Running a campaign via software....help needed.

[tennyson]

Hi Everyone,

I've recently moved 6 hours away from my last gaming group (which was the best group I've had to date), and we were mulling over the idea of starting a new campaign via software.

Has anyone here had any experience using this method, and what are some good clients to use? Any suggestions, reviews, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Zulithe]

I prefer IRC with a dice rolling script. There is a thread on this page (or maybe 1 page back, 2 at the most) about IRC gaming, check it out for links to clients and other useful utilities.

I heard that AOL Instant Messenger has dice abilities built in (I know that the AOL internet service does, but I can't confirm about the instant messenger alone, because I don't have it installed) but if it is true, gaming over AIM might be good, especially since it has voice-chat and even webcam support.

If you want to do it entirely by voice you could use a program like Skype which lets you have voice conferences PC-to-PC (up to 6 at a time I think?) and it is free, then you could also use a whiteboard program along with that for combats ... but IMO there are no suitable whiteboard applications for gaming...

yet another option is something like OpenRPG, a suite of applications developes specifically for internet gaming. The downside is that there are a lot of things you must install to get it working, and not everyone likes using it anyway.

Overall you will probably need to try several methods and/or programs until you find something suitable for both you and your players

Let us know what you decide ... i'm always curious what others use

[cairngorm]

Another option, of course, is KloogeWerks. It's java-based and runs on most platforms (Mac, PC, Linux). It supports D&D2E, D&D3E and I think a D&DE3.5 was in the works or might be available now. KloogeWerks is not free like OpenRPG but is well supported and has been around for a couple of years now.

Their website is:

http://www.kloogeinc.com/werks/index.htm

[soulcatcher]

the newest release of GMGen (paort of pcgen) can do a hall of a lot over a network. I hav eposted it's full feature set in this post:
GMGen

it may well do most of that you want

Devon Jones
PCGen Code Silverback