WOW (Excitement)

General Games Virtual Table Tops
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I did not know we had a virtual tabletop board in OTG. I have a job to do. My job will be to create a NEW D&D Campaign. I’ve started preliminary design work on my new campaign. At some point, I will need some alpha testers. I think I will need at least a year to get preliminary design work completed. I will probably take the role of Dungeon Master during development, since that will help with my design.

I do not know the rules of OTG well enough. I need to know about maintaining my copyright, NDAs, set up my LLC, and more before I release too much information. Right now, I plan to write and illustrate a campaign book, a set of adventure modules (enough to fill a book), spell cards, and perhaps a book on D&D Design. I also want to paint my set of plastic figures, create the terrain models, draw a large-scale campaign map, record the alpha/beta virtual sessions, custom character sheets, and figure out if I want to publish the entire adventure.

How long will this initial effort in D&D Design last? I would expect this to be a five-year project before I finish the 1st Edition. That is a back of the envelop written in crayon. I have not written a business plan and project plan yet.

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As far as I know OTG has no interest in what people run. This area is strictly to match up someone who want to run a campaign and for them to find OTG players that might be interested. They provide a channel in the OTG General Games Discord area for it. Just like they have a channel in there for other general games like STO and some others.

So when you get to the point of wanting to set up a VTT game, You mostly have to decide is what VTT platform you want to build your Campaign in and then find out what that platforms individual rights were DM Homebrew content is added and not from a game publishing company like Wizards or Piazo.

A lot of games here use Fantasy Grounds as their VTT Platform. Others use Roll 20 and still others Foundry. There might be others out there, those are just the 3 that I have heard of.

Mith

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Mith,

Thanks a ton. I’m still in primary content development. I don’t think I will be able to start live Alpha testing until next year. I have never participated in a VTT or on-line version of a D&D campaign. I have watched a bit of Critical Roll, but not enough to have the technology figured out.

Since I’m been an Instructional Technologist and Interactive Multi-Media Designer for 30 years, nothing on the technical side really scares me. Having said that, I really need to update some of my technical skills on the graphics side. Of course, I can just stealth read this entire board to find out what I was missing.

Matin

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If you have never participated in a VTT or on-line version of D&D/RPG table top gaming, don’t let the thought of it overwhelm you. Like @Mithinar said, you can get by with a VTT and voice chat. I use Roll20 for my DMing currently along with D&D Beyond and the Beyond20 extension for Google that integrates D&D Beyond into Roll20. I also like Foundry although that one is more reliant on user content.

You could run some smaller shorter campaigns/one shots or such to get a feel for things before you do the big show. Kinda like ttrpg warm ups.

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Roll20 is a good starter, as it is quite easy to use, and its free. That is how I began, with hand drawn scribbles “that’s a tree” :slight_smile:

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I volunteer as tribute! Er… I mean… as an alpha tester! :smiley:

Also I love how you specified “(Excitement)” in the topic ha ha

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What!!!??

This isn’t about World of Warcraft AT ALL!!!

:stuck_out_tongue:

/wave @Matin

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I have been a player and DM for live D&D. I played around with designing user content for Neverwinter and PotBS. I used Roll20 with my Great Niece and Nephew recently. Dreadhead and I were in the same static group playing LOTRO. I ran the alternative Turtle run activity for the guild. I have not run a virtual D&D session.

I have a BA in US History. This campaign will be offensive to both Right Wingers and Left Wingers. If you can stand history with all the warts and all, you will be okay. If you are flap heavy to either side, I would recommend against signing up as an alpha tester. For example, I plan to build Critical Race Theory into this campaign. If you had a negative reaction to that statement, you should not alpha test. If you had a positive reaction to that statement, let’s talk about how the Abolitionists used the Rape of Lucritia as part of the campaign to free the slaves. If you don’t understand either of those statements, but want to play anyway… If you don’t care about any of these issues, you can sign up.

I have an MS in Instructional Technology and 30 years of experience in designing training courses for the business and government. 1’ve been known to write 500-page manuals on the transportation of hazardous materials by air. My Word skills are pretty dang good.

I will be producing my own art for this campaign. I finished all the requirements for an Associate of Arts in Art before they eliminated the program and left me hanging. I plan to do all the preliminary artwork in pen and ink. I’m leaning towards taking only specific courses I need to improve my digital art capability going forward. I have enough skills in graphic design software to do 2D work. I need to study more in areas such as video, digital photography, 3D art production, and other topics going forward. I’m painting my own figures and plan to build my own terrain. I will probably hire a couple of local college kids to help me with pushing the lead and running the video camera. I might get my own 3-D printer and scanner for some model work. I might hire some college kids or perhaps some talent from Deviant art to make some resources as I go forward.

I would probably use Zoom or equivalent software to run the sessions. I would make most of the resources digital but might send an assistant DM a resource package with the scripts and other support material. As players found magic items and learned spells, I would send their hand-drawn and laminated cards through the mail. They might also get some custom art (suitably framed).

I will accept alpha tester applications from OTG. I would note that alpha is least a year out (actually, might be 2 years out), will require you to sign an NDA, will be recorded, and be run on-line/virtual. If this venture ever makes money, I will agree to a bit of profit-sharing. I might also consider accepting someone as the assistant Dungeon Master for the alpha testing. However, as of right now this will all be a long time away and we will have to see how life treats me.

I would love to have a blog/thread on designing the campaign hosted on OTG’s forums and website. However, I have to maintain control of the intellectual property rights if I ever get around to publishing. I am against publishing at this time. I am leaning towards making this an on-line show like Critical Roll. I will set up my LLC and own website and simply point my alpha testers in that direction and give them access. My NDA will be simple, but enforceable.

All of this should be considered notional at this time. I may never get this show off the ground. I thank the Lord daily for OTG. Best dang guild in the world.

Edit: I’m currently designing the campaign in 5e. The next version of D&D will be published before this effort goes to alpha testing. Actually, I’m studying my Advanced D&D DM Manual as I begin work on the campaign. I may have to break out the white box books and supplements. Yes, the Tomb of Horrors and old Dragon Magazines are some of the resources I’m currently using.

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I think I may buy an Ultimate license for Fantasy Ground Unity and add my own resources and art.