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Virtual Tabletop capabilities...

S

Stargrove

Member
There has not really been any recent news about Realm Works that we have not seen for that last year or so...

In the past my gaming group and I had use a product called Kloogeworks and experimented with a few others like ScreenMonkey and FantasyGrounds. We stopped gaming virtually, so I guess that says something about those tools. We are mainly playing computer games online now as we have continued to disperse across the country but I really want to start gaming again.

A long winded way to ask a simple question...


Is any planned virtual tabletop capabilities, ala any of the tools mentioned above?

James
 
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Yes, I downloaded it this weekend and played around with it a bit. Was a bit frustrated with how the fog of war functionality worked since it requires a lot of micro-management on the GMs part.

In my mind, if I am going to use something like D20Pro or whatever, I may as well just manage my campaign with it and not worry about a whole other program like Realm Works too. While some of the others may not have all the data handling functionality as RW, I just don't want more than one program to have to keep track of my data in.
 
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I think it depends what you want. For the virtual tabletop, i like maptools by RpTools.net

But i dont use it for anything more than a virtual tabletop and initiative tracker. I dont use the advanced macros.
 
I don't see how you could manage your game in d20Pro, as it's really just battle maps, creatures, and a dice roller, but hey, whatever works for you.
 
Stargrove said:
Is any planned virtual tabletop capabilities, ala any of the tools mentioned above?
Click to expand...

Definitely not at first. Beyond that, it's possible but not part of the current plan. If we go down that path, it will be in response to user demand and due to other VTT tools not evolving sufficiently to satisfy what users want. We view VTTs as complementary to what we're doing, and we really don't want to re-invent the wheel if we can help it. That's why we've made sure to enable integration of Hero Lab output into the various VTTs. Our hope is that the relationships we've established with the VTT developers continues with Realm Works and everything works well together. If we're not able to achieve that, we might find ourselves in a different place and feel the need to enter the VTT space, but that's definitely not part of our existing plan.

Hope this helps...
 
My 5 cents concerning VTTs Realmworks and, of course, Herolab. I use a VTT and the other mentioned programs and the biggest drawback is the lack of dynamic interaction between them. It´s nice that you are able to export from HL but what if you change the character, apply conditions in the VTT or pull up a monster with stats in HL to put it on your VTT, the dynamic interaction is missing. Thats where something developed specific for the interaction between the LoneWolf Programs would really shine.
 
i disagree.... i like the lack of interaction, to be honest. i dont want my tabletop to touch my campaign info, or even my characters, just like i wouldnt want to keep my character info on the battlemat.
 
But imagine an integrated environment that gives you the power to use, lets say the tactical console ( Herolab ) with an integrated battlemap. Perhaps it is the setup I use. The VTT for us is like a digital playmap without very much automated actions. It´s used to track movement, conditions, HP´s and the like. Apply a condition to a token and it´s automaticly ticked on the HL Statblock and vice versa. Would be a nice thing to have for me. Realmworks? For me no interaction with VTT required. But I always like to hear differnt opinions to better reflect on my own thoughts and come to better conclusions in the end.
 
I get where you're coming from, but I find that we all use the VTT, but dont all use Herolab in my group. I also often add things to the VTT and dont want to spend the time to create something in hero lab (monsters, for example, which i know off the top of my head).

I do see the advantages in that, but i also see the disadvantages in tying a VTT to any single character sheet/manager software. Its actually the main reason (besides cost), that my group chose MapTools over D20 Pro. I love hero lab, and if other players want to use it, then I am absolutely going to evangilize for them. But Im not going to force any of my players to use it. But that being said, if a VTT was both complimentary and could be integrated without losing the complemtary abilities, then id be for it. In other words, the VTT would function just as well without integration as it would with integration, then id be for it.

However, I think Rob is right. There is a lot of programming that goes into a VTT, and I get how they wouldnt want to reinvent the wheel.
 
I gotta agree on this. I'm relatively new to online play - but I find hero lab amazing in it's capabilities. All the scripting capabilities are there already, I just wish it could be pulled into a VTT. Currently, we use HL for character generation, then import into Fantasy Grounds for play. This is fine and all, but nothing ever imports completely correct. We end up having to basically sit there and compare our proper calculated HL character sheet, and apply modifiers and tweaks in FGII to make it correct.

If there was a way to access HL's stats/scripts from an external program/API, it might be enough to allow the community to close the gap. Of course, then the spells and such would have to be expanded to include targeted effects and such - but this would become the ultimate online gaming tool. I know we'd pay quite a bit for it.
 
Paizo just announced they've got a VTT in the works, & they seem to be on good terms with HL in general, so hopefully there'll be some functionality integration built-in there *fingers crossed*.
 
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