Virtual Tabletop software?

[wbcreighton]

What I like about maptool is that you really don't need frameworks. you can make macros for die rolls and use squares or hexes for the maps and use any picture you want as a background. You really don't need to imbed the rules for any game. You don't have that at the tabletop and don't really need it online.

I agree you don't need frameworks. You don't need to imbed the rules.

But you normally do have the rule books and character sheets and dice and miniatures and maps and adventure writeup ( behind a screen ) on your table top right ? Its not just a battle map, miniatures, and dice.

So FGII is attempting to recreate your gaming tabletop, not just your battle map. I believe the idea behind MT frameworks, Chartool, Iniattool (sp) is to help recreate a tabletop environment on your computer.

I like the idea of using the computer to help recreate that environment and to do what computers do best: calculate things, organize and save data, and give you cool visuals, maybe even sound effects, music, video etc.

I think that if you want to compare different VTTs you also have to understand what they are trying to do and what they are capable of.

 

[wbcreighton]

All I'm saying is, don't get locked into the idea of needing a framework. If you want to play a game online with your friends, the amount of technology you NEED in order to make the game happen is pretty minimal. For me, voice chat (Skype) and a shared battle mat that everyone can see (MapTool) is enough. Anything beyond that (automated dice rolling, tracking hit points, etc.) is gravy.

BTW I checked out your blog and I am impressed. That projector rig for using MT on your tabletop is very impressive.

Now I have no choice but to respond. All I'm saying is don't get locked into the idea that you NEED to spend $500 bucks to rig up a projector to display maps on your kitchen table in order to play a rp game. I would suggest a piece of graph paper and a pencil or you could splurge on an erasable battlemat.

 

[amerigoV]

I agree. I decided to signup with iTabletop with their $25 lifetime membership but I think they are a long ways away from being able to touch FGII, MT or BG. There are some games running on it but not many. The mapping tools are next to nonexistant. You have to make the maps elsewhere. No combat tracker yet. It will be a minimum of a year before I would even try it.

I am on the fence if the $25 investment is worth it (since, as you say, it cannot touch the existing VTTs...yet). I love the idea of mapping music and sound effects to a map/room. I am running Ravenloft and that would have been fantastic. But the multi-user liceases are rather expensive and I would hesitate to push players to something now that is not better than using Maptools for free (other than the cool music thing).

 

[Hussar]

Sound support is the one thing that I'm very disappointed with for Maptools and about the only reason I might consider using OpenRPG. I love having soundtracks and sound effects in the game. Heck, we're connected to the Internet when playing over a VTT, why not make a VTT that takes full advantage of that fact?

sigh.

 

[OnlineDM]

BTW I checked out your blog and I am impressed. That projector rig for using MT on your tabletop is very impressive.

Now I have no choice but to respond. All I'm saying is don't get locked into the idea that you NEED to spend $500 bucks to rig up a projector to display maps on your kitchen table in order to play a rp game. I would suggest a piece of graph paper and a pencil or you could splurge on an erasable battlemat.

Thanks for the praise! And I absolutely agree that shelling out for a projector does NOT make sense for most people. I do have a Chessex battlemat and had also printed out maps on paper before, and they worked just fine for my tabletop games.

I had been having so much fun using MapTool for my online game and I had just gotten a bonus at work and I figured, hey, you only live once! Let's get a projector! Plus now I don't need to collect monster minis since I can use virtual monsters.

Also, to your earlier point, I see where you were coming from now. You WANT your online gaming program to handle the rules for you, in which case you would indeed need a framework in MapTool. I can live without the program handling the rules (if it handles TOO much it feels like we're playing a video game instead of a tabletop RPG), but that's just me.

 

[IronWolf]

Sound support is the one thing that I'm very disappointed with for Maptools and about the only reason I might consider using OpenRPG. I love having soundtracks and sound effects in the game. Heck, we're connected to the Internet when playing over a VTT, why not make a VTT that takes full advantage of that fact?

I'm not sure if you're using a VoIP application, but I've been able to play soundtracks and sound effects over Ventrilo by having a second instance of winamp running that is joined to the Vent server and whatever is playing in winamp is heard in the Vent channel. I've only tested this and not used it in actual gameplay, but it seemed to work well.

 

[wbcreighton]

Sound

I'm not sure if you're using a VoIP application, but I've been able to play soundtracks and sound effects over Ventrilo by having a second instance of winamp running that is joined to the Vent server and whatever is playing in winamp is heard in the Vent channel. I've only tested this and not used it in actual gameplay, but it seemed to work well.

That sounds very inventive. We used Skype in our FG session and I thought it really helped speed things along. I don't think FG offers any support for music or sound effects in the program.

I noticed that Battle Grounds mentions support for sound effects and such But I have never used the program and I'm not sure how it works.

I am always worried about having too many applications running at the same time. It introduces another thing that can go wrong or create a program conflict on your computer.


I am curious for those of you out there who have tried multiple programs for VTTs what features would you pick from each program to be in your "dream VTT".

I am thinking that to start the mapping functions of Maptools.

Then add the video chat and sound capabilities of itabletop

add in the data management and ruleset handling ability of Fantasy Grounds

I don't know what Battlegrounds does best ?

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

Are there any VTT's that manage LOS in accordance with 4E rules? (grid based vision) That's what I want. Tokens, map, 4e Vision, and templates for area effects.

 

[Hussar]

Hadrian, refresh my memory on 4e LOS rules. IIRC, it's, if you can draw an unblocked line from any corner of your square to any corner of the target square, you can see it, right?

Maptool does do this actually. You can set player views based on their vision limits (torchlight, sunrod, whatever) and then in the token layer of the map (I think it's the token layer, it's been a while since I watched the instructions) you can add invisible lines that will block LOS. So, you could trace out your dungeon map with sight lines, and then, when a door is opened, erase out the door square and the players will only see through that opening.

It does work very well, particularly when you set it for individual views and one player can see something and no one else can.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

From what I can tell (messing with the latest version of MapTool, and still learning about all the settings), MapTool does a version of line of sight that resembles ray-tracing from the center of the square the token is in. It's clearly a useful approximation, and better than nothing, but it's not 4E specific.

True 4e LOS, (and all other templated area-based events) is drawn from the 4 corners of the square, not the center, and is blocky, and cover, concelament, or total concealment are determined by the number of corners you can draw an unobstructed line to.