Best way to play online?

[Romus]

My gaming friends and i now live 4 hours apart and would like to start trying to play online a few times between our get togethers. Does anyone have any tips or links to help in this?

I know I want voice communication (too much typing will just make it a pain), so i was thinking of using Teamspeak.I know my friends want to roll their own dice (I trust them) so I don't really need a dice roller.

Other than that I would like to hear good tips or things that may help things flow better, thanks.

 

[DanMcS]

Wow, playing online by voice, that's nifty, I've never even tried it. I recall toying with some voice-over-IP software years ago, the sound quality sucked, but I was a broke freshman in college and it didn't cost long-distance, so we used it a bit. I imagine the quality is somewhat better now.

All my online play has been by IRC, play-by-post, and play-by-email. By-IRC is probably closest to what you're talking about, since it's realtime.

Realtime is occasionally a pain, since you all have to be online simultaneously, but since it's a previously-existing group you've neatly skipped that step, it should be easy to arrange.

In addition to your communications medium, you'll need some kind of collaborative space; either a website you can throw a bunch of files onto, and send out URLs to players as they become relevant, or some kind of shared whiteboard software.

WebRPG was one of the first RPG-specific internet software tools for online play, and used to be pretty good, but I haven't tried it in years. It's supposed to mimic a tabletopish environ for a game, that might be part of what you need.

 

[Emiricol]

WebRPG was one of the first RPG-specific internet software tools for online play, and used to be pretty good, but I haven't tried it in years. It's supposed to mimic a tabletopish environ for a game, that might be part of what you need.

I use OpenRPG regularly. WebRPG went to a pay model, then back off the pay model, and hasn't been seriously updated in a long time. OpenRPG is open-source, works on mac, linux and windows, and is regularly updated.

Both are what I call "virtual tabletop" software. But, your idea of VoIP chat is very cool! Let us know how it works out, if you end up doing the voice thing.

 

[Romus]

I use OpenRPG regularly. WebRPG went to a pay model, then back off the pay model, and hasn't been seriously updated in a long time. OpenRPG is open-source, works on mac, linux and windows, and is regularly updated.

Both are what I call "virtual tabletop" software. But, your idea of VoIP chat is very cool! Let us know how it works out, if you end up doing the voice thing.

I'll let you know how it goes. Plus i'll check out this OpenRPG, thanks

 

[JoeBlank]

I second the OpenRPG suggestion. We have been using it, and WebRPG, for a few years now, for the same reason. My old group from high school is now in Florida, Georgia, and Wisconsin.

I think Open is a little better than Web. Let us what you come up with, and how it works out for you.