Tabletop Gaming Over the 'Net? 79
kebes asks: "I'm the GM for a group that has been gaming together for about 12 years. We're starting to move away from each other, and want to switch to playing our tabletop RPG online. So far, we've been using a combination of TeamSpeak and IRC. It works, but is not ideal. What protocol/chat service and applications would make for a great online gaming solution? The voice and text chat abilities are crucial, but having a collaborative white-board would greatly help. Ideally, the solution would be integrated (one app), allow logging of the session, run on multiple platforms (Mac OS X, Linux, Windows), work with web-cams, and permit file-transfers. What service or app (or combination thereof) would work best for our needs? Anyone else have stories of success or failure?"
A variety of tools. . . (Score:5, Informative)
There are several ways to go, but for my money, the best product is FantasyGrounds [fantasygrounds.com].
Fantasy Grounds is a "virtual tabletop" complete with d20 rules, character sheets, dice, a chat window, the ability to share images with your players, and to mask/unmask maps as your party progresses.
The current version is 1.05, but a major revamp has been in the works all year, with a version 2.0 due out "soon". Speaking of GenCon - the SmiteWorks guys (who make FantasyGrounds) will be sharing a booth with the guys from Code Monkey Publishing [codemonkeypublishing.com] (makers of the E-Tools software for character creation).
Other tools to look at include OpenRPG [openrpg.com] and Klooge [kloogeinc.com].
I'm not, personally, a fan of those, but everyone has their preferences.
Also, to aid in communication, I strongly suggest running a TeamSpeak [goteamspeak.com] server, so you can actually talk to your fellow players, instead of typing everything manually.
Re:A variety of tools. . . (Score:1)
Re:A variety of tools. . . (Score:1)
Sorry, I limited my answer to fields I have experience with. :-P
Re:A variety of tools. . . (Score:4, Informative)
I've used OpenRPG for a few years now and have been pretty happy with it. It has a solid whiteboard, and it runs on my mac and on another player's linux machine, as well as windows boxes. It also has a dice rolling mechanic that is nice for other game systems. In particular, it's shadowrun support is solid. While I personally don't play much SR, I have players who do.
I strongly second the teamspeak, ventrilo, or whatever application to do voice. If you are all familiar with each other, you won't get any wierd feelings talking to strangers, and you'll be able to verbally abuse each other much more easily
Re:A variety of tools. . . (Score:2)
As I mention in another comment [slashdot.org], so far Mac OS X has been a showstopper. I tried OpenRPG last night (on Linux and Windows) and it seems quite useful... however I couldn't get the client to run on OS X (granted I haven't had a chance to try everything).
OpenRPG uses Python and wxPython, so you need to install the dev. tools and the X11 environment (which I've done). But that wasn't enough. Was there any other "special trick" required to get it to run on your Mac? The machine I was
Something in beta : Battleground (Score:1)
Re:A variety of tools. . . (Score:1)
Re:A variety of tools. . . (Score:3, Informative)
http://gametable.galactanet.com/ [galactanet.com]
http://rptools.net/doku.php?id=maptool:intro [rptools.net]
http://trisrpg.bronzeforge.com/index.htm [bronzeforge.com]
http://users3.ev1.net/~mem5000/ [ev1.net]
http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/index.html [battlegroundsgames.com]
http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com/index.php?modu le=htmlpages&func=display&pid=21 [codemonkeypublishing.com]
http://www.enworld.org/RolePlayingMaster/ [enworld.org]
http://www.fantasygrounds.com/ [fantasygrounds.com]
http://www.geocities.com/trainz_ca/ID/ [geocities.com]
http://www.ghostorb.com/ [ghostorb.com]
http://www.kloogeinc.com/ [kloogeinc.com]
http://www.nbos.com/ [nbos.com]
Re:A variety of tools. . . (Score:1)
Bandwidth (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bandwidth (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Bandwidth (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Bandwidth (Score:2)
Oh, be nice [youtube.com] to the uninitiated.
Re:Bandwidth (Score:1)
Try OpenRPG (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Try OpenRPG (Score:3, Informative)
I would have thought that the combination of chat+voice+whiteboard would be so generic that it would be easy to find a bunch of applications (especially OSS ones) to do exactly that... however it's bee
WebHuddle (Score:2)
Re:WebHuddle (Score:1)
Layne
Re:Try OpenRPG (Score:2)
Simple, yet effective. (Score:3, Interesting)
Slightly off-topic VIRC, Re:Simple, yet effective. (Score:1)
Re:Slightly off-topic VIRC, Re:Simple, yet effecti (Score:2)
None that I've seen at least, sadly.
Been there, done that. (Score:2, Interesting)
Did it with BattleTech years ago.
What would normally be a 3-4 hour game became a 7 hour game.
The problem is making certain everybody's on the same page (and not cheating).
Now tabletop simulations like Megamek [sourceforge.net] outstrip tabletop over IRC by orders of magnitude.
Re:Been there, done that. (Score:1)
Stick to IRC (Score:3, Interesting)
I have roleplayed on IRC for over 10 years. Some of my best friends play on there and I haven't even met all of them in person. You will have a plethora of players at your disposal (recommended finding sane networks, irc.sorcery.net isn't bad for RPG). Most people in the channel I play in still do TT games on occassion, but they are more grown up then me (but not that much so) and have established groups of friends.
To be honest, I still think the IRC path works better for WoD games. Honestly, I never recall coming across many, if any, D&D games. If you are a D&D crowd with decent PCs, may I suggest attempting running campaigns using NWN. I have not had the opportunity to try it, but since the game with two expansions and Kingmaker can be had for $30 (the Diamond Edition), it isn't too insane and has good single player campaigns as well.
Otherwise, you can try openRPG, but I really do not think it is that necessary. It sometimes takes a bit of getting used to not having everyone sitting five feet from each other, but you can definitely have enjoyable experiences with RPGs on IRC.
All-Women's Gaming uses IRC (Score:2)
Skype (Score:1)
Re:Skype (Score:1)
Works out really well.
Re:Skype (Score:2)
It's also free and works on Linux, OS X, and Windows.
Oh, and it speaks Jabber and SIP too.
Neverwinter Nights? (Score:2, Informative)
Have you tried that?
-fragbait
Re:Neverwinter Nights? (Score:1)
iVisit (Score:1, Informative)
We use a Creative wide angle camera, and that seems to work well too.
We use mic's f
Not exactly what you had in mind, but (Score:3, Insightful)
World of Warcraft (Score:3, Funny)
Playing D&D in World of Warcraft is as about as nerdy and lame as you can get though, keep that in mind
Fantasy Grounds (Score:3, Insightful)
This is how we do it (Score:5, Interesting)
Our requirements:
1. The DM wants to be able to move the minis around the map and sit on the DM's side of the table, and wants me to run the tech side of things for him. He wants to be able to draw a quick map or a picture of what we're seeing and show either to the players. This means hands-free communication for the DM and me to the out-of-towners and a picture of what he's drawn, taken by some type of camera.
2. We need to be able to "talk over" each other-- or at least know when more than one person is trying to talk.
3. Quickly sharing a changing map environment is crucial-- and the DM can't get me to draw everything in a tool because of the time it takes to explain things, or have himself draw them on paper and have me re-draw them in a tool.
4. We need to have a way for the players to communicate without the DM overhearing (and without chasing the DM out of the room)
5. I have a nice iBook and an iSight camera-- we should use it!
6. It shouldn't cost us anything "per month" to play. I didn't want to turn our out-of-towners off the game due to service subscription fees "just for a game."
7. We need the tech "out of the gaming process" so we can focus on DnD.
How things worked out:
1. I looked for a lot of cross-platform voice + video solutions with "talk-over" capability. Wouldn't you know it, but a two years or so ago, when I did the research, cross-platform, integrated tools with all other requirements just wasn't happening. We looked at stand-alone video tools running simultaneously with stand-along voice tools. We looked at "camming software" and only joked about playing in the buff. Consider AIM, which Apple's iSight can talk to with iChat. That seemed to be my only cross-platform solution, but the out-of-town players didn't want to sign up for "yet another IM system." So, I removed the cross-platform requirement. Things got easier. Remember, I did this research 2 years ago, so specific details are lost to me. I play DnD now, and don't spend my days looking for tech solutions to a problem I've already adequately solved.
2. We settled on Yahoo IM on the PC only. Yahoo's voice system allows you to know if you are "talking over" someone else because it beeps at you when a voice collision happens. The video support is decent, too. When the players need to communicate without DM knowledge, we just type. The DM doesn't look at the computer screen often.
3. Our little camera can go anywhere. We reposition it according to need. I have a little test pattern placard I can put in front of the camera for when the GM and I are setting up. That's double-nerdly, in case you didn't notice.
4. We use an external microphone, a little cheap one, and lay it on the gaming table between the DM and me. Sometimes the players hear mumbling, but that's mostly when we accidently talk away from the mic (say, past the table, down to the floor.)
5. Sometimes the tech fails: eg: Yahoo wants to upgrade the client. The DM's internet is out (again). The wireless router is dead. The reception is poor because of the running microwave. Yahoo booted us again. The wireless reception failed.
6. We did not get a tool that lets us draw on the screen. We just draw on a piece of paper and point the webcam at it. Much faster and much less prone to perfectionism.
7. Most of all-- this feels like real DnD. The tech, now that it works, is out of the w
Re:This is how we do it (Score:2)
Maybe a little webcam image recognizer that can take multiple webcam views and make an overhead map out of it
Then the remote players can drag the pieces on the map and the DM just sees the move they want to make with which piece - system can even give exact directions, or detect when the mini is "close enough" to the target position
Gametable is good.. (Score:3, Interesting)
No built-in web cam or file transferring, but it has a whiteboard, text chat, dice roller, and unit markers.
VASSAL Game Engine (Score:1)
Gametable (Score:1)
Re:Gametable (Score:1)
Dipolmacy (Score:1)
But all isn't lost, places like http://www.diplom.org/index.py [diplom.org] was created for us loners out there to play this great game.
Webcam gaming (Score:1)
Re:Webcam gaming (Score:2)
We can do audio through the phone, but good video is a problem.
BONUS QUESTION: I have a nice firewire capable digital video camera with a good lens or two (and nice audio, too). I would love to use THAT as the video source for the video client instead of a webcam. The video camera is just so much easier to use (PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom), etc.) and has good macro. The problem is finding a way to get that nice high res firewire video feed INTO a video-conference.
Re:Webcam gaming (Score:1)
Viack Via3 (Score:2, Informative)
It has pretty solid Audio and Video, doesn't require you to host your own server, has built in Whiteboard and a feature called LiveView that you could use to show another applicatio (or battle map) to the players.
One other nice thing is it provides online storage tied to the app. You can use to store all your game note,
in progress (Score:2, Funny)
Tabletop Gaming and the Internet (Score:2, Interesting)
Have you tried monkeys? (Score:2, Insightful)
Pretty brilliant in my eyes.
Download the free ScreenMonkey Lite [nbos.com], with the encounter map on the same page.
The interface for the Lite version has chat, dice rolling, and is bascally recreating having a big tabletop ma
Shadowland.org (Score:1)
Been playing online for 6-9 months (Score:1)
Battlegrounds: RPG Edition (Score:1)
One of the many nice features is the dynamic Fog of War, which automatically reveals the map to the players based on the light sources present (candles, torches, spells, etc.) and takes into account special vision types (lik
Re:Battlegrounds: RPG Edition (Score:2)
So many games, so little time.
Roll your own? (Score:2)
I looked at some of the options out there, but everything was either a fat client (we didn't want that) or didn't have what we wanted. The GM has one set of screens that show him stats (AC, HP - current and max, init rolls, save/abil checks) and let him control combat. Chat and private messages are included,
OpenRPG (Score:1)
Seems like an ideal solutions to your problem tho:
http://www.openrpg.com/ [openrpg.com]
Heres the short featurelist:
Miniature Map: Simulate combat with a layered, web base, miniature map. Load any image off the web! Map features include: hex or square adjustable overlay grid, background images, z-order, facing, labels, free hand drawing, tape measure, and more.
Game Tree: A highly customizable data organizer that allows for the creating of custom made characters sheets
Or you could roll your own.... (Score:2)
1. Throw together a database framework for characters, monsters, rules, etc.
characters have blah characteristics
(include a history for audit purposes)
monsters have blah characteristics
(include history of monster spawning / random encounters, etc.)
rules are blah
DOCUMENT how to
Re:Or you could roll your own.... (Score:2)
2. Write a web interface with [insert your favourite CGI programming utility here - I recommend perl] to allow you to see a map...
E-mail (Score:1)
YumiChat (Score:1)
After trying voice, we realized that getting everyone to talk in turn, and notice who was saying what was a major pain, and switched around through various chat/whiteboard systems.
I've tried OpenRPG (not very user friendly) ScreenMonkey (very nice, but the flashing screen refreshes drove my players batty) and FantasyGrounds (gor
Re:YumiChat (Score:1)
Sorry to hear you only used it once.
More ideas on my webpage (Score:1)
RPTools (Score:1)
MapTool - virtual tabletop
DiceTool - powerfull dice rolling
InitiativeTool - Encounter management
TokenTool - easily create avatars from any image
All tools are written in Java and are completely free. Development is very active and new feature requests are always welcome.
Re:RPTools (Score:1)