Virtual Tabletop software?

[moon_wizard]

Disclaimer: I currently work for the company who makes Fantasy Grounds.

I used and reviewed quite a few tabletops for the past six years. I found Hecuva's list on his Battlegrounds site to be an excellent place to start. When I looked at VTT solutions, I look for customizability of the VTT to run the games I want to play with the rules/automation that I want in my games.

Originally, I chose Klooge, because it had the most customizability at the time. However, I ended up dropping it a few years later, due to the buggy behavior. During that time, I overhauled the 3.5E game definition files to add more features.

After another review of all the VTTs, I ended up choosing Fantasy Grounds, which had just released a new version (FG2) with vastly improved customizability. After joining that community, I rebuilt the d20 game definition, and built the 4E game definition from the bottom up.

I still feel that FG is the best for RPG-style games, which is why I joined the company six months ago and brought my work with me.

For more map-focused games, I agree that Battlegrounds and MapTools have very interesting map features. However, I tend to avoid dependency on any free products, since the development and support are typically spotty.

Summary
* FG - My choice, best customizability, easiest player experience
* Battlegrounds - Great for moving tokens on a map, good map features
* MapTools - Some map features, customizable with work, sporadic development and support
* Klooge - Good game automation, some map features, buggy
* Epic Table - Looks very interesting, but in perma-beta mode
* The rest - Not even in the same league

Cheers,
JPG

 

[Rienen]

To be fair, cross-platform support (without forcing Mac users to purchase Windows) is the first thing I look for, in a VTT.

Then FG would definitely NOT be what you're looking for, as it is ActiveX and will never be anything other than Windows-based without a complete rebuild of the code.

The second would be either a free player version, or a free trial version. Next It has to support 3.5e/d20. Ideally, it would support movement in three dimensions.

As for the free player version, FG DOES have a free player model, but the GM module for that one costs $150 (allowing unlimited free players). It DOES support 3.5/d20 quite well, but has no support for movement in 3 dimensions. I would put it's use of battlemaps as the low point of the software. It's not the FG focus.

Granted, I DM a chat-based game via IRC, because VTTs seem to befuddle my players. I would need a VTT that had a bulletproof GUI, did not require running multiple programs or accessing CLIs, and had boatloads of support.

And this would be a mixed bag. The GUI is great and fairly bullet proof, but a bit quirky. The online support is fantastic though.

 

[IronWolf]

For any DM to use it, they have to be extremely proficient in coding for it. That's the biggest advantage for ones like FG2. Once the ruleset is created, you don't have to be a master coder. You just have to learn how to use the ruleset.

This really isn't true. What was the last version of MapTool you've tried?

With MapTool, once you find a freely available framework for your system of choice you often have a feature rich set of macros at your disposal and ready to use. You don't have to touch them, just load the framework in your campaign file and then you will have buttons for all sorts of common tasks right within the campaign.

I can run a campaign on MapTool and not need to touch macros if I have a system appropriate framework loaded.

 

[Festivus]

This really isn't true. What was the last version of MapTool you've tried?

With MapTool, once you find a freely available framework for your system of choice you often have a feature rich set of macros at your disposal and ready to use. You don't have to touch them, just load the framework in your campaign file and then you will have buttons for all sorts of common tasks right within the campaign.

I can run a campaign on MapTool and not need to touch macros if I have a system appropriate framework loaded.

And I have not looked lately, but I could sweat that Rumbles Maptool Framework takes a cut / paste from CB or MB, right? Someone tell me I am crazy but with any VTT, data entry for the campaign is the biggest chunk of time you spend no matter what... so a import from other forms is a boon.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Another vote for MapTool here.

 

[IronWolf]

And I have not looked lately, but I could sweat that Rumbles Maptool Framework takes a cut / paste from CB or MB, right? Someone tell me I am crazy but with any VTT, data entry for the campaign is the biggest chunk of time you spend no matter what... so a import from other forms is a boon.

There is a stat block importer that someone has written. I've only used it with Pathfinder, but it has worked well.

I agree a large chunk of time can be data entry and anything to make that simpler and more efficient is a good thing for any VTT to have.

 

[Vegepygmy]

If MapTools meets you needs. Thats great. But the reality is that it doesn't meet the needs of a lot of people. For any DM to use it, they have to be extremely proficient in coding for it.

Your statement cannot be correct, because I am a DM, I use MapTool, and I haven't a clue how to code for it.

You can (as I did) learn everything you need to know to DM with MapTool just by watching a few free online tutorials.

 

[IronWolf]

You can (as I did) learn everything you need to know to DM with MapTool just by watching a few free online tutorials.

The video tutorials really are a great way to get up to speed on MapTool usage. I do wish there were similar tutorials or documentation for the frameworks for various systems.

 

[Merkuri]

Another +1 for MapTool. I have only used a couple of VTTs, and only free ones, but MapTool is all you need and it's free.

It's got the basics (share a whiteboard/table, roll dice) for those who want to keep it simple, and it's got tons of user-made frameworks for those who want something more.

For any DM to use it, they have to be extremely proficient in coding for it.

As others have stated, this is not true. The most popular games have at least one framework (for some you have a bunch to choose from), and for the less popular ones you can probably find a code monkey around the forums who'd be willing to put something together for you.

But what makes FG2 awesome for me?

- 3D animated dice
- ruleset specific character sheet for many systems
- DM Story/Map/Image/Encounter/NPC/Item Database
- Easy exporting to make the above adventure database modular
- Fantastic community support
- 3D animated dice (they deserve two mentions)

It doesn't have 3D animated dice (which, while it may look cool, doesn't actually contribute to the game at all, IMO), but MapTool has many frameworks that provide character sheets for lots of systems, they recently implemented the ability to import/export maps, making it modular, and their forums are teeming with people happy to help. I'm not positive what you'd count as a Story/Map/Image/Encounter/NPC/Item database, but if MapTool doesn't have it built in then you can probably find a framework to do it.

And MapTool costs both players and DMs exactly $0.

I can run a campaign on MapTool and not need to touch macros if I have a system appropriate framework loaded.

One of the reasons I love MapTool is that I don't have to touch any macros, but I can. For the 4e game I'm in right now we're using a framework some other gamer put together, but a few months ago we were playing a Sufficiently Advanced game for which there was no pre-made framework, so I had a blast putting one together. The macro language of MapTool could use a bit of work, but it's still pretty powerful, and if you're a programmer you'll probably enjoy using it to put the rules of whatever obscure system you use into MapTool.

 

[OnlineDM]

I love EN World! I ask a question and I get a whole bunch of well-thought-out answers. Thank you to everyone who chimed in on what makes Fantasy Grounds 2 a good virtual tabletop.

I think Griogre's post did the most to help me understand how FG2 is different from MapTool. Being character-sheet-focused makes it very different from MapTool's map focus. Yes, you have maps in FG2 and yes you can have character sheets in MapTool, but the programs differ in their focus.

Having read the comments from everyone who prefers FG2, it doesn't sound like are any dedicated MapTool users who later switched to FG2. I also don't hear anything that makes it sound like FG2 has any real advantages over MapTool, at least not for me (though I'm sure the animated dice are nifty). As I said, I enjoy macro programming, so that's a plus for MapTool, not a drawback (and as others have pointed out, if you prefer a pre-packaged framework, you might not ever need to program anything). And I do mainly need the VTT for the map and combat, not the role playing.

I just finished running my weekly Friday night four-hour D&D 4e session via MapTool. In tonight's session we had two combat encounters and a whole bunch of role-playing / skill challenge stuff. For the combats, we had the MapTool battle maps. For the role-playing we had Skype. The only things we were looking at on the screen during the role-playing sections were the outcomes of the dice rolls (which are easy for the players - they just click the appropriate button on their character for whatever skill they want to roll). We ignored the map during those sections and just talked and rolled some virtual dice. It was great!

I'm sure that FG2 is an awesome program, and if I had discovered it and gotten invested in learning and using the program before I came across MapTool, I'm guessing I would see no reason to switch to MapTool. But now that I know and love MapTool, I see no reason to switch away from it. That's really what I was looking for with my question, and no one said anything that made me feel, "Wow, MapTool is nice, but just look at what FG2 offers! MapTool can't compete with that!"

I imagine that cost will be a big issue for a new player/GM in deciding what tool to use. If both MapTool and FG2 can do everything a RPGer would want and they do these things equally well, my guess is that most people will choose MapTool because it's free.

I wish the developers of FG2 the best of luck, but it honestly seems to me that there's a community out there that's willing to build a program every bit as good as FG2 just for the pleasure of building it, not as a business. With that being the case, I imagine it will be hard for FG2 to be profitable since MapTool seems to be just as good, and it's free.