Hi!

Something near and dear to me, it the old days of tabletop RPG’s, it’s tough to find people to play when you’re an old fart like me, nearing my 30’s sadly…
But I digress, the point of this post is to announce what I’ve been working on.

When I first heard about AO, I was very drawn to it, always a sci-fi fan, love the world they’ve created, system looks slick.  I just have one problem…  I don’t have a gaming group, and it may be tricky to find one I mesh with, and can meet up with at a certain time, especially when you need to pretty much devote an entire day to it, when you factor in traffic, getting settled in, etc.

So I did something about, and began working on:

<!—m—>http://virtual-basement.blogspot.com/<!—m—>

This isn’t a virtual campaign, but a tool to facilitate those of us who are unable to gain access to a traditional gaming group.  It’s a chat room, a virtual tabletop to show maps, minis, send images of key points, to players.  It also includes a public die roller, as well as a bunch of macros to hold common rolls, or chat phrases.

What doesn’t it do?  Well, it doesn’t process any rules whatsoever, that’d take away from the game, and the GM’s job.  It chats, it shows positions, it rolls dice, everything you need in a physical gaming group, minus the Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

What do I hope to gain from this?  Nothin’ really, except a feeling of satisfaction knowing players who may not have been able to play are now given the chance, and hopefully some will have made some kick-ass web campaigns, and hopefully I can take part in one.  Oh, and checking out new material early for all you designers out there /end shameless begging .

Anyway, check out what I’ve done so far, it’s still in the works so no downloads yet, but well on track.  Would’ve posted this later but there’s already quite a few who know what’s going on.

Looks really cool man.  REALLY cool.

And it’s a treat to see my map of the Cargo Pod on someone else’s screen.  Quite the hoot.

Well done!

Ohhhh, uhhh….  About that…  I kinda…borrowed…some images from the Milk Run for testing purposes, figured it’d be a great place to start from both as graphics and for gameplay testing.  Hope that’s ok.

hmm… Will it be cross platform, or just windows?

right now just windows, but I don’t think it’d take much effort to port it over, don’t mac os and *nix systems have a windows emulator somewhere?

Nice work there Iron Hands…

As long as it’s confession time…

I’m nearing my 30s as well, and have been trying to find a couple more people to game with in the Chicagoland area.  To pass time I’ve created an AO character gen in VB6.  Finally hammered out "most" of the bugs.

Just couldnt wait for the online one by you guys <!—s;)—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif<!—s;)—>

Aw come on…I just turned 49 and I just picked up the rules last week here in Columbus.  Still reading the fluff but will be going over the rules next week.  Intriqued by the game because it pushes most of my buttons, without being too fantastic.  Just the right amount of ultratech with a mythic bent.  Might take a look myself at your online setup.

actually someone *just* asked me about a character generator option in the application I’m developing, I will not add this into mine, because I intend to keep mine open to all systems, but mostly AO <!—s:P—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif<!—s:P—>

But yes, the other reason is the online one we’re anxiously awaiting to be put into place - myself I don’t mind waiting since I know what they are currently focussed on, and that totally makes up for any delays.

As far as darkeldar, Myri is setting up an online campaign atm at Neopangea.net if you’re interested head on over.  I’ve received a lot of interest in what I’m developing so I may need to run a little session for those interested parties to show how it translates onto the net, I REALLY hope more will follow Myri’s lead and allow people access to some great sessions.

Myri was planning something for the 25th-ish, on my end, I think that’s more than enough time for me to have a proper stable beta and accept feedback.

Thanks everyone for your support so far, I hope I can produce something deserving of the attention!

[color=#BF80FF:d09f3]Aw, thanks Iron-Hands. <!—s:D—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif<!—s:D—> Yeah, the poor fellow tonight was getting the Spanish Inquisition from me. And out of those questions came forth a wishlist that has showed up on his blog! I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make more work for you.  <!—s:oops:—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif<!—s:oops:—>

But yeah, we have enough to hold one group but I’ve created enough support that I could be running it twice over the weekend of the 25th depending on the number of players signing up. To see the discussion regarding "Milk Run" however, you must be a registered member of the NeoPangea forums so that it keeps spoilers from prying eyes. <!—s;)—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif<!—s;)—> This includes our calendar for scheduling character consultations if you’re planning to play your own rolled character. If it’s just to play "Milk Run" as a trial to see what a live event would be like, it’ll just be a few questions.  As most of you have now pretty much have started experiencing the ARG portion of our campaign, I invite you to see how the RT RP events are run. It should be interesting as we beta test Iron-Hands’ wonderful VGT interface and get familiar with the game mechanics of AO.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Myri <!—s:D—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif<!—s:D—> [/color:d09f3]

in the interests of testing and feedback, any interested it running thru milk run in the coming months?  anyone’s welcome - especially nay-sayers, or people who are curious on how the game would function virtually.  need to get as many test runs as possible <!—s:P—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif<!—s:P—>

[color=#BF80FF:138c3]*nods* Due to scheduling problems, we weren’t able to play Milk Run this past weekend but I’ve rescheduled for May 10th, 10am EDT in the morning. This should enable those over the "pond" to join us for a game. <!—s:D—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif<!—s:D—> We’re meeting in the Commons and then being able to distribute the latest version of Iron-Hands’ Virtual Basement to our players.

I’ll be in the NeoPangea Commons this coming week Tuesday to Friday 7 - 11pm if you have any questions and please send a copy of your char stats via PM or email. <!—s:)—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif<!—s:)—>

All I can say is that since we last beta-tested the VGT, Iron-Hands has made some great strides in improving the user-friendliness of the application, its overall stability, its array of features for players to use yet still have the freedom of customization by the players and GMs in relation to each one’s character and functions of play.  <!—s:geek:—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_geek.gif<!—s:geek:—>

I’m really looking forward to actually running "Milk Run" for the players.  <!—s:D—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif<!—s:D—>

Myri <!—s:mrgreen:—>{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_mrgreen.gif<!—s:mrgreen:—> 

PS - I hope in a sense it’ll give you a good idea on how the monthly live events will be run for NeoPangea in addition to the ARG/RP portion to the campaign. [/color:138c3]