Anyone have experience playing OD&D via Skype, Roll20 etc.?

[Morandir]

I'm moving from Missouri to North Dakota for work at the end of this week, which means leaving the folks I've gamed with for, in some cases, over a decade - one group as a player and another as Ref. Our plan is to continue having weekly games online, and I was wondering if anyone has any tips: does playing via a video program like Skype work well, or do you prefer some sort of "virtual tabletop" program like Roll20? I don't use minis for combats so I don't really need that function, but being able to show maps, illustrations and handouts through an online interface would be pretty cool.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Stormcrow]

The ability to draw maps and sketches for all to see is useful in Roll20. Online games tend to have a big turnover rate; people just stop showing up.

[Morandir]

I should clarify a bit: I'm not looking to find new players, my group will be meeting at my friends' house as we've done for years and I'll be joining remotely. I'm just pondering on whether or not a virtual tabletop program will be useful for when I'm running games for them.

[flightcommander]

My local gaming group has recently found itself in an analogous situation. We have so far simply used Facetime to "beam in" the one remote player, who has so far referee'd a few different games for us. We've made do without an online map or shared die-roller. If anything the experience has underscored the value of having a "caller" because audio fidelity is, at best, a bit of a challenge — if everybody's giving directions to a remote referee it gets messy. So (generally) we chatter amongst ourselves and then one of us relays the details to the referee all at once. I suspect this takes a bit of patience on the part of the remote player!

[Stormcrow]

So, a remote referee for an otherwise in-person group? Sounds tricky, with potential for the players to lose focus.

Perhaps you could leverage your remoteness in running the game. Imagine, for example, a game of Paranoia in which the game master speaks as The Computer at all times—literally from the players' computer. Or imagine a spy game in which the villain taunts the spies through video interfaces, and you pull up the villain's picture whenever he talks to them.

For D&D, perhaps the players' patron is a wizard who can project his image to them but cannot interact. Or perhaps you can conjure up the idea that you're "The Dungeon Master" (probably not the short guy from the cartoon), the players have invaded your dungeon, and now you're following them on their quest with the occasional misinformation or taunt.

The need for a caller would be unquestionable. You might even require that the caller type his instructions into the text chat, but I probably wouldn't go that far.

You probably don't want to replace too much with the computer. Players should still have character sheets; using, say, Roll20's character journal would just get confusing. Multiple players at one computer isn't what VTTs are designed to do, and forcing each player to bring a laptop and stick their noses in it to play wouldn't make for a good game—they may as well play at home. At most, I'd use the VTT for displaying handouts and quick sketches, plus voice (and possibly video) chat.

[welleran]

I've used Skype for the past seven years or so. It works well enough, though the point on having a caller is important -- my players have what I call a "combat caller" to keep order during battles when everyone starts wanting to do things all at once. Audible sidebars are impossible online but person-to-person text is far better than passing notes; thieves, in particular, love it. Roll20 is fine and good, but I just use Twiddla as its free and works for what I need it for (simple maps, sketches, showing pictures, etc). Online will never beat in-person, but it's the best (only) option for geographically scattered groups that want to play together.

[tetramorph]

Jul 1, 2016 10:59:38 GMT -6 welleran said:

I've used Skype for the past seven years or so. It works well enough, though the point on having a caller is important -- my players have what I call a "combat caller" to keep order during battles when everyone starts wanting to do things all at once. Audible sidebars are impossible online but person-to-person text is far better than passing notes; thieves, in particular, love it. Roll20 is fine and good, but I just use Twiddla as its free and works for what I need it for (simple maps, sketches, showing pictures, etc). Online will never beat in-person, but it's the best (only) option for geographically scattered groups that want to play together.

Holy smokes, welleran, that twiddla thing is amazing!

Just ran a test with my son to see if we could run a campaign with his out of town cousins. I think it is going to work!

I'll keep you posted. Thanks a lot for the suggestion.

[Morandir]

Thanks for all the input folks!

I've played two games with friends since moving (both as player; haven't had a chance to ref yet), once with Skype and once using Google Hangouts. Both seemed to work just fine for our gaming style.

That Twiddla thing looks interesting! I'm running a game finally tomorrow night, I'll see if I can use it and let you all know what happens.