I was lying in bed last nite, suffering from a mild sneezing attack, when it dawned on me... I've spent a crap load of cash over the years on a bunch of virtual table tops I never use.
Klooge was my first purchase. I had high hopes for it, and bought a gm license and 5 floating licenses. It was, and still, an ugly piece of work. Java based if I recall correctly, i used it once while play testing a Rolemaster ruleset for it. Ah well.
Next up was Fantasy Grounds (later upgraded to Fantasy Grounds 2). I bought many a license to gift to members of my old group (this was back when even a novice could make money on the net). Heck, I have myself a copy of the Ultimate license these days. I've played in years worth of gaming sessions (haven't run one myself yet). Great product.
Battlegrounds RPG was also bought around this time with a couple of floaters. I really need to sit down and give this a better look. Heruca has been issuing some board game conversions for it.
iTabletop / Pandora - holy crap, I think I sunk about 400 bucks into this. I still have high hopes for it. It's free now. Go figure. Maybe it will be all that is can be.
Screenmonkey - Eh. That's it. Eh
Maptools - free. lots of features. i can't wrap my head around it.
GMail Chat - it's how the current Tunnels & Trolls game is running. Works extremely well, just no maps or dice roller. Guess its as good as the GM. Ours rocks.
Back when I was running a weekly online game, my group started with OpenRPG (free!) and eventually switched to Screen Monkey. I agree with the "eh" review, but it worked for us because we were sick of OpenRPG's frequent crashes and SM is platform neutral (its greatest selling point in my opinion--doesn't matter what kind of computer you have as long as you have an internet browser).
ReplyDeleteI love Fantasy Grounds to death but have never managed to run anything with it for a variety of silly reasons. If I ever run an online game again, I think I'll go with FG.
I started with OpenRPG, then moved to Gametable.
ReplyDeleteThen I discovered MapTool.
I am a passionate MapTool devotee now, and I even use it to run in-person games using a projector. And it's free!
I am looking into a provider for 2012 when I am going to try and run an on-line session. Right now I am looking at Battlegrounds, but I am open to anything that would work. I purchased both Klooge & Screenmonkey at one point years ago, but was not impressed with either. I will take a look at maptools, sounds promising.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the upgrades/updates on the blog!
I used to play on Fantasy Grounds II. Now I play Never Winter Nights 2. I belong to a PW world where the same party meets with the same GM at the same time every week. At the moment, about ten differant parties use the server on different weekly slots.
ReplyDeleteIt's, frankly, awesome.
www.knowlands.com
@Padre, if i ever get a game up and running with Fantasy Ground, you're on the early invite list - I have the unlimited license, so everyone else can play for free.
ReplyDeleteMaptools is nice tho'
@Brian - i played in some PW with NWN 1, some were okay, some were painful. Never played in one with NWN2 - I may have to check it out.