Im just curious and confused as to whether after buying ebooks on this site you can run and/or play them online with friends here. And if not if anyone knows a site or two where i could play them online with friends. I dont know enough people in my city to play in person so any answers to this would be super helpful. For context ive been eyeing and itching to play the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition since i used to LARP V:tM all the time in the early 2000s and even ran a bunch of games as the Storyteller
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In its current incarnation… Demiplane Nexus for V5 is one of teh best Character Management tools. It is a decent book resource. It has a barebone, not at all connected to the character sheets, opens links to the books over itself or new tab, minimalistic VTT.
In short, I love it for the character management and book integration. I will not be using it as a VTT until it can pass the very low “Roll20” bar.
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I agree with everything VampyreBytes wrote. Excellent book resource and character management. Not an ideal place to run your game. On the plus side, you can get away without needing a VTT to run V5. In my group’s case, we organize everything on Discord and play primarily via voice chat and PbP there. You don’t really need a table or anything. For dice rolling, there are bots available on Discord and you can also use the dice rollers on the character sheets (although those results aren’t shared between players/groups right now, so that’s less ideal).
All that said, I believe the Vampire Nexus is the best tool for V5 and the best way to make character sheets and peruse content.
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What is it that Demiplane does not do? They have video & voice. Can pictures be dropped into a background like Roll20? Can dice rolls be seen by everyone playing? While I can see the character creation looks great. If Demiplane cannot do what Roll20 does, then what’s the point of purchasing it? I already have all the books.
As I mentioned, the Demiplane VTT is not at all connected to the character sheet. Rolls on the Sheet do not show up in game, rolls in game are 100% manual of all parameters. I did not see anyway to have regular and hunger dice in a single roll. I couldn’t even see any way to use maps or tokens or anything. It has: Voice, Video, basic digital dice, and second screen/second tab access to Books and Character sheets.
Why did I buy a 3rd (and sometimes 4th or 5th) copy of my books via Demiplane and subscribe to their service? Because I am hopeful that their “VTT” will one day mature enough to be a real VTT. Because I love the interface for Character building and plan on keeping all my characters stored in one place. Also, because I had enough “discretionary income” to support my TTRPG addiction. (I have sub or “forever licenses” for most of the VTTs out there and end up buying books in multiple places.)
Yes, Demiplane has a long way to go before I will consider it as a VTT. And, honestly, if Alchemy RPG gets their V5 stuff finished it won’t matter to me any more.
Do I recommend Demiplane to anyone that already owns the books and has found a perfectly acceptable character library format for their own needs… Nope.
I know what I’m getting when I buy books in multiple formats on multiple platforms. And if I don’t feel that is worth the cost, I won’t buy it and/or I’ll complain that the cost to value ratio is not where it should be. For me the cost/value ratio of buying books via Demiplane is worth the doing. It won’t be for everyone. And that’s ok.
I want to hop in and add some clarity about what our goal is here at Demiplane.
We are not developing a VTT. There are a variety of great VTTs out there that fit most styles of play, with more popping up every day. Our goal is to create a suite of digital tools - including character tools - that you can use hand-in-hand with your favorite VTT, where your Demiplane character sheets are integrated into that platform, and the other tools are a valuable digital aid at the table.
We do have some planned improvements for our groups feature which will let you use and manage your character sheets within a group, which will also allow your GM to view and add things to your sheet as you play (like equipment or special boons). This is all in-line with our goal to support as many ways of playing tabletop games wherever you roll dice: whether it’s at a physical table, on a VTT, or somewhere else. 
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This is very good to know. Thank you for providing this information. I know there has been some discussion in other threads about an API and/or 3rd Party VTT integrations, and with the goals you’ve outlined here, I hope that discussion is realized in more than a “we’ll get to it eventually” way sooner rather than later.
As someone who uses the Vampire Nexus on Demiplane nearly every day, I’d like to chime in with my experience using this site, why it works for my group, and also some areas that I believe are lacking.
Our Chronicle is a persistent real-time play-by-post setting where each passing night reflects a new night in game. There’s only a very small number of us, but we hold regular text-based events (characters meeting up to RP, small investigations, etc), and we gather online for a voice-chat live session every two weeks. All that is to say that we play a lot.
Physical Books
We own some of the physical books, but when I first signed us up to Demiplane, we only owned the core rulebook (as well as a couple of books in PDF form). Since we strictly play online right now, being able to share media digitally is a must. That said, between the books, pdfs, and Demiplane, I strongly believe that the Vampire Nexus provides the best experience for perusing content and rules reference (with one exception… I’ll get to it).
Demiplane is my Favourite Tool for Reading Vampire Books
I almost described it as the best, but I understand this is a subjective experience. That said, the way information is organized on the Vampire Nexus, where we can peruse powers, antagonists, clans, loresheets, etc., without needing to fumble around with multiple books, especially during game time, is absolutely ideal. Even when just browsing a book, having easy access to the table of contents and headers (which is always available on the page while browsing a book without needing to return to the top of the document, as in a pdf) is incredibly convenient. Again, this is a subjective experience, mileage may vary, but even though I learn and retain information best from physical books, I would rather buy the books on Demiplane every single time, without hesitation or exception. As a Storyteller, the added convenience is far too valuable—especially during a session. Additionally, the books are more affordable here than when buying physical copies, although—and I can’t continue to stress this enough—your experience may differ.
The Character Sheets are Incredible
We can nitpick here and there about what’s missing on the character sheets, and what we prefer to see, but the fact is that I haven’t seen another Vampire character sheet that comes anywhere close to how functional and usable the character sheets on Demiplane are. Again—your experience may vary. Prior to Demiplane’s Vampire character sheets, we used a combination of Roll20 and physical sheets. I let my players choose whichever they like. The limitations of a physical sheet are obvious, so I don’t need to go into detail, but on Roll20 we used both the official sheets and a fan made interactive character sheet. Neither was perfect, both were far from ideal. The only advantage they have over the Demiplane sheets are the ability to see each other’s rolls, and if you’re anything like my group (I trust my players, I don’t need to see their rolls to know they’re being honest with me), that’s not enough to justify using another sheet over Demiplane’s.
We Don’t Use a VTT for Vampire
Again—your experience may vary. We used to play on Roll20, specifically because of the character sheets and the dice rolls, but neither is convenient enough to convince any of us we needed to stay on Roll20. The fact is that Vampire doesn’t really require a VTT in the most common styles of play. Even a combat-heavy chronicle probably doesn’t use tactical maps in the same style as D&D or Pathfinder. Our lives became much easier when we left Roll20 behind for Discord. We use separate channels for regular journal entries, roleplay, to keep track of plot and story, galleries, custom loresheets, city maps, etc. We found there was nothing a VTT could provide that we couldn’t already get from Discord. We even use a dice roller for WoD dice, but the fact is that more and more, most of us find ourselves using the dice roller on the Demiplane character sheets (honour system aside, we also have a practice of taking screenshots of our dice rolls including the last few rolls. It’s not something we require, but it’s just something most of us ended up doing.)
VTT Don’t Include Storyteller Tools Anyway
At least not that I’ve seen, back when we were convinced we needed a VTT for online play. I have yet to see a VTT, homebrew or official, that includes tools for Storytellers to roll dice, run events, or manage antagonists. Every VTT I have experience with is designed specifically around providing tools for players to manage their characters and roll dice.
It’s probably clear where I stand on this topic. I get that Demiplane is not everything that everyone wants it to be. I understand the experience is lacking in some areas for some users. But for me, it’s perfect. I use it nearly every day and I rely on it heavily to plan and run sessions. So, as a devoted supporter of the Demiplane team, and as a dedicated user of the Vampire Nexus, below are some bullet points of areas where serious improvement is needed.
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Does the search function work properly yet? I’m actually not even sure. I became accustomed to not using it at all, since it actually—to the best of my knowledge—doesn’t function properly.
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It’s hard not to feel neglected by the Demiplane team sometimes. When this platform launched, it felt like it was primarily focused on Pathfinder and Vampire. Now there are so many games on here, I wonder how many resources they’re allocating to their Vampire users. There are still so many little things we need to provide the definitive Vampire experience—more support for Thin Bloods and Oblivion users for example—but from an outsider looking in, their plate seems quite full, and I don’t know when we’ll see a new rollout of QoL improvements or other changes to character management.
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On that same note, the book release schedule leaves something to be desired. I am patient because the added level of interactivity is much more complex than just posting a PDF. That said, I’d love to see more communication from the team regarding the new books coming out and any other work coming down the line for their Vampire users. (I know they’re probably tired of hearing this from me
i wouldn’t even bring it up if I weren’t summarizing my experiences here for the benefit of others 
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I’m sure there’s more negatives that I can’t remember, because quite honestly, the little annoyances don’t amount to much in what I consider the ideal Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition experience for perusing and referencing content. I’m sure there’s more positives that I can’t remember too, because as I said, I use this site a lot, and I’ve become very comfortable navigating and referencing things on here.
But there it is. A summary of my V5 experience on Demiplane and why—even though I can’t guarantee you’ll get the same use out of the Vampire Nexus as I have—I consider this the absolute best tool for running and playing V5 right now.
Oh, and a small note. I don’t own all of the books physically, but I do own everything that’s been made available via Demiplane. As for physical books, I own the core rulebook, the player’s guide, and blood sigils… as well as the werewolf and hunter core rulebooks. In the case of the books I did buy physically, I did buy them as well on Demiplane as soon as they were available. I do find the experience that valuable.
Yup. That’s a lot to take in. Sorry in advance of none of this is useful to you I really just wanted to share my take and my experience on this site.
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