As mentioned in another thread about finding cheap miniatures, I will soon be attempting to transfer my gaming to skype. I've moved away from my group, but none of us wish to abandon the game we are currently in. The thought of drastically decelerating the game by switching to PbP didn't appeal to the players. Rather, they want to try effectively video conferencing our games.
The plan is to have all the players gather at someone's home with a good internet connection, with their sheets and books. I will DM from the other side of the connection, with the battlemap and all my supplies. I'm a little worried about what will happen when they are effectively sitting around in a room with only a disembodied voice to DM for them. I'm also somewhat worried about using my webcam (which isn't very good) to try giving them an image of the battlemap (which will mean even less visual contact between them and myself during combat). I'm also worried about the lack of sound: I've been making playlists of Grooveshark to add background music to our games, and think it has improved the quality of our sessions dramatically. However, I'm not sure that it will work well over skype if I simply play music on my end and hope my microphone and their speakers are good enough to transmit it somewhat faithfully. Trying to get them to copy or share, and then coordinate our playlists sounds clunky, too. On the other hand, I should be able to show them a lot of visual aids without having to print anything off, and keep a lot of windows open on my computer to switch between stat blocks, etc., quickly and without the typically page flipping that accompanies and slows down a game. Keeping notes should be cleaner as well. I will also have the PCs' stat blocks, allowing me to see their abilities and make secret rolls for them without tipping anyone off so easily.
What I'm looking for in this thread are thoughts and suggestions. Does anyone here have experience playing D&D in this way? What tips do you have for running a good game? Alternately, what about pitfalls and problems you may have run into, and any suggestions you may have to avoid them? Even if you don't have direct experience with this, feel free to throw your two cents in!
I run a Pathfinder game over Skype everyweek. I am in So-Cal and the rest of the players (4) are in Seattle. Skype is great but it can sometimes come to a screaching halt if you are not running DSL or something else that is high speed. Both of us have large battle maps that we assigned numbers and letters to. For example, orc boss is in ssquare A4, his minions are at C5,C6,C7 and so on. I use my laptop that has a built in camera so I can not angle it to the map. Also, make sure that you use external speakers and aim them (if possible) at your microphone. I don't use external sounds for my game, but that does sound cool if it works. Periodically, I have to email the group pictures so I keep my email open as well. It has worked well for the past 2 years. My only concern is Microsft bought Skype and I am sure they are going to screw with it...
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If all of your other players are going to be at one location, you really don't need Skype...
You could just use (for example); Windows Live Messenger and make your session a "video call". The connection is fairly stable and the audio is pretty good (though probably not good enough for you to use music AND talk over it while it's playing, unless you have a REALLY good microphone)...
As for using battlemats, you should give d20 Pro (or some other such software like Maptools) a try...
Each of these programs do have a bit of a learning curve to master, but once you've done so, there really isn't any better way to game over the internet IMHO...
I would also recommend using Hero Lab for making and upkeep of characters. The downside, is while everything else I've mentioned is free, Hero Lab for use with PFRPG (if you get EVERYTHING) will run you around $100. BUT, you don't need everything all at once (and HL for use with 3.5 is FAR less expensive)...
And if you use d02 Pro, then you can import your characters that you made with Hero Lab directly into the program...
Hope this helps...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-
Thanks, everyone. Azmyth, I sent you an e-mail a while ago. Did it get through to you?
You can try Inrno. They have a free to use whiteboard with video conferencing.
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Maptool (rptools.net) has the lowest and highest learning curves of the VTTs (Virtual Table Tops) available. On the lowest end, its simple enough to click a button to open it, and be able to drag images to the map for mini's and background maps and do all of your rolling manually in the chat window.
On the upper end, you can have automated processes and very complicated one-click buttons that allow you to choose from a variety of attacks.
RPTools also has a few other tools that help with online rpg's (token tool to make your mini tokens and inittool to simulate initiative rounds).
There are also a handful of online communities that cater to the VTT crowd (such as thetangledweb.net).
I've been using maptool for a few years now, and openrpg before that, and its really helpful when you have a distance group or play with a group of folks online. Skype works great with either program, especially if you have two monitors or room on your main one to have both windows up simultaneously (w/o having to toggle focused windows).
Sorry, Azmyth. Tonight obviously didn't work out, and I'm not sure I'll be free to skype for a while (ironically enough). E-mail is probably the best way to communicate for me at the moment.
Thanks to the others. I've seen maptools and looked at some tutorials on youtube. It does indeed look like, if I were to get proficient at it, the system would be ideal. However, I doubt either I or a number of my players have the time or ability to tackle that. If I get time in the future, I'll check it out, but for now it will have to be shelved. :(