I’ve been reevaluating my options for keeping track of initiative and conditions during combat while I play D&D over the internet with gametable. Currently, I use a $5 magnetic white board as seen below.

Its functional enough. I can rearrange the magnetic name plates I printed up as needed and can write in the monster names with HP values and take care of all of that right there on the board. I found out quickly though that the permanent marker I had used to make the nice dividing lines would be removed when dry erase marker came in contact and was then wiped off. Rather disheartening. My solution was to use electrical tape to make the lines but the tape was too wide and took up too much space. I wasn’t about to cut the tape in half as it wouldn’t come out straight and just upset me.

I began brainstorming and thought about making an 8.5″ x 11″ printed tracking chart that I would laminate at the local craft store. They use very thick lamination medium that would hold up very well and I tested the dry erase markers on it with something I had laminated for my son (a shopping list for his grocery cart!). The black was fine but the red one I had left some staining. I have some cleaning solution I`ll try on it later.

While poking around online, I found a post over at Geek’s Dream Girl which introduced Anubisware’s Encounter Manager. Even though its still in beta stages (1.0-beta is the version I’m trying out), I think it`ll do just what I need it to!

Here’s my list of demands for an encounter manager program (*hands list to hostage negotiator*):

1. I want to be able to set this up a head of the time so its ready to go when we play.
2. I want to be able to enter initiative rolls for each character/monster and have the list ordered for me when its done.

Bonus attributes would include the following:

1. A way to track monster hit points
2. -FREE-

Anubisware’s Encounter Manager met my list of demands and even the delivered the bonus attributes..and its still in beta! To get the program started, I had to install the .NET 3.5 framework available from the Microsoft website which was easy to find and didn’t take long. The program fired right up and I was greeted with this initial screen

(click all screenshots for larger views)

Adding new the PCs to the list was rather simple by clicking on the yellow plus sign on the menu bar. To handle my PCs, I only filled in their name but plenty of other information was available, yet wasn’t needed on my end.

With my 5 PCs entered, I saved the file as a template for making other encounters. I then filled in the info for the monsters including max/current HP, initiative bonus and defensive scores. Before I tested out the encounter, I did a Save As.. and called it encounter1. Clever.. I know . Once people roll their initiative, I`ll have to double click on each PCs from the menu on the left hand side and edit their scores. I could use the “Set Character Initiative” button which cycles through all combatants, PC and Monster, asking for roll results. With large encounters, this may take longer than just editing the PC’s info screen. It`ll even tell you when a character is bloodied by turning their text orange. Cool!

In conclusion, this has done away with my initiative board! I can even write encounter notes in the little box regarding who is targeting who. Status effects can also be handled here and can ask me if a PC or baddie succeeded on a saving throw.

After giving this a test drive, I only have a few items on my Wish List:

• As me if I’m sure I want to close the program off or start a new encounter if changes have been made since my last save
• The .col files used to save the encounter info don’t show up by default when going to open one. You need to type in *.* in to the file name field for them to show up.
• When I hit tab to cycle through the defensive stats, it might be nice for the current data to be highlighted so I can just over wright it with whatever I type without having to delete or backspace the 0 already there.

I really look forward to seeing this program develop. As I see it now, it goes hand and hand with gametable for playing D&D over the internet.

My new online campaign started this past weekend and I was pleased to have two players who are completely new to the world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Soon after the PCs entered the dungeon, they heard me (DM) say this.

DM: You peek around the corner and see two wolves pacing back and forth near two mangled kobold carcases. Their tongues hang open with copious amount of blood tinged saliva dripping from their mouthes.

Random PC: We need to draw them away perhaps, and get rid of them in the room we’re in now instead of going in to that one.

Kriv Chu’la, a Dragonborn wizard, is played by a comrade of mine from the high school days. He’s completely new to D&D but is eager to learn the rules and get his hands dirty. He chimes in.

Kriv Chu’la: Oh I can make this Ghost Sound. What kind of sound would lure the wolves away and make them come this way?

Another PC: Like..the sound of cats?

Kriv Chu’la: I`ll cast Ghost Sound and make the sound of cats originate from … here! *indicates a spot on the map*

What happened next caught everyone by surprise and caused us all to erupt with boisterous laughter!

Kriv Chu’la: MEEEEOOOOOOW!!! MEEEOWWW! MEOW!!! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOW!

I darn near choked on my Diet Mt. Dew. It was so loud in the headset (remember, online campaign..gametable..teamspeak) and completely unexpected.  At that moment, a new house rule was born.

HR 1) Anyone using Ghost Sound must describe the sound and then imitate it for all to hear and laugh at.

What about you? Does your group have any humorous house rules?

You’ve got your map all ready. Pogs and Underlays laid out. Now let’s host a game! Here’s how its done, along with some solutions to some common problems.

After you have Gametable open, head up  to the “Network” menu at the top of the window and choose the “Host…” option. This window`ll pop up.

Since I’m the DM as well as the host, I enter Czar for both player and character name. When using the gametable chat window as well as dice macros, you Player Name is shown. If you’d like to password your gametable session, choose a password now. Its a nice feature but I really can’t imagine anyone trying to crash your gametable session. Well..I suppose if you ousted a problem player from your group and wanted to prevent reentry. Anywho.. Now pick a port. The default is 6812 and for the average user may should work just fine. Press Ok and you’re good to go.

Buuuut. If you’re connecting through a router, you’re not good to go. Chances are that no one will be able to connect to your game without toggling a few settings on your router. Fear not! Its not too hard. Perhaps you’ve done it before. But you`ll need to port forward the port used to host gametable to the internal IP address of the computer you’re using to host the game.

I can’t possibly cover all the different types of routers out there, but I can at least get you started. First, you`ll need the IP address your router as assigned to your individual computer. If you’re on a Windows machine, click Start, then Run, and type in cmd and press enter. This will bring up the command line. type ipconfig and press enter.  Here are my results.

Note that the IP Address that my router has assigned my computer is 192.168.111.105 . Now we need to find out how to get in to your router and toggle some settings. I’m not one to just tell people to google the answers themselves, but since there are so many routers out there all running different firmwares with different options, I may have to break down and ask you to do that. To get you on the right track, head over to PortForward.com and find your router model there.  After choosing your model, you`ll be asked to choose a program to configure. Look towards the top of the page and choose the default guide for your router.  You may have to google how to enter your router if you’ve never done it before. In the end, you`ll want to forward the port you’re using for gametable to the IP address we just found using the ipconfig command.

I know.. this may seem a little more advanced for some people. If so, perhaps ask a comrade to host the game for your who either knows how to configure their router or who isn’t behind one. Remember, if you’re not behind a router, you should have no problem hosting a game.

People can then connect to your game using your household IP address. If you are behind a router, make sure you find this address out as the IP address we just found using ipconfig will not work. After you begin hosting the game, a link will appear in the chat window offering to show you the IP address that people can connect to you with.  Use that address.

I hope this helps or at least gets you on the right track to overcoming hosting obstacles. If you’re using some flavor of Linux (I’ve had gametable working with WINE) then chances are you know how to access your IP information. For those on Macs.. I have no clue since I’ve never really used one. Heck, can gametable run on a Mac? Is there some sort of PC emulation software? If so, could someone post/link a screen shot of how to find your IP address? I`ll post it here with credit and 50 experience points.

I’m sure everyone has a wish list of features they’d love to see added to Gametable. This post`ll tell you how to workaround what I feel is the most important one.

I try to keep the bulk of my map elements (dungeons, towns, roads) all on one map. It doesn’t necessarily have to be to scale though. This is done for a few reasons.

1) Player Pogs do not retain their titles and attributes when loading a new map.  As stated in earlier posts, I ask my players to list their HP, AC, and any other pertinent information as attributes. It can get annoying for them to have to reenter the information because we’re changing maps.

2) It makes it easier if the PCs want to re-visit a place they’ve been before. I don’t have to dig around for the map of that area and cause the headache of Issue #1 above.

My wish list item for Gametable would be a way to enter grid coordinates to jump to map areas that I’ve laid out. For example.. the dungeon would be at grids 150 x 233. I would enter that in a box and jump to the dungeon entrance.  As of now, there is no such option.

Here’s  my workaround.

On the private map screen, drop a pog near whatever region you want to mark and be able to “jump to” on demand and give it a suitable label for easy reference. Double click on it to jump to its location, which’ll put you where you want to be (”Wherever you go, there you are!). The pog doesn’t have to be anything special.  I use this one.

Nifty little sign from Zelda 3: A Link to the Past for the SNES. I dropped it outside my dungeon entrance on my private map, which`ll then display it on the active pog listing (for the private map, remember. So only I will see it since it an active pog on my private map).

And there ya have it! Ooh. Disregard the black dragon there.. My PCs will be find him this weekend. Bwahaha!

A few other folks on the RPGBloggers Network have announced business ventures dealing with RPG type stuff so I don’t think I’m violating any rules here.. So let’s just blurt it out and then explain (kinda like `spray and pray`)

I’m looking for people to go to their local gaming store and try to get my dice bags carried on their shelves.

I’m sure a lot of you know the owners/management staff of your friendly local gaming store rather well. First name basis and all that, know the kids, that kinda thing. Who better to try to pitch this idea to them. Details? Here they are (as they stand now):

• Show interest in participating and I`ll send you some literature as well as some sort of sample to bring in with you. I’m not sure if its going to be a complete bag or perhaps some colored rings and a swatch of maille. But something tangible other than just a picture on paper.
• Approach your friendly local game store about carrying the bags. The info I`ll send you should have answers to all possible questions but I`ll happily provide my cell number for on the spot queries.
• Any order the store makes, even after the first one, will award you 10% of the order price (doesn’t include shipping). For example, if the store orders $210 worth of dice bags, you`ll earn $21.00. You can have that PayPal’ed to you (or check if needed) or you can buy dice bags from me at the wholesale price the stores do. When that store re-orders later on to replenish their stock, you`ll get 10% of that order too..and so on.

Not bad for about 30 minutes of work huh? So whatcha say? Something you’re interested in?

Saturday morning pogs again! Its hard to search for Orc images without getting WoW stuff. Either way, feel free to download the zip file here for all the pogs, or choose the specific ones you want from the gallery below.

Its Saturday! Let’s get some more Pogs out there for use with Gametable or any other whiteboarding client that supports this sort of image.

This week, we have the skeleton. A zip file of the gallery is available here: skeletonpogs.zip

Some love it. Others don’t. Personally, I require that my players use the dice roller included in Gametable. While I trust my players, I have them use the in-game dice roller for two reasons.

First, for ease of organization. Spewing random numbers in the chat window can get confusing especially when I don’t know what the roll/number is for. Since the name of the macro used is included in the chat window when the results are displayed, I can quickly see just what the numbers are referring to.

The second reason is to avoid complaints from other PCs who may accuse others of fudging rolls with their own physical dice or complaints of the in-game roller being sub-standard. Heck, if you’re all using the in-game roller then you have nothing to complain about.

Dice can be rolled two ways in Gametable. First, you can run a command in the chat window. This is the slower of the two methods but can be useful for a DM who just needs a quick number. Using the command /roll , we can specify the dice denomination and modifiers.

/roll d20 + 2

In the chat window everyone`ll see the results.

I like how it breaks down the math too. People in the game will see what I rolled (d20+2) and that on the roll, the d20 yielded a 9 and the 2 was added. Perhaps you have some long funky chain of dice to roll with some modifiers on the end.

/roll 4d20 + 3d8 + 2 + 1 + 1

You’re not limited by standard gaming dice either. You can use any number from 0 - 2147483647 though rolling a d0 always returns a 1.

The first person to respond via comment as to why 2147483647 is the highest number allowed gets free priority shipping on any dice bag order in my store!

Woo! And now back to our program, already in progress. Rolling dice in the chat window is fine and dandy, but there are two potential issues with it. The first we already touched on. There’s no text label accompanying it identifying what the roll is for. The second is that, as a DM, you may not want your rolls made public. This can be quickly fixed by substituting /roll with /proll

/proll d10 + 8

You can also specify whether or not you want to drop high or low results in your rolls. We can use “h” for high and “l”for low.

/roll 4d20h3

This`ll roll 4 d20’s and keep the highest 3 of those rolls. If we used “l” instead of “h”, we’d keep the lowest 3 rolls.

Now we`ll address the other issue with rolling dice in the chat windows. For rolls that we`ll commonly make or just don’t feel like typing out each time, we can make dice macros with the required information already saved. On the left hand side of your screen, click the tab. At the bottom, hit the button. Input your desired dice roll and give your macro a name.

Hit and you`ll see your new macro in the list with some options.

As for the three buttons, the first with the red X will delete the macro. The second will edit the macro (brings up the same screen we used to create it but with the info already filled in) and the last rolls the macro. To privately roll a dice macro, hold either control key while clicking the Roll button ( ). Here is what our public (as in non-private) roll`ll look like.

Love it, Love it!! But there’s still one VERY important thing we MUST do. ..SAVE your macros! A few times, I’ve had my macro list eaten without warning. Supposedly, it should auto-save when you close Gametable and auto-open when you fire it back up. Please don’t rely on this. Simply click on the Dice menu at the top of the screen and choose Save Macros As.. and overwrite your previous file. I’ve had issues with the save command before so I’ve been using Save As.

Das it! I used a lot of images in this post. Is that okay with your folks? Too many? Do they help? Stay tuned for more Gametable tutorials and don’t forget about the free shipping offer!

I’ve had wonderful responses to my en devours to successfully play D&D over the internet using Gametable and Teamspeak/Ventrilo. In fact, some people have asked to join my group. While I’d love to get everyone involved in my sessions, we know its just not possible. So.. I bring unto you..

Czar’s Online RPG Planning Board!

“What the hell is this, Czar?!”

Simply put, its a message board where people can organize themselves in to online playing groups. If you’re a DM/GM looking for players, post a request in the “DMs Looking For Players” forum. Or, if you’re a player who is just itching to join a group and play online, make your desires known in the “Players Looking For Groups” forum.

There’s a couple of other perks too. DMs are welcomed to ask for a forum of their own for organizing their own campaign, posting session logs, and what not. Also, you`ll find sections regarding the technical aspects of playing online, including forums for whiteboarding clients (like Gametable), voice communication software (such as Teamspeak and Ventrilo), and any other programs that aid you in playing online.

This isn’t just limited to Dungeons and Dragons either. Many other game systems are capable of being played over the interwebs in this fashion and enthusiasts of those games are more than welcomed to learn about and use these tools for playing online.

In fact, we’ve already got a player looking for a group to join. … Eh…okay. Fine. Its me.. I wouldn’t mind playing in someone’s 4e or SerenityRPG group. Pop over to the board and check out my request or post your own.

Here is the first installment of what (I hope) will become a weekly post of free pogs of various themes. Today we have the basic zombie. All pogs were made using two things, RPTools’ TokenTool, and Google Image Search. The gray boxes seen around each pog here are not there on the real image. Wordpress adds that box to each image in a gallery.

Please feel free to right click and Save As any pogs that interest you. If you want the whole thing, Save As this zip file instead: zombiepogs.zip