Screen Monkey - Great Name or Greatest Name?

[alexandraerin]

So, I've been talking about getting together an online gaming group pretty much since 4E was launched, back when the Virtual Game Table was looking a lot less like vaporware. After our recent marathon of marathons came to an end, I was pretty much ordered to find an alternative so we can keep playing at a more moderate, reasonable pace instead of going months without gaming and then cramming a frantic amount of it in.

My criteria were pretty simple - I wanted something I could just pick up and go with. An actual D&D branded program with full integration to their compendium and character generator would have been perfect for that purpose. With that unavailable... well, there are lots of programs out there that have complex scripting and such that could be used to simulate such things, but my second choice would be something simple that's quick and easy to use.

One of my players mentioned Screen Monkey, and I checked it out. It's definitely simple. The game master is the only one who needs to install a program... players use a web browser instead of downloading a client program. The interface on their side is very simple: when they put their character into the game, they fill out a field for HP, one for Armor, and a big long text field where they can post character info. After that, they just click where they want to move. The system doesn't regulate or officiate or moderate... that's all up to the DM, who can thereafter look at their sheet and modify their HP and set custom status flags as appropriate.

On the DM's side, mousing over a character or NPC pops up their full info. It's a very easy thing to copy and paste a monster stat block from the compendium or the monster builder, and if a player takes the plaintext summary from the character builder and puts it in their character info, you can see all the relevant stats (defenses and skills in particular) at a glance.

Movement can seem kind of kludgy on the players' side until you get used to it... because it needs to refresh the view every time you move, it's better to use the mouse cursor to count out squares and then click on the destination then to try to move your character square by square. Because it doesn't snap to grid, it takes practice to get your token centered on the square. It's a little bit easier on the DM's side, since things are running on my end... I fully expect to be getting some requests that just say, "Move me to the door." or "Put me just south of the priest." When we game tabletop, that inevitably happens as not everybody can reach the whole board comfortably, anyway.

All in all it's not the most robust gaming solution, but I basically need two things from it: a way or marking everyone's position relative to each other where we can all see it, and a way of doing "dice rolls" that everyone can see, and it does that. It's as quick to draw up and save encounters in it as 4E will let you, which is very quick indeed. We don't need a board and miniatures and rule simulators for non-combat situations, just a chat solution. It has one of those, but we'll probably also be using Ventrilo.

I'm saying "we" meaning my gaming group that includes people in Kansas, but now that I've located and like this tool, I'm looking to do more gaming. I'm still going to have to work around my friends' work schedules, which are less flexible than mine. I know some of you have expressed interest in playing D&D with me, so, here it is: I want to do this as much as I can. This is my favorite hobby. I have a lot of time and money invested in it compared to how often I've been able to indulge in it. It's great for me in terms of keeping my creativity flowing and giving me a framework in which I can interact with people. Who's interested? We may be starting with some one-shots to give people a chance to get used to the interface, my style, and the system... they may turn into campaigns. It may depend on who's available how often.

Participants will need a web browser (duh), a Ventrilo client (free) and a microphone and speakers/headphones, and access to the D&D Character Builder... the demo version that covers levels 1 to 3 is currently free. If you've got that, you don't even strictly speaking need the books, especially if you've got any familiarity with 3rd Edition. I don't believe in penalizing players for not knowing the rules.

Let me know if you're interested, and then I'll start getting things organized.

Comments

[stormcaller3801.livejournal.com]

I'm highly interested. Just lemme know what you need and I'll get to work. In fact I might even get to work preemptively, just in case.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Well, it'll be first level characters, but let's wait and get the group(s) together before everyone starts staking out territory definitively. I can balance encounters for just about any party mix, but it'll be kind of sucky if the entire party is Tiefling Stormsoul Sorcerers. Though maybe if you throw out some race/class combinations you're interested in playing, it could be easier to see how things are shaping up as other people jump in.

[stormcaller3801.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more in terms of coming up with ideas for as many classes and race combinations as possible in order to have a range of options. I can come up with just about anything and make it work as necessary.

For the moment my first two ideas are a human (subject to change) sorcerer- though tiefling stormsoul sounds interesting- and a goliath paladin. But I'm pretty sure I can come up with quite a few more dependent on what people want to play.

[ferwe.livejournal.com]

Is Screen Monkey D&D4 only or will it work with other games?

I'd like to play, unfortunately I've never been able to get a microphone to work on my computer.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, it's not anything-only. It's verrrrrrrrrry simple, no support for any specific system. It can overlay hexes or squares or staggered/offset squares on any image you use as the map, but you can also just scan/draw a map that has the desired spaces on it, since there's no snap-to feature for "miniatures"... movement is point and click by the pixel.

[ferwe.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I found the company and have been looking around. Unfortunately it looks like it doesn't quite fit my needs. (Awfully close though.) I'll keep it in mind though. If my needs change it could be very nice to have.

[ferwe.livejournal.com]

My needs as a GM that is. I wouldn't mind playing a game using it.

I'd love to play

[conlawguru.livejournal.com]

I'll need to get a microphone, but I have to do that anyway for another project.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

good god, me, please. But I've had no real D&D experience in at least 10 years.

[addiejd.livejournal.com]

I'd love to do a game! I was creating a character for a high level 3.5 one-shot that I never got to play in, but I liked the background and character concept better than the actual mechanics that the character had, so switching to a level 1 in 4.0 would be no problem at all.

online gaming

[catharsis-in-g.livejournal.com]

I came to the blog to find out why no MU this week, but instead I found a treasure trove of D&D 4e articles. Fantastic!

I'm throwing my hat in the ring, if you'll have me. I'm in Chicago, but if it helps, I'm originally from Kansas. ;-)

I meet all tech needs, and I'm 4e "fluent."

Re: online gaming

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Heh. Glad you liked what you found, but I'm pretty sure I mentioned the hiatus on the MU page by at least midway through the week.

Things'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Re: online gaming

[catharsis-in-g.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't read the blog as often as I should. I'm chagrined that I usually only check when it interrupts my reading.

Also, I was linking directly to the story page. My bad. Now to read the guest works.

Re: online gaming

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

I probably should have put something up in the feed... I just had a weird crisis of something or other about putting non-AE stories up on ae_stories.

Re: online gaming

[catharsis-in-g.livejournal.com]

No worries. I was momentarily clueless, not you.

Please, let me know if you have space in the 4e online game. Thanks.

[gillian-y.livejournal.com]

This sounds like fun. I've never played any version of DnD but thanks to your posts and the Penny Arcade/PvP DnD podcasts, in which the guys play through a module, I have working knowledge of how to play with 4th edition rules. Plus I've absorbed quite a bit of roleplaying randomness from random sources. I'd love to get involved if possible.

[gamingdragon.livejournal.com]

need I say count me in :P I'll even try to read the race discriptions this time before building the toon

[andy9306.livejournal.com]

I am definitely interested. I'm familiar with 3.5 but I haven't much in the past, despite reading the guides religiously.

Also, wow, that character builder thingy sure makes the process easier.

[andy9306.livejournal.com]

Amazing how you can miss missing a word in the wee hours of the morning... that should be that I haven't played much in the past.

[calianissene.livejournal.com]

I might be interested in a one-shot. I'm enjoying my group right now, but we're small (3 people, including the DM), so gameplay is semi-limited, and they insist on playing 3.5, while I'd enjoy some experience with 4e. I'm unsure if I'll be able to get a working mic, though... need to figure that out.

[hnmic.livejournal.com]

I'm in. Gotta get a new mic, but I'm sooo down.
I got my hands on the 4e manuals, I'll start looking at them once I've done maps for the campaign I'm running.

Definitely Interested

[rictic.livejournal.com]

I'm a long time reader who loves Tales of MU for the world building as much as anything else. I lean towards the social/RP side of gaming, and I'm up on 4th Edition rules. I've also got a working mic. Oh, and I've got a dnd insider account (5 downloads of the latest version of character creator a month) that I'd be willing to share with some folks. Definitely throwing my hat in for this (so long as the game doesn't meet on Monday evenings, as that's my other internet DnD game :)

[tyr-odin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been looking for a good virtual campaign for a while, and I know the folks who hang around here are good police... I would definitely be interested, if you still have room.

[penndavies.livejournal.com]

Amusingly, I've given up on MU (both stories) as I find that they simply don't spend enough time covering the bits that interest me. I'm not going to say which bits those are, because it's not a problem with MU, those stories aren't for me.
I unsubscribed from the MU feeds a few weeks ago when I found that I was looking forward to all your other stories, other than those two. So, I can still look forward and read the various pieces you write that I still very much enjoy, and not have to endure the ones I don't like much of the time.
Thanks for having variety in your writing. :)

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Amusingly, I've given up on MU (both stories) as I find that they simply don't spend enough time covering the bits that interest me.

The system works!

[penndavies.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not sure how my comment ended up on this post, I was trying to respond to another.
Anyway, that was my point, the system works. :)

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Amusingly, my habit of suggesting that people who don't find TOMU to be worth their time to read look for other things to read instead is apparently reason #27,348 that I am an out of control egomaniac.