An Open letter to the D&D R&D team.

[Hussar]

Why? Does your tabletop at home track all these things?

The idea is to use an online connection to enable real-life D&D. In real-life, you're on your own to adjucate game rules, track hp, etc.

To answer your question, yes, my tabletop does track all these things. I use OpenRPG, DM Genie and a host of other goodies to make my life easier. Why should an app like this be worse than what I can already get? WOTC has the chance here to really, really shine. Programs like Fantasy Grounds and OpenRPG show exactly what you can do with a VTT.

Put some real money into it, make it better and I'll be a happy camper. Otherwise, why on earth would I care? As I say, I can already get everything for free - rules hypertexted for ease of lookup, initiative is tracked, with simple commands to add in spell durations and whatever, hp and AC listed in the player window so I never, ever have to say, "Hey Bob, what's your AC?" but can just say "The creature smacks the crap out of you Bob!"

Add to that, I can use any image format to create maps, minis and effects, hosted locally or on sites like Photobucket, add in sound and music in any format - mp3, ogg, wav - use the program on ANY system, and you get a pretty robust VTT that can stand up to anyone's tabletop game any day of the week.

I hear a lot that people would never trade table top for VTT play. I can respect that, but, I think it has a lot to do with people not actually having experienced VTT play. It's different, I won't lie about that, but, it's also not second fiddle.

I have pretty high standards for what a VTT should be and right now I'm hoping that WOTC will not drop the ball.

 

[Jackelope King]

Why? Does your tabletop at home track all these things?

The idea is to use an online connection to enable real-life D&D. In real-life, you're on your own to adjucate game rules, track hp, etc.

Because this has to be more than just my tabletop at home in cyberspace. It needs to be a program that not only allows for playing D&D online (which I can do in an interface as simple as AOL Instant Messenger or on an internet message board like this). It needs to be able to facilitate gameplay in the way that the iPod facilitates listening to music. There's a world fo difference between allowing and facilitating.

Here's an example. If I had no other choice, I could do my homework on my lap all the time. My lap allows me a workspace with which to study and transcribe notes. However, my desk at home faciliates that task much better. I have a lamp on the desk, as well as a larger amount of flat, level surface area, with a cup full of pens and pencils right there. I also have the ability to play music while I'm at my desk to make doing homework more pleasant. It makes my goal of doing homework much easier by providing tools that are useful in accomplishing the task.

As mentioned above, why was the iPod so successful in almost single-handidly creating the .mp3 player market? Because it facilitated listening to music any time, anywhere with a top-notch interface and combined it by allowing you to store essentially your whole music collection in your pocket. Then it went a step further and allowed you to integrate your iPod with your computer after the advent of iTunes, which is an excellent music organizer, player, and store all in one. Sure, I could walk around with a boombox on my shoulder listening to music. A boombox allows for music on the go. But it doesn't facilitate music listening in the way an iPod does. Quite simply, the iPod makes it easier to achieve the end goal of listening to your favorite music any time, anywhere.

That's what the virtual table top needs to be able to do. It needs to make it easy for me to sit down at the end of the day and get in some gaming, even when my gaming group is scattered from Syracuse to Baltimore. If WotC wants it to be the iPod of online tabletop RPGs, then it needs to facilitate the game in a way all of our "dream tables" did. It needs to ease the bottleneck of finding good games to play in, which means making it easier to run the game.

 

[Hussar]

Just to continue this line of thinking for a moment.

I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that right now, I could go over to the OpenRPG boards, post an ad for a 3.5 game for 4-6 players any time of the day or night and have a group within a week, two tops. And the OpenRPG boards aren't exactly large. They're miniscule compared to the WOTC boards.

WOTC has an amazing opportunity here. So many gamers would like to play but can't because of many reasons. You see it on the boards all the time - "I'd like to play, but there's no one here to play with." "I have two kids and a full time job, I can't play!" that sort of thing. With VTT, you can find a group that fits into your time schedule and play. My job has wonky hours and I live in Japan. I play from 9 am to 12 PM Tuesday mornings.

Try getting a tabletop game during that time.

WOTC has the community. They have the numbers to be able to have people running games 24/7. Games that are supported by Dungeon to boot. Imagine being able to download the latest Dungeon adventure to your PC, read it, load up the VTT and all the minis and maps and macros are already set for you. Ready to play in 20 minutes.

That's where VTT's have so much of an advantage over tabletop. You're using the computer anyway, why not use it to its full capablities? Why handicap the VTT because tabletop doesn't have those advantages?

 

[BluWolf]

Another point I meant to make earlier is that if done correctly, over time, this would become the preffered method of gaming. Yes you could still gather together in a physical location to do face to face gaming and still have the social interactions that I think are such a great part of our game. But I also, think you could do that with the VTT running on your average big screen in the house at the same time.

I don't think the VTT would eliminate face to face play. I wouldn't want it to.

 

[Rokes]

One thing I mentioned while talking with Sara Girard after the Ennies was to include a location search. While this may seem unimportant at first, because the VTT will allow you to play with anyone, anywhere, it'd be great to find people not only in the same time zone, but within a reasonable radius. That way, the VTT can be used to start playing with someone you may be too shy to randomly meet in person, and then can develop into someone that you play with face to face.

 

[Jhaelen]

I have absolutely no interest in this program if that were true.

You have an incredible opportunity in the VTT programs. They can handle ALL the math for you. All of it. Tracking your initiative, hp's, attacks, iterative attacks, rolling 16d6 for that spell, power attacks - EVERYTHING.

Why in the name of little fishies wouldn't you want the table top app to do that? Think about it, you could finally sit down and play your game with all the fiddly mathematical bits in the background.

What I've heard and seen so far is exactly what (contact) has been describing. Actually somewhere someone from WotC mentioned that the virtual tabletop was fully useable even if you're using homebrew rules: The DM tells the player to roll a die (you'll see the die roll on the VTT) and then decides what the effect of that roll will be!

I assume you'll be able to have the VTT track some things for you, like initiative, hp, etc. (this will probably be the default setting) but you'll have the option to disable any and all automatic tracking.

 

[BluWolf]

bump

 

[RigaMortus2]

Another important element. They have to not disable Alt-Tabbing. If I can't swap between my Online D&D Tabletop game and World of Warcraft so that I can play them at the same time, then forget about it!

 

[Zoatebix]

All this is fine for a "killer ap" for online gaming, but how does it help me when I'm sitting at a table with several other people in the same room, and nary a computer in sight?

*That* is what needs the killer ap.

Lanefan

That's what I was referring to upthread in post 11.

 

[hectorse]

I agree with the OP and most of the points made wholeheartedly