Online RPGing

[Dave]

Hello, My name is Dave. I am am a RPG fan and a programmer as well. I am currently (as a hobby) building a program which allows a group of players to play traditional table top RPGs over the internet. My program is not designed for a specific game, but provides generic tools commonly used in gaming. I am in the early stages of this project. Right now the program provides some basic features

1) Text chat
2) Dice rolling that everyone can see
3) Maps. The game master can send maps to the players, then interactively reveal portions of the maps as players progrss.

Right now the program is only being used by myself and the people I play with, but I would like to make it available to anyone else who might be interested in it. I am not looking to sell the program, I want it to be freeware. I was curious to know how much demand for such a tool there was.

I am also looking for volunteers to help with the project. Specifically testers and someone willing to write a user manual. I hope this is the right forum to ask such questions. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[M. J. Young]

Welcome to the Forge, Dave.

There are a couple of commercial products that do what you describe; I don't use any of them, so I can't speak to them. However, that suggests that there is demand--people are using such software packages. I'd suggest poking around to see what else is out there, and how it compares to what you're doing.

I think Neverwinter Nights includes features such as you've described, but is D&D specific--but as I say, I've never used any of these, so I don't know. I know there are some generic ones, and hopefully someone can contribute information about them here.

--M. J. Young

[Vibilo]

I know of three programs (well one is a bot) that does what you describe. The first is WebRPG which I have tried and found that it will not work with anyone who has a hardware firewall. Well actually they just arent able to host, they can still view. WebRPG is java based and is a little slow. It also has built in character sheets that can be moddified with little difficulty to make any sheet as well as a grid map which can be altered by any player. Overall I found WebRPG to be clumsy. I havent tried Open RPG because there was a monthly fee attached to it when I looked at it. The last that I know of is a bot that can be used with mIRC that allows for dice rolling using true random numbers. I personally prefer this as it doesnt have all the bells and whistles and functions without error with all firewalls.

[Martin Higham]

Theres a free program called gametable too that does exactly what you describe.

[arthurtuxedo]

As far as I know, the program to beat right now is OpenRPG. It is freeware (I've been using it since 2003 and it hasn't had any fees), and supports chat, die rolling, a map with miniatures imported from images on the web, .xml character sheets, saving the chat to a text file, etc. The only problem is that it's a fairly clumsy program. The character sheets are not very good, you can't send files to other players, the map can be wonky, etc. If you could manage to make an attractive program with OpenRPG's features that's more user-friendly, I think you'd have a good shot at dethroning it.

[Dave]

Hi all. Thanks for the input. If anyone is interested, I have released the first version of my program. V-FORT, The Virtual Free Online RPG Tabletop.Currently it has these basic features

Allows one player to run as Game Master
Up to 16 players can connect (peer-to-peer) to the GM
Basic Chat (like instant message)
Die Rolling
GM can send send maps (created using an external graphics editor) to the players and interactively reveal selected portions of the map.

It's not fancy, but it is 100% freeware. What I really need in return is feedback on the program, what you liked, didn't like, bugs reports, etc.

If you are interested in checking it out, please visit my web site http://v-fort.org

Thanks.

[greyorm]

Heya Dave,

Nice work. Don't have anyone to test it with, unfortunately. What I did play around with seems to work well. One suggestion: bounding boxes around the reveals as the GM is making them, so he can see exactly what he's revealing.

However, I have a couple of thoughts/observations/questions. Mainly this: this program looks like it would work well for typical D&D-style gaming, where a party is moving through a specific area, and the GM has to reveal a hidden map to the players, though I am thinking he could use it to show everyone various mood-graphics and such, correct? Pretty similar to other programs on the market in these respects (not saying that's good or bad, just saying).

But, would you be interested in breaking the mold?

I have been thinking recently of -- or, I suppose, pining for -- a system that handles many of the indie-games here that don't fit the usual play pattern, with features like player-based map addition/alteration, whiteboard, persistent per player dice pools, and a virtual tabletop (literally) with character sheets, dice, cards, etc. Integrated voice chat would be great, as well. Something that would be a bit more visceral than the typical interface -- more like the "Fantasy Grounds" program -- and which could handle games like Donjon, Dogs in the Vineyard, etc.

I have no idea if you have the time, coding skills, or interest for something along those lines. If you do, cool. Let's talk. If not, no big deal.

[Dave]

Hi greyorm. Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't seen the 'Fantasy Grounds' program, but now that I have I am depressed. It's slick interface and many features makes my program look even more amateurish. But hey I have them beat on the price, (free lol). But I'm not ready to concede yet. I am doing this as a hobby so I've got nothing to lose.

Your bounding box suggestion is a great one. I think I will implement that in the next release. And you are right in that the 'Maps' feature can really be used to display any type of image, though that may not be clear to the users.

I will be adding a basic whiteboard, that everyone can draw on. I don't see voice chat being implemented, I don't think the tool I used to create V-FORT with supports that. Besides in our game session, we just use Yahoo Voice chat, which works pretty well.

You are also correct that I built this with 'D&D' style gaming in mind, as that is really the one I am most familiar with. I am certainly willing to consider making the program more useful to other gaming styles. Perhaps we can talk more off the forum boards about what you mean, as I don't fully understand some of the other features you suggested like persistent per player dice pools (I think my program already does this).

[Dave]

Hello RPG fans.  I am pleased to announce version 1.01 of V-FORT, The Virtual Free Online RPG Tabletop. This release includes

Fixed a bug where the favorite rolls list was not being read from the v-fort.ini file at startup. This prevented the user from being able to create a custom dice roll list in the program.

Added a window which allows editing and saving the favorite rolls list while running the program.

Added a customizable setting in the ini file for limiting the number of lines held in the chat window.

A 'bounding box' now draws when the GM is creating reveals (holes) in a mask. This helps to cut the hole in the desired location. The bounding box color is customizable.

The installer now creates additional short cuts on the Start menu. There is a shortcut for the customization file (v-fort.ini), one for the maps folder and one for the uninstaller.

I welcome you to visit my website http://v-fort.org and download the program. I also encourage you to email me at game-master@v-fort.org with you. Questions, comments, feature suggestions and bug reports are welcome. Thanks and I hope you enjoy using V-FORT.

Dave

[greyorm]

Dave,

My apologies! I somehow missed your reply to me.

I will be adding a basic whiteboard, that everyone can draw on. I don't see voice chat being implemented, I don't think the tool I used to create V-FORT with supports that. Besides in our game session, we just use Yahoo Voice chat, which works pretty well.

True. I look forward to the whiteboard feature. And what are you using to create V-FORT, if you don't mind my asking?

I am certainly willing to consider making the program more useful to other gaming styles. Perhaps we can talk more off the forum boards about what you mean, as I don't fully understand some of the other features you suggested like persistent per player dice pools (I think my program already does this).

That would be fine, I will PM you, or you can PM me, and we can chat about possible features. Now, perhaps your system already handles persistent dice-pools, in which case I'm missing it (let me know). A persistent dice-pool is what I call rolled dice that stay on the table through the conflict.

That is, let's say I am playing Dogs in the Vineyard, and I have three players who are rolling for a particular conflict. Not only do we need to know what everyone rolled, but they have to remove rolls a couple dice at a time as the dice are bid to win.

I think it would get tedious writing out and scrolling up to double-check what's left in each person's pool every time one had to Raise and See. It would be nice if there were, say, a dice window for each player, displaying all dice the player had just rolled (probably with the ability to "throw away" one or more of them as they get used or otherwise discarded). This could be done either textually or graphically.

Anyways, that's what I mean by "persistent dice pool". Does that make the term as I'm using it make sense?

[Dave]

FYI, I created v-fort using Macromedia Director 8.5.1, with the Multiuser Xtra.

[Dave]

New release V-FORT 1.04

I have added a sort of 'chat macro' feature. Users can predefine any number of text messages in advance of a gaming session and send those messages with a click of the mouse.

http://v-fort.org

[heruca]

FYI, I created v-fort using Macromedia Director 8.5.1, with the Multiuser Xtra.

Hi Dave,

Since you hadn't heard of Fantasy Grounds, I doubt you've heard of Battlegrounds: RPG Edition (since it's newer), but you should really check it out. Particularly because it, too, is made with Macromedia Director (MX 2004) and the Multiuser Xtra (technically, goMu, which is based on it). I'm the developer, by the way. Here's the link: http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/

You should also check out a list I keep on my website of all the virtual tabletop programs out there. You'd be surprised, but there are over 20 such apps, now. But this is nothing to get depressed about. Many of the existing programs are too hard to use, or have been abandoned by the developers, or otherwise leave the field open to improvement and competition.

Kudos to you for making your virtual tabletop available for free. I'm having to sell mine, partly because I'm otherwise unemployed at the moment, and partly to justify to my wife why I'm taking months and months to work on this, working 7 days a week, with no holidays, and keeping insane hours.

Anyway, I just wanted to wish you luck in your endeavor. I'd love to talk shop with you, if you're interested. Perhaps we could even collaborate on something.