Use the -FREE- Gametable!
This is it. This is the post where I`ll be outlining the way that I play face-to-face style D&D online without actually being face-to-face. Perhaps your schedule won’t allow you to physically meet with your comrade(tte)s in your lair. Or..maybe your posse is scattered across the country..or globe.
You only need two things.
- A voice communication program
- An RPG whiteboarding program of some sort.
There are several voice communication programs out there with the two most common ones being Teamspeak and Ventrilo. As a PC gamer, I’ve used both programs extensively and have found no obvious difference between the two. Personally, I’m a Teamspeak fan. Regardless of which program you choose, everyone in the group must use the same program. One of you will need to host the voice server, meaning people will connect to you. Try to choose/bribe the person with the fastest upload speed as it will allow you to increase the sound quality of the service.
Next you need an RPG whiteboarding client. When I began my search for a program that would allow me and my players to simply share a communal workspace with grid lines. After trying several products, I settled on Gametable.
<record scratch sound..> “Gametable?! But but.. Wizard’s hasn’t released it yet!!!11″
Too true. But this isn’t the WotC “Game Table”. This Gametable is a FREE Java based application I found that comes as close to delivering just what I want – The feel of a face to face session while playing over the internet. There are other similar programs out there that deliver MORE than what I need. They allow you to make maps that show differences in lighting and other funky stuff. If that’s what you’re looking for, then you have options. What I wanted was something like Microsoft Paint on crack that we could all share and see/use the same workspace. Nothing more. Blam!! Check it out:
Woo. Grid lines (you can change between squares and hex too). Here’s how it works. Everyone involved needs a copy of Gametable. One person acts as the host while others connect to her/him. The DM can draw maps (either on the fly or ahead of time) and choose when/what to reveal to the players as the game progresses. Here are some examples of that.
This is what the players are seeing:
This is what the DM has planned:
Players use “pogs” to represent their character and move them around the map as if using miniatures on a battlemat. The pogs can carry/display user generated information. For my games, I ask that players list their current/max HP along with their armor class. Mousing over the pogs will reveal the details of any user generated attributes. They’re also listed on the side column along with all active pogs on the map.
Making your own pogs is a snap and I`ll go over that in a future post. There is a text based chat window, though we’re using a voice chat program instead. However, the program does include a dice roller with the ability to create macros for your most commonly used roll combinations. For my games, I ask that everyone use the in game roller so I can see the results. A DM can roll private rolls from the chat windows that only he/she can see the results of.
I`ll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about this program and its usage. Later on, we`ll go over how to make your own pogs and underlays.
Oooohhh, shiney!!
Thansk, I look forward to reading more about this.
How difficult/easy is it to import images or draw in this gametable? Can you import an image and then scale it up/down to the appropriate size, or is it more a matter of scaling the gridlines??
Drawing is simple with the supplied tools. They have straight lines which auto-snap to the grid lines or you can hold down CTRL while drawing to disable that. Also, there is a circle/square tool as well as a freehand draw.
The gridlines are stationary so you’d have to scale the image but the default size for a grid square is 64 x 64. Not sure about the hex dimensions.
Usually, I find sprite sheets from my favorite SNES RPG games (Woo! Zelda and Chrono Trigger) and make 64 x 64 transparent .png files from specific sprites. Importing images is as easy as dropping the file in the proper folder and hitting F5 in game to refresh the available images. Click and drag it in to play from the left hand library. Pogs and underlays can be rotated, flipped, and resized via Gametable. In one of the images in this post you`ll see boulders next to the road way. Its one image I used several times by applying the above mentioned modifications.
Thanks for the info.
Beautiful.
Thank you so much! I’ve been looking for a program like this and this one looks fantastic!
Okay, that’s pretty awesome. I have a few players who have moved far, far away, and we’ve been looking for a solution. I think this is it. Thanks!
I just wanted to add that Gametable is also very useful in face to face games. It is much easier than figures and paper.
I have a page about it here (with also a few stuff to download):
http://www.gwindel.eu/GT.html
@Bhoritz: I plan on using gametable for my face to face games in the future using a projector. Also, I’ve been to your site before and highly recommend it to others.
Sounds pretty cool. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks.
Does anyone actually use this sort of technology every session, week in, week out?
The idea is great, to allow players geographically distant to participate in the game but does it really work? Not just the technology, but the whole experience.
If everyone is sat around a table and there is one person playing remotely, how much of the social interaction are they going to get. Many of the most interesting things occur away from the table, when people grab a drink or some food and they can chat away from the GM’s ear.
What about when the GM forgets to update the remote player’s map or to tell them something that is obvious to everyone in the room.
I would find almost being there far more annoying than not being there at all.
I can see it working slightly better when everyone is remote but having a gaming group in someone’s house and then one person playing remotely seems unworkable in practice.
Chris Tregenza´s last blog post..The Boss Monster’s Boss
I use this techonology for every session I run as a DM. All of us are playing from our own homes/dorms. You do bring up an interesting scenario though. The closest we came to it was when 3 of the PCs lived together.
I do use Gametable for every session, but they are face to face sessions. I just find it much easier to use it than figures on a paper map (and I can use it to display handouts, maps, portraits…).
I also use it online for small adventures when one or two players want to do something between sessions without other players knowing about it (if the thieves want to make a job whilst the other players are resting at the inn, for exemple).
But I never thought of mixing face to face and online players. I don’t think it would be a good idea because the players in the face to face situation don’t have a direct contact with those online. The GM must alternate between two sets of players.
Better to have everybody around or online, but not both. IMHO.
If you’re looking for other gamers to play online with using a Virtual Gaming Table, check out http://www.thetangledweb.net
That site has all sorts of free to use material for online gaming table play. They have a large number of game maps and miniature tokens / pogs to get you started in addition to a busy recruiting forum whereing DMs can advertise for players needed in their own games.
The Tangled Web also creates a personal campaign forum for any DM that requests one. You can use the personal campaign forum to communicate before and after a session.
Award XP, get some shopping done, or gripe about a rules interpretation in the comfort of your own personal gaming space.
Gametable has only recently been introduced over there but, if you’re looking for some gamers who are already into gaming using a Virtual Gametable, http://www.thetangledweb.net is the place to find them.
I just posted my 1st D&D online game Project post. I’ll be using Gametable in the first part of this project and I will refer to your primer more than once. Thanks so much for doing this!
Thanks Phil. I’m finding links popping up here and there to the guide. I’m glad people are getting use fromm it! Next, I have plans to make this a headquarters for pogs and underlays for use in Gametable and any other program that supports that image type.
I am trying to use gametable and am having trouble hosting. it seems simple enough but isn’t working. could you explain just how to do it?
also, my wife is at the computer right next to me and i’m thinking our problem might be related to the ip address. methinks we share the same ip address. should she just type in “localhost” or something instead of the actual ip address?
@IRK – Hmm. I’ve heard of this happening before (same people from the same IP having issues) and I have not heard of a solution. However, well, here’s the back story on the experience. Its somewhat close to your situation.
I was hosting a game and DM`ing with 6 other players. Three of them were at the same house/same IP. They could all connect but would disconnect on occasion. Luckily, with gametable, you can reconnect without losing any information on the screen. …Unless the host disconnects. As for not being able to connect at all..well. I haven’t run in to that problem yet. As for how to host a game, I`ll write up a blog post right now for that and add it to the tutorial listing.
It also depends on the IP you are using. If your two computers are on the same LAN, they have each an internal (network) IP that should be almost the same (something like 192.168.2.2 and 192.168.2.3) and they share the same WAN IP (the IP they are using on internet).
If you are playing on a LAN, you should use the LAN IPs.
If you are playing through the web, you should use the WAN IP (and then you can have port forwarding or firewall problems; it is a problem that all VTT have in common).