Hey, all. I am moving from Tejas to Colorado pretty damn soon, and was considering bringing my old group with, via online gaming. I was wondering what your experiences are, and if you had any advice regards to platform, means, pitfalls, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've done a lot of gaming online over the years. I personally prefer to go with systems that are "theater of the mind" over systems with minis or fiddly bits. Yeah, I know there are a lot of well-made tools handling those systems online, but you do need to invest time to use them. I don't even bother using dice rollers anymore. I find every technical layer you add to a session is just one more thing that can go wrong and bring the session to a halt. If I need to share something with the players, I can use screensharing or email a handout.

Instant messaging is a lot of fun if you have any underhanded players in the group. It's the ideal invisible version of passing notes the GM. It's also good for getting quick info to a player that only they are aware of. Rather than the GM telling the party what the high-perception PC sees, the GM can IM the info to the player and they can tell everyone.

Lighter systems are easier to deal with than heavier systems, especially if the players don't know it yet. I ran RQ6 online last year, and while I am sure it would have gone smoothly in person, it was hard to get it to work right online with a group new to the system.

Those are my immediate thoughts. I might be back with more if something else occurs to me.

I play in a couple online games, one that has been going for over ten years now, but they are completely freeform and i generally consider it a complete separate hobby as the approach is so different. They might even be considered more akin to storygames by those on the forum that care about such things. There are "GMs", but they are more like forum mods, for the most part players all drive the story themselves and its more about interacting in character than any sort of adventure. Generally speaking, the "rules" are handled mostly akin to improv theatre.

Played quite a bit of D&D via MUCKs over the years. As long as the system has a multi-function dice roller and a spoof function of some sort you are good to go. And one I play one has Fudge/Fate dice rollable.

Ive also played on online chats and some have dice rollers.

The other useful thing is if the muck or chat has a profile page where you can list your character, stats and all that and update as needed.

D&D works great with this sort of system for some DMs. For those who cant visualize or abstract positions well though its better to go to graphical systems.

One of our players moved to Chicago a few years ago, and we've been playing remote with him ever since. Before that, we had a player who remoted in from Aurora for three years straight. It took our group a few sessions to get used to it, but acclimated quickly. Mind you, this is not an inexpensive solution, but it's the best we've found so far:

* Dump the miniatures and focus on the theatre of the mind.

* A bad connection will ruin the entire experience for everyone. You need a good internet connection for video. I am on Google Fiber gigabit on my side, while the remote player is on a gigabit network as well.

*  The remote player needs visibility to all other players. Set up a laptop at the far end of the table. Position them where they can survey all players around the table, including ones closest to where they are set up. You'll need to move the laptop back a few feet to accomplish this (we set a Macbook upon a stand, atop a microwave and minifridge). This puts them at almost 6' off the ground.

* Use the right video app. We use Skype. Google Hangouts has shit sound, and other interfaces out there require a GM to be hands-on with the app. I trust my remote player, so he rolls all of his dice remote (and even pulls his camera down to show excellent & bungled rolls. Plus, Skype lets you video call in 1080p & 60fps. Speaking of which...

* Don't use the build-in webcam on your laptop; they're generally crap. Get a webcam that records in 1080p @ 60fps, and have the remote player do the same. This is what we use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006JH8T3S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

* Get an excellent microphone to capture all sound. Go for one that can be plopped right in the middle of your gaming table. It MUST have omnidirectional mode, so that it captures every player's words and normalizes sound (preferably a mic that is USB-driven). We use the Blue Snowball, which is one of the best-rated and affordable models out there: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002OO18NS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

* We have a 5.1 surround sound system set up with an iPad full of custom playlists. If you are playing music or are using ambient wilderness sounds, you must crank the mids all the way down. Otherwise, they're going to sound garbled to your remote player.

* Finally, plug in external speakers for your laptop. Make sure that the speakers are positioned the furthest away from the mic. You want to hear the mids and bass from their voice, so it emulates a better experience of the player being remote. I used my Beat Pill +, but any desktop speaker system would be fine: https://www.amazon.com/Beats-ML4M2LL-A-Pill-Black/dp/B016QXV2QK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492232832&sr=8-1&keywords=beat+pill+plus

Forgive the lack of tidiness, but here's our game room as of right now:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]890[/ATTACH]

edit - and yes, those are ring-bound and hardcover galley proofs of ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. I would be derelict in my duty if I didn't mention it.

Your window needs treatments. And is that mold on the left wall? Beware mold, don't agitate it or it'll kill ya.

I use text chat on the Dragonsfoot chatrooms for online ,live gaming, they have an integrated dice roller. I find this works very well (except high level 5e combat is a bit slow in text chat), it's different from tabletop but has advantages eg I can save the chat log for reference later. Personally I'm not keen on remote videogaming.

Quote from: Opaopajr;957349Your window needs treatments. And is that mold on the left wall? Beware mold, don't agitate it or it'll kill ya.

That's not mold, just shadows on the mortar. We're also scraping our basement walls free of paint as we're about to tuck point the basement. Our house was built in 1923; most Tudor homes have these weird brick fascia basements and deep 7' window wells. We replaced our windows in the basement not too long back, but because the window well's bottom is soil, we get bad moisture build-up on humid nights here in KC.

I've run remote and played in some remote campaigns that have gone on for years and years. Mainly via PBEM and/or forum. Live sessions can be done, but it requires everyone to do it at the same time. PBEM/forum means players can play without having specific times they need to do so. For players who don't mind stretching play out, this can work well, and can be fairly productive if play continues on most days. It also can make it much easier to run split or multiple groups.

I think the main thing that keeps a remote game going is having a GM with time/energy/ability to run it, and of course having players that like the format. It's not a problem for some players, but that might not be true of the players in the group you want to move from in-person to remote.

For PBEM/forum play, it's worked pretty well to do full hex-map combats, as long as the GM has a method to show the map. Pretty easy with the good Internet-connected cameras people tend to have these days. Some GMs use other programs though, sometimes getting creative with what added data they can show on a computer image.

Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDER;957390That's not mold, just shadows on the mortar.

I assumed it was blood-splatter from ZWEIHÄNDER reality-check sessions.

Quote from: S'mon;957352I use text chat on the Dragonsfoot chatrooms for online ,live gaming, they have an integrated dice roller. I find this works very well (except high level 5e combat is a bit slow in text chat), it's different from tabletop but has advantages eg I can save the chat log for reference later. Personally I'm not keen on remote videogaming.

Thank you. I'm a long time DF user, and had not seen this one.

The first question to solve though is.

Do you want text only? Or do you want graphics too?

The next one is. Can the system do dice rolls?

All else can be solved with non-system means. But if the system supports them then all the better. Such as character/NPC data and logging plays. These can be done offsystem with text files and copying of logs.

I am currently hoping to set up a 5e campaign on an online chat that can handle dice rolls, character data (by editing profile) and auto logs. Theres even a spit for a graphic so can upload maps or monster pics (by editing profile)

Quote from: cranebump;957581Thank you. I'm a long time DF user, and had not seen this one.

I've been running games there since 2009, happy to give any advice. Main things:

When you create a chatroom, set max number of users, otherwise it defaults to 3.
To roll a die, at the start of the line type /roll, eg

/roll d20+5
/roll 6d6+6
/roll d8x3

etc

Edit: For game info, logs, maps, pics etc I use Blogspot, very easy to upload stuff and I find chronological ordering works well (plus I can add an index of important stuff). Can even edit during play to upload eg maps or NPC photos if I can't just link to an existing URL.

Quote from: cranebump;957310Hey, all. I am moving from Tejas to Colorado pretty damn soon, and was considering bringing my old group with, via online gaming. I was wondering what your experiences are, and if you had any advice regards to platform, means, pitfalls, etc. Thanks in advance!

On-line Gaming works well. Been doing it since 2005 starting with Fantasy Grounds, now using Roll20. The best voice system for utility and quality I seen is Discord. Skype and Google Hangout also work equally well.

Roll20 is about as easy as it gets. It has a whiteboard, text chat with integrated dice roller plus a lot of bells and whistles if you want to use token i.e. minis. Not a lot of techincal to use. You can get into deeper if you want but most people are happy with the precanned character sheets and throwing up a image and a map or two and using some tokens.

Also note that you can flip flop between on-line and face to face gaming with ease.

Quote from: estar;957607On-line Gaming works well. Been doing it since 2005 starting with Fantasy Grounds, now using Roll20. The best voice system for utility and quality I seen is Discord. Skype and Google Hangout also work equally well.

Roll20 is about as easy as it gets. It has a whiteboard, text chat with integrated dice roller plus a lot of bells and whistles if you want to use token i.e. minis. Not a lot of techincal to use. You can get into deeper if you want but most people are happy with the precanned character sheets and throwing up a image and a map or two and using some tokens.

Also note that you can flip flop between on-line and face to face gaming with ease.

In November I started a roll20 Star Wars Saga campaign which began with the death of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine when the Death Star at Endor was destroyed. The Players all played Imperial or Dark Force users. The campaign collapsed about a month ago, ...because well, being continuously evil is about 3x as hard as just playing honorable characters, plus there was a lot of constant in-party fighting... It turns out being evil is really hard, and not nearly as fun and rewarding as one would first imagine...

This weekend, at the Star Wars 40 Celebration in Orlando, EA announced their new Battlefront II Star Wars videogame. With this new videogame player plays an Imperial Special Forces Trooper who is on Endor when, ...you guessed it, the Death Star is destroyed, and the emperor and Darth Vader die. Guess which Star Wars players who rage quit and dropped out of my online game is going to now forever remember they quit a game where they were a full year ahead of an actual Disney/Lucasfilm  storyline. Oh, EA sooooo copied my idea,  yet again!!!

Battlefront II Trailer & Reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kae-JjbLsgA

My former game logo:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]899[/ATTACH]

I also have chat logs, of course... Anyway. While many folks are ok with simple graphics and online mechanics for chat games, I found there was a high player expectation of production values for the roll20 game (i.e. high quality graphics and storyline construction) and found that my prep time for each session consistently took more time than the sessions themselves did... So watch out for that. It takes me much more time to prep to run an online as opposed to a tabletop game, so don't be surprised if you find you need to put that extra time in to offer a consistently good game online.

Quote from: GameDaddy;957652In November I started a roll20 Star Wars Saga campaign which began with the death of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine when the Death Star at Endor was destroyed. The Players all played Imperial or Dark Force users. The campaign collapsed about a month ago, ...because well, being continuously evil is about 3x as hard as just playing honorable characters, plus there was a lot of constant in-party fighting... It turns out being evil is really hard, and not nearly as fun and rewarding as one would first imagine...

I have an idea in my hopper where it is just after the Phantom Menace and the PCs are a troubleshooting teams sent by Jedi Master Dookus to investigate the Sith ship left on Naboo by Darth Maul. One part of the campaign would be set on a Junk Planet with broken and partially operational droids and other pieces of tech.

Anyway the campaign would expose part of the manufacturing infrastructure used by Sidous to construct various pieces of Sith tech. The PCs would believe they wiped out Darth Maul's primary source of tech and put the final nail in any Sith resurgence. However their report of what they found is what set Dooku down the path to become Darth Tyrannis.

Maybe someday I will run it.