Roll20 VTT Enters Open Beta

Morrus · Jun 19, 2012

The Roll20 Virtual Tabletop, recently funded by Kickstarter, has entered "open beta". This means that anyone can join for free without an invitation code. Roll20 is the easy-to-use virtual tabletop that brings pen and paper gaming to the web the right way. Built on a powerful platform of tools, yet elegantly simple, it focuses on enhancing what makes tabletop gaming great: storytelling and camaraderie. It's incredibly user friendly, and runs right in your web browser, so there's nothing to download or configure.

Wanna check it out for free? Head right on over here! They say: "Roll20 is currently in an open beta period. That means that we're letting people start to use the system, but be warned, there may be dragons (and bugs!) ahead. We'd love your help in testing out the software, as well as giving us your input into what can make Roll20 even better. We're taking on as many people as possible to stress test the system."

orrbain · Jun 19, 2012

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to drop by with a quick post since this community was very interested in Roll20 during the Kickstarter campaign a little over a month ago. We've entered Open Beta today, which means that anyone can join for free without an invitation code. So if you didn't have the funds or missed the Kickstarter campaign, now's your chance to give Roll20 a try!

I'll be around answering questions if anyone has them. Thanks!

Roll20: Web-based online virtual tabletop for all roleplaying games (RPGs)

Janx · Jun 19, 2012

I like what I see so far.

I was able to quickly add a background and add a token for a character and it seems pretty easy to move it around.

I ran it using IE9 with Chrome Frame. Worked smoothly.

General observations/comments:

Can you disable the default contextmenu of the browser?
I do this on every web-app I write, which makes it a lot smoother for my own context menus to stand out (because I'm not getting browser context menus whenever I mis-click).

The drawing tool really needs a line, rectangle and oval shape, rather than just the freehand marker. This will make it easier to draw rooms, halls, etc. I don't assume a GM will have pre-prepped backgrounds representing the nice dungeon rooms.

Make it so Players can add/create their own token characters either before or during the game so the GM doesn't have to create them and assign them to the players when they show up. This would expedite the GM's work because the players could do that bit of setup fpr the GM while he preps the first encounter. It could all be stored in the GM's session still, but this would remove one more chore for the GM.

One extra idea for the turn-tracker. Tie each entry to a player, and let the GM set who the current player is. Then, make the UI enforce only allowing the current player to move his token on the board. This will keep players from getting all slidey/grabby and wait for their turn.

Overall, I think it looks great, and it seems to be pretty smooth setting up for a GM. My next test is to get my old GM into it and running a game. He's on the slowest connection of all of us, and prefers to do all his GM planning in an old paper notebook. This app looks like it can make it easy for him to just setup encounters as we play, without him needing to prep everything in advance.

Janx · Jun 19, 2012

just a side note, Roll20 ought to talk to claudio poza who's a regular here.

I can't recall his screen name, or I'd MENTION it here and get his attention

Claudio has a company that does game art. His product catalog includes a metric ton of monster tokens and stuff like that. Seems like a good resource for more art for the app.

Mercutio01 · Jun 19, 2012

For Janx - calling [MENTION=607]Klaus[/MENTION].

Dannager · Jun 19, 2012

I don't have any personal stake in this except as someone who wants to see the hobby move forward, but the following needs to be said: If you are just reading this thread out of mild curiosity, go look at the app right now. Go do it. Stop reading, go look. This is real development, real community engagement, done really well. Please take a look, and if you think it's cool (and you probably will; it's tough not to) keep an eye on it.

Klaus · Jun 19, 2012

Janx said:
just a side note, Roll20 ought to talk to claudio poza who's a regular here.

I can't recall his screen name, or I'd MENTION it here and get his attention

Claudio has a company that does game art. His product catalog includes a metric ton of monster tokens and stuff like that. Seems like a good resource for more art for the app.

Mercutio01 said:
For Janx - calling [MENTION=607]Klaus[/MENTION].

BAMF!

You rang?

It's not "my company", but yes, Fiery Dragon Productions owns a metric ton of artwork covering pretty much everything. You can contact them at Fiery Dragon .

Aeolius · Jun 19, 2012

"We're sorry, but there's currently a bug in Safari that prevents Roll20 from working."

Ouch.

orrbain · Jun 19, 2012

Aeolius said:
"We're sorry, but there's currently a bug in Safari that prevents Roll20 from working."

Ouch.

Yeah, it's not our favorite thing. The ridiculous part is that the bug was in Webkit, and was fixed *months* ago, and has been fixed in Chrome for that long. I keep checking every time they push our a new version of Safari, and every time they seem to not be merging in the changes that fix that bug, I have no idea why. I pointed it out to them, and was basically told by Webkit "We fixed it, talk to Apple" and by Apple, "We know it's an issue, we're 'working on it.'".

So, yeah. Maybe in the new Safari that ships with Mountain Lion it will finally be fixed.

Agamon · Jun 20, 2012

This is pretty cool, I checked it out last week, and decided that my next online DDN playtest session should happen with Roll20. It even works as a G+ app, which is cool. The Bottom Third G+ app is great for showing everyone's IC name.

I would second Janx's request to decouple the initiative tracker from tokens. We're playing gridless, so having something that tracks who goes next without needing minis would be great.