Online Gaming - any interest?

[agentofping]

Just out of curiosity, have people's views/opinions on using VTT (virtual table tops) like ScreenMonkey or MapTools to do gaming online changed, or is it still the red-headed stepchild of actual pen and paper RPing?

[Renny]

I'm interested in giving it a shot. There isn't much rp-ing happening at the moment apart from AD&D. If we were to try it out, i'd be more invested in a game that wasn't fantasy. So Traveller or the like, maybe?

[Digger]

Have tried before and whilst it sounds like a great idea, it's not my cup of tea. I like the more free-form style where things are more spontaneous and of course when using VTT it's amazing how many saving throws come off just at the right moment.

[kevinrolfe]

yea i maybe up for that

[Renny]

So which tool do you propose to use? Any thoughts on a setting or adventure?

[Renny]

May I suggest that before spending any significant time on this, we should arrange a test. Let us download the tool and install, then set up a brief test session to ensure that the tool works and we can see the shared environment and so on. Seems silly to spend much time on developing a game before testing that we can interact with it.

[Renny]

I will be available to sit in front of the laptop on Saturday night if you'd like to get a test set up?

[agentofping]

Hadn't given too much thought to system or setting - although for the quick test game I was contemplating Dungeon Slayers, Basic Fantasy, or maybe a one-sheet SW adventure was what I had in mind

As for software, it would need to be free. I'm sure there are others out there but the two at the top of my list are Screen Monkey or MapTool.

Screen Monkey is good in that it doesn't require the players to download/install any software, they just use their standard web browser. It was very clunky and limited however when I tried to use it last and although there is a newer version out I'm not sure if it is much of an improvement.

MapTool is also free with much more functionality, however it does require installing the software as well as Java. Unless they have done a new build in the last couple of days it will not work with Java 7 so if this were to be used everyone would need Java 6.

I'm sure there are other free VTTs out there, but haven't had a chance to research. Anyone have any other packages they could suggest trying.

It would be good to get a test in, though Saturday might be too soon to set things up however.

[Renny]

Ok, good points. I'll check my system tonight and see if I can get Map Tool installed as a first step. Shall we aim for a week Saturday as a first test of connection?

[Renny]

Obviously Kevin and anyone else willing to test this out should do the same i.e. find and install Map Tool

[Renny]

Ok, I have installed Map Tool and the program is working. Anyone else?

[agentofping]

I need to have a techno-fiddle with my router so players can actually connect to a MapTool server instance running on my machine. I'm hoping to try this in the next few days. I will let you know how it goes...

[Renny]

Great, i'll keep an eye out.

[agentofping]

I've set up the static IP and port forwarding. So ready to give it a whirl. Give me a bell via email, yahoo messenger (agentofping) or Facebook when you want to try a dry run and I will provide the relevents.

[agentofping]

Well connecting seemed pretty painless - although the dropped connections were a bit worrying. Next step is to learn a bit more of the interface and maybe get some more people online.

Cheers

AoP

[Renny]

Morning all. I concur with the agent's comments. main issue we encountered was that when I first tried to connect, I realised that I had a different (later) version of MapTool installed. Once this was sorted (took all of two minutes), then connection via the MapTool interface was easy. The chat tool worked fine and I was able to see maps and tokens etc. The drop-outs may have been caused by me downloading something else at the same time, or may just be my new Virgin router settling in. We'll keep an eye on it and I believe the plan is to carry out another test later in the week at some point. Let me know via PM if you want help setting up MapTool.

[Renny]

http://app.roll20.net/campaigns/search/

This looks interesting. A new tool but seems well supported with tutorials and the like.

[agentofping]

Haven't forgotten about this, but haven't had a chance to get stuck into the software to make a second test worthwhile.

The Roll20 looks interesting, apart from the Google thing...

[Renny]

Google thing?

[agentofping]

Didn't they mention in their blurb that it make use of Google places (or something??). I could be wrong. Anyway I'm not too keen if it requires signing up to Google bits and pieces.

[Renny]

Well I set up an account and it didn't mention Google places but I didn't pay that much attention, I'll admit

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