Whats DDI got for me that battlegrounds wont give me? Do they have a free trial that I can't find?
Also there is a argument I am having with my wife about DDI maybe you can help clear up.
She is all for it so we can play with her brother thats in the army, but she thinks only the DM need pay the 15 bucks a month and all the players can just chip in and we are gold. Is this right?
Its my understanding that EACH player will need to pay the 15 a month in which case thats about $75 a month for what will prob only be 2-4 games of about 3-6 hours each.
I was thinking about dropping my Wow game for a bit and trying DDI but a friend gave me a link to something called Battleground that looks like its pretty much the same thing but without the flashy lights and a fraction of the cost.
Whats DDI got for me that battlegrounds wont give me? Do they have a free trial that I can't find?
Also there is a argument I am having with my wife about DDI maybe you can help clear up.
She is all for it so we can play with her brother thats in the army, but she thinks only the DM need pay the 15 bucks a month and all the players can just chip in and we are gold. Is this right?
Its my understanding that EACH player will need to pay the 15 a month in which case thats about $75 a month for what will prob only be 2-4 games of about 3-6 hours each.
Its $15 a month per player, however the current idea is that subscribers will get so many 24 hour guest passes per month that they can dish out to people to play (and possibly be able to buy extra guest passes if needed.) The current amount of guest passes you get is unknown.
At this point none of the software is ready yet. It was delayed and current possible (tho certainly not concrete at all) is mid to late summer all the way to mid fall for completion. I have downloaded Battlegrounds and the main thing I see off the bat is that DDI Game Table is supposed to have 3d elements. How much of the 3d will be availiable for $15 a month is to be seen as its suggested that they will be selling specia/extra virtual 3d minis (there is an undisclosed amount that comes with the $15 a month). If you have't figured it out, theres still a lot of unknowns with DDI right now.
I downloaded Battlegrounds and will play with it, the little that I have I am not all that impressed, as Fantasy Grounds I was not impressed with either. You would have to ask others if they function well or are a pain to use as I don't really know.
DDI has more cool features but its hard to tell really without having a demo. Hope this clears up some, and theres plenty of posts that do a much better job than myself.
If you are comparing Battlegrounds to just the Game Table app, the obvious thing is that Battlegrounds doesn't have 3D capability (other than the ability to show 3D renders as visual aids).
The 2D approach isn't as immersive as 3D, I suppose, but the upside is that it's incredibly easy to add new content, and there are many gigabytes of quality top-down art available for free download on a number of websites.
I really hope Game Table eventually adds FULL 3D support, so that you can have flying characters, combats on stairways between dungeon levels, and swimming underwater. I know nothing like that has been announced yet, but it would seem a waste to have a 3D engine and not use it to its full potential.
What are some other differences? Well, Battlegrounds supports audio clips (for sound effects or background music). I haven't heard anything about DDI's Game Table supporting any audio other than VOIP. Battlegrounds is also cross-platform, so it may be a good alternative for Mac users who won't have access to Game Table. There are some other things in Battlegrounds that Game Table apparently won't have, such as card deck support, Area of Effect overlays, range measuring, FUDGE dice, etc. And with its full-screen map and hidden-until-you-need-it interface, it's also optimized for use with a projector or HDTV at face-to-face game sessions, whereas face-to-face use seems to be more of an afterthought with Game Table, from what I've read on these forums.
http://www.rpgvirtualtabletop.com/vts.html
You might check out rptools, we have a very feature-rich virtual tabletop (including line of sight calculations and individual views) as well as some other support tools (See sig).
If you'd like to see MapTool in action, check out these video tutorials:
http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/
You might check out rptools
Oh yeah, and they are all free
I have seen Battlegrounds and Fantasy Grounds II but not sure which I like better.
Both dont seem to have a lot of maps/tokens, but I am hoping to find more online.
Anyone have experience with both or have another favorite?
1. It's free
2. It's open source - you can check out the source code any time you like and trevor (poster above who is the lead programmer) is very happy to include any user contributed patches as well as putting out a new version every few weeks.
3. It's cross-platform
4. The support is second to none. The community over there is great, and well-informed. They can usually troubleshoot any problem in a matter of hours and if something is thornier than that then Trevor will usually be happy to chat via IM to sort it out directly. Not bad support from a developer of a free app! Also, if there is something that needs to be fixed for a deadline - say a feature needed for a game on Friday night - then trevor will often make sure it is there. I mean come on - software bug fixes timed to your own gaming schedule? It doesn't get better than that!
5. It's system agnostic. So 4th edition rules on diagonals are already in for those that want them, equally the tool can do 3.5 grids or hexes for Heroes games. If you have a rule for a weird system that maptool can't deal with - post on the forums and it's likely it will make it into the app for the next build or the one after.
If you are interested, probably best to head to the video tutorials done by Brad - not part of the dev team, just a very grateful user. Trevor put the link in above, but it bears repeating: http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/. They run through all the basic and most advanced features of the tool and give you an idea of the capabilities. If you have any other queries, drop by the forums. They are a friendly bunch.
I really can't recommend these enough. If it wasn't for maptool I wouldn't be playing D&D any more. Check it out while you wait for DDI. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
If you want content for any online game - check out the User Creations forum and the Links and External Resources forum over at forums.rptools.net. There are links in there to pretty much anything you could desire in terms of 2D (and some 3D) content.