Aethera VTT Docs - Aethera.TV

Overview

Aethera VTT is an in-browser virtual tabletop built into Aethera.TV — no downloads, plugins, or installs. Hosts build worlds with maps, scenes, walls, lighting, fog of war, tokens, audio, chat, and dice; players join from a link and play in the same browser session.

It runs as part of the main platform, alongside your video, live, and account tools, so a campaign, its assets, and its players all live in one account. The public landing page is at /vtt; the live runtime and launcher open at /app/vtt, and you can deep-link straight into a world at /app/vtt/<world>.

System-agnostic by design

Aethera VTT isn’t locked to a single ruleset. Game systems are loaded from JSON system manifests that define actor and item types, character-sheet templates, and roll formulas, so the sheets and dice match the game you’re running. Load and manage them from Settings → Manage Systems, and add sheet modules from the Module Manager.

What you can build

Worlds (campaigns) with members, role presets, and per-document permissions.
Scenes with uploaded maps, walls, dynamic lighting, and fog of war.
Tokens for characters and creatures, with a combat tracker and area-of-effect templates.
Shared dice and chat split into in-character, out-of-character, and private GM channels.
Audio playlists and sound zones, plus linked Aethera Voice for live voice at the table.

Want to look before you build? Open the demo world at /app/vtt/demo-world — no setup required.

Getting started

New host? The launcher at /app/vtt walks you through everything. Sign in with your Aethera account, then choose Create world to open the setup wizard.

Set up your first campaign

Create the campaign. In the launcher, choose Create world. The wizard steps through Rules & Content, Scene Defaults, Player Access, Invites, and Review. Setup is marked complete only after your world settings and scene defaults are saved.
Add a map. Keep the starter scene or upload your own map after launch. The wizard saves your default grid, lighting, fog, and scene behavior with the scene.
Add tokens. Seed the starter compendium packs, open the Actors panel, and drag a character or creature onto the scene. Then confirm which tokens your players can control.
Invite players. Generate a player link from the wizard’s invite step or the campaign Invites panel — share the link, send an invite email, or have a player paste an invite token into the launcher.
Start the session. Launch the campaign, confirm the active scene, open the right sidebar, and use the Voice Link panel to bring live voice to the table.

If setup stalls

You can resume an incomplete campaign from the launcher, recreate invite links, and refresh the Voice link at any time. If the runtime needs support context, use Report a bug → Copy diagnostics bundle and attach it to your support request.

Invitees never need their own plan — only the host who owns the campaign does. See Plans & limits below.

Running a game (GM)

As the GM you own the world — its scenes, assets, members, and permissions. Here’s what the host toolset covers.

World setup

Create a world from your dashboard and set its name, system, safety tools, and visibility.
Invite players with role presets — Player, Trusted Player, or Assistant GM — and revoke or regenerate invites from the Members tab.
Set world defaults: grid size and units, lighting tier, and theme (light, dark, or high contrast).
Turn on guided onboarding for new players from Settings → Tour Management.

Building scenes

Upload a background, set the scene’s dimensions and padding, and enable snap-to-grid.
Place tiles, notes, lights, sounds, and walls to shape the map.
Use the History panel to undo and redo wall and fog edits.
Activate a scene to pull every player to it; inactive scenes stay hidden until you’re ready.

Lighting, fog & vision

Vision and fog respect ownership: players reveal only what their own tokens can see, and Observers see only the areas you’ve already revealed. Lighting and fog edits are part of the History panel undo/redo, so you can experiment freely.

Running a session

Use Pause/Resume to freeze player input; the Pause overlay blocks moves while it’s active.
Drop templates and drawings for quick areas of effect, and right-click to convert them into persistent templates.
Run encounters from the Combat tracker: add tokens, roll initiative, advance turns, and apply built-in effects such as prone, stunned, poisoned, and inspired.

Permissions & modules

Set per-role permissions for drawing, token control, playlist management, and module actions.
Use the ownership matrix to control access per document type — actors, items, journals, and scenes. Overrides are enforced on both the client and the server.
Enable or disable modules per world. The collaboration channel broadcasts GM pings, presence, and live cursors so everyone stays in sync.

Keep it smooth

Before live play, benchmark a scene with the Performance overlay and drop the lighting tier if the frame rate dips. Back up and export your worlds regularly.

Playing (players)

Players don’t install anything — all you need is a browser and an Aethera account.

Join a game

Open the invite link from your GM and sign in with your Aethera account.
Select the world and, if prompted, choose your assigned character.
Disconnected? Just re-open the invite — your seat, scene, and viewport are restored automatically.

Move and interact

Single-click a token to select it, drag to move, hold Shift to constrain movement, and press Esc to clear your selection.
Press R for the Measure tool, and double-click a token to center the camera on it.
Target with the Target icon in the Action Palette — targeted tokens highlight for rolls.
Run assigned macros from the macro bar (keys 1–0 by default).

Dice & chat

Roll by typing /roll 1d20+5 or using the roll buttons on your sheet — results post to chat with your targets.
Switch channels: IC for in-character, OOC for out-of-character, and GM for messages private to the GM.

Audio & voice

Open the Sounds tool to control playlists and zones; your listener follows your controlled token. Voice and video use presence status — mute or unmute from your avatar badge.

Press ? at any time for the in-app Controls reference (the authoritative shortcut list) or to start the tour. The keys above are defaults — bindings can vary by preset and be remapped in Settings.

Maps & media

Automatic performance and quality tiers preserve each map’s source pixel dimensions, scale, and wall layout for every player. The resolutions below are recommended starting points for smooth play, not hard limits — Aethera doesn’t enforce fixed CPU or RAM minimums.

Still maps

1080p (1920×1080) — the default for mixed groups and laptop-heavy tables.
1440p (2560×1440) — step up once your group is consistently smooth at 1080p.
4K (3840×2160) — high-end groups only, and expect to tune scenes aggressively.
Aim for roughly 45+ FPS for most connected players; if several players drop below that, step back down a tier.

Animated maps

Animated maps play from an Aethera MP4 derivative and use more GPU and bandwidth than still maps. Delivery may use caching or byte-range streaming, but performance tiers do not rewrite the scene’s stored video URL or explicit FPS selection.
Plan for roughly 8–15 Mbps per player at 1080p, 12–25 Mbps at 1440p, and 20+ Mbps at 4K.
In Scene Config you can switch a map between Still image and Animated video without changing its scale.

Performance tips

There’s no hard light cap — treat about 300 active lights as a caution threshold, not a rule.
Use still maps for combat-heavy sessions and animated maps for exploration.
Watch the VTT Performance overlay, preload scene assets before a session, and prefer shorter animated loops.

Upload file-size limits depend on your host plan (see Plans & limits). The current product maximum is 350 MB per file.

Plans & limits

Plans scale up storage and per-file upload size for the host who owns a campaign. Storage is pooled across all of that host’s uploaded VTT assets, and invitees never need their own plan. Annual billing saves 10%.

Free — $0. 500 MB host storage, 40 MB max per file. The full campaign and invite flow.
Tabletop Plus — $9/mo ($97.20/yr). 5 GB storage, 80 MB per file. More room for maps and ambient audio.
Tabletop Pro — $19/mo ($205.20/yr). 25 GB storage, 350 MB per file, plus priority support for VTT limits.
Aethera Premium — $29/mo ($313.20/yr). 50 GB storage, 350 MB per file, and includes Aethera Voice Plus plus ad-free playback.

350 MB is the current product maximum upload per file (both Pro and Premium reach it). Plan limits apply to the host account, not to each invited player.

Troubleshooting

Blank board? Use the Scene selector to re-sync, or press Recenter in the canvas controls.
Can’t move your token? Make sure the GM has unpaused the game and that your token isn’t locked.
Performance dropping? Open the Performance overlay and switch to a lower tier.
Need help? Report issues from the Help panel with the timestamp and scene name. GMs can attach a diagnostics bundle via Report a bug → Copy diagnostics bundle.

Aethera VTT