Virtual Tabletop

[Dyrewulf]

Hello,
So my friends and I over the years have managed to distance our selves across the country, although we always find time to play a MMO or something. We were all very heavy into RPGs and I was wondering, with D&Di coming out, what people thought would be the best virtual tabletop program / tool to use to run and play a traveller game...needs to be free though, as some of my friends don't even have a budget :lol:
Thanks for the input!

 

[Duroon]

Maptool from RPTools is a free program, java based as well so it can be run on any platform that supports Java Apps.

 

[Emperor Herdan]

Another choice might be ScreenMonkey 1.5

All the players need is a "modern" (post IE5.5) web brouser while the GM needs either the Lite version (free) or the "full" version (also includes the ability to push mp3 sounds to players) about 35 US I seem to recall.

I'm going to be running one in the fall, and I've gotten a lot of miniatures, backgrounds, maps, etc lined up and ready to go.

SM 1.5 doesn't have VOIP. There are ways around that by having one of the players host a VOIP program, treamspeak, etc.

But sometimes just having text alone helps aid the game... No more "Golden Girl says.... Keep your hands off me !" in a deep masculine voice ala the ugly step sister scene from Shrek.

So Plusses are price (for both GM and players.... Tried the Lite version and everything I needed was there) but no VOIP.

Take care

E. Herdan

 

[Host of Angels]

I'll second MapTool. It's great and free and the community is good too. It also has a series of groovy video tutorials on line here:

http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/

You can draw great maps in it (not as flash as Dundjinni, but not far short). Macros are a piece of cake and really handy. It does not have VOIP built in, but then I just run Skype in the background.

The only thing I would say is that with any virtual tabletop there is a bit of learning curve getting your "port forwarding" sorted out. Now, if you know about computer networking this is a doddle. If, like me you are just computer literate it takes a bit of work fiddling with settings you didn't know existed. I tried various systems and Map Tool was the only one I got to work, and only by being walked through the process by the various designers on the forums.

 

[Dyrewulf]

Thanks!
Anyone use itabletop? My friend just told me about that one.

 

[Stainless]

Thanks!
Anyone use itabletop? My friend just told me about that one.

I tried to use iTabletop, but it won't work on a 64-bit operating system because it requires Flash Player and they don't have a 64-bit version of it. The work around is to install a 32-bit version of Internet Explorer, but I can't be bothered.