Online Tabletop Gaming

[joe]

My work situation has put me indefinitely about two hundred miles from my home and my gaming group. We're discussing starting up a game online to compensate for my being away.

To any of you that game online, what program do you use to do it? I'd need something with chat capabilities (voice chat would be nice as well, but not necessary.) I would also need some sort of random number generator that everyone can access and use to see each others rolls. Some form of visual grid would be a nice bonus, but is not required.

Any feedback on a program like this would be most helpful. I plan to search around tonight for something. I appreciate any input. :smallsmile:

[Daer]

google docs can be used quite well for this and is free to use, then ventrilo or skype for voice chat.

There are some programs actually made for online gaming but i haven't had chance to try them.

[TheThan]

I’ve used a combination of Skype and MapTools for online gaming. You can play anything from Dnd to miniature war games with it if you spend the time to make it work. Map Tools takes a little getting used to, but it’s a great little program.

[JonRG]

d20 pro + Skype. It does cost money, but it's totally worth it in my opinion.

[Fallbot]

Maptools (http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=maptool) combined with Ventrilo (http://www.ventrilo.com/) works well for us. Maptools can take a bit of getting used to, and getting a server set up can be a bit annoying, but it's free and very effective once you've got the hang of it.

[Aidan305]

I use Skype. The difficulty I've found though is actually persuading the players to do something.

*Is not at all annoyed at having to wait three months for players to make their characters*

[tahu88810]

I use maptools, when I need a grid. Otherwise, I run a dicebot in an IRC channel and use that. I've stopped using forums altogether, at least for most things, because so many people forget to reply for weeks at a time.

[NikitaDarkstar]

MapTools or Gametable (dumbed down version of maptools basically, but can be tricky to set up for hosting.) and ventrilo, teamspeak or IM of choice. And trust me you do need a grid, you really, really do, even if you play loose and fast on the rules you need the grid. (It gets very frustrating to go "but I thought we were flaking the guy next to the baddie on the other side of the baddie!" or "So can you explain how they're spread out so I can pick a good spell?" all the time. :p)

[joe]

So I downloaded maptools, and while I have to say based on what I saw of it, it is pretty amazing, when I tested it today, it turns out I can't use it on the work site due to the router preventing server connection. :(

I tested the google docs and that seems like that could work.

I appreciate all the input here. You guys are great!

[NikitaDarkstar]

Well you'd need to set some port forwarding for it to work. (At least what I needed to do with Gametable... haven't messed much with maptools.)