? for all those that use a VTT program currently

[Keefe the Thief]

I run a standard Maptool 4e game: players connect to my server, we converse using skype, take notes in google docs and use iplay4e for the charsheets.

Adittionaly, i took part in a face-to-face game that happened every sunday in a town half a country away. We did video-conferencing over skype and i "was" basically a laptop sitting on the table, approximately where another player would place himself. I rolled my dice in front of the camera. Everything worked really well, and i had to leave because of scheduling problems only. Would do it again immediately.

 

[Felon]

I have a question of my own.

Do immediate actions pose any kind of hassle? Is there a convenient "undo" button in these sort of programs?

 

[Stoat]

I have a question of my own.

Do immediate actions pose any kind of hassle? Is there a convenient "undo" button in these sort of programs?

I assume that every VTT does things a little differently.

I use d20Pro, and immediate actions are an area where it could improve. In combat, the program won't let a player move his character token unless it's the player's turn in initiative. If a PC moves and it's not his turn, the player has to tell the DM where he wants to go and the DM has to move the token manually.

It's particularly a hassle for me, because one my players is a Feylock built around teleporting all over the place. A cursed enemy will drop, and I'll have to spend a minute or two dealing with Misty Step.

As for an undo? Not really. A player or the DM can cancel a PC's move before the end of the PC's turn. But that's about it.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I have a question of my own.

Do immediate actions pose any kind of hassle? Is there a convenient "undo" button in these sort of programs?

Maptool doesn't really need that. We play online with it but the idea is the same. The player moves their token when it is their turn, but Maptool doesn't really track movement. It will tell you how far you have dragged your token and you can make a 'way point' so the distance calculates via the squares you actually move through. Everyone sees the indicator as you drag so they can tell what you did. Once you drop your token it is moved. If the DM then wants to move you back to a square and say "no, no, I react when he's here" then that gets resolved and the player continues moving from that point. I set things so players can also move NPCs and monsters so they can show me where they push them etc.

Everyone has macros that track use, so a player can have a macro for "OA". When the DM moves a monster the player can just ask if they can interrupt at a specific point. The DM will place the monster back to that point and the player can click their "OA" button, select the target and the attack is resolved. There IS actually a 'take back the last power use' macro. That might be used if say a character interrupts with Shield or something like that. Power macro buttons will gray out until the next round/turn/rest or whatever is appropriate.

Note that beyond the basic ability to move tokens and set properties on them the rest is all done with macros (Rumble framework in this case). Don't think of a VTT as being as automatic as a CRPG or MMO kind of thing. Tokens are just minis and the other functions are purely ways to automate how you play at the table normally. Things like tracking power use/recharge are a convenience only. For anything really odd you can just manually adjust hit points, etc.

 

[heruca]

I am just curious how many, if any of you, sit in the same room to game while using VTT software? If you do sit in the same room, do you project your battle map onto something or do all your players have laptops and are all connected to the same program with you?

Battlegrounds is designed with the face-to-face user in mind. It has a "hidden-until-you-need-it" interface and a full-screen map mode to heighten the immersion factor.

The updated User Manual, which you can download from here, has a section on using Battlegrounds in face-to-face game sessions, with pics of sample setups. I've even heard of one user who is making a custom table which will have a flat-screen display built into the playing surface, so that they can use real minis on Battlegrounds' "digital battlemat".

As for Undo-ing actions, in Battlegrounds you press the standard Undo hotkey (Control-Z on Windows, Command-Z on Mac OS X) after moving a figure to the wrong spot. Or you can just drag the figure with the mouse to where you intended to move it in the first place. And if you accidentally stepped the turn sequence, the GM can press a special "Undo" button in the Turn Sequencer to bring the game back to its prior state.

 

[nerfherder]

Note that beyond the basic ability to move tokens and set properties on them the rest is all done with macros (Rumble framework in this case). Don't think of a VTT as being as automatic as a CRPG or MMO kind of thing. Tokens are just minis and the other functions are purely ways to automate how you play at the table normally. Things like tracking power use/recharge are a convenience only. For anything really odd you can just manually adjust hit points, etc.

It sounds like Maptools is the VTT we use. We purely use it as a virtual battlemat & minis. All PC tracking is done on paper character sheets (the DM may use a document - I don't know), and all player dice rolling is done using real dice on a real table, and shouting out the final result to the DM.

 

[Mavrik]

Our group have been using skype and maptools for over a year now, with a players on skype, and sometimes the dm on skype, the players in e room use maptools too, from a laptop and a large screen tv, works very well... And now with maptools on ipad works even better for me

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Our group have been using skype and maptools for over a year now, with a players on skype, and sometimes the dm on skype, the players in e room use maptools too, from a laptop and a large screen tv, works very well... And now with maptools on ipad works even better for me

You have Maptool running on an iPad? Seriously?

 

[rjdafoe]

I use maptool for every game. If you read my blog (I haven't updated in a long time, been too busy), I modified my table, installed a projector and a computer. The DM hosts a server on his laptop and the table computer is a client. The DM uses tokens for monsters, the players use minis.

Works for us.

Maptool can import maps so you can make them in another program that is better for maps, and then use that.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The only issue I've found with MT and image based maps is that any decent resolution map is so large that it can easily take 10 minutes for all the clients to grab it and display it. I find that using the vector graphics for the bulk of the map and just dropping in images of whatever objects you need on top of that is more satisfactory performance-wise. Of course if you have client and server on the same LAN it doesn't matter much. You can also upload archives to a site, but then you have to have a place to put the archive that is fast.