Hi!
I humbly request your help and advice.
RPG webcam setup
Im a tabletop RPGM since 1995 and currently running a Rise of the RuneLords campaign.
At this point my players are just about to get into the catacombs of wrath.
We have always played in the old fashion way, you know all of us seated in front of a table throwing dices, running pencils, eating fatty snacks and drinking cold soda.
Now, one of my dearest and original group player has moved to a 3 hours travel place for a better job.
We all know that he´s going to do some visits by year.
But we don't care the visits! :-P
We need his spells and habilities!
The group needs him!
There is evil that must be defeated...
I have heared about online/remote playing and although I have a "keep a low technology presence on table" houserule, we want to keep this friend on the table.
We have the idea of the webcam and voice communication, nothing fancy or complicated, we just want to see/hear him and viceversa.
Attached you can see a Webcam setup that i can install on our current gaming table.
RPG webcam setup
Im pretty sure that the hardware can be installed, but really i dont know if this is going to work or what software is needed :P
Please, if you can give me a minute to see the slideshow im pretty sure youre going to understand what we want to do.
Can you give me some advice on what kind of software we need?
Thanks a lot.
1d20 regards!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Easiest way to do it would be to setup a laptop with a webcam on your end (I can't see the link you've posted since the site is blocked here at work), and have him sitting in front of a computer with a webcam. Install skype on both laptops. Start a skype video call. Bam. Done.
My group uses this when one of us (usually me) can't make it to the week's session. We use Google Hangout because Skype tends to freeze up on us (both programs are free, so pick one and go). You'll want a webcam that you can move around and some kind of stand for it (we use a pint glass). That's all you really need. I would strongly recommend doing a test run with the distant person prior to the session. It will help you work out any bugs without taking away from session time.
You might want to add computer speakers so that the distant person can be heard over the general group noise.
We also have a second monitor hooked up so that everyone else in the group can see the distant group member, but you can just as easily place a laptop in their space facing the group.
You (or more likely, he) might find audio-only being the better way to go.
Almost everyone who plays online doesn't like using video, even if we know each other in person. Just gets tedious pretty quickly. See what works for you.
Oh, that sounds practical, i believe that you have some experience with this issues this give us some direction, thanks.
I would strongly recommend doing a test run with the distant person prior to the session. It will help you work out any bugs without taking away from session time.
We have already own a pair of decent webcams, i think we are going to give a try with a test before game session.
The main issue is that we want to remote player can be able to see our 2 local webcams.
Google Hangouts support several local webcams?
Ok, here it is the image links:
IMGUR:
Slideshow1
Slideshow2
Slideshow3
Slideshow4
Slideshow5
We have an almost similar set-up, although we only have one webcam on each end.
Our group consists of 1 GM, 4 players locally and 1-2 players connecting from outside (boyfriend and girlfriend, so they're both at the same location). Since you might have more local players, given the number of chairs on your pictures, you might have to use the set-up you have already drawn up.
We have a monitor at the opposite end of the table from the GM, with the webcam sitting on top, facing the table so the webcam players can see everyone, including the GM.
When combat ensues, and the focus needs to be on our battlemat, we just tilt the webcam down a bit so it's capturing what has been drawn on the mat and the minis (the software accompanying our webcam also has a zoom in function, so they can get quite close to the action).
Then tilt it up after the battle, so they can see the rest of us again.
We use a Logitech® HD Pro Webcam C920, which also easily captures the sound, even from the GM at the other end of the table, so no need for an extra microphone (although we have at times used a Microsoft conference... thingie - sorry, don't have the specs for it).
Video is run through Skype and audio is usually run through TeamSpeak - this is to avoid Skype muting the other end when one side speaks (we set up a conference call two sessions ago, when the girlfriend had to join us from another location, and no muting took place, but this last session it did... Hence we use TeamSpeak to be sure).
I'm just running a TeamSpeak server on my stationary computer which both ends connect to. It's free that way.
One of the players then connects the monitor on our end to his laptop and runs Skype and TeamSpeak through it (and uses it for his own character sheet etc.).
So the biggest difference is that we only use one camera, no extra microphones and the camera (and screen) faces everyone, including the GM.
If you still want the extra camera then I don't know if Skype or Hangouts support two feeds. An alternative is then to use... both? E.g. Skype for one camera and Hangouts (or similar programs) for the second camera. Yes, that means that the player at the other end also has to have two programs running, but with a large enough screen it should be possible to have them both onscreen at the same time (or he can just switch from program to program on his own depending on what he wants to look at).
Another option is to run the second webcam through another computer with its separate Skype account and just do a video conference call with all 3 accounts.
Either way, you need to have a decent upload speed on your internet connection to run both cameras in a decent resolution.
Gentle Giant, it sounds like you folks have got this down to a science!
Hangout can handle two cameras if you have two local computers on the hangout (From Gentle Giant's post, it looks like Skype supports this as well). Let me make that clearer (please note, I cannot get to your pics from work, so I'm making a lot of assumptions):
Assuming 1 GM, 4 local players (A-D) and one distant player (E):
Player A invites players B and E to the hangout and uses webcam 1.
Player B connects to the hangout using webcam 2 and mutes his mic.
Player E connects to the hangout using her home computer.
All the players in the hangout can see what all 3 webcams see. The only limitation on Hangout is that you need to "touch" it every once in a while. If you just leave the computer it will "time out" and hand up that one computer. It does give you a little alarm first, but if you simply click something in the window every 30 minutes or so, it will never be a problem.
Also, in the above scenario, Players A, B and E all need Google+ accounts which are free and you don't need to do anything more with them.
Gentle Giant, it sounds like you folks have got this down to a science!
Hangout can handle two cameras if you have two local computers on the hangout (From Gentle Giant's post, it looks like Skype supports this as well). Let me make that clearer (please note, I cannot get to your pics from work, so I'm making a lot of assumptions):
Assuming 1 GM, 4 local players (A-D) and one distant player (E):
Player A invites players B and E to the hangout and uses webcam 1.
Player B connects to the hangout using webcam 2 and mutes his mic.
Player E connects to the hangout using her home computer.All the players in the hangout can see what all 3 webcams see. The only limitation on Hangout is that you need to "touch" it every once in a while. If you just leave the computer it will "time out" and hand up that one computer. It does give you a little alarm first, but if you simply click something in the window every 30 minutes or so, it will never be a problem.
Also, in the above scenario, Players A, B and E all need Google+ accounts which are free and you don't need to do anything more with them.
Yup, that would be the way to use both cameras (whether through Skype or Hangouts, doesn't matter, same procedure).
I took the liberty of copying Ericksson's pictures and upload them to my own page, hopefully they won't be blocked from anyone's work there:
Slideshow1
Slideshow2
Slideshow3
Slideshow4
Slideshow5
That's why i love forums...
Excellent!
Thanks a lot GentleGiant and Itchy, everyone, this give us a better direction.
In a few minutes we are going to have our game session. We have no setup yet but its a good time to make the first "studio" test. :P
Be free to take the images, i made itfor that purpose and i hope it helps to another group with this kind of idea.
I will post some pictures when final setup is ready.
Player group: 6 players, 1 GM + 1 remote player.
Thanks a lot! :)
Don't forget to report back on how it went.
What worked, what didn't and so on.
That is a really nice setup! Please let us know how everything went!
Hi!
Just keeping in touch.
We have moved our gaming table location. Same city but different area, now at city Downtown.
Im in the process of a new internet supplier.
Ill let you know when this setup is in work.
Thanks again!
1d20 regards!
One of our "distance" players had a misfortunate change during our session on Friday. ;-)
(I hope people can see the link)
We kept having problems with TeamSpeak, so we switched our audio to Google Hangout (just turn the video quality down to "audio only").
Of note, I'm set to build a whole new gaming table with an inlaid TV screen to help compliment our set-up (so the people who join us via Skype can see the battlemap through Roll20.net too).