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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 3241678" data-attributes="member: 22779">I know, this is oldish news, but I was thinking about the questionaire on the WOTC board that talked about the creation of a virtual tabletop as part of their paid subscription package.  As I play exclusively online these days and have done so for the past three or four years, this interests me greatly.  However, I've seen a few pay attempts at virtual tabletops come and go (Ghost Orb died a swift death for example) and it got me thinkign about what it would take for me to switch from OpenRPG which is free, to a pay program.OpenRPG has a lot of pretty sweet features, so, any pay for play program is going to really have to rock my socks, especially if they want to compete with other pay for play sites.  Now, I realize that the WOTC subscription bit isn't only for the virtual table, so there are other bennies in there for subscribing, but, I only want to look at this one.  So, here's my wish list:1.  Graphics and sound.Online gaming over virtual tabletop has some limitations of course.  The primary one being that you can't use a lot of the tricks to set the mood that you can use in a face to face (FTF) game.  It's pretty tricky to set a given mood for example, if one player is listening to Marilyn Manson and another is listening to Enya.  So, any online table has to incorporate the benefits of having the Internet so close.  Being able to have pop-up windows to show various graphics is a must.  Clean and clear voice chat is also a must.  And, if I'm going to be paying for this, I want to have a large (and I mean LARGE) library of fantasy images that I can draw on for my game.  If I'm running a WOTC module, I want to have the map for that module online so I can use it in the game.  Every NPC in the module should have a portrait picture that I can show to the players.  Additionally, I should have a fairly large library of mood music, ambient noise and sound effects that I can use in a session.2.  TimeI saw in the survey that users may be limited to 3 times per month.  This has to go.  There is no way I would pay for a platform with that kind of limitation.  A regular game runs once a week, which means I need at least 4 times a month at a bare minimum.  Usage should be unlimited.  The advantage of playing online is that you can simply pick a time and play a game with whoever else is available at that time regularly.  Any virtual tabletop plan must incorporate that mentality of any game, any time.  3.  Online library.In addition to a visuals and sound library, I would expect a Hypertext SRD treatment of every WOTC publication to be made available.  I wouldn't expect to be able to download it, but, if I type in "My ninja just levelled", then I want Ninja and "level" to show up as links in the text that will take me to the Ninja class and the glossary explanation of level.  OpenRPG already does this for the SRD, so, I would expect a great deal more from a pay system.4.  Online storage.If I'm paying for this, I would also expect a small amount of storage space for character sheets, campaign information and the like to use.  Nothing very large, but, a sort of Myspace thing for gamers.  5.  Stability.One of the downsides of OpenRPG is stability issues.  Granted, the latest versions are very solid, but, they do have some issues.  If I'm paying for this, I want the tabletop to be rock solid - no lags, no dropping and certainly no crashing.  This is not a huge program.  It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a MMORPG.  I would expect it to be at the very least as stable as say, World of Warcraft.--------That's all I can think of for now.  Those five things would be a bare minimum that I would require for paying for the service.  As of now, I can actually get most of those things for free, although it does take a fair bit of time.  So, if I'm going to pay for it, I want to see my time freed up considerably.Whatcha think?</blockquote>

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