Just An Encounter Tool?

Well, I joined up, but in exploring the site, I'm wondering if all this is, is just a tool to enable virtual encounters. What I'm looking for is a tool to come as close as possible to an actual f-t-f environment in the old-fashioned style; i.e., no miniatures and maybe quickly drawn sketches to get the flavor of the PC's environment. The webcam capabilities are nifty, but I'm looking for something to provide die rolls, allow passing images, provide a private chat capability, maybe something like a virtual whiteboard that I could maybe integrate with my tablet. Roll20 looks like it focuses strongly on encounters, but not much on the rest of an RPG environment. Or, am I missing something?

Seems like you've missed everything - it does everything you mention above ;)

To be a little more specific Roll20's goal is to be a virtual table top. People are doing many things beyond just RPG encounters with it. Card games, board games, story based roll playing that don't even have "encounters". On your specific points: - There are a nice set of drawing tools to let you use it as a virtual white board - The chat dialog in the right side lets you roll dice (and a mind boggling number of systems) <a href="http://help.roll20.net/dice-rolling-reference/" rel="nofollow">http://help.roll20.net/dice-rolling-reference/</a> - It also supports player-player whispering for private chat <a href="http://help.roll20.net/text-chat/" rel="nofollow">http://help.roll20.net/text-chat/</a> Let us know if there are other questions. Roll20 is trying hard to be game agnostic and remain a general tool for people to play table top games virtually.

I'd also like to point out some really neat things that a couple members are doing that are decidedly not miniature based over in the screenshot gallery: <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/390/take-some-screenshots-of-your-campaign-and-share" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/390/take-some-screenshots-of-your-campaign-and-share</a> Matthew has a really fantastic Savage Worlds tutorial that he created using Roll20 : <a href="http://community.roll20.net/uploads/FileUpload/db/d25420cc8eb3b8d552a1b30519452f.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/uploads/FileUpload/db/d25420cc8eb3b8d552a1b30519452f.jpg</a> Agemegos has a Spirit of the Century Board that looks like it belongs on a casino floor (in a good way!) <a href="http://community.roll20.net/uploads/FileUpload/a3/3ce0d30c6d17471d344ef24a96e007.gif" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/uploads/FileUpload/a3/3ce0d30c6d17471d344ef24a96e007.gif</a> and Balladeer has created a Danger Patrol mockup using the Roll20 tools - <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/comment/1265" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/comment/1265</a> Check them for a little inspiration to see what the system's capable of.

Yeah those still blow me away. Though I do have aspirations to try a Settlers of Catan game via roll20 some time.

Yeah those still blow me away. Though I do have aspirations to try a Settlers of Catan game via roll20 some time. I'm bound and determined to do Monopoly JUST BECAUSE I CAN if I can ever tear myself away from my regular weekly campaign.

It does those things, but Fantasy Grounds may be what you're looking for. There is a difference in the way Fantasy Grounds approaches the VTT concept and the way pretty much every other VTT approaches it. Be warned, though; Fantasy Grounds is not cheap. I don't think FG integrates with tablets, though; but neither does Roll20 (or at least, it doesn't work on my Tablet). And in Roll20's defense, I've never been able to make a g-d lick of sense out of the Fantasy Grounds interface.

Fantasy Grounds is dirt easy to use and has a lot of good stuff going for it, much more in fact than Roll20 has currently. I say currently, cause this is in development and much can be added. The main issue my gaming group has with FGII is connections issues and portforwarding stuff. Boring! Roll20 has some very cool features going for it, and I am excited to see where it goes.