Anyone that’s ever tried to run a game of Dungeons and Dragons or another tabletop roleplaying game online knows that trying to take your game to the Internet add an extra layer of complexity on top of an already complicated game. In addition to keeping track of all of the dice rolls, map positions and NPC information you normally need, you also have to figure out some way of selectively informing the other players of all the pertinent information without the convenience of them sitting right next to you to see it.
However, the team at Tabletop Forge thinks they’ve found a solution. By adding some robust tabletop gaming tools to the Google+ Hangouts feature, the team believes they’ve found an ideal way to help tabletop gamers play online. Tabletop Forge adds great RP specific features to the group videoconferencing features of hangouts that allow you to use virtual dice rolling, battle maps for laying out combat quickly and easily online, and even a macro system so you can edit any commands the team might not have thought of into Tabletop Forge.
The core Tabletop Forge system is already in working order, but the team is running a Kickstarter to get some professional art assets into the Forge so that gamers can quickly and easily pick out maps and monsters that are right for their campaign and get started playing faster.
The team has already easily surpassed their initial $5000 goal and are in the home stretch to meet a final $38,000 stretch goal that will add even more features and maps to the Tabletop Forge arsenal. If you’re interested, head on over to their Kickstarter Page and take a look at their donation options.