Stumblewyk
Adventurer
First, some background: I've got 2 friends who live several hundred miles away from me. One in Kansas (named John), the other in Texas (named Mark). I live in Pennsylvania. They each want a D&D game. I've DM'd for Mark in person in the past before he moved to TX. John and I have known each other for years through a message board and I've run message board-based games for him in the past. They each approached me separately about my interest in possibly running an online game.
At first, I was reluctant. I already run a regular monthly game of 4e, a monthly game of d20 Modern, and I occasionally jump in with my weekly group and run 4e Dark Sun for them while the other DMs take a break. On top of that, I've been known to run a table for RPGA events at one of my FLGS every now and again.
When the 4e Virtual Game Table was announced by WotC, I saw this as my solution. It's 4e, which I run/play in constantly, it will integrate with the CB and MB, it incorporates voice chat, and I can easily produce maps for the game. I decided I'd do it - I'd run an online game, but it would strictly be a dungeon crawl-style game. I could randomly generate my dungeons, populate it with monsters using a generator, and I wouldn't have to worry about things like plot. I explained all this to my two long-distance players, and got my wife and brother (a lapsed D&D'er) on board with it. We were just waiting for Wizards to release the VT (which I've been in the beta for months for).
We're still waiting.
Mark and John are getting antsy. I can't blame them. If I were in their positions, I'd want to play, too. My question to all of you is this: What virtual table would you suggest to someone who wants to run 4e, has to do it on the cheap, and will be educating players both in 4e AND in using a virtual game table. Assuming the price structure is reasonable, I would likely still move over to WotC's table when it's released openly, but I'd like to weigh my options for right now. I've been holding John and Mark off for awhile now.
At first, I was reluctant. I already run a regular monthly game of 4e, a monthly game of d20 Modern, and I occasionally jump in with my weekly group and run 4e Dark Sun for them while the other DMs take a break. On top of that, I've been known to run a table for RPGA events at one of my FLGS every now and again.
When the 4e Virtual Game Table was announced by WotC, I saw this as my solution. It's 4e, which I run/play in constantly, it will integrate with the CB and MB, it incorporates voice chat, and I can easily produce maps for the game. I decided I'd do it - I'd run an online game, but it would strictly be a dungeon crawl-style game. I could randomly generate my dungeons, populate it with monsters using a generator, and I wouldn't have to worry about things like plot. I explained all this to my two long-distance players, and got my wife and brother (a lapsed D&D'er) on board with it. We were just waiting for Wizards to release the VT (which I've been in the beta for months for).
We're still waiting.
Mark and John are getting antsy. I can't blame them. If I were in their positions, I'd want to play, too. My question to all of you is this: What virtual table would you suggest to someone who wants to run 4e, has to do it on the cheap, and will be educating players both in 4e AND in using a virtual game table. Assuming the price structure is reasonable, I would likely still move over to WotC's table when it's released openly, but I'd like to weigh my options for right now. I've been holding John and Mark off for awhile now.