The company I used to work for, GameTable Online, launched a Kickstarter in May to fund new games and improvements to their site! Included in the reward levels are discounted premium subscriptions to GTO’s other website, RPGTable Online, which is an online virtual table for playing tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons and Dragons. So if you’re looking for a good virtual table for RPGs or you just like playing online versions of fun board games, such as Axis & Allies, Battle Cry, Guillotine, Robo Rally, 1960: The Making of the President, and Tigris & Euphrates, it’s definitely worth checking out and a good way to support both sites.
See GameTable Online’s Kickstarter page HERE.
Their Kickstarter is ending Sunday. They’ve already met their initial goal for an online version of Tsuro of the Seas, itself a Kickstarter, and some initial improvements to their site. Their first stretch goal is to fund an online version Conquest of the Empire, which is a fun classic war game by the designer of Axis & Allies, Larry Harris. Personally, I prefer it to Axis & Allies, and I feel it has interesting mechanics, particularly with regards to balancing short-gains from mobilizing a strong army versus the long-term benefits of building roads and citadels to connect and defend your empire. In fact, one of the cooler add-on rewards GTO is offering is copies of Conquest of the Empire autographed by Larry Harris!
If you aren’t familiar with RPGTable.com, I’d definitely reccomend checking it out, as it’s a great tool for playing online tabletop rpgs. I’m a little biased because I helped design and test it while I worked at GTO :), but I do think it has a lot to offer:
- It’s free to play. All the core features, from a healthy set of tiles and tokens, to the dice roller, grid map, initiative tracker, built in voice, and all the other the tools for running a roleplaying game are totally free. As mentioned, there is a premium subscription for unlocking community sharing, cloud storage, and other useful features. There are also micropayments for unlocking additional content, such as new tokens and tiles. But from the start you get a lot of functionality without paying anything.
- It has a ton of D&D support (if that’s your bag). Specifically, it has a lot tools that are optimized for 4th edition, but it is quite well suited for running earlier editions of D&D and for Pathfinder as well. That isn’t to say you can’t use the more generic tools for any rpg, but it really shines when it comes to D&D. So it can allow you to track conditions, spend healing surges, tell you if your attack hits against an enemy’s AC, and deal automatic damage, along with a lot of other supported functionality to make your life easier when playing D&D.
- It’s easy. No big downloads. No uploading a bunch of mods or maps to get started. No hours of tutorials. Just register a free account at GameTable Online, log-on, and jump into a campaign. From there you can use a preloaded selection of tiles and tokens to build an adventure that your friends can jump into through the website as easily as you did.
Gotta say, an entirely browser-based system is the best way to go. No download, no port forwarding, etc. The scheduling and campaign-listing system looks good. I didn’t see whether there’s webcam support but I saw the voice chat which is nice.
It looks like I can’t just draw my own tiles and upload them for the campaign, and assemble a dungeon out of them. I would need to pay to have access to the additional art. Right?
Could I, for example, load a picture of the dungeon exterior or landscape or of some puzzle or trap, or NPC portrait, instead of a battlemat? How easy is it to change all that stuff on the fly during the session?
1d30, the system does put limitations on what you can upload into the application, since selling extra tiles and tokens is the primary monetization model. So the idea is that if you like the tool, you would pay for additional tiles and tokens, many of which use the licensed art from official D&D products and artists along with some very talented local artists in Western MA :).
However, you can upload an image to use as a map in the application, so that would work for the dungeon exterior or landscape you mentioned. You can also upload an image to share with with other users, such as a handwritten note or picture of hieroglyphics on a wall. That kind of functionality is available for a one-time fee or as part of a subscription. The subscription also support community sharing, so you can dip into the database of maps, images, PCs, and adventures people have already put together.
Finally, there is also a basic paint tool for drawing simple maps and other parts of a dungeon or landscape.
Changing things on the fly during the session is very easy. I regularly put together short dungeons using dungeon tiles during the session. It is also very easy to lay down or share images during a session, throw down some tokens with basic stats for a combat, reveal/hide areas of the map, or make other edits on the fly.
I’ve been using Roll20 with Google+. Is there any real advantage to switching for me?
Canageek,
It certainly wouldn’t hurt to check it out, since the core features are entirely free. Roll20 does have some pretty neat features, like the ability to easily import images to use in the game with a google search and video chat. However, I do think the RPGTable is a little more polished in several ways, with stronger rpg aids, especially for D&D, a selection of nice looking tokens and tiles ready to use as soon as you load up the application, and a little more accessibility over all for new users. If you and your group have been using Roll20 for a while and you’ve already gotten used to the interface and added a bunch of stats and art, the case for switching may not be as strong, but it’s definitely worth judging for yourself.
Rory! Remember me? You helped me with bugs during the D&D VT BETA Testing that later became RPGTable Online! Its a great VT that i still use for my online gaming. I play 4E and playtest D&D Next on it! If oyu’re ever down for a game let me know!
Plague
Plaguescarred, sure I’d be up for a D&D Next game some time! Send me a PM in the forums if you’ve got any games starting soon. My username is Sliceydicey.
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