TFT on Virtual Tabletops

[DeDiceManCometh]

Good luck on getting any of the current VTTs to support a Megahex grid via their intrinsic grid layer. You'll probably have to kludge together an image with a transparent alpha channel....ick.

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

I tried Roll20 and the video takes up more of the screen that it really necessary. And it has really poor versatility compared to old systems like OpenRPG. I would rather use Google Hangouts for straight video than Roll20.

Most people I know don't use Roll20 built in voice and video. They use discord, skype or hangouts.

[heruca]

Originally Posted by DeDiceManCometh

Good luck on getting any of the current VTTs to support a Megahex grid via their intrinsic grid layer. You'll probably have to kludge together an image with a transparent alpha channel....ick.

That may be the case for users of most VTTs. But Battlegrounds users can just download this TFT Compatibility Kit, which includes a generic megahex map (40x46), several megahex grid overlays in different colors and styles, and a variety of megahex-patterned "obstacles" that can be used to recreate the original Melee and Wizard mapboards, or create entirely new/custom ones. Note that these images do not contain center dots in the hexes, since Battlegrounds already has functions for checking range and line of sight from the center of each hex. Including center dots would just be visually distracting, so I left them out.

[RobW]

Originally Posted by zot

Yes, I replied about this in that thread. Here's the thread I started about the doc I made and have been using for collaborative gaming.

Maybe I haven't been clear enough. This allows collaborative, interactive gaming for free. Please look at it.

Dear zot, now I beginning to UNDERSTAND, I thought you were posting the maps just as handy hex grids.

I've never used google docs collaboratively. So the idea is that everyone in the gaming group can simultaneously edit a presentation, ie game board with images of counters etc? Can everyone move the counters around? And then do you do anything special for public dice rolls?

[Venomous Filigree]

This was the game that introduced me to RPGs and to to see whether it's just nostalgia calling me to back the Kickstarter, or whether its as fun as I remember, I'm running an online game with my friends a week Friday.

I was originally planning on using R20, however I might have to try Battlegrounds as that looks like it might be more TFT friendly.

[Groknard]

D'oh! I had my cart loaded up to purchase BRPG (GM and floating licenses) and remembered at the last second to check the system requirements. Unfortunately I won't be able to run this on my Mac as I'm on OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Too recent, which is usually not the problem I run into these days! I'll need to see if I still have an old Windows laptop I could run it on.

[zot]

Originally Posted by RobW

Dear zot, now I beginning to UNDERSTAND, I thought you were posting the maps just as handy hex grids.

I've never used google docs collaboratively. So the idea is that everyone in the gaming group can simultaneously edit a presentation, ie game board with images of counters etc? Can everyone move the counters around? And then do you do anything special for public dice rolls?

Yes exactly. I've been using it collaboratively for so many years, I sometimes forget that a lot of people don't know about its excellent collaboration. Everyone edits it and can move around the counters and whatnot. Just go to File->Share on the menu and add the people you want to share it with. They do need google accounts to edit, though.

Here, I made an example collaborative map, that you can copy, along with explanations (that you can delete), and a spreadsheet for dice rolling (but you can also use something like rolz.org). To roll dice with the spreadsheet, it'll ask you to authorize my script, which isn't registered, so it gives you a warning about that (you can read the code from the Tools->Script Editor menu if you want). If you don't want to run that, you can just use rolz.org or something for your dice.

For voice, we use phones or something like Discord, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, or Skype.

[RobW]

That's a cool idea zot! It's nice too how the counter shapes have a rotate tool immediately available after selecting, it looks like it would make counter facing easy and natural. Plus in theory someone could join in the game from most any computer, iPad, or even phone if you were desperate.

[zot]

Originally Posted by RobW

That's a cool idea zot! It's nice too how the counter shapes have a rotate tool immediately available after selecting, it looks like it would make counter facing easy and natural. Plus in theory someone could join in the game from most any computer, iPad, or even phone if you were desperate.

Thanks, Google Docs has served us well! They are one of the few groups to get collaboration right (for those interested in the computer science behind it: they do operational transformation properly).

[heruca]

Originally Posted by Groknard

D'oh! I had my cart loaded up to purchase BRPG (GM and floating licenses) and remembered at the last second to check the system requirements. Unfortunately I won't be able to run this on my Mac as I'm on OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Too recent, which is usually not the problem I run into these days! I'll need to see if I still have an old Windows laptop I could run it on.

Yeah, I tried to get a Battlegrounds v2 Kickstarted, but failed miserably. One of the goals was to bring back full modern Mac support, and to offer a free level of use.

Best bet now for Mac users is to run it under Windows (Boot Camp), or in a VM like Parallels or Fusion.