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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wbcreighton" data-source="post: 5318123" data-attributes="member: 95065">InterestingI just finished reading through this rather informative and interesting thread.I have downloaded and played around with Maptools.  Yesterday I was able to play using a VTT for the first time using FGII.One important thing that hasn't really been discussed enough probably because most of the people commenting are playing the World's Most Popular RPG, is support for less popular games.It has been mentioned that FGII is character sheet centric and Maptools is map centric.  Both programs offer great support for DnD 3.5 and 4ed.  But it is support for the less popular games that could make the difference.  With FGII you need to buy (unless you want to do programming ) a ruleset for other rules systems ( it comes with DnD).  With Maptools you can ignore the rules or use a framework.  The problem is you need to find a framework that someone has volunteered to write or you have to write it yourself.  With FGII if the ruleset is available you buy it.  It is approved by the game publisher and will work.  With Maptools, you might be able to find a framework or you might not.Character sheet centric really means rules centric and map centric is really graphics centric.  You can play FGII without using maps.  If you don't use maps then why would you use Maptools ?  If you only want a VTT for the maps then Maptools seems like the way to go.I wanted to use Maptools to play RQ but there aren't any frameworks for it.  I tried to modify a CoC framework to use with it but it wouldn't work.  I looked into learning how to modify the framework but don't have the time to spend.One of the positive things in Maptools favour is price.  It is free.Of course if you want to make a framework for a game to work like a FGII ruleset does, then you have to spend time to do that.  If you value your free time at zero then Maptools is still free.   With FGII you have to pay for the program and you have to pay for the ruleset.  So if you put a value to your free time you can decide if the cost of FGII is worth it or not.My first ever experience with FGII happened yesterday.  We hooked up with a GM who owns an Ultimate license.  That means we were able to download a free full version of the program to play in his game.  It was a BRP game, an old fashioned dungeon crawl.  I will say that the 3 of us who had never used FGII were able to pick it up very easily and were rolling dice and RPing in no time at all.  All of the info for our characters was available on character sheets, and we can just double click on the skill name or weapon name or weapon damage and the rolls happen automatically.  The tokens worked great, the maps and grids and FOW worked great too.  We skyped for our OOC stuff.I think it is that interaction between the rules and the graphical interface that really makes FGII easy to use.Every RP game I have ever played, I had to buy the book or three.  I have also bought plenty I haven't played.  I don't think the cost of the VTT should be the most important factor in what VTT you use.  I think the focus of your group is the most important factor and the ease of use of the VTT is what counts.  And don't forget about support for other rule sets or frameworks.</blockquote>

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