I have been thinking about buying a virtual gaming "table" program, since hearing about 4ed. Most of my friends are not interested in 4ed and therefore are not interested in buying into DDI and paying a monthly subscription. Mainly because we continue to play 3.5ed for our games. However, I have about a half-dozen friends and former players who have been trying to get me to play a game online using a virtual game table. However, we are trying to make a decision between the Battleground RPG table and Fantasyground virtual table.
My question is...has anyone tried these two programs? If so which is better or worst? Does anyone know of another program that emulates these two?
Thanks to everyone in advance!
I have been thinking about buying a virtual gaming "table" program, since hearing about 4ed. Most of my friends are not interested in 4ed and therefore are not interested in buying into DDI and paying a monthly subscription. Mainly because we continue to play 3.5ed for our games. However, I have about a half-dozen friends and former players who have been trying to get me to play a game online using a virtual game table. However, we are trying to make a decision between the Battleground RPG table and Fantasyground virtual table.
My question is...has anyone tried these two programs? If so which is better or worst? Does anyone know of another program that emulates these two?
Thanks to everyone in advance!
This topic has come up several times and several programs have been discussed. I'd suggest you try and do a search of the messageboards, there should be plenty of information here.
I have been thinking about buying a virtual gaming "table" program, since hearing about 4ed. Most of my friends are not interested in 4ed and therefore are not interested in buying into DDI and paying a monthly subscription. Mainly because we continue to play 3.5ed for our games. However, I have about a half-dozen friends and former players who have been trying to get me to play a game online using a virtual game table. However, we are trying to make a decision between the Battleground RPG table and Fantasyground virtual table.
My question is...has anyone tried these two programs? If so which is better or worst? Does anyone know of another program that emulates these two?
Thanks to everyone in advance!
Go with RPtools! Its free. And it works on Linux Mac and PC
Go with RPtools! Its free. And it works on Linux Mac and PC
That's what my 4E group is using right now. We're all local friends, but since getting to one another's house has become problematic (two households literally live at two opposite corners of the Kansas City metro area), we decided to give this a shot.
Not only are we able to game productively on a weeknight, but we tend to get a lot farther in a session than in our Saturday night 3.5E get-together. I think the online format encourages us to focus more on the game and less on bragging to each other about our World of Warcraft or Everquest characters.
Go with RPtools! Its free. And it works on Linux Mac and PCThat's what my 4E group is using right now. We're all local friends, but since getting to one another's house has become problematic (two households literally live at two opposite corners of the Kansas City metro area), we decided to give this a shot.
Not only are we able to game productively on a weeknight, but we tend to get a lot farther in a session than in our Saturday night 3.5E get-together. I think the online format encourages us to focus more on the game and less on bragging to each other about our World of Warcraft or Everquest characters.
In Kansas City, living on opposite ends can mean living in two different states :)
I agree. With the table formatting you can even color code your powers for At-will, Encounter, Daily and Ritual with just a little html. We even color code saves, damage, healing, and other things to be easier.
Forum avatars also make great tokens. We use vent and audacity to record our sessions as well.
In Kansas City, living on opposite ends can mean living in two different states :)
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! The two households in question are in the western outskirts of Kansas City, KS and near the northern end of Grandview, MO, respectively.
I agree. With the table formatting you can even color code your powers for At-will, Encounter, Daily and Ritual with just a little html. We even color code saves, damage, healing, and other things to be easier.
I haven't gotten that far into learning the system yet. In fact, my DM is having to set up my power macros for me. Heck, just this last Tuesday, I learned that you can type out a text message after a roll command. For instance:
/roll 1d20+6 vs AC on the Goblin Skullcleaver.
could possibly yield...
<<1d20+6 = 12 + 6 = 18>> vs AC on the Goblin Skullcleaver.
I'd've figured the extraneous text after the command would cause an error, not add flavor to the output.
Forum avatars also make great tokens. We use vent and audacity to record our sessions as well.
I never thought of using forum avatars. That's a good idea. I'd simply gotten used to using TokenTool and extracting tokens from my favorite DeviantArt.com artwork.
We're still experimenting with voice. Admittedly, there's some technical difficulty at the DM's end that makes him either too soft to hear or too staticky to understand. We've tried Skype and Vent so far and neither panned out well. We're beginning to think we're better off without voice.
In Kansas City, living on opposite ends can mean living in two different states :)Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! The two households in question are in the western outskirts of Kansas City, KS and near the northern end of Grandview, MO, respectively.
I agree. With the table formatting you can even color code your powers for At-will, Encounter, Daily and Ritual with just a little html. We even color code saves, damage, healing, and other things to be easier.I haven't gotten that far into learning the system yet. In fact, my DM is having to set up my power macros for me. Heck, just this last Tuesday, I learned that you can type out a text message after a roll command. For instance:
/roll 1d20+6 vs AC on the Goblin Skullcleaver.
could possibly yield...
<<1d20+6 = 12 + 6 = 18>> vs AC on the Goblin Skullcleaver.
I'd've figured the extraneous text after the command would cause an error, not add flavor to the output.
Forum avatars also make great tokens. We use vent and audacity to record our sessions as well.I never thought of using forum avatars. That's a good idea. I'd simply gotten used to using TokenTool and extracting tokens from my favorite DeviantArt.com artwork.
We're still experimenting with voice. Admittedly, there's some technical difficulty at the DM's end that makes him either too soft to hear or too staticky to understand. We've tried Skype and Vent so far and neither panned out well. We're beginning to think we're better off without voice.
Here is a macro for you then. Just modify the color, and the type of power. have your DM add these properties to the Token Properties tab.
<table border="0">
<tr bgcolor="red">
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<td style="padding:0px 5px;">
<span style="color:white"><b>{token.name} uses an encounter power </b></font>
</td>
<td style="padding:0px 5px;" align=right>
<span style="color:white">{token.name} uses {EncounterPower1Name}</font>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
{token.name} uses {EncounterPower1Name}<br>
{EncounterPower1Desc} <br>
{token.name} rolls to hit ([E: 1d20+EncounterPower1hit])vs {EncounterPower1Defense}<br>
and does ([EncounterPower1Dmg]) damage if successful!
</td>
</tr>
</table>
As far as vent goes, have people adjust their microphones. And it may be worth while to spend some time optimizing this.