Infrno: virtual tabletop gaming?

[Brewdude]

Has anyone been in a virtual tabletop gaming session on www.infrno.net? Is it ready for prime time yet? Most translations of tabletop to computer have not quite worked out like I'd expect so I'm kind of skeptical about spending time learning the ropes of how to run or play in a session there. When I get on a computer, suddenly I want to be playing mmos or fps...

I guess what I'm asking is, is the feeling of tabletop gaming maintained there?

[muldoon]

Hi! I'm Mike Muldoon, the monkey behind the curtain at Infrno. I'd be happy to answer any and all questions.

Some game table stuff. Here's a static shot of the game table in action:
http://cdn1.infrno.net/assets/gametable_screenshot.png

A howto video:
http://www.infrno.net/users/kieara/posts/532-latest-infrno-video-game-table
(http://www.infrno.net/users/kieara/posts/532-latest-infrno-video-game-table)
And if you like, you can jump right in to the sample game table:
http://www.infrno.net/games/play/19

We're definitely still in beta, with the bugs to prove it. The table is pretty solid with 4-5 people, but we will support up to 10 very soon. I think the best data point I can provide is that we average over 90 hours of game play every day, with busy days seeing over 225 hours.

Everything you see on the site now will be free forever. Paid premium accounts are coming, at $5/month, and will have additional features. My favorite premium feature will be the ability to author and grant your own achievements.

You can see achievements below the profile photo:
http://www.infrno.net/users/charismacheck

User-generated achievements have some awesome implications, especially when you imagine granting them to *characters*. For example, this is my 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars character:
http://www.infrno.net/users/charismacheck

Medals are part of the 3:16 post-session mechanics! How frickin cool would it be for the GM to grant badges here?

Anyway, I could clearly yammer endlessly. There's a facebook-style chat tool on the footer of every page. Drop in and say hi!

Game on!
Mike

[Sholos]

Is there a way to make it so that what you put out is visible to some players but not others? For example, a wizard using True Sight to see an invisible enemy.

[muldoon]

Short answer: Not yet.

Long answer: This feature, which we call 'reveal', is coming with a raft of others that all rely on the concept of object ownership. At the moment, it's just like your kitchen table, everybody has full access to everything.

ETA for this is Feb.

[Psyren]

I'm very interested in this and am subscribing to this thread.

Is it possible to spectate on a game in progress without being a player?

[muldoon]

Yes! Almost..

There is a flag the GM can check, 'Allow spectators', but this is a little misleading. When checked, it allows anybody to jump in the game table, even if they are not registered for that game. Such spectators are just like anybody else, with a video feed, and can manipulate objects on the table.

However, true spectator mode is coming next month, which will correct these issues. We'll be able to have 10 people at the game table, with up to 250 spectators.

[Psyren]

Nice! How about completed games, or even sessions? Is there a "playback" option that will allow either:

(a) spectators to watch a past session (very helpful for a new player joining a game in progress) or
(b) a gaming group (say, one that took a break or went on hiatus) to review exactly what happened in the last session?

And for the objects: I noticed we can import our own images, but will there be libraries of stock icons that any table can use? Say you could have "Generic Pathfinder" with some minis there, or "Generic d20 modern" with a new set of differently-themed minis?

[Partysan]

Huh, what do you say. This looks very promising. I made an account. If I like it I might use that for some of my campaigns.

I'm tempted to wait until you get system-specific character sheets to add my chars though.