Long time back, I setup a WordPress blog to support our roleplaying games (you can see the site here if your really interested). The tech-savvy players and GMs used it store copies of their characters sheets, write-ups, house rules, etc. I did some hacking of WordPress to do this, mostly so that each campaign we played had it’s own webpage and look and feel and that you could browse the site by game. It was all a bit ad-hoc structure, with each game working out differently with different degrees of use. Now WordPress has evolved and my plugin-fu is much greater that can build some dedicated plugins and features for that.
So I’m curious, what web-based tools do you think are useful or could be useful for roleplaying and gaming, be it tabletop, LARP or even for play-by-blog?
I’ve never tried to use a blog to support a roleplaying game, but I’ve seen a few people use them as “campaign logs,” often maintained by someone other than the GM.
For myself, though, I’ve found nothing more useful than Google Docs (http://docs.google.com). My gaming group started using it back when it was Writely.com, and we haven’t stopped. The tool lets use VERY easily publish documents for one another to see, but more importantly lets us collaboratively edit them. (Yes, it’s basically a wikiwiki with passwords. You could and run an appropriate wiki instead, if you prefer to host something similar on your own server.)
On Google Docs, I maintain a list of “Campaigns I want to run” (yes, I’m ALWAYS the GM), and when it comes time to choose something else, my players will look it over and let me know what things jump out at them as interesting.
When we settle on a campaign, I’ll publish a prospectus, adding details about setting, player character roles, and so on. I can work on this prospectus in private, then “publish” it so just my players can see it. Thus, I don’t have to add it to a public web site if I choose not to.
We also do almost all our character creation via Writely. Everyone can approach character creation using whatever tools they like, and if a computer program exists for the system that I happen to have, I’ll use it to check math. But we consider the Google Docs version the “official” one.
It’s not a perfect system. The editor basically creates HTML code, which can be a pain for formatting. And typographic errors can creep in where a dedicated program wouldn’t permit them. But tracking all changes and being able to share editing with different people-and only those people who should be allowed to edit the document-has proven very useful. In campaigns where it’s appropriate, players can let one another see their character sheets by granting permission. Where that’s inappropriate, they can restrict access.
We also tend to keep campaign logs in a shared Google Docs document. One of my players tends to do a great job keeping the log, but the other players can refer to it and add notes or corrections as they need to.
I still haven’t found a good “virtual tabletop.” The optimal one will feature voice chat-or better, video chat. It will have a shared map for times when figures are appropriate. And it will have a public die-rolling tool. D&D 4th edition promises something like this, and it may be great. But I’m not really a D&D player, and many of the neat features (integration with the character creator for generation of in-game figures, the square grid instead of a hex grid) won’t be of much use to me.
And of course the map looks just awful. Wouldn’t it be great to have a rich, detailed tile-base system for building online, shared maps for virtual figures? It HAS to happen sometime soon. (I tried running campaigns in Neverwinter Nights, hoping that this feature would be fun, but DMing a video game isn’t what I’m after; I want to DM a tabletop game using a virtual tabletop!).
Anyway, back from the digression: Google Docs is one of the greatest web tools to support roleplaying games I’ve seen.
Hi Alec, thanks for dropping by!
Sounds like a glowing endorsement of Google Docs!
Being a curious techie, I prefer (or rather enjoy) hosting and managing services myself for our group. Sounds like Google Docs fits the way you manage your group. TBH I think most “tools” like blogs and wikis and other online stuff can easily be made to fit the ad-hoc process most of us use to manage our games. I’ve tried use Google Docs, and it just doesn’t do it for me though I’ve heard other people really recommend it.
I do think there is certain advantages in using more specialised tools. I’ve used wikis professional in work as collaboration tools and even people who were bad at documenting before, find them easy to get into, particularly because of the ease to edit and share information. For the static information in a setting/campaign, wikis are the way to go I think. I even use wikis for notes, ideas and other personal stuff because it encourages you to orgainse your thoughts and make them digestable.
For write-ups, random discussions, ooc chat (online at least), blogs work extremely well. Forums come close, but aren’t nearly as good as encouraging interaction. I even think that blogging is a better medium for doing write-ups than any other. The often informal style of blogging is a perfect for write-ups which are often only interesting to the other players.
As for a “virtual tabletop”… why not use just use Skype? If you have broadband and webcam, you can show people your dice results, talk/write in real-time and share applications. All you need is some mapping software. I don’t/barely ever use maps myself so it’s not something I would miss.
I have played Neverwinter Nights and got bored of it quite quickly. Did you ever try Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption? It promised some truly amazing GMing features, but failed to deliver. It was still more GMing than Neverwinter Nights dungeon crawl-fest but it was awkward and overly-complicated.
I’ve always wondered about the idea of a web service for gaming/roleplaying groups but from people I’ve talked to, everybody wants something different from it and they can get it all from an amalgamation of other onlines services.
Does anyone have a good Google Docs Template for D&D 3.5 characters?
If only I played D&D or used Google Docs!