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I'm going to be running a series of games for the "gaming wives" of my regular group. My wife's a big fan of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game and system, which uses the Cortex Plus rules, so that's the game we're starting with. It's a small group -- two players right now, with a third joining later -- and we're spread out enough that we'll be gaming over Google+ Hangouts. (Lots of Plusses in this conversation. Weird.)

Now, Cortex Plus requires a fair number of dice and tokens, a lot of dice pool manipulation, and a lot of lasting effects. Does anyone know of a good tool (whether a G+ Hangout App or something else) to manage these dice rolls and track dice pools?

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'd probably use a combo of Roll20 and a doc with the pools listed, but that might not actually get you quite what you need (I honestly don't know what Roll20's dice engine looks like) \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Jul 25, 2013 at 18:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ooh, quick google search turns up plus.google.com/103278790039329587024/posts/gjxaZmV5vUb. Might be worth a look \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Jul 25, 2013 at 18:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ @waxeagle everything that can and cannot be done in Roll20 w/ dice help.roll20.net/dice-rolling-reference \$\endgroup\$
    – Joshua Aslan Smith
    Jul 25, 2013 at 18:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ @waxeagle - I actually have that roller's evolved app (DiceStream) installed already. I never considered it for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, which tells me that it either doesn't do a good job performing its stated purpose, or I don't understand the flow of dice in MHR properly yet. Hmm. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kudzu
    Jul 25, 2013 at 19:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ most in-text-chat die-rollers won't do MHR all that well since MHR (and all Cortex+) you need to see the result and the number of sides on the die to decide what dice go to success, and what the effect die or dice are. Implementing it properly would require a result that looked kid of like "a:7/8 b:7/12 c:6/6 d:4/4 e:4/6 f:3/4." I'd likely do ac, with b for effect. \$\endgroup\$
    – aramis
    Jul 25, 2013 at 20:21

2 Answers 2

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There is a Marvel Heroic plugin for G+ Hangouts. We use that. It allows not just die rolls, but color coding for keeping die results or die type, and "click to keep" flexability; which allows you to keep more than the normal amount of dice (like if they pp to add more dice). In addition it has a Plot Point tracker.

Edited to add: @Jay suggests that the plugin is either DiceStream or Mike Hasko's Marvel Heroic Dice Roller.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to RPG.Stackexchange.com Dr. Chi! Good first answer. Please read the About page. \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Jul 26, 2013 at 13:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ Do you have a URL for the plugin's page? \$\endgroup\$
    – Kudzu
    Jul 26, 2013 at 21:04
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I ran MHR for a one-shot just fine using chatchyourhare.com's dieroller and Skype. The combination of text chat, VOIP, and a visual die-roller made the game work pretty well; the one issue is that assembling dice-pools is slowed, since you can't simply show the die as you pick it up.

chatchyourhare.com's dieroller

Note that the catchyourhare die roller is graphical, and allows creating and dragging text labels (unfortunately, the labels are not governed by the color selector), dragging rolled dice around, and deleting individual dice. It's shared, as well - an entire group sees the same dice environment.

Tokens?

While it doesn't do tokens, per se, the moveable text labels make it quite possible to use names on labels and move them side to side to indicate who's gone this turn, and drama points, but that can result in clutter.

Tablets

Note that the ability to roll the dice and create labels works on tablets, too, but doesn't drag properly on my tablet. In Chrome, long press the die, click away from the popup dialog, click where you want it. In Android Internet, one can't drag at all, but it does display.

Laptops and Desktops

It relies upon Ajax - which means it needs javascript turned on.

I've used it in IE for Windows XP and Windows 7, and Chrome for Mac.

Skype

Skype is, in case one is unaware, a combined text and voice chat program. without charge, it supports text chat with up to at least 3 other users in a single chat, and voice chat for up to 3 additional users.

It does support group video chat as a paid feature; I've not used group video chat recently.

It also supports file transfers in text chat, which means prepared visual aids and character profiles can easily be transferred.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh my goodness, it's a perfect tool for a Dogs in the Vineyard game! \$\endgroup\$
    – illotum
    Jul 26, 2013 at 16:33

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