Hi:
I am in the process of setting up a campaign with a gaming group spread all over Canada. I am thinking about some sort of combination of Skype and Gametable or MapTools. I have a high speed connection but my skype seems to drop out periodically. Does anyone have suggestions for an optimal combination of software and map sharing software?
Thanks
R
I prefer MapTool and Ventrilo. That's how I run my games. Gametable is a viable choice, though, if you don't need the scripting features that MapTool offers; Skype would, I'm sure, work fine also.
I know that Wolfstar76 recommends Fantasy Grounds, and there's also Battlegrounds (among others, but MapTool, Fantasy Grounds, and Battlegrounds RPG Edition seem to be the most commonly used three). Each has their strong points. For me, "free" is a profoundly strong point, though, so MapTool was where I focused my attention.
For a quite comprehensive list of existing "virtual tabletop" or "remote gaming" tools, check out the Battlegrounds RPG home page. Good info there.
I started with ScreenMonkey and Ventrilo. We recently switched to Gametable, which everyone agrees is an improvement as far as the virtual tabletop program is concerned.
If you're having trouble with the voice end, consider using Ventrilo or Teamspeak. I'm not an expert on Skype, but I think the conference call feature is kind of hosted on your computer. If you can use something like Vent to shift that work to a server, you might have better luck.
Ditto previous comments regarding Ventrilo and Teamspeak. Having the management of the audio offloaded to a server will greatly reduce the amount of management your machine has to do and both tools are more oriented toward shared resources than Skype (which tends to assume you're not doing much else, let alone something that might be processor/memory/graphics intensive).
My game uses Fantasy Grounds 2 and Ventrilo. We started using Fantasy Grounds years ago with 3.0 and 3.5 and are still using it. FG2 is definitely buggy at times but it works OK for what we need it to do. It allows you to mask maps, move tokens (characters and mobs), etc. I scan maps in and then load them into the software.
We are running the Keep of the Shadowfell adventure currently. The one thing that is annoying is that when I scan the maps from the adventures, I then need to go through the maps and edit them to remove things players shouldn't be able to see (mob starting points, secret doors, traps, etc.)
We were really hoping the DDI Game Table would come out sooner! And that purchasing an adventure would include maps already rendered in the software. This would rock so much and make my life *much* easier!
If anyone else is running a game like this and wants to share maps that we scan and edit let me know.
We use Skype's conference call feature and don't have any trouble with it, but TS/Vent would be great as well.
Frankly, I actually think it's better as a game table than an actual table and battle mat. When the remote players aren't able to make a session, we just sit down with our laptops in the same room with a few beers and play away.
The computer we use as a server we have hooked up to an HD projector, which is awfully nice. A 10-foot battle mat which we can zoom in and out is just awesome, while we control our characters and work our macros and whatnot from our own laptops.
That said, it's certainly not necessary; the first time we played with MapTool, we had four people in one room with just two computers, and one remote player. It slowed down combat a bit, but if you display the grid on the map and everyone can see a screen (the projector's awfully nice for this), it's pretty easy to tell people how to move.
It's not just workable, it's both fun and efficient. Once everyone's familiar with the setup, that is
The one thing that is annoying is that when I scan the maps from the adventures, I then need to go through the maps and edit them to remove things players shouldn't be able to see (mob starting points, secret doors, traps, etc.)
Er, you know these are available in the map galleries right? You still need to edit some maps (Dungeon maps usually come in DM and Player style), but saves the hassle of scanning...just sayin'.
I use Maptools for my face to face game that I DM. It works like a charm. It does take a little getting used to, but the community that is working on it is extremely helpful. There are a number of different 4e frameworks that people have made that you can use. It does take some time setting up maps and adventures, but the prep work is totally worth it. I no longer have to spend time drawing out the new map, or using expensive ink to print them out. It is much easier to keep track of Monsters & Players, thus greatly increasing enjoyment of the game. In my game, my players mainly use it for the map and initiative tracking(they like the pen & paper, and dice that hate them). I however have not touched a die in 6 months, and I love it. I don't have to spend as much time moving miniatures around, keeping track of HP is simpler, and I don't miss out on a Monster's use of an ability because I am distracted by something else.
As for VOIP, my friends & I used Ventrillo back when we played MMOs, and it worked well for us. Here are a couple of suggestions if you go with this setup.
First, and I can't stress this enough, watch the video tutorials on how to use maptools. They are very well done and give you a good basic understanding on how to use the software which you can use to build off of. They are located on their forum site, along with the user created 4e frameworks.
Second, when you load up Maptools, increase the stack size to about 10 MB. Some frameworks use a lot of code for their macros, and if the Stack size is not big enough, you will get errors.
Third, have ventrillo set up on a different computer, preferably a separate server. This will decrease conntection issues, especially when you are hosting the Maptools game.
Fourth, plan ahead. Sometime during the week prior to your actual game, setup a connection test with all parties involved to make sure you can run your game and work out any bugs before your game. Make sure that everyone is running the same version of Maptools, and that the settings (memory usage that pops up before the program starts is the same on all computers).
Finally, have fun with it.
Ramius