Which virtual tabletop do you use?

[tenkar]

You really can't go wrong with any of the VTTs mentioned here, and access to a number of VTT developers in this thread is a pretty cool way to get your questions answered.

Heruca has a very complete list of VTTs at his site. A very impartial listing considering BattleGroundsRPG is his VTT. Use the link he provided and do some research.

 

[OnlineDM]

I've been running an online D&D 4e game for a couple of months. I've used OpenRPG, Gametable (now technically known as OSU-gt) and MapTool, and I've blogged about my experiences throughout.

All three programs have their points, but here is my ultimate take on them:

• OpenRPG's main strength is that it has servers running that everyone can connect to, so no one has to host on their own computer. This is good if you have networking issues (as I did when I tried to run a game from a hotel room). Having to upload all of the images before you use them is a pain in the butt, though.
• Gametable (OSU-gt) is easy to use for creating maps with pretty dungeon walls that snap to the grid. I love this feature. However, I've found that everything I love about Gametable is better in...
• MapTool. Oh, how I love MapTool. It is a program where the DM has to host on their computer, so if you have trouble with networking this might be a no-go. But if that's not a problem, MapTool does it all. Draw on the map, drag and drop, automatic resizing, layers, macros, distance measurement, fog of war... I love MapTool!

 

[Matchstick]

Fantasy Grounds 2 is what our group is using. No connection issues so far and combined with Teamspeak it's worked very well. We like that it has a good number of rulesystems available as we all tend to have favorite systems to run. I've been using the Savage Worlds ruleset and it's very good. The character sheets all link to information, it's easy to set shortcuts for specific die rolls, or to do those rolls right off of the sheet. The ruleset tracks penalties for being Shaken etc. as well. The combat tracker helped the combats to run better than in person (I think). I haven't gotten complicated at all with maps; I have the map ready and shoot it over the wire, and we get to fightin'.

Having lots of rulesets available is big for us. We have someone that wants to run Call of Cthulhu, someone that wants to do 4E, and someone that wants to do Deadlands Reloaded (Savage Worlds again). It's really opened up lots of potential for our scattered group!

I haven't used any of the other ones, so I can't compare. We're very happy with FG2 thus far.

 

[Mavrik]

Our group have one remote player... we use skype, and Maptools on a large lcd screen in the living room, it works really well.

52inch tv, 3 laptops and desktop, 2 webcams and broadband... DnD how its suppose to be played

 

[neofax]

I have used lots of VTT's and I have to say MapTools is by far the best out there! Due to it's strong community, there are rule sets out there for Pathfinder, 3E/3.5E/4E, Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds, Hero, Dark Heresy, Shadowrun, SW Saga, Hackmaster, World of Darkness and NWoD(just off the top of my head). It also handles other types of games if you put your mind to the scripting language. It has FoW, Vision Blocking, Character management(based on FW), auras, states/conditions, hex/square/free... list goes on. Also, if it has a feature you want added, you can code it yourself in JAVA or donate. The developers are available pretty much all the time on the forums and the community is great! As for the servers in the cloud, I do know that there are players in the community that are willing to provide a server for people that are having problems hosting and IIRC, on the list of things to do is remote server start.

 

[DMFTodd]

[snide]Yeah, how is that WotC VTT coming along?[/snide]

I've since left the klooge camp and become a Maptools convert. It doesn't have quite the features that Klooge did and the whole development/framework discussions are impossible to follow, but it's stable and it works.

And DM's Familiar now has an export to the MapTools macroset.