Video of WOTC upcoming VTT software

[RobA]

In case you haven't seen this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aLXuMb6WWw

IT is a presentation on the new VTT software WOTC will be releasing to go with the new 4th ed. D&D

-Rob A>

[Joshua_101]

IT is a presentation on the new VTT software WOTC will be releasing to go with the new 4th ed. D&D

I'm wondering if WotC is gonna be creating virtual tile packages and making you buy them... And will we have to pay for virtual minis? D&D Insider is probably going to be a monthly paid subscription...

I'm beginning to think that 4th edition is just a money pit.

[NeonKnight]

I'm wondering if WotC is gonna be creating virtual tile packages and making you buy them... And will we have to pay for virtual minis? D&D Insider is probably going to be a monthly paid subscription...

I'm beginning to think that 4th edition is just a money pit.

From what I understand (having been at that seminar and subsequent seminars at GenCon)

There will be a 'Base' set of tiles and Minis, but yes, of course, there will be subsequent virtual 'boosters' of Minis and Tile packs available for purchase.

Myself, I have all the plastic D&D Minis already, aswell as the cardstock DungeonTiles they produce. I have no need for the virtual stuff as I prefer my D&D games on the REAL Kichen Table.

[GlennZilla]

I have been monitoring the announcement of D&D 4.0 for my gaming group.

We have entertained the notion of using a VTT application for gaming but we prefer the face to face time and the option to toss back a few drinks together. So fo us at least D&D is a social excuse for gathering.

While we aren't too interested in the VTT aspects the Character creator and Character Visualizer sounds really interesting. (Links can be found at http://www.dndinsider.com)

Some of our players are artists (professionally even) and the others simply drool over thier character sketches. The Character Creator and Visualizer would allow the group to roll thier characters online (And store them to avoid a lost character sheet) and create thier own art of the character's appearence.

Though I doubt all of us will spring for the monthly membership fee. I probably will and allow them to create and visualize thier characters before the game.

[RPMiller]

Before you do that you may want to look at some of the other VTTs that are out there. Most if not all allow you to use it FtF as well so that it basically just replaces the crystal map/scratch paper that we have all used for many years.

Many VTTs are free, and offer essentially the same capabilities as WotC's. Perhaps even better than WotC's in many respects. I won't name specific ones as a cursory search through these forums will tell you which one I use, but instead I'll give you the link to a very nicely done page of links to all the various VTTs that are out there:

http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html

[Naryt]

Pyrandon, myself and our gang of thugs...I mean cohorts...I mean friends use OpenRPG and have been for over two years now. WotC's VTT has one thing (and one thing only IMO) going for it: Dynamic light sources. Of course, other VTTs (Battlegrounds to name one) already have that and others (OpenRPG) are working toward it already. Sure the 3d nature of it is great too but meh...just one more level of complexity that's can only add so much to the game before it becomes more of a pain than it's worth.

As to the Kitchen Table vs VTT debate: Kitchens win but when your players are scattered (literally) over two countries, that's going to have to be one BIG table!

[keithcurtis]

My favorite part of the video is where they talk about designing your character. "You don't have to use stick figures, or cut pictures out of your books..."
cut pictures out of your books?? Who does that?

As for VTT programs, I have yet to use one in actual game play, but MapTools seems to be the winner for me. Full-featured, has a responsive design team, runs well, and free.

[RPMiller]

Keith, if you check out the Gemini Ascendant thread on the Hero Boards you'll be able to read about all the stuff we've been doing Hero System wise with MT as well as the support and stuff we've been getting.

Battlegrounds also recently implemented Hero System capabilities into it, and is very pretty to look at, but currently it would cost our group about $120 US to be able to use it, which still isn't bad when divided by the number of players, but still not better than Free.

[pyrandon]

Still tooting OpenRPG here. Two years running, never cost me a cent, and we have built-in GURPS rollers (including critical failures, etc.).

[RPMiller]

MT not only has all the dice mechanics that GURPS uses, but also just added tables so now you can have it do all the crits, hit locations, etc in one fell swoop. Even auto rolls multiple tables.

Let the flaming begin!