Gaming online. . . what to use?

[Jorunkun]

This program is beautiful and fast. (...) I settled with RPTools as the one for me.

Same here. My group has been playing online for half a year / more than a dozen sessions now, and after surverying all the options, MapTool was what we decided on. It's very stable, gives you great control over maps and minis, supports scripting and has amazing line-of-sight and fog of war reveal features. And it's free.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I downloaded maptools once before but ended up uninstalling it. Granted, I didn't expend serious effort learning it, but since the program seemed to have something of a definite learning curve, I got bored and moved on.

For those of you who actually have maptools and have used it, how long before it felt intuitive to you?

 

[Emirikol]

I downloaded maptools once before but ended up uninstalling it. Granted, I didn't expend serious effort learning it, but since the program seemed to have something of a definite learning curve, I got bored and moved on.
For those of you who actually have maptools and have used it, how long before it felt intuitive to you?

Bacon:

I felt the same way when my friend showed me Klooge..so I mulled over learning one of these for a long time. Then I finally decided I was tired of not being able to game as often as I'd like because of "get together difficulties."

When I first downloaded RPTools-Maptool, I pulled a miniature out onto the map and started moving it around. SImple enough. THat's all the ordinary user needs to know how to do. If you're a DM,all you REALLY need to do is put your .jpg maps into the maps folder and drag some pictures into the tokens folder.

I'd already been testing "text based mushes" but I"m highly dissatisfied with text-only games as I"m a visual and kinesthetic person (rather than audio..I don't listen well). The only thing that I just didn't know how to do and had to ask for help on was when you want to host a game (DM), you have to know how to allow the RPTools server into your internet port (firewall exception). Since there are sooooo many people out there playing online games nowadays, it wasn't hard to get help. Plus there's a website that shows you:
Step 1. Open your firewall settings for your router
Step 2. Allow the exception for the RPTools-maptool
Step 3. OPen the maptools platform and fire up the server.

I actually use my wife's computer as the main and then run the game from my wireless in our basement. Works great.

ANYONE INTERESTED IN LEARNING HOW TO USE FREE RPTools MAPTOOL, EMAIL ME: hafner.jay @ gmail.com (remove spaces). I'll fire up the server and you can link in and chat with anyone on there and test out the funcitons AS A GM.

Jay
P.S. I learned some advanced functions last night:
1) Screen capturing and dragging that into the character sheet or picture section of the tokens
2) the status bar at the bottom shows the instructions as you scroll over each function (e.g. the topo or fog-of-war tools)
3) the topo tools keep your players' light sources from seeing beyond walls
4) YOu can change the grid size and start with a HUGE map..e.g. I uploaded the Isle of Dread map and then shrunk the grid so that you could see the whole island and then pan down to PC size..so PC's can walk around the island and then I can upload individual maps per location. Random encounters can be run on the BIG map.
5) Using Paint Shop Pro (or other graphics program), I can drag stuff from there too.
6) When you put statistics in the stat blocks, they come up when you scroll over the creatures.
7) right click on a token and click "view character sheet" (if one is on there, it will come up)

 

[Aeolius]

So, which options allow for cross-platform use and support adventuring in three dimensions?

 

[Emirikol]

No three dimensional stuff. Just an elevation listing. I think DDI is going to do a 3D thing arent' they?..but it will cost us?



jh

 

[Hussar]

Another vote for OpenRPG. The dev guys for Open are very, very helpful and the latest version works very well. Although, to be fair, I've had a few players over the years who've had unbelievably poor connections - dropping all the time. I think it was on their end though, because the players with reasonably new computers (XP and P4's) and broadband have no problems at all.

I've had a few issues here and there, but, by and large, it's been rock solid.

 

[moritheil]

PbP and PbIM both work. The pace will be different.

 

[James Heard]

PbP only really works well if all the players are fairly good communicators with their writing, IMO. I've had some great players in person over the years that I'm sure I'd struggle with playing a PbP game online with, simply because their writing skills wouldn't compare favorably with their personal skills. Fun people to sit at the table with and play D&D over a few beers with are not always great writers able to easily do PbP.

 

[Hussar]

Honestly, PbP is an entirely different animal to tabletop or even virtual tabletop. The fact that any single action can take weeks to resolve pretty much places it in a completely different category.

Plus, I've found that PbP games tend to fall apart with alarming regularity. If you get one or two people who don't post regularly, particularly if the DM take a bit of time off, it can grind to a very long halt.

I've certainly found that virtual tabletop programs like OpenRPG are every bit as good as tabletop play. I find the loss of personal contact is made up for with quality of play - very little play gets derailed by off topic banter - and the fact that you have so many other options available - artwork, sound, etc - that while different, VTT play is not inferior to tabletop.