DerekSTheRed
Explorer
I'm also a beta tester. It appears that one of the testers created an adventure that the other testers can download and import. It comes with a map and moster stats/locations.
Keeping track of monsters seems pretty easy. You right click the monster and you can view the monster details in the info panel, adjust it's hit points, pick it up (to move it), remove its token (when it dies), make it invisible to the players. add it to the initiative tracker, and export it's info.
The exported data is stored in some binary format (presumably proprietary) and looks to be a different format than the previous character/monster builder formats. You can save a map or an adventure. The adventure is a map plus monster and PC stats. It also looks like you can open up multiple maps/adventures at the same time and switch between the two. I can see this being useful to take an existing map and copy parts to another map.
The dungeon tiles look like a very basic and limited only consisting of tiles used in a dungeon. No city or wilderness tiles yet. You can also draw directly on the map with simple draw tools. The shared adventure has lines drawn on the tiles to show a change in elevation.
Both the players and DM can make notes in a journal. The DM can make notes private and public. Making a note public sends it to the chat screen. The DM can also write notes directly on the map. These too can be both public and private.
When you create monsters, you can clone them. When you do, it puts a number on each token image. It's hard to see which number in the select box, but I find it better to just pick the token and use it to select the monster's stats.
I'm pretty sure the problems I have with the tool are because it's in beta form. If I'm creating an adventure from scratch, I do not want to have to create monster stat blocks ahead of time. Especially for monsters in WotC's published material. Likewise, I don't want my players having to create info for their characters although that is not as big a deal. It would be much better to import them in from WotC's servers now that the character builder is storing characters in the cloud (and presumably the monsters will eventually be in the cloud as well).
This would be the advantage of being a D&D insider subscriber. I'm not sure if the virtual game table will be available to non-subscribers but it should be. I'm hoping the ability to use the table will be free, but DMs will want to be subscribers to take advantage of the monster stats on the WotC servers.
How they put a price on the game table will go along way to its success. I've played a lot of games online, and invariably the free software (like open rpg) have the most gamers available and therefore the most games played.
One last thought. Technology wise, they use Java Web Start. I was surprised since the two character builders use the .Net Framework and Silverlight. This means they were probably programmed in the C# language (or technically VB I guess). I was very surprised when I saw the java splash screen the first time I launched it since it means the Virtual Table was probably written in java.
I played a lot of 3E D&D online and used various tools. I played a lot on OpenRPG and a fair bit on Maptools. These tools are similar to the Virtual Table and had some features the Virtual Table is missing. For instance, a lot of customizable tokens and pre-made monsters are available. They also have macros and quick keys. The tokens and pre-made monsters I'm sure will be available soon. The macros, I don't think are necessary. You can create different attack options for your character that are a couple of mouse clicks away.
I should point out that the Virtual Table has a few more features that the others don't. For instance, the initiative tracker is very nice. I like the ability to set parts of the map invisible/invisible and I don't remember that feature in another free tool (I think the pay tools had it though).
Any feature or question in specific you have, I'll try to answer for you.
Keeping track of monsters seems pretty easy. You right click the monster and you can view the monster details in the info panel, adjust it's hit points, pick it up (to move it), remove its token (when it dies), make it invisible to the players. add it to the initiative tracker, and export it's info.
The exported data is stored in some binary format (presumably proprietary) and looks to be a different format than the previous character/monster builder formats. You can save a map or an adventure. The adventure is a map plus monster and PC stats. It also looks like you can open up multiple maps/adventures at the same time and switch between the two. I can see this being useful to take an existing map and copy parts to another map.
The dungeon tiles look like a very basic and limited only consisting of tiles used in a dungeon. No city or wilderness tiles yet. You can also draw directly on the map with simple draw tools. The shared adventure has lines drawn on the tiles to show a change in elevation.
Both the players and DM can make notes in a journal. The DM can make notes private and public. Making a note public sends it to the chat screen. The DM can also write notes directly on the map. These too can be both public and private.
When you create monsters, you can clone them. When you do, it puts a number on each token image. It's hard to see which number in the select box, but I find it better to just pick the token and use it to select the monster's stats.
I'm pretty sure the problems I have with the tool are because it's in beta form. If I'm creating an adventure from scratch, I do not want to have to create monster stat blocks ahead of time. Especially for monsters in WotC's published material. Likewise, I don't want my players having to create info for their characters although that is not as big a deal. It would be much better to import them in from WotC's servers now that the character builder is storing characters in the cloud (and presumably the monsters will eventually be in the cloud as well).
This would be the advantage of being a D&D insider subscriber. I'm not sure if the virtual game table will be available to non-subscribers but it should be. I'm hoping the ability to use the table will be free, but DMs will want to be subscribers to take advantage of the monster stats on the WotC servers.
How they put a price on the game table will go along way to its success. I've played a lot of games online, and invariably the free software (like open rpg) have the most gamers available and therefore the most games played.
One last thought. Technology wise, they use Java Web Start. I was surprised since the two character builders use the .Net Framework and Silverlight. This means they were probably programmed in the C# language (or technically VB I guess). I was very surprised when I saw the java splash screen the first time I launched it since it means the Virtual Table was probably written in java.
I played a lot of 3E D&D online and used various tools. I played a lot on OpenRPG and a fair bit on Maptools. These tools are similar to the Virtual Table and had some features the Virtual Table is missing. For instance, a lot of customizable tokens and pre-made monsters are available. They also have macros and quick keys. The tokens and pre-made monsters I'm sure will be available soon. The macros, I don't think are necessary. You can create different attack options for your character that are a couple of mouse clicks away.
I should point out that the Virtual Table has a few more features that the others don't. For instance, the initiative tracker is very nice. I like the ability to set parts of the map invisible/invisible and I don't remember that feature in another free tool (I think the pay tools had it though).
Any feature or question in specific you have, I'll try to answer for you.
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