Treasure Tables is on hiatus as of December 13th, 2007 -- after two years of daily posts, I needed a break. If you're looking for GMing material, I have two recommendations: the hundreds of posts in TT's archives, and my new project, the multi-author GMing blog Gnome Stew. Happy GMing! -- Martin

Battlegrounds Software for Online Play

Sun. July 2, 2006 

Battlegrounds is a virtual tabletop for playing pen-and-paper RPGs online. It’s set for release by July of 2006, and it looks pretty robust. (It also just looks pretty, too.)

At $29.95 for the GM Client and $14.95 for each Player Client (which I think is how it works), it isn’t cheap — but if you’re interested in visually appealing internet gaming, it’s definitely worth a look.

More posts about: Products for GMs

Comments

3 Responses to “Battlegrounds Software for Online Play”

  1. Ramza on July 3rd, 2006 7:22 am

    I’ve been following heruca’s progress with Battlegrounds for a while now. It looks interesting and heruca is fairly creative.

    While I don’t want to discourage anyone from any form of internet gaming, if you can’t wait for the release, or you want something that is more established, I have been playing with Fantasy Grounds for over a year. It is a well developed and supported system that has a great community of users.

    I normally don’t make “alternative” posts, I thought that with this being such a friendly site, I would feel bad if I didn’t mention my experience to all of you. (Martin, you should let me know if this post wasn’t appreciated!)

    In any event, take a close look at any system you select because there are differences that affect the quality of the virtual tabletop gaming experience.

  2. heruca on July 4th, 2006 3:42 pm

    Thanks for the writeup, Martin. I really appreciate it. Being a new startup company with no advertising budget, every bit of exposure really helps.

    I want to point out that Battlegrounds isn’t just for online play. It can also be used in face-to-face game sessions with a projector or large TV.

    I also wanted to mention that the Player client is actually only $12.95 right now, and a 5-pack of Floating Licenses are $57 ($11.40 each). Players can play for free with just the unlicensed Demo, if the GM has an available Floating License installed.

    Here’s a price comparison to put this into perspective.

    GM Client (or equivalent):
    Battlegrounds, $29.95
    KloogeWerks, $30.00
    Fantasy Grounds, $34.95
    ScreenMonkey, $34.95

    Player Client (or equivalent):
    Battlegrounds, $12.95
    KloogeWerks, $15.00
    Fantasy Grounds, $19.95
    ScreenMonkey, free for players

    * Battlegrounds, KloogeWerks and Fantasy Grounds all offer discounts for large orders.

  3. Martin on July 5th, 2006 9:14 am

    Ramza: Post comments are for all sorts of things, and your discussion of one of the alternatives to BG was certainly welcome. :)

    Heruca: No problem — it looks like a pretty good setup, and I thought it would be a topic of interest for TT readers.

    Thanks for expanding on the pricing scheme — and pointing out BG’s utility for tabletop play, too. :)