RPG via Skype?

[IronWolf]

I run a campaign with two players using Skype. Unfortunately, my laptop (which has the webcam) has problems running Skype for very long, so we need to restart the program every so often (usually it's every hour or so, but last session it was every 20 minutes for awhile). When we switch to audio only, the problem seems to go away, so the problem is likely the video eating up a lot of memory.

Skype can be pretty resource hungry. I frequently ran it on a laptop with minimal specs and I did have to make an effort to close things in the background I didn't need. Ventrilo certainly makes a nice lightweight alternative for the voice communications.

We have another campaign that we play using MapTools and speaking via Ventrilo. MapTools is very useful if you need a battle grid and has a lot of available miniature options, and Ventrio works well as a chat program. We have had very few problems with either.

MapTool is awesome. Great program for anyone looking for a VTT.

...and lets the player who runs an IT department handle the software and hardware while I run the game.

It is nice to have at least one or technically inclined people to help with setup and such. It can make things go pretty smooth.

This last has discouraged me from trying to run a game online - not only am I something of a Luddite anyway, but I definitely lean towards the low-handout end of the scale, mostly due to a lack of prep-time!

I prefer face to face gaming, but if I didn't have a local group, I'd turn to online gaming in a heartbeat. It has some advantages (i.e. I don't have to drive to game night which means dinner with the family and then starting to game and not having to drive home after the game).

 

[Treebore]

Maptools is awesome for handouts! Plus I mainly use it for maps, which I usually just have to import from the module I am using at the time, plus you can create character (and monster) tokens in which you can create macros, which are also easy to write [1d20+modifiers], [2d8+5], etc..., so all you then have to do to roll dice is push the right macro button. Plus its nice to have a character portrait as your token to best represent how you think your PC looks.

So as long as you know how to copy/paste from PDF documents, and can open the proper menu to import, etc... you will soon be doing lots of cool gaming via maptools.

I do agree that online gaming is not "as good" as face to face, but you know what? It's still a crap ton better than no gaming, or not having a good friend not able to game with you anymore.

Now SKYPE video probably does cause issues if you have a computer with lower ability, but the times I have used it has been on my laptops, which have either 4 or 6 GB of RAM and at least 2.8 GHz processors as well as over 1 Gig video cards, so I probably have more than enough resources to not have problems.

 

[KidSnide]

I've run two modules (and a bit) of War of the Burning Sky over Skype with Fantasy Grounds. It hasn't been free of technical issues (more for FG than Skype), but it works pretty well.

Also, Skype has improved its call quality steadily over the past few years. If you're experience was with circa-2006 Skype (or earlier), you'll be pleasantly surprised by the improvement.

-KS

 

[MatthewJHanson]

One group that I play in uses Google Hangouts to run online games, and that works pretty well. We just use the sketchpad for maps. The DM found a bunch of tiles somewhere that he uses to build the encounters.

 

[Janx]

One group that I play in uses Google Hangouts to run online games, and that works pretty well. We just use the sketchpad for maps. The DM found a bunch of tiles somewhere that he uses to build the encounters.

Google Hangouts handles 10 people in a video confernece for free.
skype only handles 2 people.

Unless there's a quality difference, Hangouts probably wins then.

From my experience doing a lot of teleconferencing for work, I would advise that all players be on their computer, rather than some being live, some being on the phone as it were. Experience shows, those who are sitting next to the GM have a social advantage over the ones on the phone who can't hear as well or get as much attention.

 

[MACLARREN]

I would recommend using Skype with some form of virtual table top to work with. We have a campaign where we get together twice a year for 3 day marathon sessions in a sit down session. However, between these, some of us play weekly with a different campaign using Skype with Fantasy Grounds. One of our members lives in San Diego and the rest of us are all spread out over PA and it allows us to play every Tuesday night from 9 pm to midnight or so. With real life families, it is as close to the gaming table as you can get with virtual play when you cannot get together. Sure there are some hang ups every now and then with sound quality or issues with linking in FG but I would highly recommend using it if you can find a group who does.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

My group tried it a few times while our GM was living in Sweden and while it worked fine technically, I thought the roleplaying aspect was severely lacking. I assume it was because we weren't face to face and it's hard to speak at the same time via conference call but the roleplaying and simple communication was very stunted. There was little to no banter, lots of dead air when the GM was setting things up, and the social interactions were very direct, pointed, and short. Maybe trying it a few more times would have brought everyone around but I wasn't upset that we postponed the game until the GM returned.

 

[Agamon]

I find what works best when playing online is to use the VOIP service for OOC chatter and relaying stat and game info and use the chat box for actual roleplaying. Slows things down a little bit, but the quality of RP raises dramatically.