Resuming Face-to-Face Gaming

[JediSoth]

My entire gaming group is now vaccinated, and by the time our next regularly scheduled game comes up, will be fully immunized. According to CDC guidelines, it's safe for us to resume gaming in person at my house, even if one couple brings their school-aged child (who doesn't game with us and usually watches cartoons in an adjacent room, except for popping in for snacks and to bring me Lego robots he wants me to attack the PCs with). One of my players is adamant about not resuming face-to-face yet because of their elderly father's risk factors (though, he is also fully immunized at this point).

Rather than try to convince them it's safe apart from providing the CDC guidelines, we're considering suggesting that they join remotely. So, we'll have 4 players around the table, plus me, and 1 remote player.

Has anyone played with this sort of set up? What challenges did you have? What solutions did you use? Any advice/suggestions?

 

[TheSword]

I have done that. I was the remote person.

I used my laptop and at the game they had a different laptop with the webcam pointed towards the GM. They then shared their laptop screen to the TV so that from their point of view it was like I was in the room. At that point we all used to sit around the living room rather than at a table.

I had to use theatre of the mind but that was ok. If you were very combat grid heavy you may need to change camera positions to see that and have a player move your stuff for you. Back then this wasn’t such an issue but it probably would be for me now.

You probably want to take 10 mins to practice your microphone levels so it’s comfortable but that’s no great shakes.

 

[el-remmen]

Way back when the pandemic was still a dystopian nightmare we might see in a film but not imagine actually living through, we had a player move out to Texas, as we wanted to at least wrap up the last adventure involving their character. So we just got him on google chat video or whatever and pointed the laptop camera at the mat. He could see it (though we'd have to move it around some and sometimes describe details) and even though he could not see the other players and only saw the DM when the camera was pointed at him during expository bits, he could HEAR all of us. It wasn't ideal, but for three or four sessions or whatever it was it worked. Maybe that will help for however long it takes for your friend to realized he is probably being overcautious.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I did mixed in-person/remote sessions back in 2010 or so and it was a hassle. Somehow, there was always a new technological hurdle that delayed session start time. For the 1-2 people playing remotely, the webcam generally only caught me, the DM, visually, and when lots of people were talking at once in the room, the remote player(s) couldn't understand anyone.

Granted, this was over a decade ago and technology has advanced greatly since then. Were I doing this again now, I'd invest in a unidirectional webcam and/or mic. Or even multiple mics, depending on how far spread out everyone is. And I'd want the one remote person to "show up" early so that any issues can be resolved before everyone else gets there.

 

[pogre]

I have done it. I use/d Zoom. I have a computer that basically served as a GM screen and ran all of the audio through there. Then we used two phones to capture the miniatures and scenery action at the table. When one of the remote players rejoined us at the table he commented that he did not realize how much we were doing to make the game work for him and that it slowed the game down. My current WFRP campaign has two in-person players and three remote - same set-up - works fine for us.

The biggest issue for us is audio - I sometimes have to repeat what is being said by a player at the table to players who are remote.

 

[Merifluous]

We have done mixed mode for years, even before the pandemic. DM and 3-4 players in person, 2 players remote over zoom. Usually have a surface with zoom up, and an external webcam and speaker/mic mostly pointed at the battlemap. Its not perfect, and we have 15+ years of gaming together, but it was definately worth the hassle for the people who dont live nearby anymore. It will slow your game down some, but nothing awful. It does take some time and experimentation to get it working well.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Like others have said audio will be your primary concern - which I found was the issue when playing online via discord or other. The table just has to engage more respectfully with one another as opposed to in-person. It is an adjustment and will slow the game down in parts.

Combat visual is easy enough to get around with cams via tv, laptops or phones.

 

[ART!]

We've been gaming for a few months now with 3-4 players physically together, and the DM and 1-4 other players elsewhere. Roll20 for virtual tabletop-ing and images, and Zoom for audio and video. It's worked just fine.

The only hiccups are the audio lag, which results in people talking over each other or not being able to get a word in sometimes.

I really like being able to mute things, and the "whisper" text options in roll20 (where you can message just one person in the game's chat thread.

 

[el-remmen]

T-Minus One hour and 10 minutes. . .

 

[aco175]

I applaud you for trying to include the player not coming. I'll leave it at that.