Topic: roll20

[darb]

Has anyone used this (roll20) for ICE games?  It looks very easy to use, there is a large community... it seems like a great way to go, but I don't see any of the Rolemaster/Harp family of games there.  Any first hand tales?  I was thinking about setting something up, as I am living in Peru now and my Spanish is not nearly good enough to game with (what is the Spanish for Harpy???)....

[Defendi]

Not with ICE, but I play pathfinder every Saturday on roll20. Our group broke up to different states and when I needed a rest, one of the other players offered to run a pathfinder game.

Anyway, I see no problem running an ICE game the way we use it.  I don't know an open ended feature, but you could set up a macro for each skill and another that's a straight d100 just for open endeds.  We didn't have luck with the voice chat so we do that on a google hangout video call in the background.  We haven't had to do any custom work because the gm is running an adventure path so the maps are premade.

[darb]

Overall, would you say it is a good way to go for online?  I have looked at other systems, but this is free!  and I do like the integration of google+ actually.  I like GURPS and ICE games, and there isn't much for either of those, I was worried it didn't handle them well....

[Defendi]

Honestly I don't know what there is to handle.  It doesn't seem to be programmed with any rule specifically, or if it is, my GM isn't using them.  The way we use it it's just a virtual table and dice rolling macro, and those things are fairly universal.

[darb]

Cool, thanks.  Now to drum up some folks to play....

[Defendi]

I've now GMed three sessions in Roll20 and I thought I'd give a report. I make the maps in CC3 and use obsidian portal for the game wiki.  Roll20 has become the most crucial element.

I've created "characters" for my monsters as I use them, complete with icons from pictures in a google image search.  This makes it easy for me to improve fights as long as I've used the creature before. I put all their stats into them, which allows me to assign them easily to the three bars each token has.  There's some nickle and dime tips in here I could pass on, but I won't bother unless someone asks.

The offshoot is every creature has a bar for hits, a bar that just has their AT/DB typed in, and another where I put bleeding and or penalties.  I wish I had five, actually.

But because of this, I can run Rolemaster battles that would usually burn me out.  Today, I had a village defense battle for second level characters fighting 18 goblins, 8 orcs and a Forest Troll in three waves. Previous campaigns, if I tried something like this in RM, I'd likely be burned out by the second or third wave, but I'm still stoked enough to write this post.

So while roll20 isn't crafted for RM, it really has really taken a lot of book keeping stuff off my shoulders.

I'll note that I DO use a house rule of one initiative roll for an entire combat.  That helps a lot, but I could do it without that rule and I don't think it would annoy too much.

[darb]

That is great to hear.  I think this looks like a great way to game.  I just wish there was a bit more of a ICE presence in the gameroom.  I suspect companies that were quite crafty about marketing would recruit some DMs to run a couple games and get some exposure.....

[jdale]

I'm sure ICE would at least give you some OIC points to do so....

[darb]

I haven't GMed in close on 15 years.... and the only gaming in the time since then has been GURPS...  It is tempting though, I will give it some thought.