Virtual Table Trial Run

Randy signed me up for a Virtual Table slot while I was on the way home for work, which wouldn’t have been so bad if it was not 12th-fucking-level. I rarely get a chance to play, and have never legitimately exceeded 6th-level. I decided to keep things simple and roll a dwarf fighter, as it was thematic and I was able to get by setting the power filter to “Constitution”. Thankfully Virtual Table now accepts character imports and does it well, so despite having a shitload of exploits and item powers at my disposal I was able to skim through them quickly and not drag things to a halt.

That last time I really messed around with Virtual Table was basically at the start of its Beta cycle roughly a year ago. I spent a lot of time building maps from The Twisted Hall and Dungeon Delve, hand-writing monster stats and powers using whatever format worked for me at the time, so I was already pretty familiar with various features like AoE zones, pointing, visibility, etc. Even so I was a bit nervous because I’d be playing with a bunch of strangers with the advantage of internet anonymity, which can make even the attempt at civil discussion a herculean endeavor.

Despite my, er, previous “experiences” with online games and gamers, I was surprised to find that the people were patient and fun to play with, despite not knowing them, being able to see them, and the DM having internet issues. We managed to get through almost two encounters before he was unable to get back online, but it was very easy to pick up and play with minimal instruction. Unfortunately I have not used other online software so I cannot compare them, but I really like Virtual Table: even seemingly simple features like automatic initiative sorting cut down quite a bit on combat preparation. Voice support made it feel more like a table-top experience, as we were able to joke around quite a bit between actions and waiting for the DM to reconnect. My only gripe is that I would like a larger variety of tokens and tiles, which serves as a major bar for me because I want to build maps that are not limited to dungeon interiors.

That, and most of the “games” instruct you not to join. I might have to bite the bullet and run some delves.

More from the Virtual Table

As part of a side-project, I copied the level 2 delve “The Broken Tower” from Dungeon Delve. Here’s what I got:

I might have mentioned before that there aren’t a lot of tokens to use, so I had to use the orc and hobgoblin to represent a bugbear and goblin underboss. The tile library also didn’t have the 1×1 gong, a 2×1 broken alter (or even an alter, for that matter), or a 2×2 throne. Thankfully, you can draw that stuff in, though you get a very small assortment of colors to choose from. Again, this is Beta.

Here’s a zoomed in shot of the second floor, with the visibility mask removed:

You can place hidden notes for yourself, as well as public notes for all the players to see. I generally use public notes for “Features of the Area”, and to call out certain objects so they know what it is (in the case that I have to draw them in). Private notes let me easily reference what an object does, or a skill DC. You can also make monsters and entire sections invisible to the players. This is good for monsters using Stealth, or letting you gradually reveal the dungeon as they explore the area.

My major complaints are lack of ability to import monsters and characters from the compendium. Though I think I’m starting to figure out what format works the best, it’s a pain in the ass if someone else makes and adventure and writes things up differently. Also, the whole keying it all in by hand is a nuisance in general.

Virtual Table: Twisted Hall

This is the adventure out of Starter Set. I plan on putting the ddav file up when I’m done mapping and statting.

Virtual Table: Whispering Cairn Map

Here’s what I’ve been able to do thus far in copying the map from The Whispering Cairn. There aren’t a lot of tiles to work with, but the ability to block off parts of the map and drop notes for them to see is neat. I’d like to see a function that allows you to attach skill modifiers to elements that players automatically notice if their modifier is high enough.

For example, I find myself dropping hidden notes for myself, but it would be better if I could place a note that characters with a high enough Passive Perception score detect automatically. There’s some tracks that they could identify with a high enough Nature skill, so having the note display to players with a high enough “passive” Nature would be cool.

Virtual Table Overview

After uninstalling and reinstalling Java 6, I finally managed to get Virtual Table to load. I’ve never used other online mapping tools before (or really played online), so while I can’t make a comparison I can go over what I like/don’t like about it. Before I go on please understand that this is the beta software, there is a list of feature requests and reported bugs, and I expect it to get a lot better.

Currently, the Campaign Manager site is the first thing you’ll see before you get to Virtual Table. Here you can search for current campaigns, open campaigns, or start your own. You can filter results by the campaign world, whether it’s an actual campaign or one-shot, min and max users, and–oddly enough–edition. Yep, every Dungeons & Dragons version from 1st through 4th is represented, with Other encapsulating the rest. I doubt this will cause those playing lapsed editions to sign up for DDI…unless they offer it as a separate service (hint hint).

The real meat here is obviously Virtual Table.

It looks like what I’d expect from a virtual tabletop: most of the screen is dominated by a large map, there are menus at the top, with commonly accessed functions occupying bars beneath the menus and on the right-hand side. The right menu bar can be expanded or hidden if you want to increase your map real-estate. At the bottom is a chat window, and to the right of that is your Dice Roller (with a check box to make private rolls). The top menus let you–amongst other things–import/export adventures, maps, characters, and monsters, turn off windows that you don’t need/want, change cursor modes (Normal, Pointer, Map Drag, etc), mute yourself and/or other players, and enable voice fonts.

Voice fonts will purportedly change the way you sound, though I’m not sure how effective it is. Some of the options are deep, male to female, female to male, elf, orc, and paladin. That sounds really cool.

The various cursor modes let you interact with tokens and tiles, drag the entire map around without moving anything, highlight specific elements on the map, draw line of sight, create area of effect zones (Close blast and burst), make parts of the map visible/invisible (likely for light sources and hidden passages), and draw free hand lines, circles, and squares. You can’t move area of effects once you place them; you have to delete them and redraw them again. This is something that needs to be changed for spellcasters that want to display to everyone where they are casting spells, or for those employing zone effects (especially if they can move).

As it stands, you have to manually switch between cursor modes for each object. I think having a kind of “smart selection” would be very handy, having the cursor automatically switch modes depending on what you are trying to interact with. Also, there is no way to Undo an action. You have to manually erase lines and shapes that you drew. Thankfully, there is an option for the eraser that lets you drag over an area, but it won’t remove anything else. This can be useful or a hindrance, depending on your needs. Personally, I’d like a way to erase large areas of tiles instead of having to meticulously remove each of them one by one.

The map has several default textures: typical battle mat, sand, dirt, or grass. Good if you don’t feel like laying digital tiles manually over the whole thing. The Dungeon Tile library looks very basic, being all interior design features. It’s organized into dimensions, so you don’t have to go poking through a massive bin if the only thing you need is a 1×2 door tile. As expected, you can rotate tiles and move them in Pointer Mode after placing them. The oddest thing is that they included the map for the last area in Keep on the Shadowfell, because it shows monster locations from that encounter.

Speaking of monsters, you cannot import monsters from Compendium. To make matters worse, you have to key in everything by hand. The application should at least calculate formulas, though I see no reason why Wizards cannot include a fully functional monster library. Worse, monsters don’t even seem to get full stat blocks, lacking fields for skills, ability scores, languages, and equipment. There is a notes section, but again, they could make collapsing stat blocks to save space. At least you can export monsters to your computer, so if Wizards drags their heels on this, we’ll hopefully see some fan-made monster sets.

Characters have the same problems, but are in a slightly larger boat: they have fields for their ability scores, modifiers, healing surges, surge value, passive detection, but again, you have to do all the math. To make matters worse, you have to also input all the information for each power you have, so hopefully you aren’t playing a high-level character for your first run through. People are clamoring for a feature to import from Character Builder (as well as an online character repository), so here’s hoping.

The last thing of note is a journal feature that both players and the DM can use to store notes (DM’s at least can make their notes private). Entries are saved by name, which is handy for quick reference.

That’s it for a cursory feature overview. Remember, I’ve not yet actually used it yet, and it’s still in beta. At this point, it looks promising, but then I’ve never actually used online gaming tools like this before. Once I get a game or two under my belt, I’ll post my thoughts.

Virtual Table Announcement

Invites are going out some time today for the “friends and family” beta for Virtual Table, with D&D Insider invitations being passed out at an undetermined point in the future (aka, “later”). There’s a FAQ here, and a thread about it here. So far we’ve got this screen cap:

There are concerns about increased pricing, but given how long Character Builder was in Beta I wouldn’t expect to see it tacked on for more than a few months. Hopefully it’s not too much more, but given that I have a regular game it might be one of the few D&D things that I don’t buy.

For cynical readers, here is a flying pig: