How has the Coronavirus affected your roleplaying games?

pogre · Mar 22, 2020

Update: I have been running games on teleconference (zoom) and it is so convenient and works so well we have played 4 evenings in a row. We are playing this afternoon in the regular campaign. So surprisingly, the pandemic has radically increased my amount of gaming.

Imaculata · Mar 22, 2020

We have cancelled our upcoming D&D sessions, and will be experimenting with running a session online soon via roll20.

Nebulous · Mar 22, 2020

Olaf the Stout said:
I’m in Australia, so we’re about a week behind the rest of the world in virus terms. We had a face-to-face session on Wednesday, but one of the players didn’t attend as his mother is recovering from cancer, so didn’t want to put her at risk.

I’m all but certain our next session will be online. We’re just looking at the different options now as none of us have roleplayed online before.

It's definitely a big shift and learning curve. I generally think the younger groups understand it easier, and for us older DMs (40+, 50+) it is trickier to implement. That's been my experience anyway.

Olaf the Stout · Mar 22, 2020

Nebulous said:
It's definitely a big shift and learning curve. I generally think the younger groups understand it easier, and for us older DMs (40+, 50+) it is trickier to implement. That's been my experience anyway.

It will be interesting to see how our group goes. We range in age from early 30’s to mid-60’s, so there is a fair age gap. I’m nearly 40, but am fairly good at learning new stuff, so hopefully the learning curve isn’t too bad. It looks like online will be the only way forward for the next 6 months or so though.

Ulfgeir · Mar 22, 2020

Update:

We ran a session of Fate Accelerate - Gods and Monsters today. Worked quite well. We did find that there were some problems with the audio clipping through Discord, but the sensitivity and volume can easily be adjusted. Helps if you have good internet-connections as well. (I have 100/100 Mbits/s). And you need a bit of meeting-discipline so not everyone talks at the same time.

I use my stationary computer and screen for running Astraltabletop, and then my laptop for discord,so I get good sound.

We noted though that the characters does NOT update automatically from the session out to the saved character in the vault. And yes, you can easily get multiple copies of the character in the vault. What you do is then open it in the vault, delete it there (double-click), and then export out from the session (which must be running).

Nebulous · Mar 22, 2020

Olaf the Stout said:
It will be interesting to see how our group goes. We range in age from early 30’s to mid-60’s, so there is a fair age gap. I’m nearly 40, but am fairly good at learning new stuff, so hopefully the learning curve isn’t too bad. It looks like online will be the only way forward for the next 6 months or so though.

I'm afraid you're right. On the other hand, it is forcing me to learn new skills I otherwise would never have done.

Nebulous · Mar 22, 2020

atanakar said:
Our first online game went very well. I'll relocate to my gaming room next time. Instead of using my desktop computer I'll use my cellphone hooked up to an articulated lamp for a better angle of the models.

For maps and other visual aids I use a clip board that I place in front of the camera. One player makes a screen shoot and adds the image to the Skype image gallery.

Huh. I kinda like that. Would there be a way to set up TWO or more cameras, like one from above and other for close ups? Or just two for closeups from two angles. I don't know how players would switch from one view to the other though. I have lots of maps and props left for Lost Mine and really want to use them. A setup like yours might benefit also from a couple dedicated remote web cams.

Umbran · Mar 22, 2020

Well, for my groups it has largely put play on hold. Not because anyone is directly sick, but because the pandemic has reduced everybody's ability to cope with other things. One guy's father in law had a pneumonia related health crisis not related to covid-19. Another had a father in law need emergency heart surgery. Another player has young kids at home and has had issues balancing time, and another player is sick (likely not with covid-19, but still...

Eltab · Mar 23, 2020

As of noon today (23 Mar) the Governor of IN is closing down the State for two weeks, starting midnight Tues/Wed. So my tabletop group is on hiatus until then-or-longer.