Software Review: D20pro Online Tabletop

A couple of years ago, I moved from the lovely state of Arizona to California. I arrived in the city with no gaming buddy network to draw upon, so I endeavored to play remotely with my regular Arizona game group. Initially, we played across the AIM chat network with dice macros. Later improvements included open-source “tabletop” software to track miniature movement and Skype for communication. We were able to play, but it was not a smooth experience.  The general clunkiness of the tabletop software negatively impacted the game. We spent more time tinkering with the software than actually playing.

After I moved back to Arizona, face to face gaming became an option and I forgot about online tabletop gaming software. That is until I spotted a booth at the “Origins Game Fair ” for D20pro . Haaldaar, myself and a couple of our gaming buddies dropped in for a demo.

I leave it to you to figure out which one is me.

Upfront Review: D20pro is the BEST online tabletop software I have used to date (and I tried several.) It handles maps, “fog of  war,” tactical movement, combat and hit points with ease.  The clean interface makes using this tool easy to learn even for the computer illiterate. Although it does have some bugs, they are small and are not critical issues.  An excellent value all around.

4th Edition “Dungeons and Dragons”  Support Note: This software “officially” does not support 4th Edition.  That said, since the PCs  are customizable there is no reason you could not setup the PCs with 4th Edition characteristics, special abilities and attacks. Even if you choose not to do that, the mapping, spell effects tracking (“marks”) and hit point tracking alone are useful in a 4th Edition game.

OS Support: I ran this software successfully on a Mac (Leopard) and on a Windows Vista machine. I had no issues at all with Windows, but there was a missing icon on the startup screen on the Mac. Once you get past that, it ran fine on the Mac as well.

When you first startup the software, you face a choice: Judge or Player.

Should you choose judge, you see the following screen.  Click on the screen shots for a full-sized version in a separate window.

Note the “Broadcast game to New Player” notice in the lower-left corner of the map. This allows you to send the map and all of the creatures on it to a new player. Haaldaar and I tested it with some maps and it worked fine, except for a monster 15 megabyte map that caused a crash. We had no issues with smaller maps (under 3 Mb.)  If we really wanted the big map, I think a judicious resize would resolve the issue.

We also opened a port on our internet firewalls. While quite easy, it could be an issue for the less technical player.

For a player, you get a similiar screen, but some features are missing and the “fog of war” is solid. The fog of war is easily “erased” by the DM as the PCs advance through the dungeon.  On the judge’s screen above, you will note a creature in the fog of war on the right and a “greyed out” (actually, he is set to “invisible) creature on the left. Neither is visible on the player screen until the DM allows it. This  allows for truly “secret” movement. I liked it because it makes PC invisibility a double-edged sword. Many PC spells require line of sight or “target within 30 feet,” “haste” being a common example. Now the PCs cannot see one of their own. This could make things interesting when dropping fireballs. While I am discussing fireballs,  you can create spell templates in this software as well. It appears as an overlay on the map. It makes placement and targetting a snap.

Enough talk of maps, now is the time for combat! The DM clicks the “combat” button and up pops the initiaive screen.  The DM may make adjustments here by clicking on the PC/Monster and moving them up or down in the order. The list of PCs and monsters in the left column reflects the initiative roll.

Once combat begins, PCs can take the usual actions, here “Dirk Forkbeard” moves. The trailing line allows you to see the path taken and measures your move. This remains visible until you click done. The “ruler” button in the lower-right corner  allows you to measure a distance between points without moving a PC. Quite useful for those range increments.

If you want your PC to take an action, right-click and pull up the “actions” menu. Here, “John the Blessed” attacks “Dirk Forkbeard.”  He can pick his weapon, adjust the “to-hit,” add some “power attack” or sneak dice.    Which sends the attack to the DM.

You simply click on the intended target to deliver the attack, as illustrated below.

The DM sees notification of the attack in the lower left of his screen.

The DM can choose to let the attack miss, hit, crit or threaten, his choice! Some might find the confirmation system annoying, but I thought it was  a really cool feature. Software should help you run the game, not take it over. Ultimately, the DM should make the call about hits or misses, depending on the needs of his story.   Finally, truly secret roll fudging!

This screen also shows the “right-click” menu that both the PCs and DM uses to control character actions, such as spell casting, skill checks or attacking. . The DM has some extra options like “heal” to add hit points to whomever he likes, but it is otherwise the same as the player’s menu.

The attack succeeds! Dirk’s damage appears in the chat window, along with type of damage and his icon now shows partially red, this will increase until it fills the icon.  This handy feature allows everyone to see the remaining hit points on a creature or PC.  Also on this screenshot, notice the “20″ on the far left PC. This is elevation tracking for flying characters.

I also liked that AC is totally hidden from the players. I thought it added a layer of realism to the game and moved it away from “meta-game” combat tactics.

Once combat ends and role-playing is required, you can use the built-in chat client to chat with other players or the DM. There is a dedicated DM chat window and one for other PCs. The DM can also send  “boxed text”  from the module to the chat window. It literally appears with a box around it, to distinguish it from player chat.

Honestly, unless someone is on dial-up internet, Skype or something similiar is probably a better choice for communication.  Text chat is adequate, but hearing the howls of pain is so much more satisfying to a DM. ;-)

There are many more features that I am simply not covering in the interest of brevity. For a full listing, I recommend you check out the d20pro  feature list on the D20pro website.

So far, I have sung the praises of this software, but I did find a few bugs that I must mention. Notably, the software does not update the player map automatically…sometimes. The solution is just to click on the DM’s “broadcast” button and everyone sees the changes. It did not happen all the time, just occationally. Not a major issue, but worth mentioning. I also ran across a couple of hot-key shortcuts that did not work. The menu item worked, but the hot-keys did not. Nothing I found would prevent me from using the software.

One final item, although this package is designed to run across a network,  we had a great time with it on a plasma TV at “Origins” as our “battlemat” replacement (see the first picture in this post.) The other tables used computer projectors with great success.  I like this option because I get all the benefits of the software and can still hang out with my game group.

If you are looking for an online role-playing game solution, I strongly recommend “d20pro ” as your online gametable software. It is well designed, flexible and easy to use. My game group was so impressed we bought enough licenses for a full table of seven on the spot!

Pricing: $29.95 for a non-expiring license. Each license allows for one DM  and one player/client connection to the DM. Additional network players must have their own license, also at $29.95. Using it as a “battlemat” replacement with “in-person” players requires only one license.

Full Disclosure: My group paid for the software, although we did receive a nice “buy at the convention” bulk  discount. I receive no income from clicks or sales generated by this post.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Tags: d20pro • Software