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Monday, April 23, 2012

Roll20 Kickstarter - A New Type of Virtual Table Top

I need to thank (or curse) Keith Davies.  Not only do I prefer some of his latest twist on Wandering Encounter Tables (the control die is a nice twist - I may have to steal it) over my own, but he's introduced me to a new Virtual Table Top that I hadn't heard of, which I'm correcting today.

Roll20 is the VTT that iTabletop was meant to be.  It might very well be that the minds behind iTabletop, and the goals of a simple yet functional VTT with voice, video, interactive sounds and a multilayer grid were ahead of their time.  It sure seems that way.  iTabletop has moved on to isometric something or other, I'm note sure if it's still a VTT or some sort of multiplayer Farmville like game now, but it never reached the potential it was hoping for.  I'm okay with that, because it is apparent that Roll20 used iTabletop for inspiration and seems ready to hit the ground running.

If Roll20 is twice as complicated as the videos make it, it's still simpler to use and more intuitive than the rest of them out there.  Being browser based, there is nothing to instal.  Even better, there is nothing for the players to instal.  Did I mention the basic access to it will be free?

There are benefits to helping with the Kickstarter (which apparently has done really well so far in support), including early access to the beta (they are talking the first week of May) and a larger amount of online storage for your art and sound files.

Damn, I'm really liking what I see.  Roll20 may be an alternative to using G+ Hangout for the ACKS game, if there's a decent whiteboard.  I still feel that the whiteboard is one of the most effective tools for a successful VTT.

In any case, I'll be jumping into Roll20 as a supporter.  This man just loves a good VTT (and even some that have heart, but ain't as good as I had hoped).

1 comment:

  1. WOW.. this looks great!! I'm really drawn to it being web-based which means no ports to open in firewalls/routers etc.. I would definitely inquire about whiteboarding..

    ReplyDelete

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