Virtual Table Top (VTT) support

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Things SJ Games could do to enhance the VTT experience:

* Clarify the online policy to make it explicit on how much automation you can share with other people. The way I read it right now, if I write a macro that measures the range between two tokens and calculates the range penalty from the SSR, I can't share that with other people.

This I would like to see. Also any combat modifiers, and skill and spell lists from the free PDFs.
Importing from GCA (if thats the current one) would be nice, though I expect Macro imports to be too little value to be worthwhile. And finicky to maintain.
On the other hand making the online policy clearly allow fans to create macros using GURPS rules would be pretty good.
I could also see image bundles such as cardboard heros and other artwork as viable. But adding image support to all PDFs would increase costs, even fr those who wont use the image files. Not sure thats worthwhile.

[Ronnke]

On the topic of cost. FG has some pretty flexible options for players and GMs. A bit of forethought and planning, makes the cost to play entirely manageable for any group. If your group is looking to play long term, then the Ultimate License (rent or buy) is hands down way to go. Remember, players can certainly chip-in for the GM (or rotating GMs) to pay for a $9 month-by-month Ultimate License. That's if you really want to do it on the cheap.

In my own case, I have been using FG for going onto 7 years. I bought the Ultimate Licence for $149 (currently on sale for $111.75). Anyone joining my games can do so for zero cost. Presently, I play 3 online games per week. Yeah, I know that's a lot, but roleplaying has completely replaced my PC gaming. Cuz, you know, roleplaying is awesome!

Anyway, that breaks down as follows: ~$1.80/month or ~$0.15/game.

Admittedly, I'm a long term user, so as time goes on my return on investment is great and only getting better. I'm not sure how they will be pricing the new Unity release, but regardless of what it is, I'll be getting an Ultimate License.

I don't speak for SJG, but going off some of the discussion I had when playing a demo game with Kromm (watch it here), SJG are interested in VTT GURPS'ing. They are pleased with what is happening with Fantasy Grounds and have granted some liberty to continue development on that front. Out of my own personal gaming interest, I will make GURPS on FG as good as the platform allows. It is 12+ hours a week of GURP'ing for me, so I want it to be good. :)

@trooper6

From my own experience, streaming FG is no problem. My group streams our weekly sessions without a hitch. In time, we will also increase the production values of that stream and hopefully make it more entertaining and engaging. From a technical point of view, I don't go above 6% CPU while streaming and playing.

FG does support Mac, you can download the dmg file and go. You don't need to mess with WINE as it's now a pre-wrapped WINE installation. It won't be a native mac binary until the Unity release, but the Mac install seems to work fine.

EDIT: If people want demo's on FG, message me and I'll try arrange it.

[Ronnke]

Originally Posted by sjard

I was aware of that, but it doesn't alter what I was saying. It will not replace the GM icon with the NPC icon. It just replaces the text GM with <NPC name>.

In other words, it still has the large blue GM picture next to it.

If that feature is really important to you, then drop a request here (http://gurps4efg.idea.informer.com/) and I will get to it order of up votes. I have holidays coming up and plan to get a far chunk of development done.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

If that feature is really important to you, then drop a request here (http://gurps4efg.idea.informer.com/) and I will get to it order of up votes. I have holidays coming up and plan to get a far chunk of development done.

That's definitely an important thing if icons are being put next to peoples names. They've done studies and people tend to react to forum avatars like faces, and connect identity to them.

Seeing only the GMs "face" next to everything means its always "The GM" talking and people have to read the name. Change the icon, and people don't have to - which is good, because often they just don't.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Bruno

That's definitely an important thing if icons are being put next to peoples names. They've done studies and people tend to react to forum avatars like faces, and connect identity to them.

Seeing only the GMs "face" next to everything means its always "The GM" talking and people have to read the name. Change the icon, and people don't have to - which is good, because often they just don't.

That is a good point. My first thought was it seems like a pretty irrelevant feature but you make a good case for it.

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

FWIW, I prefer Fantasy Grounds for a lot of reasons. But I am not exactly un-biased, as I am part of the team working on the FG ruleset, and have invested a lot of time into working with the software.

They should do both Roll20 and Fantasy Ground not one or the other.

What "support" means for a VTT is three things.

First and most important is a automated character sheet. You click a button next to skill/power/talent/etc and the software rolls and tells you the result with everything from the sheet correctly applied.

Second are miscellaneous utilities like rolling on a crit chart or a reaction roll result.

Third are rules references to be built into the game. For example a Dungeon Fantasy VTT module can have the stats for a Gargoyle popup.

For Fantasy Grounds this means mastering the custom XML setup they have for setting up ruleset.
For Roll20 this means mastering the HTML5/scripting setup they have.

FG is more complete because of the excellent work done on unofficial ruleset.
However Roll20 relies more on HTML5 industry standards compared to Fantasy Grounds. So more likely to find somebody who know HTML5, CSS, javascript, compared to FG XML coding. There even a github site for Roll20 character sheets including two unofficial GURPS sheets.

Overall Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are in a dead heat. I prefer Roll20 because as a subscriber I find it more easily hackable for my campaigns. Plus its dynamic lighting, sound effects, and fog of war features are outstanding.

But I am not going to be upset if I had to use Fantasy Grounds.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by robertsconley

They should do both Roll20 and Fantasy Ground not one or the other.

I suspect the basic answer there is "when someone brings to us a compelling Roll20 demo, we'll give it a go. Brian and Daniel brought us a compelling FG demo, so we allowed for a next step."

Much like with most things, it's fan-driven or not done at all.

[Ronnke]

Originally Posted by Bruno

That's definitely an important thing if icons are being put next to peoples names. They've done studies and people tend to react to forum avatars like faces, and connect identity to them.

Seeing only the GMs "face" next to everything means its always "The GM" talking and people have to read the name. Change the icon, and people don't have to - which is good, because often they just don't.

NPC's don't have icons/avatars in the chat window only the GM and PC's have them. It would be easy enough to allow a GM to impersonate a player, but applying to NPC sheets will take a little more effort. Personally, I would prefer to know right away that the talker is a GM controlled N/PC as opposed to another player, while also not having to worry about avatars for all my NPCs. But, I'm only one user, so if there is call for it and it is possible within the FG framework, then we'll work to get it into the ruleset.

[sjard]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

NPC's don't have icons/avatars in the chat window only the GM and PC's have them. It would be easy enough to allow a GM to impersonate a player, but applying to NPC sheets will take a little more effort. Personally, I would prefer to know right away that the talker is a GM controlled N/PC as opposed to another player, while also not having to worry about avatars for all my NPCs. But, I'm only one user, so if there is call for it and it is possible within the FG framework, then we'll work to get it into the ruleset.

The NPC icon thing is, I believe, already in the idea list for the main program. There's a not particularly good extension that sort of works for it, but there seems to not be a major push since most people don't use the text chat that heavily.

[Gigermann]

Originally Posted by robertsconley

What "support" means for a VTT is three things.

First and most important is a automated character sheet. You click a button next to skill/power/talent/etc and the software rolls and tells you the result with everything from the sheet correctly applied.

Second are miscellaneous utilities like rolling on a crit chart or a reaction roll result.

Third are rules references to be built into the game. For example a Dungeon Fantasy VTT module can have the stats for a Gargoyle popup.

Well, FG+GURPS ruleset has the first two, and "official support" can result in the third, which is easy enough.

Originally Posted by robertsconley

So more likely to find somebody who know HTML5, CSS, javascript, compared to FG XML coding.

CSS-XML-Javascript are so often intertwined that you'll have a hard time finding someone who knows one but not all three. XML isn't the real issue. The real issue is Lua scripting (which the average user doesn't need to know anyway)—and someone who knows Javascript has a head-start already.