What are your "must haves" for a virtual tabletop?

[dd.stevenson]

That's interesting, that simply making it so widely available and easy to get started is enough.

As far as I know, roll20 stands alone in this regard. Presumably at some point someone will put a more polished product on the market that does exactly the same thing--but I then I thought the same thing about Steam, so.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

How about a well documented API so that one can add her own additions like support for the preferred game system? If I can modify properties and call system functions I could do a lot of stuff extending the capabilities.

 

[DMBrendon]

How about a well documented API so that one can add her own additions like support for the preferred game system?

This certainly opens it up to make it more useful for a whole lot of gamers. I'm not sure how it would work on a mobile platform where things are locked down a lot more.

 

[DMBrendon]

As far as I know, roll20 stands alone in this regard. Presumably at some point someone will put a more polished product on the market that does exactly the same thing--but I then I thought the same thing about Steam, so.

Polish is certainly lacking in pretty much all of the RPG apps these days, I guess it's a consequence of most people doing them as a side project.

 

[jcayer]

My group has tried a lot of options for this. We started with a webcam, skype and white board. Moved on to maptools and skype, then google hangouts and maptools. We've recently settled on Roll20 and google hangouts...these provide almost everything we need and a fair amount of integration.
That being said, I want my players to be able to update their characters without me being there.
I'd also like the ability for a live, linked in document for people to use as a log or to keep track of anything from NPCs to treasure. I can probably do this in google hangouts w/google docs but just haven't tried hard enough.

 

[DMBrendon]

I'd also like the ability for a live, linked in document for people to use as a log or to keep track of anything from NPCs to treasure. I can probably do this in google hangouts w/google docs but just haven't tried hard enough.

I'm a big fan of Google Hangouts, but most of the people I talk to don't want to run their virtual tabletop that way, which surprises me.

 

[jcayer]

I don't understand why. We tried so many other ways and that was by far the best/most easiest. We have recently begun posting our Savage Worlds Deadlands:Reloaded game to youtube. If anyone is interested, skip the 2 minute intro and see what running Roll20 through google hangouts looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNFtVCceIPs&feature=youtu.be

For the record, we have one remote guy, my laptop(GM, me, which does the recording), my family room PC that everyone watches, and one other guy who sometimes brings his laptop.

 

[Tanstaafl_au]

Tablet support.
Nicer to be gaming from the couch with my tablet than at my workstation.

 

[jcayer]

If you subscribe to roll20, one of the levels includes tablet support. I hooked an old computer up to my TV and the guys spread out on the couch. I setup a small table next to the TV and work from there. Then they can look at me as the GM and see the TV. It works well unless someone eats or drinks too much....the comfy couch can be dangerous in that regard.

 

[DMBrendon]

Tablet support.
Nicer to be gaming from the couch with my tablet than at my workstation.

Now you're talkin', that's right up my alley.