I am about to move away from all my fellow nerdy-type friends, and I'm worried about our D&D games dying. Does anyone have any suggestions for online resources that would allow us to play on the interwebs? Any help would be appreciated.
Online Paper and Pencil Gaming?
- Thread starter Palmetto13
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D&D 4th edition is supposed to have these online tools (called "D&D Insider") that create what they call a virtual game table. If the implementation works, it'll be exactly what you're looking for. If it's not as good as they say... then I'm not sure what to tell you.
The idea is that you and your gaming buddies go online and create a sort of chatroom. You've got live voice contact and each of you can interact with this virtual game table by clicking and dragging on stuff. The DM makes a map and reveals it to the players a bit at a time. Players can make a miniature figure for their character and move it around on the map. DM does the same with the monster figures. And of course, you can roll virtual dice where everybody can see them, or you can roll them so only you can see the result.
It sounds quite promising to me, but I'm still a bit skeptical. The e-tools they made for 3rd edition fell way, way short of what they promised.
The idea is that you and your gaming buddies go online and create a sort of chatroom. You've got live voice contact and each of you can interact with this virtual game table by clicking and dragging on stuff. The DM makes a map and reveals it to the players a bit at a time. Players can make a miniature figure for their character and move it around on the map. DM does the same with the monster figures. And of course, you can roll virtual dice where everybody can see them, or you can roll them so only you can see the result.
It sounds quite promising to me, but I'm still a bit skeptical. The e-tools they made for 3rd edition fell way, way short of what they promised.
Totally agree with you on the 3e e-tools. Yikes...
Also not looking to spring for all the 4e stuff. No bards? Damn you, WotC!!
Also not looking to spring for all the 4e stuff. No bards? Damn you, WotC!!
OpenRPG is a pretty commonly-used bit of free software. Basically it's a chat client with a support for scripting your own character sheets and a little grid map you can move pictures around on. It was pretty mediocre when I last used it, but that was five years ago.
As long as you're not playing a game that needs a battle grid, basically any generic chat tool will do.
Try to bring some voice into it with Skype or Ventrillo. It makes a big difference.
RPGnet probably has some pretty detailed threads about all this. Try a search there.
-- Alex
As long as you're not playing a game that needs a battle grid, basically any generic chat tool will do.
Try to bring some voice into it with Skype or Ventrillo. It makes a big difference.
RPGnet probably has some pretty detailed threads about all this. Try a search there.
-- Alex
Personally I think the "online game table" would take away from what I love about roleplaying. The complete insanity you can get out of some of the action sequences. It loses is fast feeling nature when you just move a little guy around on a board.
im moving soon too and me and my friends just started a game. so i'm hoping that 4e will be everything that its supposed to be. i was just curius of webcam was going to be a part of this or not?
Well you've still got live voice contact, so at least the yelling will be preserved.PedroSteckecilo said:
Throwing your d4 at the player across the table, on the other hand...
Thanks for all the help...I will be looking into several different methods, and if we stumble across one that seems to work well, I'll pass it along. In the meantime, if there are other suggestions, or just discussion, keep it coming.
The deletion of bards was okay (In my opinion, singing and dancing in battle is stupid), but the fact that they don't have any "Diplomat" class to replace it is terrible. Something they shouldn't have taken out is gnomes as a basic race. 4e just seems to suck in general from everything I've heard.Palmetto13 said:
As for the main topic... I usually just go with Play-by-Post games in forums. It's easy to use a monotype font for a grid, you can proofread everything you type as much as you want, and forums that allow it almost always are free to join. The only problem with that is that it becomes impossible to throw dice and such at distractive or annoying players, but that is suffered by anything other than real-world play.
Clerics, paladins, warlords and wizards can all excel at diplomacy in 4e. There are legitimate criticisms to make about 4e, but this ain't one of them.vdgmprgrmr said:
Why the hell not? What did gnomes have to offer? Story-wise, they were skinny dwarves with a sense of humour. Halflings can do that perfectly well. Game-wise, they were decent illusionists and useless for everything else. No big loss there.vdgmprgrmr said:
Gnomes will be back, of course. Just like half-orcs, bards, barbarians, monks, sorcerers and druids and probably (yech) psions. Give it one year and they'll all be in some official supplement or other.
Sounds like you need to check your sources more carefully. As for me, I'm withholding judgement until I actually play the game. I expect I'll like most aspects of it better than 3e, but I'm braced for disappointment.vdgmprgrmr said:
I personally use skype for the talking and IRC with a dice rolling script for the dicerolls and OOC chatter.
As for 4e, shush, ye nay-sayers, and play the damn game. It's pretty well balanced, now they've made it so combat isn't "I hit monster. Monster hits me. I hit monster"
As for 4e, shush, ye nay-sayers, and play the damn game. It's pretty well balanced, now they've made it so combat isn't "I hit monster. Monster hits me. I hit monster"
I can't wait for 4th Edition to come out. I'm really curious what the final product will be. If you really need a fix now, I'm sure there's SOME online board that caters to or has a sub forum for roleplaying.
Pen and paper is one of those things that's hard to adapt to the Internet. It's all about sitting around with your party group just BSing and having a fun time with one another. People are just different on the Internet, it's just not the same.
Pen and paper is one of those things that's hard to adapt to the Internet. It's all about sitting around with your party group just BSing and having a fun time with one another. People are just different on the Internet, it's just not the same.
Waddya mean? it's out. I've got the source books. 4th ed, PHB, DMG, MM. Keep on the Shadowfell adventure for 1st to 3rd level players. Doomsday device... <_< scratch that.Lance Icarus said:
And no, not really. if they are your friends to start with (IE like the OP wants to continue playing with his current group, but obviously, can't be there in person) then they are no different, maybe a bit critical about your net connection, but eh, that's fair do's if your net sucks.