🆘 virtual tabletop for RQCE 🆘

[icebrand]

Hi guys! Due new covid restrictions my campaign died ⚰️💀🥀 please press F for us!

So, this is the deal, i am completely illiterate as far as vtts are concerned. What do you guys use? Is it easy? 

We use the RQ classic rules, is this a problem? Do the programs come with rulesets or what? 

I googled a bit and i found roll20 which apparently has CoC rules (close enough to rq i guess lol?). There's also foundry which looked kickass but super expensive.

anyways, hope any high healer here resurrects my borderlands 😂

Tnx in advance!

[RandomNumber]

I have recently started playing in a Traveller Roll20 campaign (across 9 time-zones - Sydney to Galway) run by a school friend with whom I last played Traveller face to face 35 years ago. It's been a lot of fun (certainly better than no RPGing at all) and works pretty well provided the Gm puts in the prep time.  That inspired me to pick up my RQ2/3/G books and start prepping up an RQG Roll20 campaign for my old RQ group from the 80's. I'm going to start with the Quickstart adventure Broken Tower as we are a bit rusty... we played 1980 - 1996 almost continuously then once each in 2003 and 2012 and not since.

I haven't tried the other VTT's so cannot compare but Roll20 seems fairly straightforward.  The embedded RQ character sheet is very effective and has lots of useful macros. As far as support goes for RGQ in Roll20 that's it, sadly.  RQG isn't getting the same love as CoC which is understandable but a shame. Even so, it's easy enough to drag in PDF's and pictures to create maps, handouts and supporting material for your games.

Below are two of the assets I created than I'm fiddling around with. On the left is the Broken Tower itself which I built up from various images and a couple of tactical purchases. On the right is the Colymar tribes map which I have created as a handout for the PC's to refer to when they want to.  The internet is stuffed with great images to use for illustrating various locales like the Badlands of the Starfire ridges (e.g. a mixture of Dartmoor, UK and the Badlands National Park, SD)

What Roll20 is missing is the ability to Share Screen (like in Zoom) so sharing material on the fly isn't doable - you have to upload the asset to roll20 then share it to the players. It is also a bit clunky for sharing background music/sound-tracks.

Bottom line - it seems quite workable and there are lots of Tips and Tricks YT videos to watch (taking20 is quite good even if he does play AD&D!).

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Psullie]

Sorry to hear about the demise of your group,

Roll20 is fun and supports the Character sheet (with a few bugs) but does require a bit of effort from the GM to make it work, as RandomNumber mentions by preloading content. Once you are set up thought it does work very well, especially if used miniatures in your face-to-face game as you can use icons on a shared desktop.

I play in another game where the GM just uses Zoom and shares his screen when needed. Very easy to use and get into.

Astral is very good, with official support for CoC, but I find the software a bit demanding and not for older PCs.

No VTT comes with rules out of the box, these are paid options where you buy the asset packs. 

I suggest organise a Zoom call (if one of you has a Pro subscription) or Skype and have at it old school. 

[Israeldor]

I just use discord. You can get dice bots and music if need be. And I just quickly sketch something in paint for battles, upload images from a pdf, or draw it by hand and upload it. It isn't integrated with the mechanical the way a VTT is, but it is simple. I find using VTT overwhelming and it makes more prep figuring out maps.

I have the following channels:

Main text chat

Die rolls

Strike ranks (name and every SR they have an action)

Character sheets (pdf's)

NPC's

2 voice chat channels 

[Bill the barbarian]

I am using a simple and free method of combining google Docs and Skype that while not perfect seems to work. The Docs are for maps, battle mats and notes for the players and the GMs... I use two maps and two battle mats (one of each for the GMs and the players). Again, I have to agree with all who say that prep (and unfortunately there is a frig of a lot of it in online gaming) is the key and I will add that I do not recommend more than half the game time online as you used to do in person. It is much harder to concentrate and to deliver/receive info online and a four hour session will leave you thinking a full 8 hour table top game has gone by. 

Skype has one advantage I like a lot and that is the ability of a few channels of out of character (OOC) chats. So we have a serious game oriented chat area and a more facetious one as well. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Bill the barbarian

[Godlearner]

Try using play by post game. Check out www.rpol.net. Everyone does not need to be on at the same time and it has a dice server built in.

[Marc]

1 hour ago, Israeldor said:

I just use discord. You can get dice bots and music if need be. And I just quickly sketch something in paint for battles, upload images from a pdf, or draw it by hand and upload it. It isn't integrated with the mechanical the way a VTT is, but it is simple. I find using VTT overwhelming and it makes more prep figuring out maps.

I have the following channels:

Main text chat

Die rolls

Strike ranks (name and every SR they have an action)

Character sheets (pdf's)

NPC's

2 voice chat channels 

How does the channel for Strike ranks work for you?  I'm running a game on Roll20, and it's Turn Order function just doesn't work for me.  I can see how it would be fine for a game like D&D where the order is the same every round, but with RuneQuest not so much. 

[Runeblogger]

I created this for the game I ran (Trouble at Day's Rest), so you could place a copy of each token next to the SR in which each character acts.

[Marc]

23 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

I created this for the game I ran (Trouble at Day's Rest), so you could place a copy of each token next to the SR in which each character acts.

That's interesting, and could be handy.  Unfortunately, I do use dynamic lighting, and in the current situation my players are in, the space that they can "see"  isn't big enough to use it.  It would be nice if Roll20 would allow a second "map" to be open that the players could drop tokens on, but I don't think it does currently. 

I'm definitely going to keep this in mind for future maps, to try to set them up so that it could be used.

[Westnovote]

1 hour ago, Marc said:

How does the channel for Strike ranks work for you?  I'm running a game on Roll20, and it's Turn Order function just doesn't work for me.  I can see how it would be fine for a game like D&D where the order is the same every round, but with RuneQuest not so much. 

What is the problem you're having with the turn order in Roll 20.  It's not perfect, but I find that it works well enough for me.

[Marc]

So, part of it may be communication issues with the players.  However, each player has the potential to have to add multiple entries.  It's not unusual for archers to have 2 entries, occationally 3( DEX SR mod 0, weapon already prepared at the beginning of the round ).  I know the sheet will add a weapon attack in, but sometimes you have to modify the strike rank( moving a bit before attacking, casting a Rune Spell, or maybe bladesharp first ).  I just found that getting everyone entered in, correctly, usually required that I do it all( and the GM has enough to do, IMHO ), or the players taking a long time( subjectively ) to get it all in, especially with players new to RuneQuest. which I have had several of.

 

 

[icebrand]

14 minutes ago, Marc said:

So, part of it may be communication issues with the players.  However, each player has the potential to have to add multiple entries.  It's not unusual for archers to have 2 entries, occationally 3( DEX SR mod 0, weapon already prepared at the beginning of the round ).  I know the sheet will add a weapon attack in, but sometimes you have to modify the strike rank( moving a bit before attacking, casting a Rune Spell, or maybe bladesharp first ).  I just found that getting everyone entered in, correctly, usually required that I do it all( and the GM has enough to do, IMHO ), or the players taking a long time( subjectively ) to get it all in, especially with players new to RuneQuest. which I have had several of.

 

 

To be honest this seems like a strong case for DEX-Rank based initiative like BRP4/CoC

[Westnovote]

Yes, I agree.  Multiple actions in a round is a pain, and the one you've given (archers) is the best example of this.

Modifying strike ranks is easy enough, even though it is manual.

[Marc]

21 hours ago, Westnovote said:

Yes, I agree.  Multiple actions in a round is a pain, and the one you've given (archers) is the best example of this.

Modifying strike ranks is easy enough, even though it is manual.

I have found sometimes, I change the SR, and it doesn't work.  Or, I add another entry for a player, and it replaces the existing one.  Just a bunch of weird "stuff" that I got tired of dealing with.  More trouble than it's worth, IMHO.

[StephenMcG]

I have played a few times on Roll20 and I never had any issues with doing it like I did when we were all at the table, sorted out the strike ranks, wrote it down on paper and called folk as they were due.

Of course, with bright shiny VTT you want to use it. 🙂 I created a token for each character, first time just a box with character name in it.  I had the strike rank box at the top of the map and allowed players to move their tokens onto the strike ranks they were acting.

If you are using fog of war, then you can pre-explore that bit of the map.  I found fog of war a pain to use most of the time.

 

Stephen

[Marc]

1 hour ago, StephenMcG said:

I have played a few times on Roll20 and I never had any issues with doing it like I did when we were all at the table, sorted out the strike ranks, wrote it down on paper and called folk as they were due.

Of course, with bright shiny VTT you want to use it. 🙂 I created a token for each character, first time just a box with character name in it.  I had the strike rank box at the top of the map and allowed players to move their tokens onto the strike ranks they were acting.

If you are using fog of war, then you can pre-explore that bit of the map.  I found fog of war a pain to use most of the time.

 

Stephen

I have a Plus account on Roll20, and make use of the Dynamic Lighting.  Takes a bit of work to set up, and I don't use it for all maps, but for buildings/caves/etc.  it works well, and the players can only see what is in line of sight of their tokens, automatically.  However, it does mean I can't put something like a Strike Rank tracker on the map, because the players won't be able to see it

[Bill the barbarian]

On 5/6/2021 at 11:34 AM, Runeblogger said:

I created this for the game I ran (Trouble at Day's Rest), so you could place a copy of each token next to the SR in which each character acts.

YOINK!

[skulldixon]

I just have a notepad open and write out the turn orders since Roll20's init tracker isn't designed for SR.

I have it list 1-12 and write a name/ one word action next to the SR that a player or NPC goes on. You can use a white board or a spread sheet to make this easier.

[StephenMcG]

On 5/7/2021 at 7:26 PM, Marc said:

I have a Plus account on Roll20, and make use of the Dynamic Lighting.  Takes a bit of work to set up, and I don't use it for all maps, but for buildings/caves/etc.  it works well, and the players can only see what is in line of sight of their tokens, automatically.  However, it does mean I can't put something like a Strike Rank tracker on the map, because the players won't be able to see it

I was thinking you were talking about Fog of War. With dynamic lighting it should be fine.  Just leave some space above (or to the side of) the map, put the chart and tokens there, drop in some light on the GM layer so everyone can see that, you can mark it off so the light there does not interfere with the map.

As I said, the easy thing I'd to do it on paper in front of you and let the players trust you but thus gives everyone the information to manipulate and p,an against.

[dvdmacateer]

On 5/7/2021 at 7:26 PM, Marc said:

I have a Plus account on Roll20, and make use of the Dynamic Lighting.  Takes a bit of work to set up, and I don't use it for all maps, but for buildings/caves/etc.  it works well, and the players can only see what is in line of sight of their tokens, automatically.  However, it does mean I can't put something like a Strike Rank tracker on the map, because the players won't be able to see it

Put the tracker on the map and put dynamic lighting around.  Drag a token (I use a black circle) into  the DL area and give it sight.  Assign control of the token to all players then reduce the size of token so it won't be noticed unless you are looking for it .  Everyone should then see the tracker.

[Marc]

Great! Thanks for that idea, I guess I was focused on each character having one token.

[ffilz]

I've been running my RQ1 campaign on Roll20 for a couple years. I don't do too much fancy. I don't try and use any of the character sheet stuff, we keep track on the PCs in a separate Google Sheet. We use Google Meet for audio/video connection, so if I really needed to share something, I could share my screen or a window to that. I upload the occasional map or do crude drawings. I don't have a plus account so I just use fog of war which is sometimes an annoying effort but works pretty good. For SR tracking, I just keep notes on scratch paper. Most of the PCs tend to go before most of the bad guys, or they delay SR so they can adjust hit location...

[Israeldor]

On 5/6/2021 at 12:56 PM, Marc said:

How does the channel for Strike ranks work for you?  I'm running a game on Roll20, and it's Turn Order function just doesn't work for me.  I can see how it would be fine for a game like D&D where the order is the same every round, but with RuneQuest not so much. 

So how I set it up is I put each combatant on a line and then I just put each number they have an action happening on that line. Then the next round I just edit the message to be correct for the current round.

 

I found that it worked pretty well and you can just scan down the list and work your way up the strike ranks. The tough part running combat in discord was making a functional map on the spot with paint. IRL q chalkboard or whiteboard is much easier to use.

[dvdmacateer]

Something I have been thinking about is to add SR as a custom Item  and move the character tokens around based on actions

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by dvdmacateer

[Dissolv]

I have been running a campaign via Zoom for over a year now (how the time flies!).    It is very old school, with oral descriptions only.  Anything we need share I put into a shared Google drive, which is also where the character sheets live. 

It is not optimal, and everything goes way slower than in person, but after a period of adaptation, it has produced some very dramatic moments.  🙂