We've been using these tools for a while now for our weekly game. There are a couple of us that play remotely and we use Google Hangout to do so (although the last couple of sessions we all played remotely using Hangouts and the tool). It has been working quite well and I thought I would make it available to the community.

It consists of Destiny tracker, a roller (originally coded by our GM and posted in this forum a couple months ago) with the results communicated to everyone in the Hangout including the roll results that appear as an overlay to the video stream.

You can give it a try here:

This is what it looks like. It is displayed as a side-panel next to the video.

This is brilliant. Why no one has said this is brilliant up until now, I don't know.

Why is it brilliant? Because it works right along with Roll20 via Hangouts and THAT means we can use the proper dice with it.

See, brilliant.

Wow! That's great. I can't wait to get home and give it a shot. Thanks for sharing.

<- that's for you

Hey guys,

Could you expand on how to use the Hangout tool with Roll20?

I am very experienced at running online WFRP3 via FG2 and Maptool, and have tried EotE with Maptool as well. It works, but Maptool is not very user friendly, and I am looking for a better software (until one day hopefully someone do an EotE FG2 ruleset).

So, do you load both Google Hangout and Roll20 in two browser tabs and shift between the two for every roll? Is there a way to get the Hangout toll within Roll20 browser window? Or can Google Hangout be used solely to share maps? I am a noob with Roll20 and Hangout, but eager to understand how you are using those software to run your EotE games.

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Ceodryn

Alright, I am answering my own question. I hadn't realized that Roll20 campaigns could be launched using Google Hangout.

However, it remains that I am curious how people are using Hangout and/or Roll20 to GM and play EotE. Screenshots would be worth a thousand words!

Cheers

Ceodryn

Yes, basically Roll20 is an app for use in Hangouts as well as being available on it's own website.

Essentially, you (or your GM) lay out whatever graphics elements you want to use on a series of pages just like you would set up a regular campaign for that Zebras & Zeppelins game that everyone loves so much. Being an Edge of the Empire Game you wouldn't needed gridded maps or anything necessarily, but in return you could do some really interesting, story enhancing things with Roll20 and EotE.

For instance, creating Epic location scenes within the app to give players a sense of place. Like maybe a screen cap of your favorite place in SW:TOR used as a backdrop so folks know exactly what the particular section of Tattooine they are in looks like.

You could lay out a static 'opening crawl' in Roll20 to start your adventures with. You could design your own card deck within the app and play Sabaac while you wait for people to show up, or as part of your game itself. Wookieepedia has many fine images that might allow you to display what particular adversaries look like. There is all sorts of stuff you can do, because Roll20 is pretty flexible.

And now, with the dice app above, you can actually execute the whole game in the Roll20 app without having to rely on people rolling off screen and relaying what they rolled.

There are a fair number of Roll20 videos up on YouTube if you need more concrete usage examples.

Thanks for the positive feedback.

My group uses MapTool. I'll have to check out Roll20.

Currently the tool helps track the Destiny Pool and Dice Rolling. If you have any suggestions on EotE specific features that I can include I would be happy to consider them.

I play some games over Google + Hangouts. How can I install this as a tool?

Just click on the red Google + image in the original post and it will open a Hangout with the extension available.

From then on you will have that extension available until you choose to remove it.

Hi Tommy,

I actually think your tool should stay slim, to be most useful. Really it already has what is most needed. Maybe an initiative tracker that works like the initiatitive is meant to work in EotE would be good, but many other tools (maptool,Roll20) already have a tracker. Personally, I just put tokens on a map to do the initiative.

One nice feature would be to make your tool take less space. In Google Hangout, with Roll20 launched, it leaves little space for other app.

Thanks again for doing that tool

Cheers

Ceodryn

That was my thinking as well, Ceodryn. Keep these tools focused on EotE specific and rely on well established tools for general purpose gaming tools.

As far as the size, as far as I can tell there is no way to control the width of a Google extension. It is either full page or that width side panel. I will do some investigation on this.

Ok i am a truck driver who would love to play rpgs and have ordered the eote beginner set i also play xwing. But i am really intrigued on how i can play remotely with a group can anyone hlp me to do this i hear you using hangout and roll 20 i wanna join the fun.

Hi TommyC,

I have now been using your tool with Hangouts and Roll20 a few times, and it works really well. In regards to "making it slim", I was just wondering whether a graphical redesign, that is reducing the size of the dices and font of the number of dices could work. However it isn't a big deal, we didn't really miss the space once we get used to zoom in Roll20.

One feature that would be nice is the ability to clear your dice pool. After I roll, if my next check is very different, I have to make sure I don't retain any of the old dices and I have to click (-) several times. A button to clear all the pool would be great.

That is all, great tool, and with Hangouts and Roll20, EotE becomes really fun!

Cheers

Ceodryn

It's not a full clear, but clicking on each die clears it to 0.

Is it possible to get this tool onto your PC? As a stand-alone software?

I play with a group but with the lack of dice out right now, this would be really useful to use when the dice rolling gets pretty high. (Hate doing rerolls especially when trying to keep track of a lot of advantage/threat)

I also would like to avoid creating a google+ account.

Sorry I missed the posts here.

@Ceodryn: Thanks for the feedback. AFAIK the width that an extension uses is fixed. I cannot make this larger or smaller, so I sized the elements to fit the available space.

As MSI-6 discovered clicking on the dice will clear their value.

@Azai, I know it is a long time since your post but for others that are looking for a Dice tool take a look at http://game2.com/eote/

This Hangout Extension is based off that dice roller (written by the GM of our group). Just point your browser to it and there is no need to log into anything.

So you can use this rolkerbin a Hangout without using an additional service like Roll20?

Yancy

It's not a full clear, but clicking on each die clears it to 0.

AHHH Thanks for this! Helpful.

I finally got to try this out last weekend in prep for the game being released. Works fantastic once we all got the hang of it.

TommyC... for the record, you are a Godsend. All of my players love this tool.

Question: Is it possible to make it so that everyone can see the FULL results other than just the player who just rolled? (meaning the top box where all actual roll is.)

When we play in person, we all look over the results usually and all give suggestions like "All your failures came from the Setback dice... you must have tripped in the snow"... stuff like that. The way it is now, only the player who rolled can see. Explaining the dice is combersome, so we have just stopped doing it all together. This is a shame because I have a couple players who are great at this.

I thought it showed for everyone in the chatbox? Also it puts the last roll a person made (results) at the bottom corner of thier cam window.

No... it shows the totalled results after all cancellations.

Example: If you roll 6 failures and only 2 success, everyone else just sees 1 failure (the end result). No one else can see how bad you failed or what dice the faiure came from.

EDIT: Actually if it just showed ALL the net failures and not just one it would be even a bit more helpful. I know technically only one matters... (you failed to have one success, you fail)... but my players seeing like 4 net failures after a roll would probably go "WHOA!! where did all those come from?! We need to come up with a story on this roll!"

Destiny Pool:

- The +/- buttons adds to and removes from the destiny pool

- Clicking on the individual destiny token will flip them from Light to Dark and vice versa

- When you do so a note is transmitted to everyone. Something like, "Djext1 used a lightside destiny point" and it flips that to a darkside for the GM to use.

- There is a bug right now that if someone comes in after the destiny pool has been setup, they will only see the starting pool. To workaround this simply click the Plus button then the Minus (which will send the destiny info to the new player).

Video Result Overlay:

I can add something to clear the result on the video. Only the player would be able to do so but I think that is fine.

@BrashFink: The info box tells everyone the type and number of dice rolled (to ensure the correct dice were rolled) and the result. I could add the values of the individual die but perhaps in a popup when you hover over so it does not take so much space.

Let me see what I can do. I have taken the summer off gaming and so I haven't looked at the tool for a while.

Destiny Pool:

- The +/- buttons adds to and removes from the destiny pool

- Clicking on the individual destiny token will flip them from Light to Dark and vice versa

- When you do so a note is transmitted to everyone. Something like, "Djext1 used a lightside destiny point" and it flips that to a darkside for the GM to use.

- There is a bug right now that if someone comes in after the destiny pool has been setup, they will only see the starting pool. To workaround this simply click the Plus button then the Minus (which will send the destiny info to the new player).

Video Result Overlay:

I can add something to clear the result on the video. Only the player would be able to do so but I think that is fine.

@BrashFink: The info box tells everyone the type and number of dice rolled (to ensure the correct dice were rolled) and the result. I could add the values of the individual die but perhaps in a popup when you hover over so it does not take so much space.

Let me see what I can do. I have taken the summer off gaming and so I haven't looked at the tool for a while.

We notice this bug last session. We had 2 people have to leave for 10 mins or so during a break. Kind of minor. All I did was remove them all and replace them.

As for the popup that would completly fix what I am talking about. Just gives a chance for everyone to look at the real roll.

Does anyone have issue with this app? I can only see half of the app in my hangout, the rest is cut and invisible.

It is probably due to low resolution. For example, if I make my web window smaller, it makes a scrollbar on the bottom and cuts the tools off.

You can also minimize the chat window in Roll20 by clicking the tab that sticks out in the upper left of the Roll20 Chat.