D&D 4E Advice: Running an Online 4e Game

[fictionalbeing]

Hello all,

I've never run an online game and I'm (hopefully) going to start one soon. I'd appreciate any advice from those who've done it before. Anything from software used, to how you interact (chat, voice, etc.) with your players, etc. Prep? How do you display maps? Do you send players secret notes? Images of found things like scrolls, etc.? Anything and everything!

Some things I have decided: Essentials only (mostly), Maptools for maps. Everything else is up in the air.

Thanks!

 

[Stoat]

I don't use Maptools, so I can't give specific advice about your software. It's a popular program, so I'm sure folks will be coming around shortly who can answer specific questions about it.

I play using d20 Pro for my VTT and Ventrillo or Skype (depending on how many players I have that night and whether or not the Ventrillo server is up). I prefer VOIP to text-only chatting. I like the social element of the game, and I find that talking facilitates it more than typing. I also think that talking makes a more spontaneous game.

For secret notes, d20 Pro has a feature that lets you text/chat privately with anyone logged in to the program. I've used AIM for the same purpose. Frankly, I try to avoid secret conversations with my players, because I find it bogs down the action and leaves the other players fiddling around waiting for something to do.

The most important thing to do if you're playing online:

FIND OUT WHAT THE PLAYERS ARE GOING TO DO BEFORE YOU LOG IN TO PLAY.

Playing online requires a little more prep than playing face to face. You need a map to show the players. You need tokens for whatever enemies/NPC's the players come up against. You may need to do some data entry to make sure the enemies/NPC's stats are in your VTT. It's not impossible to improvise online, but it is a little more difficult. Let the players do whatever they want, but get some advance notice so you can prepare.

 

[RangerWickett]

I don't think I could ever run a PbP that actually had people taking combat turn by turn. It's just too slow. I could do the storytelling part post by post, but when combat breaks out, I think we'd either have to use a very very simple system, or get everyone together in chat and run it in near real-time. Especially with interrupt and reaction powers, a single round of combat could take a week.

 

[GRStrayton]

I run games online every week, sometimes with a few players in the same room with me and the others remote; sometimes with me alone and everyone else in one other or several other locations. We don't use any map programs whatsoever. We only use iChat (Skype would work just as well as I think they've recently added the ability to teleconference). Whichever location has the most people is responsible for drawing the map on the battlemat and manipulating the miniatures, with the camera pointed at the map for the rest of us to see. If I need to send secret information, I text the person (or IM them if they're at their computer without any other players present). We've been doing this for five or six years and it has worked excellently for us -- most players are in NYC or Los Angeles, but we've had players in CO and Bulgaria join in with no problem.

 

[Aegeri]

Hello all,

I've never run an online game and I'm (hopefully) going to start one soon. I'd appreciate any advice from those who've done it before. Anything from software used, to how you interact (chat, voice, etc.) with your players, etc. Prep? How do you display maps? Do you send players secret notes? Images of found things like scrolls, etc.? Anything and everything!

Some things I have decided: Essentials only (mostly), Maptools for maps. Everything else is up in the air.

Thanks!

My personal recommendation is to use maptools. Maptools is not an easy program to use initially, but once you get used to it the program is efficient, can nicely display maps for encounters and is suitable for roleplaying/other requirements. I also recommend using a chat client, in my case I use penny-arcades ventrilo server. A chat client is useful for keeping the game going, so you can give oral descriptions/confirmations to your players. Saving on typing helps keep the game going and makes important information easy to hear for your players.

I use a mixture of my own drawn maps (especially since Dungeon is ceasing to publish any actual usable cartography over dungeon tile crap), other peoples excellent cartography (Cartographer's Guild has numerous talented individuals who share their work) and whatever else comes to mind. Mostly I use maptools for encounters while having "roleplaying" sessions on simpler backgrounds.

Best thing with maptools once you get used to coding macros, is that it will automate many things for you. Attack and damage rolls can be rolled cleanly and quickly at once. You can put fairly complicated powers into maptools, like those that need random chance rolls (beholders deciding what eyeray to use for example) without slowing the game down at all. It can also easily track the usage of daily, encounter and similar powers too - which is a real blessing in high level play or over multiple sessions.

I very much endorse using maptools, but expect it to take some time before you get a really smooth running game.

 

[OnlineDM]

Wonderful - I'm always excited when I hear about more people deciding to run games online!

I'll start by immodestly pointing you toward my blog. As you can tell from the name, Online Dungeon Master, this is kind of what I do.

I highly recommend MapTool, so I'm glad you've decided to use it. There are some nice campaign frameworks out there for running 4e games - if you don't enjoy programming, definitely check those out (Rumble's 4e framework is one I've looked at a little bit). I personally enjoy the programming, so I don't use a framework - I've built everything myself. If you ever have questions about MapTool and how to do what you want to do in it, please ask - I love helping others with this program!

As for chat, we use Skype. We've never had a problem (except for the occasional person whose internet connection crashes and they fall out of both MapTool and Skype).

I definitely spend a pretty hefty amount of time on prep, but again, it's because I enjoy it. I have historically drawn most of my maps myself using MapTool, but I've recently discovered that a wonderful EN Worlder has already created great JPGs of the maps from the campaign I'm running (War of the Burning Sky), so I've just started using those.

In addition to drawing the maps, my prep also includes setting up tokens for all of the monsters, with the powers programmed in so that a single click rolls the attack and damage. I also do this for my players' tokens (so I fiddle with them a bit every time they level up).

If I need to show the players an image such as a scroll, I save it in a directory that I can find via MapTool and then drag it to the game table in the Object layer (resizing as needed for clear visibility). I don't do this very often, but I've done it from time to time.

I never communicate information to just one player, but I'm pretty sure that MapTool has a function to let you send a text chat to just one person if you like.

Most of the encounters I've run have been prepped in advance, but I did just run a FANTASTICALLY fun encounter on the fly last Friday (you can read about that here). Part of the reason I could do that was that I've drawn enough maps that I'm able to make them quickly now, and I also have programmed enough monster tokens that I have a bunch saved now and could grab a random one and tweak it for my purposes. If I were starting from scratch, I might not want to run an impromptu combat encounter in MapTool.

I've run 15 sessions of my current online game over the last 5 or 6 months, and it's been a terrific experience. We're taking a break for the holidays the next two weeks, but if you'd ever like to sit in on a session to see what it's like, just let me know.

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[TDarien]

I play in a weekly Maptool game that's been going on since 4e came out.

Look at the maptool forums for some of the user-created 4e frameworks, they work really well, and help manage the characters and create macros for ease of play. There are several good ones, so I suggest you try some out and see which you like.

Maptool does have a whisper function so you can send information to just one pleyer,

As for Voip, I prefer Skype, as ventrillo tends to slow down the game too much, at least in my experience. This also alows you to have seperate in-character and OOC chats, something that has proven useful in our group.

 

[Walking Dad]

I don't think I could ever run a PbP that actually had people taking combat turn by turn. It's just too slow. ...

We manage to do it every day on Living 4th Edition and Living Eberron.

fictionalbeing, just take a look there or in the various other 4e PBP games here and see if you like it that way.

 

[mattcolville]

I use Fantasy Grounds and though it...it presents what I consider *serious* obstacles to anyone who wants to run 4E with it, including the need to first *find* then download other homebrew tools...it's pretty powerful and, in balance, I prefer it to MapTools.

The other VTT solutions I checked out were all like MapTools and, indeed, the WotC VT, in that they focused on A Map. The players are always looking at A Map. The software just replicates the act of playing out an encounter on a battle mat.

Whereas Fantasy Grounds is more like an actual, literal tabletop. I.e. I don't think MapTools and WotC's VT are really...virtual tabletops. They're Virtual Battlemats.

In Fantasy Grounds you're looking at a tabletop, onto which I, the GM, can drop maps, several maps at once, including Overland Maps, maps of the local area, battlemats, as well as...the menu for the local inn, handouts, pictures of NPCs. Pretty much anything you can do at the table.

And the players then control their own copes of these things. Once I share them, each player has his own local copy of each handout and can open it, close it, organize it, as he sees fit.

It also has a very satisfying 3D dice rolling simulation.

It's 4E ruleset is...it's not *perfect* but it's pretty robust. It's main failing is that it was written after the core rules came out and most of the work since has been bugfixing, so some edge case stuff, like Psionics and Weapliments, you have to kludge yourself.

It's pretty good.

 

[Goonalan]

I've played 100+ sessions of D&D using Maptools & Skype, and I'm a computer moron- if I can do it then so can you.

Having said that it takes a good chunk of time and prep to begin with, you need to constantly keep ahead of the players, and if you want the PCs to be able to explore anywhere then you're going to need to be on your toes.

So here goes-

1) Check whatever your using- Maptools and Skype for instance, works for everyone- the worst thing in the world is to do a shed load of work and then one of your PCs can't access it for whatever reason. Solve any system issues now, don't wait till the big day- get all the players connected and test the thing.

2) Decide on a Framework or not- a Framework is a pre-programmed/specified bunch of data (or at least properties) which you need to make the macros on individual tokens work. So when you're playing the Goblin King and you click on his Macro to 'Attack with Haunch of Meat' the data produced- to hit roll, damage et al calls on the creatures properties which are defined by the Framework- like base to hit, strength bonus, level bonus et al.

Personally I built my own framework which I'm happy to share and if time coincide to demo for you- message me. I built my own because I am a computer idiot (I may have mentioned this) and did not understand how to work any of the existing Frameworks- I tried to make them work but had no success, just got lots of errors. As I say this has nothing to do with the frameworks, they're used by 100's if not 1000's of people- I'm an idiot remember.

That said, if I can build a framework, then so can you... actually so could your hamster.

3) Get resources, maps from-

Cartographers Guild
Cartographers' Guild - The Front Page

Dundjinni
Dundjinni Mapping Software - Forums

ENWorld
See Forums for Maps & Art

RPTools forums
RPTools.net • Index page

And lots of other places- ask around if you're not sure.

Also many of the above, including dundjinni, have lots of object packs (all the stuff you need to build and enhance maps)

Remember you're also looking for tokens, or things to make into tokens- see all of the above but invaluable is RPTools Tokentools- download this as well and get using it.

There's a torrent floating around called 'Maptools', not many sharers but attached to it (I believe) is about 2 gig of maps and objects- that would be almost everything you need...

4) Go back to RPTools and find the tutorials section, have a play through it-0 and practice what they preach, it's a steep learning curve (well, for me it was) but after about four or five days of trying... well, I love maptools, it saved my life once (no, really- no D&D for 4 years and then I bumped into Maptools).

5) Play with the system as much as you can, make notes as you go along- if you need to. Message me here if you need help, or a session in how to do things, although remember I'm on GMT.

To conclude- Maptools & Skype games can be slow (in comparison with face-to-face) you need to learn how to manage the system. It's hard to play without a significant amount of prep- however this can be done between games. It can be difficult to do things on the fly- you need to build up a stock of maps and creatures particularly if you just want to run encounters on the fly. VTTs work best when the players have lots of visuals so its not just maps- art work is good.

Lastly, start with something easy, a pre-packaged scenario would be good- something which you can use as a structure, and provide you with all of the maps, artwork etc.

Do it well and at times its better than the real thing, it does however take time and patience to get really good at.

Cheers Goonalan