As one of the more helpful/ friendly boards I’ve seen, I thought I would avail myself and throw out a question. My group is older and scattered across the country. We play online one night a week for a few hours using Skype for voice and jpeg maps plastered on excel files. It’s like playing bingo, “I move from K5 to K9…” and then everyone adjusts their maps.
What we are looking for is very simple. We had been using Screenmonkey with great success, but it started getting spotty and not working.
We have looked into Fantasy Grounds, Battlegrounds, etc… but it’s all too much. We do not need a built in rule set, character sheets, even dice rolling. I just want a map function that we can all share, the DM can hide what needs hiding and everyone can move their “miniature.” Does anyone have a similar situation and how did you solve it?
Thanks!
I use and really like Kloogewerks but if Fantasy Grounds is too much for you, then Klooge is definitely out. Have you looked at Maptools?
Well, supposedly WotC is going to be establishing just that very thing in the nearish future if you can wait 9 months. It's probably going to be part of their subscription service, though.
Lessee... there's a program - and unfortunately, I forget what it's called, that allows you to do real time sharing of a drawing project over the internet. It's been years since I heard anything about it, and the folks using it also used drawing tablets but you should be able to use a mouse. I just wish I could remember the name.
The programs you mentioned above might be your best option, even if they do offer 'too much'.
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I'm in a somewhat similar situation - my group is all off at college at different schools, I trust my players to make their own roles though. Altho I havn't really looked into it yet (people are going away in 2 weeks and we've been playing around work schedules the last two months) So I can't really help but would also be interested in the answer.
and offering too much doesn't mean that you have to use all of the ervices offered, right?
>> and offering too much doesn't mean that you have to use all of the ervices offered, right?
True, you could use Klooge or any of the others, for just the map features. You don't have to use the character sheets or the other features.
True enough about not using all the options. One of the issues has been technology though. The more complicated online gaming tables require more up-to-date PCs (one of my guys has a 4-5 year old laptop and it's like he just walked out of the stone age) and port forwarding/ hosting issues have plagued us from day one. My hope was that there was a simple online solution without all the bells and whistles, under the assumption that the lack of bells and whistles would mean a lower bar on the system requirements.
If anyone is reading this thread and does not have my "grumpy old man" type issues, a great source of virtual tabletop comparisons can be found at:
http://www.iconvention.org/vgtcomp.php
Someone mentioned Maptools and I had not checked them out so I will do so - thank you.
As for the 4E online component, I watched a Youtube video and it looked very impressive. I guess there are more of us online tabletop players than I thought.
True enough about not using all the options. One of the issues has been technology though. The more complicated online gaming tables require more up-to-date PCs (one of my guys has a 4-5 year old laptop and it's like he just walked out of the stone age) and port forwarding/ hosting issues have plagued us from day one. My hope was that there was a simple online solution without all the bells and whistles, under the assumption that the lack of bells and whistles would mean a lower bar on the system requirements.
If Battlegrounds is too much and/or you will be using older computers, you might consider ScreenMonkey. Just the GM pays for the software, and the players play using their favorite browser.
You may also want to look here for a list of all the virtual tabletop programs available. There are around 35 of them.
...you might consider ScreenMonkey. Just the GM pays for the software, and the players play using their favorite browser.
We had been using Screenmonkey with great success, but it started getting spotty and not working.
what are you playing? seems to me that you could just use any of the voice chats available if you all have computers and email maps to each other; that way you could put everyone on speaker and could talk for hours without any phone bill.
in the looking for group section; there was someone who posted that runs a gaming board; they have a really nice set of stuff to run and generate maps and editors and stuff. Think it was called unlimited rpg; you could search for it. I think it was http://unlimitedrpgs.com/forums/index.php
you could go there and look around; the moderators are very helpful and very experienced at long distance play and some of those gm have some nice maps and tools.
I'm not sure if it's still on the Windows platform, but NetMeeting. Free, includes a whiteboard, document sharing, and voice chat. It might have been rolled up into Instant Messanger (of which I haven't used in a LONG time).
Of course, there isn't a die rolling mechanism, but I'm sure there is a website out there somewhere (check out the Fake Arena posting in PbP).
Of course, it's always nice to spend a little mone to get a more table top feel.