One Week to Go!
When we announced our 18-day Kickstarter, several people told us that we wouldn't be able to raise $5,000 in that time. They were spot on -- we couldn't have done that. But YOU keep exceeding expectations, pushing us past $18,000 with a full week left of fundraising. Because you've "Liked" us on Facebook, tweeted about us, and shared us on your favorite community message boards, we're soaring past levels of interest we had only dreamed about.
Today we're pleased to show off our very first documentation page, an in-depth look at the dice-rolling functionality of Roll20. It features detailed, easy-to-understand descriptions of all the dice rolls we support (including several new ones!), as well as an interactive way to test them out right on the page. One of the amazing things about this project has been the feedback from various gaming communities about the needs of their game; there are several new options available based on your requests, but implemented in a way that remains easy-to-use, and without negatively impacting the experience of those players using more basic functions.
Also today there's a new video highlighting improved gameplay and additional interface functionality; both of which have seen constant behind-the-scenes improvements since our initial overview video. Particularly we're highlighting our new quick-access radial menus for tokens and a new deck system to support games that use cards. And, as always, there's more on the way.
We'll continue working on expanding and streamlining the system as much as we can before the Beta opens to Hero ($25) and above pledgers in early May. Know that for all the money and effort you're putting into Roll20, we're doing our very best to live up to your faith in us. We like the added pressure of increased funding, and like having the "problem" of wondering how much more the pressure will increase. With a week left, we honestly don't know-- but we expect you'll keep helping us to look higher.
1,580
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Funding period
Apr 13, 2012 -
May 1, 2012
- First created · 14 backed
- Riley Dutton 143 friends
- Website: roll20.net
Pledge $1 or more
347 backers
Our eternal gratitude for supporting our mission of redefining what virtual tabletop gaming can be. When Roll20 launches to the public, your user profile will have a special badge to show you were there to support us from the beginning.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2012Pledge $10 or more
287 backers
Familiar: All of the above, plus we'll give you access two weeks before the general public, after the beta test period has ended. Credited on the website as "Familiar."
Estimated delivery: Aug 2012Pledge $25 or more
613 backers
Hero: All of the above, and guaranteed access to the closed beta so you can start using Roll20 as soon as possible with your group. We'll also solicit your feedback several times throughout the beta through surveys (and, of course, bug reports) so you can help shape the final application. Credited on the website as "Hero."
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $50 or more
259 backers
Mentor: All of the above, plus when Roll20 launches you'll receive a "Mentor" account instead of a normal account, which gives you increased upload storage capacity for your custom art uploads. In addition, even after the site has launched you'll continue to receive access to a "development" version of the site where you'll have access to new features before everyone else. Credited on the website as "Mentor."
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $100 or more
65 backers
Benefactor: All of the above (including "Mentor" account status), plus a limited edition t-shirt (design to be finalized later, projected delivery July 2012; please add $10 for shipping outside the United States). We'll also provide a direct email address so you can contact the development team with your feedback any time -- the ultimate way to help Roll20 succeed. Credited on the website as "Benefactor."
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $500 or more
2 backers Limited (3 of 5 left)
Game Master: Beta access, "Mentor" account designation, limited edition t-shirt, AND an individual tutorial directly with a member of the Roll20 development team to show you how to use the system and answer any questions you might have. To be conducted via Skype + screen sharing after the beta period has ended, up to two hours in length. Credited on website as "Game Master."
Estimated delivery: May 2012
Comments
Creator Thomas Brabbin on April 29, 2012
(By this Sunday, I mean next Sunday, AFTER it actually comes out.)
Creator Thomas Brabbin on April 29, 2012
@Riley Dutton: Thanks for your response, I am really hyped for this. I should be using it in an actual session this sunday. I hope to get the hang of it as soon as possible. Sorry for my excited deluge of questions!
Creator Riley Dutton on April 27, 2012
@Thomas We do have plans to have a sort of "generic" card that just has the name of the card on it, yes. You can do as many decks at once as you want. Right now you can only "draw" the cards which is why they stay on the deck like that, but in the future we have plans to expand the system to let you deal cards to specific players who would then have "hands", and possible even drag the cards around just like a token so you can just place it wherever you want on the tabletop. And the deck is modifiable at any time, so you can add or remove cards during the game as needed.
Creator Thomas Brabbin on April 27, 2012
Would it be possible to do quick text cards, like if you have cards that you can't find digital images of and don't have access to a scanner?
What about multiple decks at the same time, ala Gamma world's Omega Tech and Alpha Mutation decks?
Moving the card images across the table instead of just on top of the pile?
How about having a library of cards that you can modify on the fly easily, like if you want to remove certain cards?
Creator Riley Dutton on April 26, 2012
@David I think (if I understand what you're saying) it already does all of that! You can have as many decks as you want. In each deck you add however many cards you want. For each deck you upload an image to serve as the back for that deck, and then you upload an image to serve as the face for each card in the deck. So that's the process I used to create the playing cards deck shown in the video, but I could have just as easily created a Gamma World Alpha & Omega deck, for example. Hope that helps!
Creator David Green on April 26, 2012
It might be beneficial in later iterations to include multiple decks that can be configured independently (different backs, different cards, etc).
Question: I couldn't tell from this video, but can you specify how many of each card are in the deck?
Keep up the awesome work!
Creator Riley Dutton on April 26, 2012
@George The possibilities of the Deck of Many Things has not been lost on me as well :-)
Creator George Voinquel on April 26, 2012
Ooooh. That pack of cards feature makes me imagine playing as Deadlands 'hucksters', or using the Deck of Many Things in D&D. Or maybe just playing Baccarat in Spycraft because why not. I do hope you can get hands working, it would open a lot of possibilities!
Creator Riley Dutton on April 25, 2012
@Anifantatic Thanks!
@Chris: It's mostly going to pay for hosting! :-)
Creator Chris Clouser on April 25, 2012
I shiver with anticipation (as do my players).
ps. Holy crap, almost twenty-two thousand bucks. You have my permission to buy yourselves some nice hats or something.
Creator Anifanatic on April 24, 2012
This is an excellent video showing what steps you have taken to break away from the pack, so to speak. Excellent new additions, amazingly simple to use, very versatile.
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Paul Thanks for your support! Much appreciated.
Creator Paul Croyle on April 23, 2012
REALLY looking forward to beta testing this puppy, so I just pledged and subbed to your newsletter (I suppose this counts as Power-gaming?).
Cam-chat option is great, all the dice mechanics you've added are great, in-house + customisable content is great, and the fact you just log in to a single website instead of downloading clients is fantastic (my gaming group have tried the latter option and we always ended up having trouble with people not being able to connect due to tedious firewall or router issues).
Looking forward in seeing what else you add to this beast. Good luck!
Creator Daniel Kappers on April 23, 2012
Yeah i was thinking more than 3, just as an extra button with "add bar" or something, but yeah it probably would crowd it a bit..
The thing about showing it to a special player is that it would give some possibilities to take advantage of the IT, to display spell effects. As in D&D there is a spell which makes the caster aware of the health status of the opponent creature, so it would be cool to be able to show that effect by letting him see the bar, instead of having to whisper him continually to create the illusion of him knowing the health status of the creature
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Daniel 1) When you say additional bars, do you mean more than 3? Right now we're only planning on including 3, since otherwise it gets pretty crowded around the token. 2) By default only the GM sees the bars. You can toggle it so that the players see the bars as well on a per-bar, per-token basis. We're not at this time planning on adding support for only showing it to a specific player, though...
Creator Daniel Kappers on April 23, 2012
Some xtra questions and i'm sorry if they have already been asked, but:
1. Is it possible to create additional bars for a specific token? it would be cool for NPC's or encounters in D&D.
2. Is it possible to edit the bars so that they can only be seen by a single player and the GM, or just only visible to the GM?
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Daniel Thanks! :-)
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Zachary We didn't show it in that video, but if you watch the Demo Video on the project homepage, toward the end we show the Macros being used. They can basically store any snippet of text, so it can be a formula with additional text, yes.
Creator Daniel Kappers on April 23, 2012
Awesome-sauce! just didnt quite get that from the movie, so had to be sure :) thanks alot! keep up the great work, its really nice to see you using so much time answering our comments, compared to so many other people who just ignore their community :)
Creator Zachary Hearn on April 23, 2012
This may just be me not paying close enough attention, but will players be able to save and edit macros for rolls, including the VS Fort or For Initiative type of messages? And will you be able to private roll with a player other than the GM? Your tabletop looks hecka cool right now, keep up the good work!
Creator Weimann on April 23, 2012
White Wolf does a lot with exploding dice and variants thereof. In Exalted, exploding dice doesn't actually provide a new roll but simply counts as two successes. Would it be possible to add some variant of that? Dice that would normally explode and be rerolled instead provide a flat number of additional successes?
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Daniel What you're describing is exactly what you do. So basically for each "card" you define in the deck, you give it a name and then upload an image for that card. You also upload one image for the whole deck to represent the "backs" of the cards. So you should be able to do that no problem.
Creator Daniel Kappers on April 23, 2012
Cant wait till this is being released! How much costumization will be available on theese cards? Because with my team i am using a "Harrowing Deck" which i have turned into cards that actually create an event, at the time is is being drawn. So it would be really cool if it would be possible to upload pictures onto the cards
//Daniel
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Sean I will definitely look into adding that. I just used the double-exclamation mark for Shadowrun-style exploding dice, though (where the new roll is added to the first one and it's treated like a "single roll"), but I'm getting a feeling the syntax may be in flux, anyway :-).
Creator Sean Riedinger on April 23, 2012
Another quick functionality request: Could you allow for multiple 'levels' of exploding dice? Several White Wolf games, as well as a few others I've seen, have dice explode when you get results -other- than the top one. For example, 9-again is extremely common in Promethean. The syntax could be multiple !, one for each exploding number. So "/roll 7d10!!>8" Would be a roll of 7 dice, looking for successes on 8-10, and exploding on both 9 AND 10. Any chance that could get worked in, or something like it?
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Michael @Jonas Gotcha. As I was thinking about it, I realized that really any game system could be construed to work that way. For example you could say that a D&D attack roll vs. AC could be written (1d20+5)>15. I just never thought to use it that way since in D&D it wouldn't be worth typing in the extra part of formula since it would be easier just to look at the result and say "that's less than 18". I will certainly look to add that functionality if people will use it! Might be the sort of thing where we wait and see how the beta goes and then the Savage Worlds players (and others) can let us know if it would be quicker to include that functionality or if it's quicker just to glance and compare in your head.
Creator Michael Jacob on April 23, 2012
Savage Worlds damage rolls work that way. Multiple exploding dice are added and compared to a target number, the target's toughness. /roll (1d12+1d8+1d6)>8 => (8+3+5=16)>8 = 3 successes (or 1 success and 2 raises).
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Jonas Thanks for the feedback. Is there a game system in particular that works that way (compares the sum of multiple rolls versus target instead of comparing each roll versus target)? Just curious.
Creator Jonas Dorn on April 23, 2012
Nice roll system! One thing that surprised me: When I type "/roll (3d6)>3" I expect that the parentheses mean that the result of the three rolls is added before check for success. Instead, there is 0 Success. This syntax should either compare the sum of the roll (preferred), or return an error.
Creator Riley Dutton on April 23, 2012
@Chris @Matt Thanks for your support!
Creator Chris Clouser on April 23, 2012
Riley, this new video is looking fantastic. Mind is approaching blown. I'm boosting my pledge; I need in on this *soonest.*
Creator Matt C on April 23, 2012
Above and beyond Riley and team. Well done!
I have been gathering players and gaming resources in great anticipation for testing. I was very excited to find the application, share it with fellow gamers and look forward to supporting the platform well after the kickstarter is over.