[Kickstarter] Roll20 - Online Tabletop Roleplaying Revolution

[Weimann]

While the single biggest problem I have with RPGs is that I'm a fickle soul incapable of long-term planning, the second biggest is that I have no friends who play RPGs in my neighbourhood and thus like to play over the Internet. That is a problem because there frankly aren't many smooth, practical solutions to the logistics part of that. Instant Messenger programs like Skype and MSN tend to bug out more often than not and have dodgy dice rolling options and other RPG-centric applications.

However, while lurking around on Kickstarter the other day, I found a project that looked very relevant to my interests, and by extension might be relevant to yours.

Roll20 is a project aiming to create an online tabletop RPG platform that focuses on social interactivity and ease of use rather than tracking detailed stats and rules. Some of the advertised features include:

● A completely web-based service. No need to download, install or configure. No need to host servers or send out passwords. Players can join the session by a single click on a link.

● The platform is system agnostic and can work with any ruleset. I'm curious to see how they manage to include the more non-standard dice mechanics in this, though.

● An integrated voice- and video chat. See and hear your players right right on the game screen, just like you were really sitting around a table.

● An art gallery with many built-in tokens and tiles for creating your maps, as well as an integrated web search that allow you to incorporate the talents of the Internet through dragging and dropping.

● Need fitting background music? Need a theme song for a specific character? The jukebox feature gives you the full archive of SoundCloud at the tip of your fingers. Broadcast for all your players to hear with a single click. Personally, this is one of the individual things I'm most excited about.

● An extensive text chat feature with a macro system that allows atomisation of common dice rolls or actions.

● A journal to keep track of character notes and developments over time.

I am really liking what I'm seeing here. If you're interested, check out their homepage or their Kickstarter project page for an introduction video and more information.

[Grinner]

I think one of the developers posted a thread here a while ago.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Sounds interesting, IF they can pull it all of smoothly without lag and risk of losing character info due to cache and cookie clean-outs etc. And I hope there's a mute option for the jukebox, some people really, really, really don't want to hear things like that if they don't have to. ^^;

[VeliciaL]

The devs already have an open thread here, and I suppose it would have helped people like you if they'd put the app name in the thread title :P That said, I'm really interested in seeing what they put together, the demo video makes it look really cool.