For those that have never heard of it, PlanarAlly is an open-source self-hosted virtual tabletop (VTT) for TTRPG games. Here I’ve compiled the most important features/changes from their blog post. The full release notes are available on their GitHub: https://github.com/Kruptein/PlanarAlly/releases/tag/2024.1

Vision Blocking Update

A new vision blocking mode is introduced, called behind. It will accompany the existing vision mode which will be renamed to complete.

When behind mode is active, the shape marked as vision blocking will be rendered as if it’s not a vision blocking shape, but everything behind it will be fully obscured. This will for example allow you to have a tree trunk that is vision blocking, but still show the players what they are looking at (i.e. a tree trunk).

Notes Overhaul

There is no longer a difference between shape notes and campaign notes. Notes are now a single concept, can be attached to shapes and managed through a new UI element called the Note Manager.

It’s now possible to share certain notes to other users with granular access rights, eg. you can give view access to all players when they retrieve an item, or give a particular player a private note that only they can view and edit.

For a full overview of the new note system, check the notes documentation.

Asset Drop Ratio

Defines how assets should be scaled when dropped on the map. A drop ratio of 1 is the default, it means the asset will resize purely on it’s specified dimensions, eg. goblin_1x1 will take up 1 grid cell even if it represents 10ft, whereas a drop ratio of 0.5 will resize basilisk_2x2 to 1x1.

Context: Previously, assets would auto scale when dropped onto the grid if they have a dimension in their name, eg. goblin_1x1 would fit exactly 1 grid cell, dragon_3x3 would be resized to 3 by 3 grid cells. This was using a method based on the 5ft-system to automatically adjust this when a location had a bigger size (eg. 10ft maps would automatically make goblin_2x2 fit in 1 cell). This however would break anything that wasn’t using the 5ft-system.

Dice History Improvements

The dice history will now show who rolled the dice (it was previously only shown on hover) and contains more details on the specific roll instead of only showing the final result.