Want to test a new browser-based virtual tabletop?

[foproy]

are you running pregens, or can we get some campaign qualities to create our characters with before game play starts?

[Antilles]

I wouldn't put too much effort into characters, since I won't be putting much effort into the game itself. I've mostly just grabbed the first half-decent battlemap I could find, thrown some enemy tokens in one corner and will add the players' tokens in the other, and the scenes will pretty much begin with you guys rolling initiative. So I'll set it to level 3, Miracles and Sorcery CQ active, and recommend using one of the iconics rather than spend much time making a new character. Won't stop you if you're dead set on making one, though.

[foproy]

figured this would save some time for character selection or generation.

[Krensky]

So, is this still on?

[Antilles]

Yep, was just writing the PM with the link you needed. foproy was just here, hopefully he'll be back soon.

[foproy]

eating something.

[Antilles]

Well, first test session over, thanks to foproy and Krensky for participating. Some technical issues getting the voice chat to work, but it's unknown whether it's the program being kinda crap, our gear/setup being kinda crap, or it just doesn't like chatting over two continents. Hopefully future sessions will answer that.

Setting up the game was pretty simple, just creating a new page and either using the built-in search engine to look for battlemaps and tokens online or drag and drop from my computer to the browser window. Still some niggling issues, like if the map has abuilt-in square grid then getting it to match up to roll20's grid could be a real pain. But if worse came to worse I could've just disabled the grid and move the tokens around freestyle, rather than snap to grid.

Didn't try the built-in Jukebox feature, but since it's limited to just the library of SoundCloud (i.e no uploading your own songs) I dunno how easy it'd be to find some decent background music.

Didn't really try out the Journal and Handouts system either, couldn't really be arsed to put in much effort for a barebones one-shot.

The chat and diceroller seemed to work just fine (even though foproy had the worst luck), with simple but effective options like adding descriptions to the rolls themselves, or simple toggles like exploding dice.

Map system's a bit bare bones, f.ex. you can't drag the map around, you must manually scroll it around. I'm also missing some more extensive fog-of-war and/or line-of-sight options, right now it's a binary see everything/everything's black sort of thing. Would also be nice to have some pre-programmed objects, like spheres and cones to easily see who got hit by that fireball for example. There's some other stuff relating to tokens, like how you can add in values and they'll be displayed like a healthbar, that didn't really get used at all.


Still, it's early days of the beta, and much of what we didn't like can and probably will change. As it stands I wouldn't use it to run a full campaign, but the occasional combat scenes? Sure. I am looking forward to trying it again, if only to see if some of the problems we experienced was due to the program or due to us. So if anyone else want to give it a go in the near future, speak up and we'll try to arrange something.

[Crafty_Pat]

Setting up the game was pretty simple, just creating a new page and either using the built-in search engine to look for battlemaps and tokens online or drag and drop from my computer to the browser window. Still some niggling issues, like if the map has abuilt-in square grid then getting it to match up to roll20's grid could be a real pain. But if worse came to worse I could've just disabled the grid and move the tokens around freestyle, rather than snap to grid.

Three questions here...

1. There's a snap to grid feature? Is it actually snap to grid (in that you get a token in roughly the right space and the tabletop does the work of centering it), or something else?

2. Are tabletop components lockable (so you can't accidentally move them by mis-clicking and/or mis-dragging)?

3. Are imported images automatically turned into tokens and/or can you have the tabletop automatically convert them into (round) tokens? (This I doubt, but it's a feature I've been watching for everywhere.)

Didn't try the built-in Jukebox feature, but since it's limited to just the library of SoundCloud (i.e no uploading your own songs) I dunno how easy it'd be to find some decent background music.

O'rly? That's unfortunate.

The chat and diceroller seemed to work just fine (even though foproy had the worst luck), with simple but effective options like adding descriptions to the rolls themselves, or simple toggles like exploding dice.

Any die conventions it can't handle? Could it, for example, do Savage Worlds (which requires you to track at least two individual die totals with each roll)?

Map system's a bit bare bones, f.ex. you can't drag the map around, you must manually scroll it around.

This might answer my question about lockable objects above. Are you saying that once you place a map you can't adjust it?

[foproy]

Setting up the game was pretty simple, just creating a new page and either using the built-in search engine to look for battlemaps and tokens online or drag and drop from my computer to the browser window. Still some niggling issues, like if the map has abuilt-in square grid then getting it to match up to roll20's grid could be a real pain. But if worse came to worse I could've just disabled the grid and move the tokens around freestyle, rather than snap to grid.

Three questions here...

1. There's a snap to grid feature? Is it actually snap to grid (in that you get a token in roughly the right space and the tabletop does the work of centering it), or something else?

2. Are tabletop components lockable (so you can't accidentally move them by mis-clicking and/or mis-dragging)?

3. Are imported images automatically turned into tokens and/or can you have the tabletop automatically convert them into (round) tokens? (This I doubt, but it's a feature I've been watching for everywhere.)

Didn't try the built-in Jukebox feature, but since it's limited to just the library of SoundCloud (i.e no uploading your own songs) I dunno how easy it'd be to find some decent background music.

O'rly? That's unfortunate.

The chat and diceroller seemed to work just fine (even though foproy had the worst luck), with simple but effective options like adding descriptions to the rolls themselves, or simple toggles like exploding dice.

Any die conventions it can't handle? Could it, for example, do Savage Worlds (which requires you to track at least two individual die totals with each roll)?

Map system's a bit bare bones, f.ex. you can't drag the map around, you must manually scroll it around.

This might answer my question about lockable objects above. Are you saying that once you place a map you can't adjust it?

the abiltiy we complained about with the maps is something like on google maps where you can click on a map and drag to scroll around it instead of using the tabs on the side of the screen. not a big deal for me as i have a mouse with 4 way scroll wheel, but for some i could see it being a problem and i kept wanting to click and drag on the map anyway.

[Crafty_Pat]

the abiltiy we complained about with the maps is something like on google maps where you can click on a map and drag to scroll around it instead of using the tabs on the side of the screen. not a big deal for me as i have a mouse with 4 way scroll wheel, but for some i could see it being a problem and i kept wanting to click and drag on the map anyway.

Ah, I see. So it lets you navigate with the buttons but not drag and pull. Got it. How much bigger is the play space than your average monitor?

[foproy]

depends on the map size. i have a 24 inch monitor and the first map all fit into the screen the second was bigger.

[Crafty_Pat]

depends on the map size. i have a 24 inch monitor and the first map all fit into the screen the second was bigger.

Good to know. I'll be curious to see it in practice but thanks for the review!

[Antilles]

Three questions here...
1. There's a snap to grid feature? Is it actually snap to grid (in that you get a token in roughly the right space and the tabletop does the work of centering it), or something else?

There is a grid (or hex if you want) overlay on each page that you can disable if you want, that tokens and the map snaps to. You can override the snap-to by holding Alt when dragging but otherwise everything's snap to grid/hex.

2. Are tabletop components lockable (so you can't accidentally move them by mis-clicking and/or mis-dragging)?

Not really. You can designate tokens so the players can only move their tokens, and you've got 3 layers (map, tokens, notes) so you can go to the 3rd layer and you won't be able to move what's on the lower layers, but there is no 'lock this token into place' option. Could probably add it as a suggestion on their forums if you think it's important.

3. Are imported images automatically turned into tokens and/or can you have the tabletop automatically convert them into (round) tokens? (This I doubt, but it's a feature I've been watching for everywhere.)

Had to test it out, as I've so far just used the built-in search engine to get tokens, but the answer is nope. I tried dragging one of the PC portraits from a PbP to one of the maps, and it loaded as a regular square image. Could suggest it on their forums, see if it's doable.

O'rly? That's unfortunate.

Yeah, I'm not the only one who've noticed that, so hopefully they'll add the support to upload your own music.

Any die conventions it can't handle? Could it, for example, do Savage Worlds (which requires you to track at least two individual die totals with each roll)?

Don't know if it does at the moment, but I know it was requested fairly early in the kickstarter, so they're at least aware of it and have been working on an easy and uncomplicated method of implementing it. Here's the help page for the dice roller, with fields to try the various commands out in, so you can see what they've got so far. They are working on various improvements, like currently the exploding feature is only on the highest number on the dice, they're working on a decent syntax that lets you pick which numbers it explodes on.

This might answer my question about lockable objects above. Are you saying that once you place a map you can't adjust it?

foproy's answered this, but yeah, you can adjust a map after placing it (and if it already has a grid on it, you'll probably have to fiddle quite a bit with it to get the roll20 grid to align somewhat with the map's grid, which can be a pain).

[Crafty_Pat]

There is a grid (or hex if you want) overlay on each page that you can disable if you want, that tokens and the map snaps to. You can override the snap-to by holding Alt when dragging but otherwise everything's snap to grid/hex.

That's pretty nifty.

Not really. You can designate tokens so the players can only move their tokens, and you've got 3 layers (map, tokens, notes) so you can go to the 3rd layer and you won't be able to move what's on the lower layers, but there is no 'lock this token into place' option. Could probably add it as a suggestion on their forums if you think it's important.

With layers it's less of an issue, honestly.

Had to test it out, as I've so far just used the built-in search engine to get tokens, but the answer is nope. I tried dragging one of the PC portraits from a PbP to one of the maps, and it loaded as a regular square image. Could suggest it on their forums, see if it's doable.

But resizing images is just click and drag, yes?

Yeah, I'm not the only one who've noticed that, so hopefully they'll add the support to upload your own music.

It could be a licensing issue but I doubt it.

Don't know if it does at the moment, but I know it was requested fairly early in the kickstarter, so they're at least aware of it and have been working on an easy and uncomplicated method of implementing it. Here's the help page for the dice roller, with fields to try the various commands out in, so you can see what they've got so far. They are working on various improvements, like currently the exploding feature is only on the highest number on the dice, they're working on a decent syntax that lets you pick which numbers it explodes on.

That page loads to a 404.

Thanks!

[Antilles]

But resizing images is just click and drag, yes?

Yeah, same deal as maps and tokens, they'll snap to the grid but you can override it with Alt.

That page loads to a 404.

Really? Try this one then. I've checked it in other browsers, it should be viewable without having to log in or anything.