So me and a group of friends who now live around the country used play Pathfinder together. Recently some of us started talking about maybe starting some online pathfinder. I could use some feed back about online play to let me know if it is worth it (Obviously GMs are a huge factor in this along with the players just wanting thoughts). I also would like to know if there are GMs out there for online game play and what y'all require/expect of your players. The only way we've played it so far is in person. There are 4-6 of us.
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I DM online and actually did the exact same thing you did when the group split up due to moving due to work. Honestly, it's pretty much the same as when we met over the non-virtual tabletop, the usual stuff like be on time, let us know ahead of time (when possible) if you can't make it, and so on. I also try encourage players to not play games or watch youtube videos while gaming, though it's much harder to monitor, of course (sometimes you can hear it in the background of the chat and is extremely distracting).
I generally use a virtual tabletop (maptools at first, Roll20 since I discovered it) and a chat program (skype, mumble, teamspeak, are all good options). While Roll20 has its own built in, not particularily fond of it.
The other thing I love to use is Mythweavers for character sheets since they are kept online, can be updated easily, and makes it a cinch for me to pull up their updated sheet quickly and see their current hp/stats/etc.
Thanks for the good feedback Aleron!
I've played in a couple PBP games on the boards here. Over all the experience has been positive. Painlord has a post about it with some solid advice on the subject. It's a different experience than face to face, but I think in a lot of ways the differences are for the better. You don't get nearly as much off topic discussion (least in the game threads, in the discussion thread it could be a different matter, but it isn't a problem then), and you have more time to come up with well done in character dialogue. On the other hand, the pace is significantly slower, and it's easier for the game to fall apart due to that.
The biggest draw in my opinion though is not having to have everyone on the same schedule. Set up an expectation of posting frequency, and call it good.
One thing I'm looking into is d20pro to have a real time game, but including friends from out of state. Right now I'm running Rise of the Runelord face to face with several friends at the local game store, and using d20pro to great success. A couple members of the group are only in town for the holidays, and I myself might be moving (again...) in the relatively recent future...so we're looking into taking the game completely digital.
So far I really like d20pro, now that I worked my way past a few hangups (fog of war took a while to get used to, getting spells to work out in game was a huge pain at first, some maps are harder than others to get lined up with the grid...) things are going very smoothly, and I'm considering doing things I never would have humored without the program (doing Thistletop with 12 players).
Ultimately I think there are better programs out there than d20pro, but that's the one I paid money for, and hang ups aside it's serving my purposes. There is a feature on maptools (I believe that's the one), where visibility is tracked, so the screen gets darker behind pillars the character wouldn't be able to see past, that sort of thing.
We've been doing play by skype for several years now. Works great for us, though the games take longer than they would face to face. On the plus side, we have lots of chat logs, which makes it really easy to double check what's happened.
All in all it's a great compromise to an actual game. I still prefer to see my friends face to face, but finding time and space can be difficult, where we can all play skype just about everywhere.
Great stuff guys! Anyone out there know of or want to GM?
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I run online RPGs regularly. PFS and GURPS. I use Roll20 for VTT and usually G+ Hangouts for voice. Online with voice chat and VTT works pretty much the same as in person - often better. After doing both for years, I now slightly prefer online play.
As Aleron said above, the most important thing is to have attentive players and GM. Here are the basics. That said, these simple things will make or break your games:
1. Players need to fully dedicate their time and attention during the game. If you don't want to do that, don't hinder the enjoyment of others by being only half there. As Aleron said, strongly discourage players from puttering on their computer (games, youtube, facebook, et cetera). That player's lack of attention invariably disrupts the entire group. Personally, I would expel someone from my table if such became obvious, and the remaining players would thank me for it. Unless it was the cleric.
2. Get all your technical considerations set up well before game time. In particular, verify you are good with both the voice chat system and with the VTT.
3. Use a headset for sound and microphone. This is vital, and is a make-or-break item just by itself. Have a quiet environment with minimal background noise. If you can do voices, ham it up.
4. All the regular stuff: know your character, have all needed info at the tip of your fingers, seek to entertain everyone and have fun.
You have between 4 and 6 players you mentioned? That's a full group right there. My own group could use maybe up to 3-ish but even that would probably be pushing it a bit I'm sad to say.
Might help if you give a bit more information on your folks, their schedules/when you want to play, and what you would like to play. Do they prefer a storyline, prefer a lot of combat, like to optimize characters excessively? Also how experienced are they and so on.
If you can't find anyone by next month feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll discuss it with my current players. We're on break until after the holidays and I could at least ask them and see what they say. That said, I work shiftwork so our meeting nights vary on a week to week basis.
My group has been playing online for something close to six years now using a combination of mIRC and Maptool. Unlike the others here we use all texted base communication and no voice chat.
Typically we set up one room in IRC for OOC chatter and another for IC chatter. These distinctions are firmly enforced. When the party gets split up we split into multiple IC rooms. As a whole I've actually found it to be a superior experience to most of my table top gaming, because it has allowed people to play characters with a degree of immersion that is otherwise frequently absent. There is no laughing or joking at people for taking any specific action, and both GMs and players can slip between characters of varying gender and race without any uncomfortableness that often arises (in my experience) from same sex players interacting in an opposite sex circumstance (especially with attraction). This may vary a bit depending on the group though.
This has had the extra benefit of allowing the party to split up (especially in non-combat circumstances) while still allowing the GM to interact with each person on what feels like an individual level in different rooms (depending on how quick he is). There has been many a night with a different PC in reach room holding conversations with different NPCs.
The final benefit is that mIRC keeps a log of everything that is said, so note taking is easier, and looking up past events is much clearer. We use a combination of a message board forum (though we recently had to relocate) and Obsidian Portal to keep track of book keeping, providing feedback to each other on the gaming sessions (something I advise regardless of whether you play in person or online), and sharing resources for the game.
Maptool we use purely as a battlemap.
Typically we play for 5-6 hours, though rarely we run longer. If a player cannot make it he is responsible for providing advanced notice to the group.
Merry Christmas!
Aleron and whom ever it may concern.
Of the six players I mentioned five have experience playing the game. Three of those five have played the game for at least a year(me!) both home-brew campaign and rise of the rune lords (notably not at the same time). The other two are only have a few months experience. The sixth guy has not played pathfinder before but has experience playing and to some extent creating table top games.
If your interested in our role play I will list what we normally do. I'd rather not write a whole paragraph about it so ill be briefish... We all like combat and threat of death is nice. It would be nice to know character deaths are handled with regards to a player who wants to keep playing. Also allowed and not allowed content would be good info.
1. I-generally play a mildly mad/crazy person... Notably not obnoxiously I just do stupid stuff on purpose, not that I don't do smart things particular when things look grim. (not quite bright)Like walking down a hall way with out checking stuff out or sleeping in a tree when there is a perfectly fine tavern. I typically optimize only so I can make something work that is not likely to work otherwise. I would expect the group to have fairly well thought out builds.
2. generally is logical plans things out likes to communicate with NPCs a lot. He like the roll play is also likely to be someone sneaky.
3. Will likely just hit something rather than roll some kind of check.
4. Likes to be the intelligent character though it wouldn't surprise me if he just started blowing stuff up with some hair brained plan. He will have his guy trying to figure things out all the time, might be arrogant as well haha.
5. Hard to say he hasn't played enough to give too particular of an indication about how he will play in the future.
6. Hasn't played before so no idea.
Schedules are hard to say right now needing to get people to say how interested they are before I can nail that down. Most of us work 8-5 M-F. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple don't want to do the online play.
Peter that is a rather interesting way to play the game. I know these guys would not play without voice chat though.
If voice is a must, setting up your own Murmur server for Mumble would allow multi-room functionality similar IRC but with voice comm. The only downside is that with a voice comm solution, you can be in only one room at a time whereas with text chat you can be in multiple rooms at once. No reason you couldn't use both at the same time though...