Most Hardcore Player

[jcayer]

When I started my 4e group back in the summer, one of the guys who wanted in, traveled fairly often for work. Things were good for a while and he only missed one or 2 sessions. Lately he's been traveling more and he, along with another member of our group got video conferencing working through skype. We tried it out about a month ago and things worked pretty well.

This week, he traveled again, and this is where the hardcore comes into play. We are on the east coast, and he was in San Fran. He finished up for the day, went right to the airport, got to his terminal, and sat down in the corner on the floor. Setup his laptop, camera, mooched some wi-fi, and played D&D with us, from the airport, for 5+ hours.

Now THAT is hardcore!

 

[el-remmen]

Love the dedication!

Several years ago I had a player who was sent to Boston for work for a couple of months, and while she didn't have any family here in NY (and thus no pressing need to return regularly) - she used her company's offer to put her on the shuttle plane back to NYC each weekend to come play D&D with us.

And while she wasn't paying for it, it is still a pain in the ass to go the airport, etc. . . and then fly back, just for 6+ hours of D&D.

 

[timbannock]

Now THAT is hardcore!

Could you give a little more detail on how you guys integrate him over the net? I'm not too technologically minded, but I'm moving cross-country and am trying to figure out ways I can still game with my group here on the East Coast...and frankly, your post makes it sound like it's not only doable, but totally awesome as well!

 

[Orryn Emrys]

I had a player a number of years back who just refused to let go when his job required him to relocate. He was in broadcast engineering and his company had stations across the state. He moved about 3 hours away... but he kept coming up with work-related reasons to drive back to town just about every weekend... then would coincidentally hang around on his day off and drive home early the next morning. He actually kept it up for almost six months (fortunately, the local stations needed a lot of maintenance), then finally negotiated a deal that would allow him to move back.

It was pretty hardcore.

 

[jcayer]

We use a gridded white board, so we didn't have to change focus at all unless we were doing a long "talky" part, then we pointed it at the DM(me).

On our side (the webcam that the group has, that we point at the board) is:
Walmart.com: HP USB Webcam, EW193AA: Computers

The webcam that he took the to the airport is:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Quickcam-Notebooks-Deluxe-Notebook/dp/B000RPCM0Y/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1229701624&sr=8-7"]Amazon.com: Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Deluxe - Notebook web camera - color - audio - USB: Sports & Outdoors[/ame]

The second webcam was used with a headset/mic. We had some problems with sound being muffled before we hooked the headset up to his side.

We used Skype for the call and for the video chat.

 

[Dragonbait]

Congrats, jcayer. If you are the Gm for that group and your player is willing to go through all that to play in your game, then that means you are that damn good!

 

[timbannock]

We use a gridded white board, so we didn't have to change focus at all unless we were doing a long "talky" part, then we pointed it at the DM(me).

On our side (the webcam that the group has, that we point at the board) is:
Walmart.com: HP USB Webcam, EW193AA: Computers

The webcam that he took the to the airport is:
Amazon.com: Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Deluxe - Notebook web camera - color - audio - USB: Sports & Outdoors

The second webcam was used with a headset/mic. We had some problems with sound being muffled before we hooked the headset up to his side.

We used Skype for the call and for the video chat.

Sweet! I have an Asus Eee PC with built in webcam and Skype already, so it looks like I'm already most of the way there!

One of our players is a big techy, so I'm sure he can set up the stuff on their end.

Thing is, I'm usually the DM. It might be a little tougher to setup combat maps and such that work, but I already have a thought: PCs and DM buy the same size battlemats, and label the outside edges A thru [whatever letter] on top and then 0 thru [whatever number] along the side and then we can just say: "Move Bilbo to square B7".

Or maybe I should look into some of those DM clients like Fantasy Grounds or whatever else there is.

 

[jcayer]

I am the GM and I will do my best to be humble and say Thanks.

If you are interested, you can read about the adventures here: Josh's Blog

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

I guess I am hardcore too

I spent all of the last two years travelling and living overseas, and played in an online Dungeons and Dragons game using OpenRPG and later Maptools the whole time, as well as running a tabletop game during the 8 months I was living in Buenos Aires.

So I played D&D from Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Russia, Denmark, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. I think it's quite possible that I have played Dungeons and Dragons from more countries than anyone on earth, actually. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that can top that list!

Ken

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

We need an astronaut D&D player, so they can dial in from (or better yet, host a game at) the space station.