I have played Tabletop RPGs for over a decade now. Through easy game times and hard ones I've stuck with it, and overall I've been satisfied.
I've had years where I was in 5 games a week, some that I had 1 a week or 2 games that juggled every other week. I've had games at my house, and games that I've had to carpool to or drive others to.
I considered it just a part of the Gaming Life. You know, the whole everything you do leading up to and trailing after the actual game part. I schedule time to make sure I don't have any conflicts during game, and actually work to make sure I can make it to and from the game.
But this last few months has made that part particularly difficult. I now live about 50-60 minutes away from the closest major city that I've gamed in, in a community that's mostly retirees (who unfortunatly aren't gamers) and arranging for a ride after my car broke down was next to impossible/logistically unfeasable. So now I run a game on wednesdays and the rest of the group has been carpooling to my place, though if the one person who has a reliable car is incapable of attending, our whole group is SOL.
I've been really wanting to play in a game, and the one other game that's on sunday is falling apart (We've played once in the last two and a half months). It doesn't help that I'm the only one who needs a ride and it's like an hour and a half-two hours trip both ways.
So looking at the situation it seems that I would be in the right situation to do online games. However, I've never done them before, and therefore I'm balking at it like I suspect some of the retirees I live near balking at a smartphone when all they've known is the rotary-dial kind.
I would appreciate it if some people had feedback on *doing* online RPG's. Like from a how to get involved perspective would be nice. I've seen a couple of good web sites that have host programs (Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds are the most prominent ones I've seen) but I wouldn't know if certain games use certain online systems, or if they're custom jobbies, or just Skype or something.
I would like to start playing in a game, but to me it's like there's a *Disconnect* that makes the online game seem... not like a tabletop version.
I'm probably just weird. In either case, I'd really like to hear from some other players about doing games online and how to adjust to it/get started.
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I've gamed online using both Skype and Roll20, and they both are a good surrogate for not being able to game face-to-face, especially when one or more people from your normal/regular group has moved away...
These games tend to run pretty much like games run face-to-face, especially if you utilize web cams. Using a VTT (Virtual Table Top) like Roll20 allows for things like making characters, rolling dice, sharing handouts, and sending private "notes" to the GM or other players. If you just use something like Skype without a VTT, then these things can be accomplished using IM's and sending handouts and other game related items via email.
If you are going to run a game, and use published material, having access to the PDF is a plus (as it makes sharing handouts much easier).
To get involved in a game using Roll20 for example (which can support any game system), you should visit their forums and see who's running a game, or who is looking for one; though if you're a GM looking for players, then you need to be a registered user and logged in. It's also worth noting, that Roll20 does not support Internet Explorer, and requires the use of Chrome or Firefox in order to play, but IE works just fine for poking around the site to see what's there. :-)
Here is a link to the "Looking for a Group" forums on Roll20: Find a game on Roll20
Lots of people also game via pbp (play by post), but these games tend to go at a much slower pace, so it is something to be considered if you've never done it before. This medium, IMO, is less like a face-to-face game in that the game is played entirely through text; not saying that is a bad thing, it's just not everyone's proverbial cup of tea...
As for getting involved in a pbp game, this site has a recruitment thread for those looking for a game and/or players. Also, RPoL (Role Playing onLine) is great web site totally dedicated to pbp games.
Here is a link to that site: RPoL
As Digital elf said, one possible method of online gaming is Play by Post (PbP). A great guide if you are thinking of looking into it can be found in the following links.
Painlord's Guide to PbP GMing: Make Your World a Better Place
and
DH's Guide to Play By Post gaming
Both the original posts and following discussion are very helpful.
Thanks so much all!
I'm going to look into PBP gaming, it seems like it's right up my alley!
(I do a LOT of writing for my books so being able to use those skills in RP would be awesome practice)
I was reading the guide... How do I create an Alias? Should I bother yet?
Roll20 supports almost any gaming system. I don't bother with cameras, but having a good headset with a mic is very beneficial. You can get a decent headset for less than $30. Roll is also easy to learn, and while you can use the more advanced options they are not a necessity.
PbP requires some patience because of the pacing. It is fun however, and there is more RP involved generally speaking than any other format in my experience.
I exclusively use chrome on my laptop and Desktop. However my work only lets me use IE, Which I'm using to respond right now since I can access the forums when I'm not busy.
Roll20 supports almost any gaming system. I don't bother with cameras, but having a good headset with a mic is very beneficial. You can get a decent headset for less than $30. Roll is also easy to learn, and while you can use the more advanced options they are not a necessity.
PbP requires some patience because of the pacing. It is fun however, and there is more RP involved generally speaking than any other format in my experience.
I actually have both a high quality web cam and a headset/mic since I also play MMO's and skype with friends.
I'm kinda jumping the shark, but I've been building a 'gaming table' that is predominantly meant to help me run games at my house.
It's going to have a 40 inch LCD tv set into the surface with a thin clear layer of plexiglass to keep it clean, and I was going to display maps on the screen so my players could just put their figurines ON the table and see where they are. There would be plenty of space around it for character sheets and stuff. The table would have it's own OS (Setting it up using Raspberry Pi B+) that's linux so if I understand properly Roll20 is browser based so it should run just fine on it.
The screen also can rotate 360d and can pop up and tilt so it is horizontal. I think that's pretty boss.
I think that if I were to take part in online games off roll 20 I'd be able to do it with that too and that's kinda exciting.