D&D Insider / Virtual Table Interest?

meadbelly · June 01, 2012, 12:22:48 PM

Is anyone interested in trying out WotC's virtual table, now available for beta testing through D&D Insider? I'd be happy to run something for folks.

Bison · June 01, 2012, 12:30:12 PM

Is there a link? I'd like to look at it.

meadbelly · June 01, 2012, 02:46:34 PM

It's "inside" the WotC D&D Insider pages. In other words, you have to be paying a monthly subscription to get access to this tool, in addition to the character builder and my personal favorite, the monster compendium.

I beta'd the thing around the launch of 4e. If you've used maptools, you get the concept and a lot of the execution.

Bison · June 01, 2012, 02:48:11 PM

You just toyed with my emotions. I'm so sad right now....

meadbelly · June 06, 2012, 08:27:31 PM

Well, it turns out I lied.

DDI Insider subscribers can create up to 10 (I believe) "keys" that will allow non DDI subscribers to access and play the Virtual Table.

So, Bison and any others -- if you are interested, I will re-extend my offer to run folks through the heroic and unbelievably cool "Fens of Despair" module of destiny. Send me a PM to coordinate.

(Bison, I'll send you a key regardless, if you like. Not sure what functionality it will have, but I don't have a need for any keys, and there's no reason for them to go waste!)

Bison · June 06, 2012, 08:58:00 PM

That'd be sweet. Thanks.

meadbelly · June 06, 2012, 10:00:12 PM

Just PM'd you with details. Enjoy!

Staggerwing · June 07, 2012, 06:04:30 AM

How does the 'Virtual Table' work? Bear in mind that I'm an RPGS n00b.

meadbelly · June 07, 2012, 06:55:04 AM

It's attempting to provide much of what a group would do if they were playing at an actual table. It provides a map (top down perspective), minis, and some game-based visual aids. In the case of 4e, this would be initiative order, player and monster conditions and hp, spell and zone templates, and cheese.

No, that's wrong. I provide the cheese.

There's typed chat, and audio. DMs can choose lighting, weather and Fog-of-War features. There's no animation -- it's literally moving minis across a board, just virtually. There aren't game mechanics underlying the table or resolving actions (although there is a virtual dice roller, which can be seen by all) -- you still need to decide what attacks to make, roll the dice, and record results.

The Table will autoprovide monster stats to the DM based on his selection. In other words, if you choose to have a Bugbear show up, as the DM you'll see attack/defense/hp/init/etc stats for the bugbear. Theoretically, this is linked to the online monster compendium, which also lets you create custom monsters, so hopefully that crosses over to the Table.

With a DDI subscription, there's apparently some linking between your character builder and the Table. I presume this means that there is some automation between the Table and character-results, but I haven't played around with this version yet. There's also some stuff about DDI subscribers having cloud access to stored maps and other content, which bothers me a bit. Non DDI subscribers who get a beta code don't have this access, whatever it means, and that implies to me there may be some limitation on how player's data is incorporated into the Table. I fear you might have to upload through DDI for example.

WotC's Virtual Table also provides a lobby room to post or find other games. This may be a key separator from other online tools like MapTools, and could be a bit of a game changer. However, I'm not entirely sure how often I would open-host my games OR even drop into a game without knowing players or at least admin.

Staggerwing · June 07, 2012, 07:04:42 AM

Can the map and character/npc/monster 'minis' be customized for non-D&D games? I'm wondering if this tool might be suitable for the ongoing Pendragon game that Toonces is DM'ing. We'd have to be able to either modify the maps to match 5th century Arthurian locales or have so many available maps that something would be close enough. Also, being able to add touches of Heraldry to the minis (even just colors) would be good.

TheCommandTent · June 07, 2012, 08:05:02 AM

Quote from: meadbelly on June 06, 2012, 08:27:31 PM
Well, it turns out I lied.

DDI Insider subscribers can create up to 10 (I believe) "keys" that will allow non DDI subscribers to access and play the Virtual Table.

So, Bison and any others -- if you are interested, I will re-extend my offer to run folks through the heroic and unbelievably cool "Fens of Despair" module of destiny. Send me a PM to coordinate.

(Bison, I'll send you a key regardless, if you like. Not sure what functionality it will have, but I don't have a need for any keys, and there's no reason for them to go waste!)

I wish I had the time to commit to something like this. I was involved in a virtual tabletop RPG before and it was alot of fun. However, because of time zone and work schedule differences it was hard to coordinate games.

bayonetbrant · June 07, 2012, 08:10:11 AM

The 4e character creator was buckets of coolness. I made a LOT of characters that resurfaced later as different NPCs and one-shot characters.

meadbelly · June 07, 2012, 09:10:46 AM

Quote from: Staggerwing on June 07, 2012, 07:04:42 AM
Can the map and character/npc/monster 'minis' be customized for non-D&D games? I'm wondering if this tool might be suitable for the ongoing Pendragon game that Toonces is DM'ing. We'd have to be able to either modify the maps to match 5th century Arthurian locales or have so many available maps that something would be close enough. Also, being able to add touches of Heraldry to the minis (even just colors) would be good.

It could, conceivably, work. But not well. First of all, I'm pretty sure the only tactical map option is going to be 1 inch grids. Secondly, by using the D&D Virtual Table for non D&D games, you'd be missing out of some of the custom features designed for D&D (like character aids and monster tracking).

But most importantly, you don't want to try non D&D games on the D&D Virtual Table because there are already free and generic-to-any-system virtual game tables out there. One of the best and certainly most commonly used can be found at RPTools.net. Maptool is the primary program, but check out the whole site. Tokentools, for example, would allow you to create whatever banner or heraldry you'd like. Any image can be imported to be a map. Yes, this means you can force your players to play on a map of your face. No, I haven't done that.

Well, not for very long anyway.

meadbelly · July 16, 2012, 05:49:53 PM

WotC sent out a blast over the weekend that the virtual table did not generate enough interest to release as a product.

I find this hard to believe -- I betatested their virtual table four years ago. They did not spend four years to figure out it wasn't worth releasing. I suspect, rather, they took at least four years to realize they can't code it any better than maptools.

It's the oddest phenomenon about WotC -- they seem incapable of programming worth a shite. And given the number of programmers here in the PNW, it's somewhat staggering that they can't even contract out. When I was at WotC in 1999, they were already trying to do an online version of Magic. I believe it was 2010 that they finally released Duels of Planeswalkers. When they "upgraded" the download version of the ddi tools to the silverlight version, they went badly backwards in capability. And it's been only in the past few months that they've restored the d&d moneymaker to it's previous capabilities.

eyebiter · July 16, 2012, 05:58:03 PM

https://www.examiner.com/article/who-will-pick-up-where-the-d-d-virtual-table-left-off