Saturday, August 03, 2013

Tried Roll20 and loved it.


I’ve always been a gamer with eclectic tastes. Of course I love my Dungeons & Dragons (you never forget your first). But I also love Top Secret S/I: Agent 13, GURPS old West, Justice Inc., Birthright, Star Frontiers, Pacesetter's Chill and Time Master and yes, Spelljammer.

The problem for me is that I have never been able to find any groups that want to play in those worlds. When I started exploring the internet in the 90’s I discovered hundreds of people who shared my enthusiasm for these “other” games, the problem was they were spread out all over the United States and the world (who the hell knew Montreal was a gaming hot spot?).

So there we were. We knew of each other but that was it. Maybe a few play by Email games. But other than that, my immediate problem of no Pulp gamer's in my neighborhood was still there.

 Then in 2009 came Google Wave. At the onset many of us were trying to figure out ways to game using Wave, but before you knew it we were waving goodbye to Wave.

 In 2011 we were all introduced to Google+. Here again the Gamers rushed to figure out how to use this for gaming. Luckily a few talented guys out there figured it out. Now up until this time some people had been playing in various forms of Virtual Table Top (VTT) or Skype. I found a couple of VTT’s and I even bought one called Fantasy Grounds (I have yet to figure it out, much less use it). But the thing with many of them is that you had to pay for them and then have the players pay as well.

 With Google+ folks figured out how to use the Hangouts feature. A couple of these groups combined and created a program called Roll20.

 Roll20 has combined their program with Google+ Hangouts to create, in my opinion, the most user friendly VTT available.

I had a great time playing the Hollow Earth Expedition Pulp game on roll20. I had a couple of hiccups, but that was due to my connection rather than the application. Because I committed to play Hollow Earth  first, I had to regretfully pass on a Star Frontiers game, an Al Qadim game, and a Pathfinder Society Scenario, all on Roll20.

 Now my problem is how to fit all these games into a schedule. Hell, I might even find a group interested in playing the  Tales from the Floating Vagabond Game.

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