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[RandallS]

Well, that's the trick - NWN has full online capabilities.  Multiple people log in, some people log in as the DM, the DM can control all kinds of stuff, take over NPCs so they can talk, all that good stuff.

Unless you are a super graphic artist an have lots of design time, designing your own adventures to run players through seems nearly impossible, however.

[HeartShadow - Cutethulhu]

Unless you are a super graphic artist an have lots of design time, designing your own adventures to run players through seems nearly impossible, however.

*blinks* trust me, I'm no graphic artist.

yes, you need design time - probably more than you'd need for a tabletop game.  OTOH, once an area is built, it's easy to use again and again, so .. start up time, yeah, but long term, not so bad.

But they've already got standard stuff to set up - doors, castles, dungeons, sewers, forests, etc.  You don't need to build them, just arrange them.  Stick a tree here and a building there is really just clicking and dropping.  And if you want stuff that isn't in the standard pack, there's already lots of graphic artists that have created stuff you can download and add to your module, so again, you don't have to.

But mostly what you need is the set up time to build the original set.  Once that's done, it's not really more work, IMO, than setting up for a very detailed game.  And if you're using pre-made characters and monsters and areas, you don't need to set up at all.  (and saying "crap, I need a monster" is really easy to just pick one and drop it in.  or a lot of them.  easy).

I don't want to make it sound like it's perfect - it isn't.  But it's not awful, either.

(NWN2 is a lot more of a pain - they've done something weird for the walking around thing so that every time you go to play an online game, if there's been a change, you have to download the walkmesh.  That's WAY worse.  and I don't know about the graphic art issue either).

[RandallS]

yes, you need design time - probably more than you'd need for a tabletop game.  OTOH, once an area is built, it's easy to use again and again, so .. start up time, yeah, but long term, not so bad.

SIGH. That would probably do me in. Time is something I lack. Especially when I can just sit down and run a game, making up the whole thing as I go along if needed.  I guess need something to convert my words into nice graphics on the fly. LOL. Right. Probably not in my lifetime.

[Dara]

Oaksworn Thank you for the suggestion, and links.  Another gamer and I have been trying to figure out how to set up a D&D game online that is more like the tabletop version.  I'll find the time to go check these out later today.  Might be just what we need.  I tried the by email at one point and about dropped dead of boredom.  Write one line.  Wait a week for the characters reply.  Answer.  Wait a week.  Snore.  Now what were we talking about?  hhhh

There are also a few ways to do a table-top style game online in real time.  My gaming group uses a program called DMGenie for character sheets.  There's a player version and a DM's version.  It comes with all the basic D&D 3rd ed or 3.5 races, classes, spells, templates, and feats, and the DM version has monsters and lets you roll up that day's weather, calculate treasure, etc.  Plus, you can add other things from different sourcebooks.  It gets kinda tricky when you have a ton of stuff avaiable (thanks to a twinky "roll-player" who likes to pull stuff from 10 different sources to create a character that can do an ungodly amount of damage with one hit  *grumble*, I have about 5000 or so spells and around 3000 feats loaded into mine.), but a DM can always say "only stuff from such-and-such source(s) can be used."

Originally, our DM just whipped up our sheets (We told her what race/class/feats/etc we wanted) and sent them to us, and we played in a private AIM chat, which allows you to roll dice (f'ex, rolling a d20 is  //roll-dice 1-sides 20), so no dice fudging is possible.  If the DM doesn't want the rolls for enemies and NPCs visible, he/she can just open another chat room.

Later, we discovered a program called FantasyGrounds, which is a great online tabletop replica.  You even have 3D dice to roll.  You see everyone's dice roll across the screen, and they all melt away, but yours remains.  Dice roll results are displayed in the program's chat window.  The DM can upload gridded maps and the players can use tokens on said maps, so it's a lot easier to use for combat than AIM, since you know who's how far from what and whether moving will provoke an AoO.

[Star]

Oaksworn

HeartShadow

Randall

Just a quick nudge...  Could you please remember to reply to each person separately so that we get the quotes of and links back to each post you're replying to rather than just to one?  Thanks!

[RandallS]

There are also a few ways to do a table-top style game online in real time.  My gaming group uses a program called DMGenie for character sheets.

Wow. Thanks for mentioning these programs. On searching the Net, it seems there are a number of such programs -- even some free ones and some that are not wedded to D&D3+/D20 gamesystems or the Windows OS.  I'm going to be looking into these -- especially the free ones (and the ones that are free for players even if the GM has to buy a copy of the program).

Here's a site that lists a bunch of options:

http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html#anchor6

It gets kinda tricky when you have a ton of stuff avaiable (thanks to a twinky "roll-player" who likes to pull stuff from 10 different sources to create a character that can do an ungodly amount of damage with one hit  *grumble*, I have about 5000 or so spells and around 3000 feats loaded into mine.)

This is one of the major reasons why I have no interest in D&D3/4 and most D20 style gamesystems. Instead of being about taking a character and having fun playing that character in memorable adventures, for the majority of players I meet IRL or see on the Net, the game is about buying lots of expensive rulebooks so you can have the best feats and weird classes and spending lots of time mapping out your character's advancement path to get just the ones the player thinks will make him the most bad-ass. Different strokes for different folks.

...so it's a lot easier to use for combat than AIM, since you know who's how far from what and whether moving will provoke an AoO.

And don't get me started on D20-style combat. LOL. It's like the combat system of a computer RPG where the players have to do all the record-keeping, rules-remembering, and work. I'm not that interested in combat.  Like I say on my RetroRolleplaying web site: "I enjoy playing my character in fast-moving heroic adventures. I don't enjoy spending hours building a character to mini-maxed perfection nor do I have any interest in using my characters as playing pieces in a complex and time-consuming tactical combat miniatures game."

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