Ok, I got a couple of private messages from people about the platform I am planning to use to launch
my latest game. So I figured we needed a thread to talk about online tools and to talk about how awesome Roll20 will be.
Roll20 is a new browser-based online RPG tool system that is going to fix a lot of problems we have with RPGing online. They are currently wrapping up
their fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. Here is a clip from
their website:
Roll20 brings pen and paper gaming to the web the right way. Built on a powerful platform of tools, yet elegantly simple, it focuses on enhancing what makes tabletop gaming great: storytelling and camaraderie. It's incredibly easy to get started, and runs right in your web browser, so there's nothing to download or configure.
Here is their product demo video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-aJLyYUXa0
And they have shittons of
dice rolling abilities as well as
awesome token tracking and card deck systems. I am excited for it. My groups have tried MapTools, IRC and a multitude of other systems but they seem to bring a host of problems to the table. I am looking forward to testing it here next week. If you want to get it on the Beta of the website, you still have about a day or more to back it at the $25 level.
What tools do you use to handle online RPGing? Do you do only Play by Post? MapTools? IRC meetups?
Posts
Roll20 just uses pre-set artwork. So you could drop whatever: ship floorplans, world maps, etc. Even could do a galaxy map with ship tokens.
Roll20 looks neat though since all the videos use fantasy stuff I wonder how well it can be set up for a scifi setting.
Those pictures are taken top-down on my personal OpenSim server, in this case I just have a big black disk sitting underneath it where I took the pictures. The spheres have been color coded by faction, and scripted to know their locations (in my OS region), and do the math I coded into them to translate their region distances into my game setting distances. Clicking on them makes them talk to each other and then announce how far apart they are. My setting's a somewhat slow FTL universe where it can take months to go from one system to another, so in the event my players decide to go somewhere where I didn't have the math done out beforehand it could be pretty handy.
Also some of the pics of the ship model I did up (not functional enough to walk around in, or even poke around outside that much, since I did it in an afternoon or so, but if I wanted my players could log into my server and look at it up close).
I really like that idea for a galactic map. I am going to have to play with you guys!
Roll20 can use any artwork, so if you want you can drop ship plans or galactic maps to use with ship tokens, etc.