Tools for running Shadowrun online., Looking for some ideas. Options

[Denicalis]

Pretty straight forward problem. I'm looking to run a Shadowrun campaign, possibly several, via a forum, and I would love some things to exist. Unfortunately, I've not tracked them down. But that doesn't mean they aren't real.

Any good map editors I can create and edit into .jpegs for upload? Preferably with overlay I can use as movement indicators etc.

How about a few character sheets that can be modified in their .pdf format?

I've seen things like Fantasy Grounds, but I've never seen a grabbable copy of 2.0, and I doubt this group is going to shell out 20 bucks a pop just to play online.

Anyway, GMing online is a new thing for me, so any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

[sunnyside]

I actually game online. Sadly what I consider some of my best stuff got eaten because of a forum going bye bye. Here's a continuation of one of them.

http://www.neoaxial.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1195431274
Uh, that gets a little not nice even for cyberpunk. My GMing tends to have underlying social experimentation, and this time I was messing with seeing when a player would buck the rails when things get nasty.


Anyway advise.

1. If you're playing by forum, strongly consider limiting the number of players, unless you'll be getting on in real time, or if you have some policy of skipping peoples actions if they don't post fast enough or something. If you always have to wait for everyone to do an action each additional player makes the game slower.

2. There are excel character sheets out there somewhere. But really just have them type it out. This sutff isn't that hard to find really.

3. If you want web dice my old favorit went poof (irony dice), but http://dice.evildm.net/index.php?Set=Misc_Language
is pretty good.

Powerpoint is fairly decent for maps. It lets you creat a background and you can move stuff on top of it. Pretty good for creating shapes and such.

[Jrayjoker]

Look into Gametable. Its free, rather simple, and customizable to the degree that you have a decent picture editor.

[Redjack]

I run several pbp games. The first thing I did was create a folder on my PC to contain all game related details. Most character sheets are in the text format they were submitted in. I simply checked the math and approved the history.

I also have a speadsheet where I track karma awards, edge and money expenditures. I'd like to say I'm more organized than that.... but thats all it takes for me to keep it going and keep it straight.

strongly consider limiting the number of players

Absolutely. Five players is really pushing it. Three is just right, but one dedicated player can really make for some good fun with a high turn rate.

web dice

Invisible Castle. I've used it for a long time and the owner keeps improving it.

Maps: Google Maps are great for getting average drive times and how the topography exists in 2008.
Any graphics editor like Gimp, Paint, Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop will work for simple 'you are here', 'here are the buildings on the block' type stuff. Never underestimate the power of simplicity.
An account at Deviant Art or anyone of dozens of other free hosting sights are a great place to publish said maps.

[flynnkd]

Try:
http://rptools.net/doku.php

and
http://www.nbos.com/index.htm