Paizo announces Paizo Game Space

I'm torn. I really want to use the VTT here, but I don't want my players getting accounts here, lol. Why? Because I run a bunch of ideas past people on the forums & I don't want the ease dropping. :P

Eavesdropping, that's a classic mondegreen.

I think that you have to trust your players to maintain the integrity of the campaign.

May I make a cheeky suggestion? You could give away access to VTT materials that you normally charge for as a reward for GM stars in PFS. This would be an awesome way of ensuring that some great GMs are available to start using the system right away and thus draw players to test it out as well.

By having public PFS scenarios running you have a great way to introduce the VTT and Pathfinder to new players anywhere.

"WANT" is just not a strong enough word! No matter how it turns out, I must tell you that I proud of you all for your continued player support!

I'm torn. I really want to use the VTT here, but I don't want my players getting accounts here, lol. Why? Because I run a bunch of ideas past people on the forums & I don't want the ease dropping. :P

It is a Catch 22 isn't? Perhaps another gamer tag is what I'm thinking.

The name may change, too. I like "Paizo Game Space" but maybe there's a better name to be had. We'll see, we're taking an iterative approach to development and rollout.

Perhaps "Portal to Happiness and Pure Joy"

Software like this is more meant to be touched and played with than to be watched.

Gary, as a programmer, I could NOT agree with you more!

This is the main reason I regret missing the banquet. This looks totally awesome and I cannot wait to try it out.

Totally agree! When you do a test run, let me know. Would love to play with you sometime.

I know that sounds like crazy talk, to not want to crush your enemies and hear the lamentations of the women, but we are crazy like that here at Paizo. In the end, we just want people to be able to play more regularly. If that is here, then great. If it is somewhere else, that is cool too.

-Lisa

One of the MANY reasons I, for one, have always respected the company!

There is an edit button SaintMac, so you don't have to make six posts in a row :)

I have been looking at various other VTTs for my next campaign. I think I'll hold off a bit and see what this one is like. It looks VERY promising!

There is an edit button SaintMac, so you don't have to make six posts in a row :)

Replying to multiple posts can be hard, especially if you don't/can't use tabs.

Any chance we can get a video of the presentation.

One idea for subs. If you are an AP subscriber and use game space, you have access to the maps from the APs you have subscribed to to use in game space.

But I'm the only one in my group that is an AP subscriber, so how to make everyone that plays see the maps?

There is an edit button SaintMac, so you don't have to make six posts in a row :)

Lol,sorry. Was playing catch-up and got excited. Even peed a little!

I have been looking at various other VTTs for my next campaign. I think I'll hold off a bit and see what this one is like. It looks VERY promising!

Same here, One of my cruxes is mapping scenarios this looks very awesome.

Wyndyn wrote:

I have been looking at various other VTTs for my next campaign. I think I'll hold off a bit and see what this one is like. It looks VERY promising!

Same here, One of my cruxes is mapping scenarios this looks very awesome.

Don't know if this helps,but have used Fantasy Grounds in the past. It was cool,but a lot of work and had 'player with Mac' issues. Went back to Skype or face-to-face.

Looking to play using Roll20.net until this comes to a theater near me.

Paizo Game Space is a small pivot, a focal point for us to help define what we think the VTT experience should be. We're not becoming a full-on software company, we're not implementing the Pathfinder rules in software, we're not trying to move the entire game to an online space that we can control, we're not interested in locking you in to our services or servers. It's your game. Play it how you want to.

Garys whole post is just great. I just stumbled on this announcement, and am quite happy with the idea behind this. I wanted to look into VTTs for a long time (ever since moving far away from my gaming groups - ok, 3.5-4 hours drive does probably not sound like much to most americans, but on the german Autobahn, this can be grueling...), but MapTools seemed quite daunting from a beginners point of view, not to mention technical difficulties.

Important points for me would be:
- easy handling as a browser addition.
- no set rules, I´d love to be free to play whatever I want with the software.
- OTOH, rules implementation packages would be nice (so if you play PFS, just add that package, and be ready for gaming)
- using the plethora of PF products I´ve access to as pdfs, preferably without (high) additional costs.
- a group/player search feature would be great, with the necessity to give the time frame/zone you are in and available - gaming with US residents would be difficult for us europeans.
- being able to save a game/campaign is a mandatory feature IMO.

It would be ok to me if I as a GM would have to pay an additional fee to use certain extras, like tokens and maps - and being able to upload self-made ones. I see the problems inherent to 3rd party products, but then, perhaps these could be somehow intergrated into the website to be confirmed as legal. Players should not have to pay anything up front - if they agree to pay the DMs fees, thats ok of course. Playing in the PFS might be a free-for-all, however.

Garys idea to have platform-neutral character sheets/files (ideally rules-neutral as well) would be great.

A very big bonus might be foreign-language versions, but I know that this is a lot to ask. My last D&D group probably does not have a problem with english, but who knows whom I might find.

Garys whole post is just great. I just stumbled on this announcement, and am quite happy with the idea behind this. I wanted to look into VTTs for a long time (ever since moving far away from my gaming groups - ok, 3.5-4 hours drive does probably not sound like much to most americans, but on the german Autobahn, this can be grueling...), but MapTools seemed quite daunting from a beginners point of view, not to mention technical difficulties.

Different states are different. ;)

As a number of people have asked about PbP - I would imagine that the software will have some sort of "Save state" option - after all, big combats can get shelved part way through to next session in any game (darn that sleeping/eating/working thing) - and so I would expect this to be a must have from day 1. Save current state.

Now with that it mind, and that it runs from a browser, PbP is pretty easy to do whether supported programmatically or not.

The GM has their Paizo account, accesses the tool, sets up the encounter and participants. Takes a Screenshot. Attaches to players emails, hits send, or prints and stuffs in envelopes and mail em.

Players return their turn instructions, GM loads the saved game, updates, screen snapshots, sends - repeat as necessary.

This is of course all under the assumption of a save state.

I am really looking forward to this feature - having been on the open beta of the Wizards VTT, and having seen the screenshots thus far, I can honestly say, this already looks to be a more streamlined and simpler system for the less computer savvy individuals. Fingers crossed with everyone else for yet another Paizo success.

It would be really nice if something like this had clear plug-ins for collaboration from the technology community. Paizo has a very 3rd-party friendly stance in pen-and-paper and I'd really like to see that transfered to digital products.

For instance:
Add my own maps
Add new rulesets
Adding new, custom generated monsters
Adding visual effects (fireball! call lightning, animations, etc).
Mapping
Character generators
Spellbook management
/etc

I'm not saying these things will or should be present on launch, I'm suggesting there be 'hooks' that allow technology creators to develop products to connect in and add functionality.

Please keep in mind that people use Projectors at their game table while making this project. =)

^ - This. My group doesn't use a map and minis or handouts anymore. Everything is on the big screen. One player controls the PC tokens off of one computer hooked up to the big screen and I control the DM stuff off another computer only I can see. And when one or two folks can't make it to the game physically, they sign in and join virtually.

Alexander Kilcoyne wrote:

There is an edit button SaintMac, so you don't have to make six posts in a row :)

Replying to multiple posts can be hard, especially if you don't/can't use tabs.

Myself, I use a very rare, complicated program known as "Notepad" to assist with this issue. I copy all the text I want to quote and reply to, paste it into notepad, and then repaste it into the reply box.

:)

This sounds like a great idea! I have two questions regarding the Virtual Table Top, no make that three:

1) Will it use a proprietary standard/file format or a non proprietary one?

2) Will it be licensed under the GPL?

3) Will it run using Linux or will it be an online only kind of thing? So as to be OS independent.

3a)If it is to be OS independent will it use Java or something else, SDL?

@Asatru: It runs in (any?) browser. Not depending on OS. No proprietary file format.

Such is the advantage in a browser-based VTT. If you can internet, you can use it.

Not only that, you could feasibly move from your PC to a tablet to your smartphone for the same game!!

I'm looking forward to this immeasurably, as I believe that Paizo will bring a worthy offering that hopefully doesn't have the technical issues that other VTTs have.

I ran Savage Tide in Maptools through the first six magazines, so I have some perspective on this.

My suggestion is that you make the software free, but sell modules for each AP that you publish, as an optional add-on to an AP subscription that raises the price sufficiently to cover your investment.

The software should allow DMs to import maps/create their own tokens for free. What you're selling is the service of having this done already, much as your AP is the service of creating a campaign for a DM.

Ideally , I can load a campaign module into your tool and the maps are all there, and the monster tokens are loaded on each map (or off to the side, not a fan here of delve-style prepositioning). These tokens should include macros, with buttons for attack, full attack, special abilities, saves, perception rolls, intiative, and such.

The set of people who play online are probably the same people who have more cash than time. We're playing online because the friends we met in college have dispersed to the four corners of the world for their careers. It took me a lot of prep time to make maptools work, and I would gladly have paid you to do it instead.

Ken

Ok, I play 4E D&D but have been a Pathfinder AP fan from the beginning (I have them all) and have to say that, even by the extremely high standards set by Paizo, this is an announcement that surpasses almost all others.

If the final product matches the screen shots and there is some mechanical integration with Pathfinder RPG then I could quite easily abandon D&D fully for Pathfinder. At the moment, I find electronic tools a godsend given the large content volume of both games and as a result, I have gravitated toward the original game. If done right, this could divert all my game spending to Paizo permanently so good luck with this guys.

Without creating an argument here about this, every commercial decision by Paizo seems to be right while the bigger rival (assuming they're still bigger) seems to continue getting everything wrong.

I don't think there would be image importing, but there might be image/maps/tokens creation features.

And regarding what Lisa says about us not caring which VTT you play on, this is so true that I've been going around the industry for the past year trying to drum up support for a common character sheet interchange file format, among other things.

My vision is that you should be able to build a character in one program, save it into your VTT, play, pull the character back into your character builder, level up, etc., and not have it matter which VTT or character builder you're using. It turns out that this is actually kind of a hard problem to solve for lots of reasons, but I think the end result will make customers happy.

I can speak from experience to agree about how hard a problem this is. I tried doing something like this on the Dumpshock Shadowrun forums several years ago. The XSD that allows you to completely describe a shadowrun character probably still exists somewhere, but no one ever really integrated it into their apps.

Obviously, Paizo has a lot more clout in the gaming industry than I did on the forum, so you certainly have a better shot at getting it adopted than I did. Good luck!

I would like to add my own suggestions to this thread.
1) The ability to import custom drawn maps.
2) The ability to create custom monsters and abilities.
3) Visual representation for afflicted status effects (so people can take a quick glance at the board and see that they are stunned, slowed, poisoned, bloodied, etc)
4) An RPGMaker style method of building maps (it's a little hard to explain, it's sort of like painting but with tiles)

Now this I am really looking forward too. Having no gaming groups in my town has always been a problem for me especially since I have always been so eager to play pathfinder (Being the Rpg, fantasy nerd I am lol). Now being able to play virtually with anyone across the globe I'm really excited!

This could plant my gaming career in Varisia!

Has there been a price or release date announced? Also has there been any mention of beta testing? I would sure sign up to help test this.

I am not a AP subscriber, but would subscribe if it got me the maps and tokens and such necessary for the VTT (even if it was a little extra fee on top of a normal subscription). My friends want me to DM a game online, and given none of us no longer live in the same state, this would be the way to go

Has there been a price or release date announced? Also has there been any mention of beta testing? I would sure sign up to help test this.

The answers you seek (or at least, the best currently available answers) can be found in this thread, especially this post.

So, been quite a while since we last heard anything official about Paizo Game Space. Given that its supposed to come out this summer, I guess work on it is in advanced stages by now.

so, anything new and exciting? :D

I'm gonna start an online campign the second this thing is out. Can't wait!

So, been quite a while since we last heard anything official about Paizo Game Space. Given that its supposed to come out this summer, I guess work on it is in advanced stages by now.

so, anything new and exciting? :D

I'm gonna start an online campign the second this thing is out. Can't wait!

Dude, GenCon is coming.

But that's weeks and weeks away!

gah, ok.

But that's weeks and weeks away!

gah, ok.

It is only 2 weeks away. :)

Lord Snow wrote:

But that's weeks and weeks away!

gah, ok.

It is only 2 weeks away. :)

That's what he said. Weeks & weeks. That equals two "weeks." :P

I know the PostMonster General is hard at work on GameSpace, judging by the quality and volume of music that is coming out of his office. I'm eager to give GameSpace a spin myself! :D

So, he's turning his corgis up to eleven?

Corgis are always at Eleven.

An unabashed fantasy grounds fan here, but from my perspective, the ability to run ap's and Pfs games without the hassle of inputting at all is a godsend. 2 important considerations from my perspective. One- while seemingly trivial , fg's modeling of actual dice rolling is critical to the immersion in an online game. 2nd, I just don't see that "system agnostic" is a value add here. I am coming to the table TO PLAY PATHFINDER! The amount of time it would take me to input another system into the vtt means I will likely stay with another vtt for that system....sell me licensed product that makes running a game online a breeze and I'm there!

Out of curiosity, is there any new news on when this is coming out? The summer is almost over. I understand it is supposed to be announced at GenCon, I'm just wondering if it'll be available then, or will we have to wait some time after that? I'm eager to test it out with RotRL.

Same here, I'm holding off on running PFS as I want to incorporate GameSpace into it.

I am hoping it is coming out right after Gencon.

Will we possibly see Demos of this at GenCon?

It is super unlikely we will demo this at Gen Con. We're still aiming for "this summer" for making it available outside the Paizo offices, but there are a number of ducks still to be wrangled for that to happen, and a few of them waddled out of line recently.