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I'm starting a new campaign in about 4 weeks with my group. It's "about" 4 weeks because no one's sure about Mother's Day, whether we're gonna game Sat instead. Anyway -- one of my old gaming buddies, a newbie who learned very fast how to be an excellent PC, is gonna be joining us. From one Time Zone away!
I've done long distance before but never sustained, usually over just a few sessions. This will be a PC from start to finish who's never at the gaming table.
I'd love to hear advice on what works and doesn't, how to do certain things and how not.
-W. E. Ray
I'm starting a new campaign in about 4 weeks with my group. It's "about" 4 weeks because no one's sure about Mother's Day, whether we're gonna game Sat instead. Anyway -- one of my old gaming buddies, a newbie who learned very fast how to be an excellent PC, is gonna be joining us. From one Time Zone away!
I've done long distance before but never sustained, usually over just a few sessions. This will be a PC from start to finish who's never at the gaming table.
I'd love to hear advice on what works and doesn't, how to do certain things and how not.
-W. E. Ray
Don't know if this would work for you, but in an online comic I enjoy, Full Frontal Nerdity, one of the players games with the group via webcam and voice :)
Well, I hope it will work for him. I'm the gamer a full time zone away. I think the hardest part is going to be ensuring that he and I are able to make sure what is going on is happening. Don't know if that makes sense to you, but it does to me. At least I know someone at the table, and that should help things run smoother. If all else fails, I could call periodically through game night, and check in, give some on the spot advice, etc. That might work out.
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I could really use some advice on this -- no one's ever done it?
How do you guys do the PBPs?... Dice rolls and such; not to mention time lag between posts?
I can reasonably plan for the encounters the PCs will face in a session and then e-mail descriptions of those scenes to Crackle. He would have to e-mail me back before the session with what his PC will do. But that only covers so much.
I'm also worried about PC handouts that Crackle won't see. I've made up for this by including NPCs and settings he's already familiar with because he's gamed with me before: Balabar Smenk, for example, will play an important part of the rollplaying because Crackle knows Smenk very well. I'm also including the towns Sasserine and Cauldron because he knows them. But there's quite a bit of stuff he's not familiar with that I want him to have the opportunity to be a part of.
How do you guys do PC handouts, maps, etc. on the PBPs?
Again, thinks for all advice.
-W. E. Ray
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Gamer Girl, that's wonderful gaming for the future but, unfortunately, we're still gaming in the past. Many of my group brings along a laptop but that's as good as we get right now.
I've thought about getting one of those go-go-gadget knickknacks but I can't see buying one just for this campaign, let alone two (one for Crackle).
Thanks, though.
-W. E. Ray
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I've known some people who got along just fine with a decently-priced long distance plan and a phone on the "speakerphone" setting.
If you get very detailed about placement of miniatures, it might be a problem, unless you can email an image of the battlemat to the player, and have everyone announce "I move north 30' and east 10' to attack the troll".
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If anyone has a laptop that can connect to the internet from anywhere then you can get varies voice programs(many free). With a good mic and speakers you could hear him and he should be able to hear you. Also if you have a IM system such as ICQ(also free) that can transfer files.
You can make a bunch of handouts even if you have to hand type them and IM them to him during the game when you show the rest of the group. Not as good but he should be able to follow along with most of it and be involved.
That would be my best advice how to do that. I have never done this nor know anyone that has. Totally everyone play from different time zones and use a online program or chat site to play on yeah, but not with a face to face group and only one person far away.
Good luck with it.
One of my groups played a session once while the GM was six time zones away. We had a laptop at each end, connected over the internet with the help of Skype, a webcam, and a microphone. If trying this, just remember to turn off the screensaver, etc., or the connection will occasionally break.
It was actually rather funny, seeing the GM's head "on the table" (the laptop was at the head of the table, so he could see all of us). The battle map was right in front of the laptop at our end (the rest of the group), where the camera could see it.
The GM also used a dice-rolling program, but ended up using real dice for speed. (I'm not sure what went wrong there.)
It seems that some PBP games on the Paizo boards use a third-party location for maps, etc. One possibility seems to be Photobucket. Again, I don't know many details.
I hope that this anecdote helps someone - but I also know that not all groups are equally high-tech! :)
We did a combination PbEm for most of the interaction, and some "live" gaming, where we would get into a chat room in AOL, or AIM, and the GM would cut and paste large amounts of text at us, we'd do responses and such, and it had a dice rolling program that rolled in the chat for all to see.
Maps had been premailed to all so we could track somewhat where things were, using map coordinates to state where we were and all.
It worked rather well, with the GM tracking where folks were, and all, but it did have the problems of connectivity.
I think you need to take into consideration how this will affect your other players...the ones AT the table. They may not want to wait while you email maps, room descriptions, stats to your long-distance player; or wait for responses from him.
That said, it sounds like a generous offer to do this, but it's gonna be a lot of work (and maybe some extra expense) on your end and possibly that of your players.
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Thanks, Hedgeknight, you're right.
Before I asked Crackle if he would be interested in joining the new campaign as a long distance PC, I asked my current gamers what they thought of the idea (see, I'm 1 step ahead of ya, HedgeKnight) and they seemed rather amicable to it. I guess we all know what it's like to not be able to find a gaming group and want to help when we can.
-W. E. Ray
One of the players in my Rise of the Runelords campaign is two time zones away. We have him play be speakerphone (one of the players bought me a better speakerphone for this purpose, actually, which was quite kind). I generally send him maps and handouts ahead of time, so he can stay oriented as to where the party is--he's trustworthy enough not to use information about secret doors, etc., to his advantage.
This works fairly well in this campaign, because I elected to run the campaign without a battlemap, in order to hone my description and judgment powers.
One of the players in my Rise of the Runelords campaign is two time zones away. We have him play be speakerphone (one of the players bought me a better speakerphone for this purpose, actually, which was quite kind). I generally send him maps and handouts ahead of time, so he can stay oriented as to where the party is--he's trustworthy enough not to use information about secret doors, etc., to his advantage.
This works fairly well in this campaign, because I elected to run the campaign without a battlemap, in order to hone my description and judgment powers.
I have to say, I like this idea. Molech, I can use my computer or phone to play nights at the table that are important. And then we can use e-mail to send my thoughts and ideas on situations where it is not super important that I be there and give my input.
The speaker phone part could be very useful, because then I could hear everyone's ideas, and they can all hear my ideas. Run that idea by the group, and see what they say.
As far as handouts, use a cell phone with a camera, and e-mail them to me for the maps, etc, and then e-mail all the printed stuff. Just do that when you are first typing them up for everyone, just don't e-mail it until the night you are going to hand them out.
This idea does sound do-able. I think we could give it the old college try.
By the way, Crackle, get yourself an Avatar ;)
I got an avatar now. See? Beat that, big bad meanie DM.
Does anyone have WiiSpeak? It's supposed to enable chatting between groups of people in different rooms, while playing Wii, so no growding around the mic. It is said to block out "gaming sounds" and so on, and after what I hear, it works quite well.
Maybe you can hook it up to the PC (It's USB as far as I know), or there are similar mics for the PC.
Of course, that's not exactly cheap.
I run a campaign with six players (sometimes more): three long distance players using webcameras, and three players in person. Each of the long distance players has a computer-webcam setup and I have a laptop with webcam at our table. We use Oovoo (a free videoconferencing application) for video because it brings up separate images of each long distance player on a single screen, thus everyone can see everyone else. We use Skype for audio because the Oovoo session doesn't seem to handle both video and audio too well.
I have a detachable Logitech webcam that includes a built-in microphone so that I can move the camera around to show images of the map and minifigures, or of other players, or of the monsters/maps/items/whatever. Sometimes we'll move the camera to show the DM for a while. Sometimes we'll hang the camera for an overhead view of the map with minifigures. Sometimes we'll sit the camera right on the map to give a first-person view of the areas.
Our long distance games actually go pretty smoothly. Here are some thoughts about why this works for our group:
- The Oovoo & Skype combination seems to eliminate audio problems, which can really kill the gaming sessions (as someone pointed out above).
- I purchased a good Logitech camera (2 megapixels) for the DM side of things so that it can transmit a fairly high resolution image of the map and minifigures. It works VERY well. Be careful with using a detachable webcam with a built-in microphone; you'll need to mute any extra microphones so that you don't get echoing of voices.
- We all have broadband connections, so we don't have a lot of lag or stuttering of video or audio.
- Our players have learned to expect an occasional technical glitch that can take up to a half hour to resolve, usually about once every 3 or 4 gaming sessions we'll take a hit. We just grin and bear it whenever it crops up. This usually occurs when long-distance players get kicked off the connection and have to re-connect.
- I use maps, minifigures, and 3-dimensional models (from WorldWorksGames) of the environments whenever possible. This really helps our long-distance players to envision the tactical situations.
- Everyone has hardcopies of their player sheets and I (the DM) have hardcopies of everything as well.
- Everyone has their own sets of dice.
- We have an online wiki where I store images and our players write journal entries describing what happened (I give 100XP per character level if anyone writes a journal entry, even if it's just one paragraph).
It can be done, and with a little work and patience, it actually brings those long-distance friends back into the game!
Hurm.
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Everyone, THANKS.
I guess I should say, though, we're not gonna have the techno stuff. Camera-phoning sounds awesome, Crackle, but we'll have to see how the images come out after the forwarded e-mail. When the time comes I'll likely come back here and ask for links to the maps of Saltmarsh from DMGII, Sasserine and Cauldron from Dungeon and Saltmarsh and either Korvosa or Magnimar from Pathfinder. Hopefully these will come out well over a phone cam then e-mail, but I'm not confident.
Really, I'm hoping for advice on how to run the session with a Player absent from the table with no tech. I can give Crackle info on what'll happen in certain encounters, pre-game, and he can e-mail me what his PC's ideas are; I can explain the NPCs' personalities and such and he can give his observations to the other PCs; I can present the mystery or dilemna and he can e-mail his suggestions and theories. Then, in game I can share what Crackle's ideas are and say what Crackle does in certain situations and it's not an NPC making DM decisions.
But this only covers so much.
I'd like to be able to call Crackle during the session at certain moments but I don't yet know his schedule or phone-minutes (you can e-mail me, Crackle, with the info).
And I'm still looking for ideas -- how do I get Crackle to roll dice for his PC in game? What are other ways I can include Crackle in campaign info and PC decision making? Etc.
-W. E. Ray
Molech, that is somewhat of a dilemma. It seems like you will be running a face to face game and a simultaneous PbP game with Crackle. If everyone is fine with that setup than you can incorporate his ideas and actions into the game. Alternatively If you can include him in the game via phone or VoIP then you might want to send crackle all the descriptions and maps for the adventure before hand, maybe in separate files numbered encounter 1 text, and encounter 1 map, and so forth so as not to reveal what they are. If he is on the phone while you are running the adventure you can just tell him which encounter you are on and he will have the descriptive text and map to reference he can just describe over the phone what he wants to do. While he wont be able to see your game map with figs you can just describe where everyone is. Alternatively you can add a grid reference to the maps like in chess, I move my character to E5. You could use this to tell him where all the PCs and monsters are as well so he could have his own game table with figs to keep track of what is going on.
It will take a fair bit of extra work but it seems doable, good luck, tell us how is goes incase others want to try it.
www.invisiblecastle.com for dice rolls - he can send you links to his rolls.