Start a campaign with a virtual table now, or wait?

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

Like it says on the tin:

I want to start a new campaign with some long-distance buddies.

Based on the first look at the DDI game table, should I wait until it comes out of beta?

Or should I start with one of the current virtual table solutions out there?

What's the community consensus best right now?

 

[Umbran]

I don't think how good WotC's VT looks right now is a major issue.

They've been pretty plain about it - they have a beta test out now. They are not even speculating on the release date.

What would be served by waiting? You want to game now? Game now! Worry about the VT when it becomes available.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I would agree with Umbran, you can always try out the DDI one when it enters open beta or goes live.

Meanwhile the free ones are there, free!

 

[Gilladian]

I've been playing online now for about 2 years. It has been a fine experience. We used a couple of different options for the first six months or so (skype with an online whiteboard, skype and a shared typing surface, a combination of all three), and then eventually settled on maptool. We are not currently using skype at all, but it would be a good addition if all our players could support it.

There's no reason NOT to play now, and play time is limited. Go for it. All the bells and whistles still won't match face to face, but then again, it beats NOT playing.

 

[Aplus]

If you had waited for Wizards' VTT the first time they announced it (2007/2008?), you'd still be waiting for it. If you are afraid of investing a lot of time into learning one of the more complex ones, such as MapTool, only to abandon it later, then just go with GameTable or something like that for now.

Also, other details may come about that end up being deal-breakers for the Wizards' one. For example, I wouldn't be greatly shocked if they were to require each user to have an active DDI subscription or something like that.

 

[Hussar]

Which system? Maptool has a number of pretty decent frameworks for 4e and 3e D&D and a number of other systems (their Savage Worlds framework is AWESOME). OpenRPG seems to be dying on the vine, although it still has a pretty healthy community.

There's always the pay options as well.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

From comments made on the WOTC beta forums it would appear that the development team is still working on issues with the existing codebase and are not likley to consider suggestions made by the beta testers until the new year. So, while if this was an open source project the table would be in the wild already, I think it will be a long time in WoTC beta.

 

[IronWolf]

I wouldn't wait - I would start gaming now. Download MapTool and then start watching the video tutorials to get up to speed quickly. Once the WotC VTT is released to the public then you can always evaluate their solution and see if it fits your needs better.

 

[Stoat]

As always, everybody else is right.

Go ahead and get started. In my experience, you can figure out the basics of using a new VTT with a few hours of tinkering. (It took me probably 10 hours to get comfortable with Klooge and maybe 5 or 6 to get comfortable with D20 Pro after that).

If you aren't in WotC's beta, It's worth your time to start now with a different system.

 

[jcayer]

Play now, play later, play often.
The maptool video tutorials Iron Wolf linked to, really are fantastic. You'll spend less than an hour watching them and will be able to dive right in.