Pen and Paper D&D over the PC?

[punkorange]

Lasher, you plan to run the wld on FG? I'll try and get FG if you are.

 

[Nalfien]

Well, I bought the full version yesterday. Whats this WLD that keeps getting mentioned? Sounds like map making software or something. I like Dundjini, but I think its a little out of my price range.

Anyways, I'd love to get in on any FG ran games. I'd like to DM eventually, but I'd like to play a campaign first.

Thanks for pointing me to this software. I've got three of my pals that are probably going to buy it when I start to DM. Should be pretty fun.

 

[msd]

Whats this WLD that keeps getting mentioned?

World's Largest Dungeon, if I were to venture a guess. If people are looking for a quick one-shot adventure to run in FG, I just completed an adventure which is available for download on my site...click the link in my sig.

 

[rvalle]

Well, I bought the full version yesterday. Whats this WLD that keeps getting mentioned? Sounds like map making software or something.

WLD = The Worlds Largest Dungeon. A stupid big dungeon that would be pretty cool to use with FG.

rv

 

[Kapture]

How do people find Screen Monkey? The part I like is that I wouldn't have to make my players buy the software.

I've looked at WebRPG, and I liked it too. I just looked at Kloogewerks and fantasy grounds, but they both look relatively expensive.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Fantasy Grounds Looks interesting. I think I'll buy it.

My main motivation is that I can only DM my face to face campaign once or at most - twice- a month.

Given that restriction, I'm feeling the need for a little more gaming. Fantasy Grounds plus Teamspeak/Skype seems a fine idea. And I agree, WLD seems ideal for it. I have it and I'd run it over this in a heartbeat.

If someone wants to drop me a line at steelwind@dladventures.com to arrange a game - I'm in.

 

[Bakshara]

Looking for a player!

I have a group of 6 players. We play aproximately every other Saturday. We play using Fantasy Grounds. Our next game is set to start 10am PDT (11am MDT, 12pm CDT, 1pm EDT) April the 28th.

Unfortunately, one of our players has had a work schedule change and now has to work every Saturday.

We play AD&D 2nd Edition. The character to be taken over is a VERY devout 4th level Dwarven Cleric. He is the only healer in to group.

pm or email me if you are interested.

 

[Arkhandus]

Imagine a session over the PC. A forum posting lets you know what IP address to join and when to join it for a Netmeeting. You all join and the DM helps create everyone’s character on the first night. The DM uses ETools to keep track of your characters and sends you a character sheet in acrobat format or if you all bought ETools the actual file. The next session, the DM has everyone connect back with Netmeeting. The DM declares the beginning of the campaign and reads over his mic the introductions of how your characters meet up. The players can read some of their backgrounds or roleplay a little (in text or mic... or both. I'm kinda shy so I'd probably just type.) Then the DM reads you all into the starting location and guides your characters to the nearest town. While there you all visit supply shops and gear up while getting hints on the main plot where the DM can get you to the first adventure. When all is going well with the chat session (DM speaking and pasting in chat while players type) the first dungeon is introduced. The DM shares the Dundjinni map he has prepared (There has GOT to be a way to fog over areas the players can't see yet) and places your character icons on the appropriate squares. Then encounters happen and it resembles what the 3.5ed combat section examples look like in the player’s handbook. People move here or there and declare their actions while the DM rolls real dice and lets the players know the outcomes. He could share the Wizards of the Coast dice roller I suppose, but I'd like a better solution for when players roll. Anyways, at the end of the session, the DM wraps up the adventure for the night and everyone logs off as quickly as they logged on. Message board or email communication for DM questions and player discussion could happen between sessions and they could improve upon what they have started.

Lame or interesting?

Unnecessary, really.

You can already do that sort of thing, basically, with OpenRPG or WebRPG (and I believe there are one or two other contenders out there right now), simply using Roger Wilco or a similar program to voice-chat over the internet during the game session. Die rolls can be done through OpenRPG or whatever, minis can be displayed on the map, and character sheets/information nodes can be sent to one another over the program. Or put on a webpage and people could just open up that page if they wanted to check the info.

I've been DMing and playing D&D (and a wee bit of Shadowrun) over OpenRPG since around early 2002. I haven't been using voicechat though (haven't installed any program for it), but I prefer the text-based part while online just because OpenRPG records a chatlog for text, that I can save and then reference later if I want to refresh my memory of a previous session. It lacks a bit of the social aspect and tactile experience, what with no physical battlemat or handpainted miniatures or physical dice or whatnot, and the fact that you're looking at a computer screen, but it's quite alright and I've still enjoyed gaming this way. If you really, really needed to see the people you gamed with, for some reason, you could just use webcams (though using OpenRPG + webpages or text nodes + Roger Wilco + webcam at once may be a bit straining on the computer).

 

[Arkhandus]

Oh yeah, I forgot the names of the other programs for voicechat, like Skype and Teamspeak (since I don't use any, I keep procrastinating), and the names of other online tabletop programs....Fantasy Grounds, Tablesmith I think?, and probably one other.

For those who asked/mentioned: While some of the programs require purchase or a monthly fee, not all of them do. OpenRPG is free to download and use, at any rate. It's 2 or 3 separate programs to download at first, since it needs you to have the Python and wxPython (or whatever) bases for it to run on (it's programmed in Python), but you only need to run the OpenRPG program itself to play (and the OpenRPG Server program to host a game; but ya don't have to host your own games, there are public servers for those who don't mind the extra lag).

I don't recognize the name Screen Monkey; is that a program for voice chat, or webcam use, or something?

As for player turnover: Yeah, there's player turnover sometimes, but it all depends on who you recruit for your games to start with. When I started using OpenRPG, I first looked around for a game on the servers, and joined Emiricol's Bandora campaign, which had three consistent players at the time along with the DM (I and another player joined to fill the vacant spots). After a while, when Em needed a break from Bandora, we switched to playing in The 13 Kingdoms. Another two consistent players joined the group then. Bandora ran for something like a year or so before I joined, I think, and it ran for about a year after I had joined. The T13K campaign we started afterward (For More Than Glory) is still ongoing after about 3-4 years, though progressing kinda slowly due to occasional DM shifts or folks needing to take a week off (Emiricol is busy lately, so other folks are passing around the DM mantle in the meantime). I had to drop out of that for now due to my own time-availability problems at present.

By the time we shifted to T13K, I think I had started to run my Oriental Adventures campaign, separately, and I had about 4 consistent players (a few others joined but decided to drop out after a few weeks). Later another 2 consistent players joined. The campaign went on for about 2 years. I put that game on indefinite hiatus (international players were having schedule problems due to changes at work, so had to drop out), hopefully to be resumed at some point but I dunno how likely that is.

Then I started running my Rhunaria campaign, with the players who were still available in the same timeslot from my OA campaign, and the addition of a handful of others. Most of the others dropped out over the first few weeks, some just flaky and others just having different expectations or wanting a lot more individual attention than would be fair. After a bit that game group stabilized, for the most part, as 4 more consistent players joined (in addition to the 2 from the previous game). One had to quit for a while, busy with other stuff, but another 2-3 consistent folks joined over time (...I can't remember now if Tzedek's player was the same guy as Mordacai, the one who had to quit for a while earlier; curse my poor memory!). In any case, over time a few had to quit as well from personal stuff, being too busy for D&D right now (2 at least are only temporarily indisposed). Nonetheless, despite that, we've had 3 consistent players since early on in the Rhunaria campaign, and another 1 for the past several months. I've been running Rhunaria for around 2-3 years over OpenRPG.