I’ve been following the development of EpicTable almost since the beginning. As it nears completion, I thought it would be a good idea to “interview” John again, and get a feeling about how it will support the creator-owned and small press games I love.
What exactly is a Virtual Tabletop, and why do I need one?
A virtual tabletop is an application specifically designed for tabletop games. It’s not a game itself, but an environment that allows you to play games. For a lot of people, this is a means to play tabletop games online, though many virtual tabletops are useful for face-to-face play as well.
Why do you need one? There are plenty of general-purpose tools out there–Skype, IM, for example–and some of them have gaming add-ons like dice rollers, but the advantage of a virtual tabletop is that it’s not general-purpose. It’s specifically tailored to gaming. So, the dice roller’s not a bolted-on feature, but is integrated into a cohesive whole that may include mapping, character sheets, combat trackers, etc. It’s like the difference between managing your finances in a general-purpose number cruncher like Excel vs. a dedicated app like Quicken. You can manage your finances in Excel, but it’s more cumbersome, less capable, less cohesive.
There are already a handful of good VTs out there, what does EpicTable offer that the others don’t?
Each VT has its own strengths, and I’d really encourage people to check them out and see what matches their needs and style best. A lot depends on how well the things you value match up with the things the VT designer values. With EpicTable, I’ve chosen to concentrate on ease of use and end-user extensibility. I believe very strongly that you shouldn’t have to be poking around in the file system, dropping files in specific directories, or writing XML and scripts. Yet I strongly believe you should be able to define your own resources–textures, map objects, light sources, character sheets, even adapt the game you want to play for use with EpicTable–all through EpicTable’s graphical interface. As a consequence, there are features that EpicTable might not offer out of the gate–for instance, the character sheet designer is still under development, and I’ll release version 1.0 without it–but this is because I really believe that every EpicTable feature should be usable by a “normal”, non-techie gamer.
EpicTable is the first VT that is designed to support so-called “indie” or “story games.” How is playing an indie game in EpicTable different that using other VTs, such as MapTool or Fantasy Grounds?
There are features that are specifically aimed at games in the indie/story community–for instance:
* the ability to move dice around in support of Dogs in the Vineyard
* index cards for characters and relationships in Fiasco, for facts about the story in Universalis, etc.
* game board support for games like Grey Ranks
* support for dice pools of different colors for games like Don’t Rest Your Head
* game pieces fanmail tokens for Primetime Adventures, coins and stones that you can use for Fate points, for DRYH’s Hope and Despair, for Universalis currency, etc.
* the ability to build up wide variety of interesting dice mechanics
* rich chat functionality that allows you to easily shift between multiple personas, convey mood, etc.
* non-traditional treatment of roles is something I’m exploring as well, though I’m not certain how it’s going to appear in version 1.0. For instance, I want to separate the notions of host and GM and support GM-less games.
Some VTs have some of these features, but I think it’s actually less about a feature checklist and more about EpicTable and its designer being aligned with indie/story goals:
* This community tends to play lots of different games, so you need lots of flexibility, lots of little pieces you can put to your own purposes.
* You can’t always wait for someone else to adapt your game to the VT. In fact, a lot of the games are too low-volume to expect a commercial adaptation of it to appear, so it’s important that you can adapt it for use with a VT yourself.
* You might only play a given game for a couple sessions, so you sure don’t want to spend days or weeks building support for it.
You’re nearing the alpha testing stage. What can alpha testers expect? What do you expect from them?
The goal of the alpha is to get some feedback from people actually using EpicTable for gaming. There will be some features missing, so it’s more like a playtest than a normal gaming session. There will be a series of alpha releases, leading towards a beta. The distinction between the two is that during the alpha, features will still be trickling in, while during the beta EpicTable will be feature complete and I’ll just be polishing some rough edges and reacting to feedback.
In terms of my expectations, I’d really like people to provide feedback, and I’m hoping they don’t get too hung up on missing features. I’m a little concerned that I’m going to see a blog that says, “EpicTable doesn’t have feature X!” because the blogger doesn’t realize that it’s not feature complete. I think the feedback will make it worth that risk.
How can one become a tester?
Just check in on the EpicTable site periodically. I’ll post plenty of info about the alpha as it nears and once it starts. There’s an RSS feed and email notifications you can subscribe to as well.
What do you plan to add to EpicTable 2 that won’t be in the initial release?
At this point, it looks like the character sheet designer will come after 1.0. However, I plan to have a 1.x release that essentially “makes good” on the forecasted feature set. For EpicTable 2, there’s a lot to choose from. I suspect you’re going to see more depth in the character sheet designer and game adaptation, more facilities for designing/adding your own resources, and possibly a more sophisticated combat tracker. A lot will depend on feedback from the community though.
Check out EpicTable at www.epictable.com.
