automatic rules, libraries, character progression and the game table's capabilities. A large sample module has been added.

Special attention is paid to character and creature sheets: fillable fields, notes, roll buttons, item management and splitting into pages.

The instructions explain how to make a sheet a working game tool rather than just a pretty picture for printing. The sheet should offer not only characteristics but also the actions a player needs: write a name and biography, make a roll, spend a resource, take or use an item.

A "Copy report for the AI" button has appeared. Problems found during checking or installation can be passed back together with a request to fix the module.

The report now separates errors that need fixing from harmless record changes and known quirks of the app. Authors won't have to fix things that aren't actually broken.

What's fixed and improved

Saving the game, connecting and participant permissions

• Reloading the GM's page no longer wipes the table in a session joined by code. Figurines, their positions, fog of war and the turn queue are kept on the GM's side and restored on return. Participants can carry on playing without reloading themselves.
• A "Forget the table" command with confirmation has been added for a deliberate reset. Deleted figurines don't come back after an ordinary reload.
• The GM can again assign and remove a figurine's owner, and change or remove a player character's class, even when changing class on their own is forbidden. There is no need to hand the character over to yourself first.
• The question about an extra die for a saving throw goes to the owner of the defending character, not to whoever used the action. Declining, or not answering in time, doesn't spend the resource.
• Fixed the duplication of items and objects created at the table for participants, and the mismatch in a figurine's position after a cancelled move.

Combat, damage and resource spending

• Fixed the death of creatures and the destruction of objects in modules with their own health resource: reducing the relevant pool to zero now triggers the intended consequences.
• Temporary shields and protective pools absorb damage again. Damage rounding according to the module's settings has been restored.
• When choosing among several weapons, the attack uses the range, damage and ammunition of the right item. A forbidden way of attacking can't be bypassed by launching it from the sheet.
• An action on several targets no longer spends part of the turn again for each recipient.
• If summoned creatures can't be placed, the resource is no longer lost for nothing.
• Reactions that cancel an attack before the roll now actually stop it. Paralysis, stun, unconsciousness and entanglement correctly restrict movement and give the attacker the intended advantage.
• Fixed calculations of a target's composite defense, the influence of characteristics on damage from bestiary creatures, and extra consequences of old-format attacks.

Areas, movement and visibility

• Fixed freezes when an area pushes creatures out and when trying to use an action with an incorrectly configured shape.
• Areas work correctly on tables without floors and update when switching between flat and 3D modes.
• Attached light moves together with the area, and a large area stays noticeable even when its edge is off screen.
• Movement spending matches the route shown: hexes, diagonals, going around obstacles and difficult terrain are taken into account. Fixed the missing spending when moving in 3D mode.
• Dragging a figurine no longer reveals fog of war behind a wall. Decorative auras and selection in 3D mode no longer get in the way of selecting neighbouring figurines.
• An opaque object no longer blocks its own visibility: a door or a wall can be chosen as a target when it is actually visible.
• Instant areas that trigger automatically, including delayed ones, now find the creatures inside the shape and apply their consequences to them.

Conditions, durations and complex actions

• Fixed premature and late ending of conditions at turn boundaries. Freshly applied effects no longer lose the time that passed before they appeared.
• Lasting conditions no longer lose part of their duration when passed to participants. Support for very long durations in game time has been expanded.
• Actions no longer lose their own conditions or skip some compatible consequences, including when used without a roll.
• Temporary pools keep the amount actually remaining after the table is reopened. The end of one effect doesn't take away another effect's independent pool.
• Fixed the durations of areas and their effects that are tied to a source, including the end of sustaining, removal of the source and exceeding the allowed distance.
• Incompatible action settings are no longer accepted silently: the check reports the problem before it shows up during play.

Sheets, editors and module content

• Typing in a sheet no longer loses the cursor and selection on refresh. Long text blocks can be scrolled with a visible scrollbar.
• Fixed the action button filters: different sections of a sheet no longer show the same list despite the settings.
• You can't hand a character an action that is missing from the module and has a dead button. An extra action that already ended up on a sheet can still be removed.
• The "Handbook" opens again when there are items, and context menus no longer hide under other windows. Deleting scenes is protected by a second press.
• Limits for large modules have been raised: long catalogues, creature action lists and complex rolls are no longer cut off at the old limits.
• Fixed false warnings about losing valid values, including zeros, the loss of item upgrades when their properties are renamed, and the wrong display of negative values.
• An automatic change to a derived characteristic no longer switches off its further calculation.
• The unfinished experimental miniature builder has been removed from the release. Figurines made in it don't load for now; ordinary uploaded 3D models keep working.

Translations and the guide

• Translations of the editors, character creation, the table, tooltips and messages have been extended. Hundreds of translations that used to show English or Russian text instead are displayed again.
• System labels for rolls, attacks, conditions and reactions in the shared log are shown in the reading participant's language.
• Names and texts of the module itself remain the author's own and are not translated automatically.
• The guide has been extended, search in different languages has been fixed, and the setting names in articles now match the app's interface.

Thank you to everyone who plays EZY VTT and sends in their findings — on Telegram, on Discord and with the "Found a bug?" button right in the app.