11-25-2017, 05:53 PM | #51 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Stick in the Mud
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
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Locations for example can be dropped as pins on the map that only the GM can see, hovering over will display the text for it, clicking it will open it in a popup. NPC tokens can be hidden from the player view, and will show as faded for the GM view when hidden. Quote:
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What do you mean by rotate as GMs, the same campaign or different ones? Quote:
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11-25-2017, 05:57 PM | #52 |
Forum Pervert
(If you have to ask . . .) Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Somewhere high up.
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
The only Stability issues we’ve had with TTS have been network based. One of our players is high-ping and this has caused some problems for her, including package loss that caused her to desynch. Another of our players Laptop seems to have a buggy network connection, with similar results. This also applies to performance. For those of us with <50 ping, we have 0 latency. We pick something up, it’s picked up. We roll some dice, they roll. For the other two players, that’s hardware issues, not software. And, if they tell the dice to roll, we can usually see the results before they can. But, again, that’s their networking issues.
Chat interface, we use Skype and I recognize everyone’s voice. The built-in voice chat (we don’t use it due to issues that the aforementioned players with hardware issues exacerbate yet Skype does not) does highlight the person talking both in the virtual space and on the player list. The die roller is very easy. Select the dice you want to roll and roll them. Oh, and dice towers are an option as well. Map interface. Do you want it to load onto the table or onto a “card” or “board” you can lay down? Your choice. Do you want vertical or horizontal hexes? Do you want things to snap to the center of the hex, the line of a hex, or the vertices? You can move the hexes and change their sizes. It also does grids, but, we don’t care about grids. . .. ;-P Token interface . . . if you want tokens, it’s got tokens. It’s also got miniatures. Some of the included minis are animated and have built-in states. It’s easy enough to import your own as flats, or import them as stickers and apply them to chess pieces. Or, hey, it can also do cardboard heroes with a front and a back. Almost everything you want is in the “custom” section of the tools menu. You can also import fully 3d figures (advanced feature). It also moves everything to the Steam Cloud (you get about 100gb of storage) so your players download it through the game (steam networking) instead of it coming from your computer to all of them. (You to Steam Cloud, Steam Cloud to them.) Each one also has the ability to have a name and additional text added to it. I usually test 3d models by loading them locally, determining they work, then uploading them, which is also an option. Draw interface: Vector and “freehand.” Vision and Fog of War. This it really doesn’t do, natively. And, really, I’ve tried it once (in Battlegrounds) and didn’t like it. My players can firewall well enough. I’ve got a few ways of faking it, but, haven’t really bothered. Macro Language: It has one of those—Lua I think. I don’t know anything about it because I don’t use scripting. Setup and Complexity: My man. I’m with you on that. It needs to be stupid simple and it is. Communication, uses Steam Networking. But, it’s not browser or web-based, so it’s not HTML (that I know of and I could be wrong). Login is easy, private is easy. You can restrict it to friends only and require a password. According to Steam, TTS supports Win, Max, Linux, HTC and Oculus, but not tablets. Unless you’re talking Windows tablets, then it “can,” but I don’t suggest it. When one of our players didn’t have a computer, I just had Hand of Bobb share his screen through Skype so he could see on his Android tablet. Cost of ownership for 7 players would be $120-$140 if you don’t buy it on sale (@ $20 per person, or $60 for a four-pack). $60 if you get it on sale, and one (or two) people buy a 4-pack. Two four-packs ($30/4) would leave an additional copy to let a new player join. While it is in 3d, it does not require maps to be in 3d. You can load a 2D map onto a table or board and put it down. You can scale the board (not the table) in real-time to adjust the map to the size of hexes you want to use (can also adjust the size of hexes, if you want to go that way). @trooper6 No more work than doing it in the real world. I found the TTS interface easier for me and my players than Battlegrounds. I could drop a blank board, scale it up to the size I wanted, lock it, then use the drawing tool to draw walls, doors, etc and move the figures on to it and go. If I want to spend the time, I can make it fully 3d, but, in general, 2d maps work just as well. Hand of Bobb had us doing a fight on a container ship for our Teen Supers game, and actually found a 3d container ship in the workshop. It was awesome because it was a fully 3d container ship that we could have the battle on. It was cool, but it wasn’t necessary. |
11-25-2017, 07:58 PM | #53 |
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Oklahoma City
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
That's not a thing right now, and I don't see it becoming one, unless they start publishing adventure material down the road.
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The Art of D. Raymond Lunceford, The Daniverse: Core Group Annex The Daniverse Game Blog |
11-25-2017, 08:10 PM | #54 | |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
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11-25-2017, 08:40 PM | #55 | |||||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
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Tabletop Simulator does. I would argue there are at least three major options: FG, Roll20, and MapTools.
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Read my GURPS blog: http://noschoolgrognard.blogspot.com |
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11-25-2017, 09:01 PM | #56 |
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Oklahoma City
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
Only one. That's the point of the Ultimate license.
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The Art of D. Raymond Lunceford, The Daniverse: Core Group Annex The Daniverse Game Blog |
11-25-2017, 09:34 PM | #57 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
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From a quick search I found the following list of VTTs, and added a few notes: 3D Virtual Tabletop – BattleBox – Battlegrounds – d20 Pro – non-GURPS D&D Virtual Table – non-GURPS EpicTable – Fantasy Grounds – Has Active GURPS Groups Gametable – Infrno – JParanoia – non-GURPS KLoOge.Werks – iTabletop – Map Tools – Has an Active GURPS Group OpenRPG – Rolisteam – Roll20 – Has Active GURPS Groups RPGtonight – SceneGrinder – which may not be active anymore ScreenMonkey – Tabletop Forge – which merged with Roll20 Traipse – TTopRPG – which may not be active anymore Storium – looks like more of a creative writing interface, but shares some VTT features My group currently uses Roll20 with Discord for the voice channel. The advantage is we are using the free version. The disadvantages are that we will normally have 1 to 3 dropped connections in a 5 hours session and have various glitches during play, such as screens freezing, die rolls not totaling, etc. (with 9 of us). A few of us would like to try Fantasy Grounds, but the cost point is too high for ~2/3 of the group. My limited and dated (more than 3 years ago) experience with Map Tools was that it required a programmer to get it installed and working. The current version might be much more user friendly. Last edited by DAT; 11-25-2017 at 09:50 PM. |
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11-26-2017, 06:31 AM | #58 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
Can someone other than the GM host the game? Even if they can, each GM needs at least a standard license (as far as I can tell), so that's $139 for a group with 2 GMs.
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11-26-2017, 07:04 AM | #59 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
MapTools has quite a few active GURPS groups playing on it. More often than not, when I go to set up a server or join one, there's at least one other GURPS server, sometimes two or even three. given that we play on Thursday evenings (EST), that's just a slice of the timeslots one part of the world plays in.
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
11-26-2017, 07:41 AM | #60 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Cockeysville, MD
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Re: Virtual Table Top (VTT) support
I've used many VTT over the past 10 years or so, and they all have pros and cons. I settled on Roll20 (after Tabletop Forge was merged into it), and was really hopeful for Tabletop Connect (which is now defunct but the developer is now working on Fantasy Grounds).
Roll20 has a few (IMO) huge advantages: (1) It's online, so there isn't any need to ask players to download any software. Just login and play. (2) It's free ... and even if you choose to pay for the Pro features, only the GM has to pay. (3) While it doesn't have "official" support, I was able to update the character sheet, enhancing it, using only HTML and javascript. I pretty much only play online and have introduced many new players to GURPS, or even to RPGs in general by inviting them to my games. Saying, "Hey would you like to try out playing an RPG? Okay, I need you to drop $xx.xx first.", is kinda a deal breaker. And "..okay, you need to download xxxxx", can be a pain especially if that software doesn't run natively on all OSes. There are features that other VTTs have that I really like, but so far nothing beats the ability to create a game, send a link, and have a new players going with minimal hassle.
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Tags |
fantasy grounds, roll20, virtual tabletop, vtt |
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