Virtual tabletops: I can touch your little mans through the nets

XOCentric

Alright, this isn't really an OP yet, more like a call-to-arms to get all the info in one spot for virtual tabletopping (oh yeahs, I make my own words). I'll be editing this once we get some good information in.

Reason: I'm a busy fuck like most post-college people I know, but I still get hard for rolling dice. As most of us know, it is damn near impossible sometimes to get 4 or 5 buddies together regularily, but I think an online solution would work.

Proposed idea: Cram as many resources as we can into one post and get schedule-crippled people like myself together virtual for fun and profit.

Needed items:
-links to good virtual tabletops (free is better, pay ones for the hard core)
-lists of games people want to play virtually
-eventual schedules for ongoing games
-...?
-profit!

**UPDATE**

Programs

http://www.rptools.net - Set of tools to enable users to set up their own games, non-specific ruleset.

Links to previous PA Threads concerning Virtual Tabletops

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=86679
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=78480
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=79728

Virtual Tabletop Community

http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=community

List of PA VTT games - If you are either looking for games or want to post one, PM me.

- n/a yet

SkyCaptain

http://www.rptools.net

That's all you really need. It's the best out there.

Alecthar

Well there's Maptools (Free), Gametable (Free), Fantasy Grounds (Full version costs the monies). I've heard of ViewingDale, another one that costs. OpenRPG has one, I believe.

Wizards is coming out with one soon too, I believe.

I'll get relevant links in a bit.

DevoutlyApathetic

Alecthar wrote: »

Wizards is coming out with one soon too, I believe.

Are you sure about that? Last time I heard them talk about their "online strategy" they completely ignored the gametable thing. They treated it like it never existed. Has this changed?

As for the OP.....pretty much Maptools. It's amazingly good but as it has become more....feature rich, it's learning curve has gotten steeper.

SkyCaptain

WotC has tabled Game Table. It won't be releasing any time soon, if ever.

DevoutlyApathetic

It still baffles me they didn't show up to the guys who did Maptools with a briefcase full of cash and just get it done with. I think the issue is that a suit somewhere wanted it to be in 3D without understanding the massive increase in asset costs that'd entail. Nevermind what a huge increase in design time that'd be for dungeons and monsters.

SkyCaptain

Nah, if they were smart about licensing and hiring, they could have a 3D Game Table in a reasonable amount of time. There's enough software out there that they could license things like SpeedTree and other libraries and a game engine to get a head start.

DevoutlyApathetic

I'm less talking about the engine as all the "pretty stuff" and while it's somewhat about the effort that would go into their Dungeon adventures it's more about what a pain in a ass it'd be for the average user to make a dungeon a week.

I thoroughly admit to being on the low end of the scale when it comes to caring about "pretty" but I don't think I'm that abnormal.

SkyCaptain

Depends on how they create the tool. If it's anything simpler than Neverwinter Nights was, creating a dungeon a week would be child's play.

Alecthar

I think there's already more stuff available in Maptools than I'll ever use, bso I see no reason to use another piece of software, particularly if I have to pay for the privilege.

Gametable is pretty thoroughly bare bones, though. Not a big fan.

Spectrum

I've only used OpenRPG. The maptools can be a little lacking, but I like the built in dice roller, aliasing, and the tree features saving your sheets and other things. Shame that creating a sheet from scratch is such a pain in the ass if you can't find one to download.

Hahnsoo1

OpenRPG is crap compared to MapTools at rptools.net. Having used about 10 different whiteboard/virtual tabletop programs over the past 6 years, only MapTools has the simplicity and features that I've ever needed for running my games online. The big feature is the drag-and-drop tokens/tools/maps/terrain. Any image file becomes a prop, a map, a token, even a handout, and all you have to do is drag and drop it in. The in-line dice roller and macros are pretty standard for a tabletop program, but they make a concerted effort to support game systems like Savage Worlds, White Wolf, Shadowrun, even Castle Falkenstein (which uses playing cards instead of dice).

The key with MapTools is: if it has features which are difficult to use... don't use them. Only use what you need or what you can figure out. I never use the lighting and topology for my games, for example. We only have ONE scripted macro in our games, which is simply a cut and paste off of someone's Savage Worlds script (we modified it for One Roll Engine games). We don't fill in custom character sheets or token macros on our tokens unless it speeds up play (like in Earthdawn).

Fantasy Grounds is pretty and the interface is clean, but it's terrible for any game that isn't Dungeons and Dragons (especially games that use pooled dice). It also costs money, and it does far less than what Maptools can do.

For any online Pen and Paper game, you'll really only need two things: A tabletop and a communications medium of choice. In the early days of online PnP, my group would use a simple hand-written Java whiteboard program for a tabletop (basically, MSPaint, but everyone can draw on it at the same time) and Teamspeak. Later choices included WebRPG (good idea, but it flopped when it went Pay-to-play), OpenRPG (the clunky red-headed stepchild of WebRPG), Screenmonkey (actually fairly decent, but it streamed images which meant high bandwidth costs. One advantage is that it ran totally from a browser window), and a few other programs that were picked up and dropped in the span of 2 sessions in favor of Screenmonkey. We finally ended up with our current setup, Maptools (and we haven't looked back) and Ventrilo (our current VoIP, but you can use pretty much any VoIP program that your heart desires). If you are comfortable with IRC gaming (typing instead of speaking), then you should only need Maptools.

One thing that you might want to add, though, in addition to the two tools above (a tabletop and a communications medium) is a central online repository for campaign information. It can be a personal webpage, a private wiki, or one of the many public wiki options out there. We use rpg.wikia.com, but there are many other options including Campaign Wiki, and Obsidian Portal. Note that if you use a wiki, anyone can come in and mess with your shit, so keep that in mind (I once had a private wiki that I used for our Shadowrun campaign, only to have it hacked with a bunch of porn/pharm spam links). I generally keep a text backup of any files that I make on our campaign wiki. You can use this space to show character sheets, character journals, funny OOC/IC quotes during the campaign, links to useful resources, session summaries, house rules, etc. Make it accessible, encourage your players to use it (extra XP for posting entries), and it will become a fun place to geek out about your current campaign.

EDIT: Previous threads on this subject:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=86679
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=78480
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=79728

EDIT: Also, RPTools.net has a list of links for the Virtual Tabletop gaming community:
http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=community

MikeMcSomething

Anyone know of any good places to find more textures and artwork like tables, chairs, buildings, etc. for Maptools? The download just had a few textures and looking online has only really gotten me a couple character packs, and anything I can make in GIMP looks like a bucket of hog shit.

Hahnsoo1

The Dundjinni Mapping Software forums has a lot of fan-made tiles and textures. Just scroll down to the User Creations section and browse away.

For example, Marble Tables.

You can also look at their Download of the Week feature for some other objects.

Most of the time, when I'm looking for a specific object to put in the Background or Object (read: In other words, anything but the Token) layer, I just punch the object's name into Google images, and pick the first image that looks close to what I need.

Alecthar

RPtools also has a gallery that can provide some useful set dressings.

SkyCaptain

I use the three tilesets in this forum: http://forums.rptools.net/viewforum.php?f=34