Give me your virtual tabletop xp

It's begining to look like I may have to relocate to another community. Which sucks as I have been gaming with some of the people in my group for close to 7 years now. I'm looking at different options including gaming over the internet (virtual tabletop) . What works? What doesn't? What's good? What's it like gaming over the interent.

Edit: I'm not talking about a play by post or mmorgs.

Are you talking virtual tabletop (OpenRPG, Fantasy Grounds) or MMORPGs?

yeah i was talking about virtual tabletops. Anyone played with these? Pro? Cons?

I've been using OpenRPG for a while now (due to a lack of players in my area ) and I've found it to be an OK way of playing if you can't get into a 'real-life' game (though doubtless it's not going to be to everyone's taste).

It actually has a couple of benefits over a regular games ...like being able to whisper things to certain players (anything from the result of a simple spot check to more sensitive information) and it also seems to encourage better role playing in some folks who might otherwise feel a little awkward 'getting into character' in a conventional game.

However, sometimes combat can be a bit slow - and obviously because everything is being typed rather than spoken the whole game itself is going to be a little slower, but you can have macro's set up for skill checks and combat rolls to help speed things up, and if you are DM'ing it pays to have some descriptions pre-typed so you can just copy and paste them into the chat window.

I also find that using maps helps a lot and helps cut down on the amount of reading the players have to do (as whole paragraphs of text may be a bit of a chore to get through) ...for example if I have a map image of a large irregular shaped room displayed in the map window I don't have to worry about giving out any room dimensions or state where the exits are, etc. and can instead describe it as 'an irregular shaped room' and then add a few lines describing the furniture, decorative patterns on the wall/floor, distinctive smells etc. etc...

You can also link to bits of music or to images etc. (to use in a similar way as player handouts in a regular game), so that there really isn't much you can't do in comparison to a regular game.

It's main drawback however is the fact that you aren't sitting around the table with a bunch of friends

I've used Fantasy Grounds, and it looks beautiful as an app. The interface takes some getting used to, but there's not much of a learning curve. I've enjoyed my experiences with it. We use a VOIP app (TeamSpeak) to allow voice communication, and that helps a lot. The average game runs at 50% to 60% of the speed of a face-to-face game, because of loading time, the occasional server problem, people being pulled away by family, etc. Still, it's pretty close to a FTF gaming experience, and I like it. As a GM, there's prep work involved, in the creating of maps and sometimes tokens for the adventures.

I'd recommend it, particularly if FTF isn't possible,
Flynn

Kris said:

I've been using OpenRPG for a while now (due to a lack of players in my area ) and I've found it to be an OK way of playing if you can't get into a 'real-life' game (though doubtless it's not going to be to everyone's taste).

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I've tried open rpg a couple of times and always seem to get stalled out at the "trying to start a game" part. can you give a quick tutorial to help me figure out where I'm going wrong?

I've used openrpg off and on for about 7 years.

Pros. Great for roleplaying, can be very atmospheric, you don't have to travel anywhere.

Cons. Slower games, Seems to be less commitment by players, And the couple of campaigns i ran we're harder work than a F2F game.

Generally if you can find a group that you like and like you , its good. It can take a while to get there though.

I've been running with Fantasy Grounds on-and-off now for about three years, and exclusively for the last one. While there are elements of the face-to-face gameplay I miss (other than the obvious one of getting together with friends,) I'm finding it does work very well as a substitute. If you're graphically-based, especially, and comfortable putting together maps, it has the benefit of being able to make use of much more detailed pieces than you'd likely use during a tabletop game where the cost of printing is a factor.

That said, it does take long - much longer. It's been a year now, and I'm still getting used to adjusting pacing for online games - I keep planning more than they're able to get through in a single session. Games take longer online, even with voice chat, I've found. Other than some pacing issues, that's still been fine for us, but I suspect it's not so true for everyone.

I'm running a couple of games right now, one online and one offline (face to face). It's basically the same game with a few tweaks, and two different groups. The online game I play over OpenRPG, although we're looking at Ventrilo for voice and I'm going to look at some of the other options mentioned by people in this thread.

The one thing I find is that my online group moves at approximately half the speed of my face-to-face group. I do my best with macros, boxed text and prepared materials, but the fact of the matter is, typing is always going to be slower than speaking. My online group moves through the same material at about half the speed of my face-to-face group. Connection speeds, and dealing with players who are slow typers, and other unpredictable problems like a server going down and having to meet up in a different place are all realities you have to deal with.

Combat. Ugh. I try to keep it simple. Combat can be absolutely painful online.

Kahuna Burger said:

I've tried open rpg a couple of times and always seem to get stalled out at the "trying to start a game" part. can you give a quick tutorial to help me figure out where I'm going wrong?

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Do you mean you had problems finding a suitable group to play with? or issues with the software itself?