Online D&D Gaming I think I found exactly what we need.

I always knew it was going to be 2 pronged. We definately need voice communication. This is easily accomplished by the use of one of the free services (Ventrillo, Team Speak, etc). Having a simple, free voice program will allow for us to move in a far more fluid manner.. and for Wheels to go off on his own and take over a kingdom.

But that left us with either lying about our dice rolls, using some crummy IRC bot or finding something that will fill the void. You know..
how do you show where the players and monsters are without moving things around on the table (the Frost Giant is the Big 20 sided, the ogre is Zammis and Don is the marbled green 10 sided)?
how do you have die work when you know that Rico hasnt told the truth about a die roll (except for both the "NATURALS" he's ever really rolled) in 17 years?
How do you allow Pete to make shit up on the fly without too much work (trying desperately to keep Wheels in check)?
How can I have an advantage over everyone else without actually cheating?

Well.. I found just the application that lets us do this. ScreenMonkey! This gives us a chat interface (allowing for Pete to copy / paste text room descriptions in easily), a game board to move pieces around, computer generated dice rolling (theres no other way to do it, tho I could try to fuck with the code and make it more preferential to players rolls than the DMs rolls), no 3rd party software to install on the client computers (only the GM has to have software installed, it runs a web server on the GM computer and everyone just uses a browser to access the game).

So..

• its free for everyone (but the GM potentially)
• its pretty easy to use in my 10 minutes of testing
• No one can lie about their rolls
• we can play geographically dispersed
• all chat is logged (and the GM can see all the chat)
• we can talk and such with the voice comm (you will need to spend 8 dollars on a Microphone)

Im seeing this as a Win, Win, Win. Thoughts?
  ¶ 11:16 AM 2 comments

  Holiday is Over, back to Work Hope everyone had decent and safe winter holidays. All 5 of you that read this.

So.. back at work after about 2 weeks off (6 days of holiday, 4 days of working from home + weekends). Lets see.. what have I been up to?
Purchased the basics for playing D&D Miniatures. It looks interesting / quick / fun and could become a new hobby / obsession if I have anyone to play with.
In that light (and for another project), Ive been looking for software that will facilitate playing both D&D Minis and "regular" D&D online. What Ive found so far is a program called Vassal. It is attempting to provide a basic framework for playing any board game online (Dice rolling, grid for movement, etc). Im going to be looking at it more closely and seeing if theres anything better for simulating regular PnP D&D (Pen and Paper).
Saw Oceans 12. It was pretty good. Nothing earth shattering. The con / job wasnt as interesting to me as the first one.. but hey, what do you expect in this day and age. Movies have been going downhill (or Ive been getting old). Did see the Batman Begins trailer. That looks like a fun romp and gives me something to look forward to.
Other than that, trying to relax and have a good time with life. 2005 kinda has to be better than 2004. Anyone have any good picks for this years dead pool?
  ¶ 10:50 AM 0 comments