Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 dolth-ares Jun 24, 2008 18:03:09	If this post is improper because it seeks references to other products, then I truly apologize and will delete it if asked to do so. I'm all for supporting DDI, and would love to have it released as soon as possible, so I can get back to playing with my group, who now live far, far away from me. Does anyone know an alternative to the game table that can serve as a hold-over until the game table is live? I tried a demo of Fantasy Grounds, but have to admit that I cannot figure it out. The interface is (at least for my level of computer saavy) horribly counter-intuitive, and I couldn't begin to follow the user manual re how to modify it for specific games. Does anyone here use something to play online that is fairly straight-forward? I want to get back to playing sooner rather than later and, for my situation, that requires the online tools that aren't ready yet.
#2 gamejunkiejim Jun 24, 2008 19:15:44	Maptools, RPtools in general are awesome (thanks trevor dude) and pretty simple.
#3 strayth Jun 24, 2008 22:19:56	There's another thread in which heluca or helvca or someone posted many options with reviews. My sig works great, we've used it two or three times now; just make sure to follow the steps linked on the page to make your IP address static. It's not hard, portforward.com guides you through. Fantasy Grounds is a good program I hear; the downside is it costs money. Good luck with whatever you choose.
#4 torstan Jun 25, 2008 3:22:03	I've been using maptool for 2 years and am very happy with it. Alternatively find posts by Heruca on the boards here. He runs a site that has a solid comparison of all the different VTTs that are out there. If you go down the maptool route, be sure to register on the forums. It's a very friendly community and it is definitely the best place to get help or information on the tool. If you have a problem (however simple), post it and someone should be able to give you an answer within an hour or so.
#5 merrilin Jun 25, 2008 8:22:35	iConvention web site has a comparison chart including the most popular virtual tabletops. I'm not quite sure if it's completely up-to-date, but it's still the best resource I can think of. Some of the compared features are also somewhat oddly selected, but that gives you some idea where to start looking.
#6 heruca Jun 25, 2008 10:07:06	Dolth-Ares, here is a list of RPG-oriented virtual tabletop programs that can at least tide you over until Game Table is released. Some of the compared features are also somewhat oddly selected Really? Which ones?
#7 dolth-ares Jun 26, 2008 11:05:26	Thank you for all of the suggestions, they are much appreciated. And the website is awesome, heruca, just what I needed.
#8 strayth Jun 26, 2008 12:26:48	heruca, that was it. Thanks.
#9 shadowfx Jun 26, 2008 13:57:45	My gaming group has been using Teamspeak for VOIP conferencing. It is free and works great. We even had it working well when some of us were on dialup. For a whiteboard, we tried a few things, a java based white board that wasn't so good was one. For a while we were using Microsoft Net Meeting, but it didn't have a grid feature and when we pasted one into it, it often got moved acidentally, causing major delays while the image refreshed to everyone's desktop. So, one of the people in my group built a custom white board that as a built in grid feature, and is very low bandwidth. It's been working well for us for the past few years. Shadowfx