Cyberboard or Vassal for T&T

[djacknh]

For those who don't know, Cyberboard and Vassal are game programs used primarily by wargamers to play turn-based games by email. The program gives you maps and counters, you make your moves and it does the dice rolling for you (you can select as many rolls as you like for whatever sided dice you want). You can send text to your opponent with each move as well.
I'm in the middle of designing a gamebox for a wargame I'm making, and I got to thinking, what about playing T&T with these programs? Making a map can be labor intensive, so I'd say quick dungeon trips or an adventure in a small city or town would be more practical than a quest or epic-adventure.
So far I haven't noticed any feature (I could be wrong) where one player can put the blinders on the other so he only sees what he sees, but the GM would not have to display all the monsters, traps and treasure on the game map until player stumbles upon them. GM might have to display all the maps however.
If anyone has an interest in this please let me know and I'll try to design a quick gamebox for starters.

~Dave

[lostheretic]

Here's another option - there was a cool article about using Google Wave for D&D.

[ragnorakk]

sorry I didn't see this sooner - I'd certainly be interested in what could be developed for this.

[Hogscape]

Nov 1, 2009 14:07:55 GMT -5 djacknh said:

For those who don't know, Cyberboard and Vassal are game programs used primarily by wargamers to play turn-based games by email. The program gives you maps and counters, you make your moves and it does the dice rolling for you (you can select as many rolls as you like for whatever sided dice you want). You can send text to your opponent with each move as well.
I'm in the middle of designing a gamebox for a wargame I'm making, and I got to thinking, what about playing T&T with these programs? Making a map can be labor intensive, so I'd say quick dungeon trips or an adventure in a small city or town would be more practical than a quest or epic-adventure.
So far I haven't noticed any feature (I could be wrong) where one player can put the blinders on the other so he only sees what he sees, but the GM would not have to display all the monsters, traps and treasure on the game map until player stumbles upon them. GM might have to display all the maps however.
If anyone has an interest in this please let me know and I'll try to design a quick gamebox for starters.

~Dave

Dave that would be awesome, please let me know if I can help in any way. Is there a fee involved?

[djacknh]

Oh cool! People interested!!
I'm still learning Cyberboard at this time and am working on a wargame project with this system, so please give me until after New Years to have a gamebox developed. I will start working on it this week. My idea right now is to have the first stop be at a border town (bordering the lands of the bad guys of course), and then a venture into the wilderness with the next stop at the bad guy's dungeon. Like I said, making the maps is tedious so I probably could not have you complete an adventure and have a new one set up withing a week.
Not as good as FTF roleplaying in my opinion but right now I am without a group and I need something to do. Good thing about Cyberboard is that the program does all the dice rolling. You just specify what sided-die and how many to roll.
Here's the Cyberboard link if you want to check out the system.
cyberboard.brainiac.com/

Pretty small program and doesn't take up much space.
I'll be posting from now until New Year until I get a game ready.

~Dave

[djacknh]

And this is FREE!! I need something to do.

~Dave

[Hogscape]

Awesome Dave, I will follow the link and check it out tonight!

[jongjungbu]

Interesting idea. I'm familiar with Cyberboard, only fiddled with it a few times some years back. I'm more familiar with Vassal, enough that I have it on this computer but not Cyberboard. But, I definitely like to see what you can come up with by way of incorporating T&T into it.

[djacknh]

Basically all the gamebox will be will be maps and counters, and the ability to roll the dice. Players can converse with each other by email. The only thing I don't like is that I haven't found a way to keep portions of the map hidden until players explore that area. But the GM can keep monsters and treasure hidden, and just place a counter when they appear. I have Vassal but have not discovered a way to generate your own games with it, so will start with CB. I do think Vassal is a more advanced program though.

~Dave

[jongjungbu]

Yeah it seems that way, about Vassal. But that being said, I have really only used them from the player side. So I don't have any input on which is better for T&T GMing.

[djacknh]

I have Vassal too so I'll see if there is something like a double-blind feature.
I started re-reading my T&T rules (5.5 if you don't mind) and started making a map of a small kingdom and The Wild Lands beyond. I want to keep T&T flavor with a few AD&D intrusions.

~Dave

[jongjungbu]

Sounds good. 5th/5.5 is my preferred edition. I will have to re-download Cyberboard in anticipation of your gamebox.

[uburoi]

Hey, someone else into Cyberboard! Kewl!

Nov 19, 2009 11:17:52 GMT -5 djacknh said:

The only thing I don't like is that I haven't found a way to keep portions of the map hidden until players explore that area.

One way to do this might be to have the terrain as tiles, akin to D&D Dungeon Tiles. You might create a set of geomorphic tiles, then set them as "markers" which means you have an unlimited supply to draw from. The question you had about players being able to see things might be handled through ownership issues... being as I've designed most of my gameboxes for solo purposes, that's an area I really haven't explored.

Problem is, T&T is a lot looser in terms of mapping & such than most other RPGs... you need to figure out what you're looking for in terms of a map. Do you want a dungeon/cave system, or a blank grid you can place terrain or furniture on? Setting something like that up would be very simple... not so much if you're looking to map out complex building interiors or detailed outdoor maps.

You know, I think I may just slap together my own T&T CB version over the holiday. Thanks for the inspiration!

[djacknh]

Uberoi,

Using tiles sounds brilliant! I will practice with that.
My status at this moment is:
1. Designing a Cyberboard wargame and getting experience with the system.
2. Re-learning 5.5 rules and completing my house rules if players want a little more realism.
3. Making a map of the playing world and thinking of ideas for a first adventure.
-Playing world will be a human kingdom about 120x150 miles, with a seacoast, a Dwarven enclave in the mountains, and an Elven forest.
Hobbits have migrated in a long time ago and are somewhat integrated in human society. A larger human empire is to the East and South, and the forces of evil lay to the North. Seacoast on the West side. Climate about the same as Northern Europe or Southern Canada.

Would take a long time to have the whole playing world developed anytime soon, but hope to have the first adventure ready sometime in January.

~Dave

[ragnorakk]

Good luck with these projects fellas! I downloaded Vassal and doubt I'll have the time to look at it with holiday and other projects and stuff. How steep is the learning curve (from ground zero, but with general programming experience...)?