Electronic Mat and Remote Players

[andargor]

Hi,

We've got one of our players which is in another city. We use NetMeeting to allow him to play.

It works fairly well, except when encounters arise. We've got figurines on our mat, but the camera doesn't get enough details/resolution to allow our remote player to see the action clearly.

We've started using the NetMeeting Whiteboard to replicate the action, but again that's not perfect, as distances and lines-of-sight are hard to correctly represent.

Tied to the fact that the remote player is an archer, it is less than an optimal solution, but better than the straight camera, which is freed to capture roleplaying. I've been experimenting with OpenRPG, and it's better, although the interface is less than user-friendly.

In any case, what would make the setup kick butt would be an electronic mat, of a reasonable size (4'x6'+), that is tied in with an on-screen whiteboard. Either figurine movement, or some sort of stylus could record the action, and translate it on the whiteboard.

I've done some research, and there are some devices like Mimio which use an ultrasound receiver coupled with special marker holders to record what is written with them, and this is translated to the NetMeeting Whiteboard. Unfortunately, the system costs $800+, which is far more than we are willing to pay. Also, it's made for regular office whiteboards, so there is no guarantee that it will work on a tabletop with a mat.

Has anyone ever implemented a solution that works? Or do you know if there exists wireless mouse-pens that can be used to translate positions on a defined area to the computer screen?

Regards,

Andargor

 

[dvvega]

Here's an idea ... get some sort of freeware internet chess board which allows you to place pieces as you want. That can be a great way to do it (or even use Yahoo! games for it).

 

[plavi]

5 ct solution

Coïncidentally, I used a like method last friday where the party was split up during a big combat, and some were invisible, so to prevent them from acting upon information they did not have, I placed the players (or in 2's/3's if they would stay together) in different rooms with a grid, while I walked around the house with a master grid.

Just use a big square mat of 26 x 26 squares, much like a chessboard

Name one side A thru Z, the other side 1 thru 26, et voilá, the cheapest and easiest solution possible. That way the player on the other side of the 'net can setup his own version exactly the way you do it with your group and where you tell him. Also, this method lets you track invisible creatures way easier without the players knowing where there comerades are!

Luck!

 

[Drawmack]

I would say use openrpg but do it like this.

Get an overhead projector:
Get a computer - overhead mat: I can't find one on officemax.com but they let you pump the computer's output to an overhead projector.
Then use openRPG exclusivly with the map on the wall.

Or you could take your battle mat and grid number the squares. Then he maintains his own mat and you just tell him where to put stuff.

 

[mikebr99]

Share an Excel page. And make all the boxes into squares to map on. This is what we are doing... most of us are together, but one usually can't make it, so he joins us with audio and viewing on the excel page... and the rest of us view the page on the TV.

Mike

 

[IceBear]

Could try OpenRPG. It's free and has this feature built in (along with online character sheets, dice rolling, and chat client).

IceBear

 

[andargor]

Thanks for the replies! Lots of great ideas here.

We use a hex mat, so square based stuff is kinda awkward.

In any case, we'd like to use a "point and click" approach. Wireless pointers would be cool, and make combat more fluid.

We're 7 around the table plus the remote guy, with heavy roleplaying, so it gets difficult to shout out positions and such.

I'll continue my research.

Andargor

 

[dvvega]

I think I might have an alternative which is not perfect but will work.

There's a mapping program called GRID ... an old DOS program. It has numbered hexes on screen. Although a manual process for both sides of the game (the remote and the local), you can call out grid numbers.

For example ... orc at 001, ogre at 002, player 1 at 010 ... etc

then when you make moves ... orc 001 moves to 009 and attacks player 1.

Might be useful? You could also trade pre-setup maps for rooms etc.