Old Man Wants to Play Online

[BlackFire1967]

I am an ancient TTRPG gamer (I started with the Holmes Basic Set LOL) and I would really love to play again. Alas, all of my friends have gone their separate ways long ago and I have no one to game with any longer. I have attempted to find local players, but none have worked out. That being the case, I thought I would put my toe in the water of gaming online. I am not a technology illiterate but I am not exactly up to date on the latest and greatest either.

So here are a few questions that I hope you good people could help me answer:

• I know I need a VTT, but I am not interested in D&D Beyond. I have nothing against 5E but it is just not the game for me. What other VTT is the most popular.
• I also know I will need some kind of webcam for video. I do not want to use the one on my laptop because it just is not very good. What kind of webcam or camera can I get (for a reasonable price) that would have good resolution, depth of field, etc.?
• I know I need audio. Should I use headphones or not? I am not a fan of them but what other options do I have for a reasonable price?
• What application is most popular for video chat? I would like to have at least four players on the screen at one time. I have a 27" monitor is that big enough.

I appreciate any help with this. It would make an old man's day!

The Ancient Gamer

 

[CandyLaser]

On the VTT front, you probably only need to worry about it if you're the GM, as it's usually up to the GM to decide the platform they're going to use. If you are GMing, I personally like Foundry, as it's got support for most of what I want to play and has lots of customization options, thanks to the modules you can get to tweak its behavior and add functionality. That said, Roll20 is easier to work with if you're non-technical and is a perfectly functional platform. I've not used Alchemy or Owlbear Rodeo, but I know they have their supporters.

I can't help with the camera side of things, but I can say that I don't use headphones most of the time, unless I'm playing music or sound for ambience, in which case I keep them on so I don't get interference. Most of my players don't wear headphones either. We use Google meetings for our video chat, and I've never had a problem keeping a tab open for that with the VTT in another window. Alternately, many VTTs have voice chat and video chat built in. I used the Roll20 video chat and found it fine; I haven't used Foundry, because it's trickier to set up.

 

[CandyLaser]

I would add that Roll20 has a free account option, but you'll want to pay for a subscription if you're running games to unlock some useful functionality. The free version is enough for you to experiment a little and see how it works, though. One reason I prefer Foundry is that it's got a buy-once model instead of a subscription approach (although I do pay a for a Forge subscription, which offers remote hosting, as opposed to having to set up a server myself).

 

[BlackFire1967]

Thanks. Does Google video have pretty quality audio and video?

 

[overgeeked]

I would suggest giving it a shot before spending any money. Not everyone likes gaming online.

Roll20 has a free option. Discord is free and has good audio. Do what’s comfortable in regards to audio. Headphones or speakers. Use your laptop camera or don’t bother with video. In my experience, most people don’t care about video.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I am an ancient TTRPG gamer (I started with the Holmes Basic Set LOL) and I would really love to play again. Alas, all of my friends have gone their separate ways long ago and I have no one to game with any longer. I have attempted to find local players, but none have worked out. That being the case, I thought I would put my toe in the water of gaming online. I am not a technology illiterate but I am not exactly up to date on the latest and greatest either.

So here are a few questions that I hope you good people could help me answer:

• I know I need a VTT, but I am not interested in D&D Beyond. I have nothing against 5E but it is just not the game for me. What other VTT is the most popular.
• I also know I will need some kind of webcam for video. I do not want to use the one on my laptop because it just is not very good. What kind of webcam or camera can I get (for a reasonable price) that would have good resolution, depth of field, etc.?
• I know I need audio. Should I use headphones or not? I am not a fan of them but what other options do I have for a reasonable price?
• What application is most popular for video chat? I would like to have at least four players on the screen at one time. I have a 27" monitor is that big enough.

I appreciate any help with this. It would make an old man's day!

The Ancient Gamer

Ok, I do not use a camera, but I would recommend a headset and mic. The headset does not matter much but the better the mic the better you can be heard.
I use Maps on D&DBeyond and FantasyGrounds. You could use D&DBeyonds maps as a system agnostic mapper but you would probably better off using another VTT.
While I love FantasyGrounds it costs money to try out and has a fairly steep learning curve. It does have an integrated map creation tool but I find it quite complex and generally import my maps. The real strength of FantasyGrounds is the tools it provides the DM in preparation and the combat tracker,

I have used Roll20 but found it frustrating at the time. It is, however, free and thus a good place to start out and try out online play while you explore other options.

Roll20 has integrated sound but at the time we thought it was very poor quality. This is quite a while ago and we settled on Skype for comms but the other group I play with use Discord for comms and I would recommend discord for sound and as a method of sharing information.

I cannot comment on other VTT has I have not tried them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I echo what's said above: Discord and start with a cheap headset that includes a microphone.

This is a good point in history to play an older version of D&D (and games inspired by their mechanics or flavor) and most have communities online where they gather that are good places to start looking for online gaming groups.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I have a couple of articles that might help:

Two Years Playing D&D Online

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I went from running D&D exclusively in person to running D&D exclusively online for more than two years. Though the circumstances are terrible, this was a...

slyflourish.com

This one is more GM focused for finding players but it might help:

Interviewing New Players for Online Games

Getting and keeping an RPG group together remains the hardest part of this hobby. For general tips on this topic read my previous article on Finding and Maintaining a D&D Group. Things have changed. I...

slyflourish.com

The hardest part is probably finding a group you like to play with. Discord servers for the game you want to run or the forums of the platform you like playing on.

Roll20 is the most popular platform but there are others. My own group is online but we just use Discord. You don't necessarily need a camera. Some groups use them, some don't. Some players in a group use them, some don't. It's very group dependent.

For a mic, a headset with a mic works better than speakers and a mic so there's no speaker-to-mic feedback.

For games, you might take a look at Shadowdark. They have an active discord server and the game plays very much like older versions of D&D.

Best of luck to you and I hope you find a group soon!!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For games, you might take a look at Shadowdark. They have an active discord server and the game plays very much like older versions of D&D.

Seconded: Shadowdark's Discord and Facebook communities are very good about welcoming new people into online games, even as a one-shot. (Their Discord community is massively more active.)

 

[HippyCraig]

For ease of use and keeping things simple look at owlbear rodeo