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[Sensei]

There's quite a lot of these out there, but I'm not sure if there's a general thread for them. If you didn't know (or guess), a virtual tabletop is a program for playing tabletop games online.  I've tried a couple, but I was wondering what all of your recommendations were for a good one. I usually play DnD 3.5 (on a whiteboard, which has its drawbacks) and was considering trying a virtual tabletop for my group.

Also, discuss, in general.

[Criptfeind]

I've not found a tabletop that can actually beat maptools power/ease of use if it actually decides to work for your group. Other then that I like the idea of Roll20, but every time I use it I can't help but think "This is pretty good but too bad it's not maptools."

[0x517A5D]

There's a thread from a couple of years ago:
The ok-ish yet still best I could find tabletop gaming program, Screenmonkey.
There are mentions six or eight possibilities.  No obvious winner.

And there's this:
Tabletop Simulator - Any board game you can imagine, Now With Physics™
Which is not at all what you're looking for, but I thought was interesting anyway.

[Criptfeind]

Can someone tell me what Tabletop simulator is for? Because I am struggling with the concept a bit. It adds physics but. Like. How is that desirable for playing games? Will you even have the precision required to actually be able to do anything? And since you apparently need to use a computer program to interface with your group why not do something that actually takes advantage of the medium? (Such as by not having physics for one)

I mean, is it suppose to be a joke/physics toy? Because that's only going to be fun for like two or three minutes. Are people suppose to make up physics based games that work in the engine? Because. That. Doesn't seem likely? To me at least.

[sambojin]

It could (in theory) make for some very neat user-made games. It doesn't seem to add anything otherwise. Plus it may add an extra level of hassle to playing "normal" tabletop games.

But I'm still really looking forward to see what can be done with it. Maybe a new generation of games will be made. Maybe it'll end up as a software toy.

[Gunner-Chan]

I've used it a bit and it does have quality of life enhancements for the games in it. Like auto adjusting pieces to land bottom first if you pick them up. Mostly it seems to be just aiming to give more of an actual games on a table feel, which is kinda cool. You can also be pretty precise and I say this from a touchpad as I have no mouse.

It's supposed to have assets modding later too, which can really open it up from what it is now. It and Roll20 are also the only tabletop enviroments I know of that can do custom decks of cards without being a program specifically for that, or using clumsy plugins.

[Sensei]

Can someone tell me what Tabletop simulator is for? Because I am struggling with the concept a bit. It adds physics but. Like. How is that desirable for playing games?

I feel like Tabletop Simulator exists in a Goat Simulator vein, where it's just a silly physics game.

[freeformschooler]

Can someone tell me what Tabletop simulator is for? Because I am struggling with the concept a bit. It adds physics but. Like. How is that desirable for playing games? Will you even have the precision required to actually be able to do anything? And since you apparently need to use a computer program to interface with your group why not do something that actually takes advantage of the medium? (Such as by not having physics for one)

I mean, is it suppose to be a joke/physics toy? Because that's only going to be fun for like two or three minutes. Are people suppose to make up physics based games that work in the engine? Because. That. Doesn't seem likely? To me at least.

Oh, it's very fun if you like card games. I've played quite a bit of tabletop poker with my friends over it. Most online poker suucks at emulating the feel of a real game. The only downsides are the physics are kind of floaty, and the entire thing is a HUGE resource hog for what it is. They probably didn't need Unity for this.

Other games are bad. Chess, actual RPGs, etc are too slow and much better represented within more specialized tools.

[Weaponized Knowledge]

Can someone tell me what Tabletop simulator is for? Because I am struggling with the concept a bit. It adds physics but. Like. How is that desirable for playing games? Will you even have the precision required to actually be able to do anything? And since you apparently need to use a computer program to interface with your group why not do something that actually takes advantage of the medium? (Such as by not having physics for one)

I mean, is it suppose to be a joke/physics toy? Because that's only going to be fun for like two or three minutes. Are people suppose to make up physics based games that work in the engine? Because. That. Doesn't seem likely? To me at least.

Oh, it's very fun if you like card games. I've played quite a bit of tabletop poker with my friends over it. Most online poker suucks at emulating the feel of a real game. The only downsides are the physics are kind of floaty, and the entire thing is a HUGE resource hog for what it is. They probably didn't need Unity for this.

Other games are bad. Chess, actual RPGs, etc are too slow and much better represented within more specialized tools.

Not to mention that you can flip the table with a button,  instead of having to ddos the ip you punched into maptool in hopes that it shuts down.

[timferius]

I am a devout user of Roll20. It's easy to set up, easy to use, and free. (though I pay the $5 a month for the subscriber benifits like Line of sight/lighting and such). the in game voice works well, the cameras, well, I'm not sure if the issue is the program or the users, but it seems one of my players always has trouble starting theirs up, so we pretty much just use voice these days.
Either way, the best part about Roll20 is you can try it, since its free, and see if you like it. Plus, they're adding integrated character sheets with the next update.

[Anvilfolk]

I've been using VASSAL for a bunch of boardgames and wargames. It works fairly well! You need to find a module for the game you want to play, which contains graphics for all the pieces and such. It doesn't implement any rules - it's more like ... a virtual tabletop, where YOU need to move pieces around, etc.

I recommend it in general, though I'm not sure how adapted it is for tabletop RPGs. I know some people do miniatures wargaming with it though.

[puke]

I'll plug Infrno ( http://www.infrno.net/ ).  Good table top system, has live voice and video chat to go with it.