The Joys of Online Play - NO NOT MMORPGS!

[Chaldfont]

I ran a weekly campaign using OpenRPG for a couple of months. I had moved to California and my game group was back in Indianapolis.

It was great to log the chat and refer back to it later. That made DMing a little easier. I definitely noticed players being more in character than at the table. If I did it again, I'd use voice chat. I'd add the following pros/cons.

Cons:
* Players have varying typing skills. Those who type slow get left behind.
* Asynchronous communication. Its like having several conversations going at once and at different rates. You need to make everybody slow down to reduce confusion.
* Bugs. OpenRPG is fairly stable, but we'd still have problems sometime. It really sucks to have the thing crash on the DM and wait while he get's it all reconfigured. Sometimes the map system would flake too.

Pros:
* Secret IMs are waaay better than passing secret notes over the table.
* I love having a record of the game.
* Posting pictures and "boxed text" is pretty easy.

I would definitely do this again if I lost my current group.

 

[saturnin55]

Hussar, are the fog of war issues pretty much fixed in the OpenRPG+ version ? we had lot (A LOT!!!) of troubles with the fog in previous version, so many that some of our players weren't seeing the map at all most of the time. Kind sucks to play online without the map I haven't played for more than 6 months so I don't know how well the software has improved.

BTW, i'm "magoo", developper of the Init Tool 2.2.X. I haven't touch it in months too but I know Veggiesama (other developer) has been toying with it

 

[Hussar]

Oh, hey Magoo. Damn, that init tool is great. Veggie's been tinkering with it again.

I switched to Open+ and have had nothing but good things. DJ Gilcrease has really done a massive rework on the project and it shows. I think I've had one problem with one player since I switched over and I think the malfunction is more on his end than mine.

And, I use Fog all the time. One thing I did notice though was to keep the background image down around 150-200 k and that seemed to end most of my problems. Could be a photobucket issue as well. Then again, a 200 k background image, at 30 pixels=5 feet means you have a map about 250 feet by 250 feet. This is pretty much big enough for anything you want to run.

 

[kenobi65]

I would think that the RPGA should get in on the act. After all, you could easily police it, there are gaming transcripts. Tournaments could be set up to run online with ease.

In a certain way, they already have. I've been playing RPGA games online for 5 years now.

Most RPGA campaigns allow online play (RPGA HQ has pushed the decision down to the management of each individual campaign):
- Living Greyhawk allows online play, but only for Core modules
- The other Living campaigns allow online play with no restrictions
- The D&D Campaigns (Mark of Heroes, Xen'drik Expeditions) don't allow online play at all

However, the sense I get from RPGA management is that they still feel that online play is inferior in quality to getting people together F2F, and so, while they're willing to tolereate online play, they don't necessarily want to go out of their way to encourage it. They'd rather put their (rather limited) resources towards F2F play.

A lot of the online RPGA play that I'm aware of is pretty informal -- more like game days or home play, though occasionally someone will get ambitious and organize a bigger online "convention". There are several Yahoo groups that exist to organize online RPGA games.

Most of the online RPGA play I've seen uses either AOL Instant Messenger or OpenRPG. OpenRPG has really taken over most of the LG play I've seen in the past couple of years; players of the other campaigns, where maybe having a grid isn't as important, seem less interested in changing over; I've tried (and failed) to install OpenRPG on my computer, and based on what I've read, OpenRPG can have a steep learning curve for some people, esp. those who aren't particularly computer-savvy.

All that said...I really enjoy playing online. It's not quite as good as playing F2F, true, but I've made some really good friends through online play, and a lot of us do try to get together at conventions once or twice a year (this year it was Origins).

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Chalk me up as another OpenRPG fan. I find it to be the best of the free online play softwares, and will agree 100% with the pros and cons listed here.

We've been playing online for about 4 years now. Occasionally, we have issues with people being dropped, but for the most part, it's very cool.

Would I drop my online game for a F2F game? Sure would. But I live like 50+ miles away from most of my group so I don't see that happening anytime soon.

 

[Someone]

I´ve downloaded OpenRpg, and looks interesting since it´s becoming increasingly difficult to find players where I live. Where can I look for a group to play online? The OpenRpg forums seem to be down right now.

 

[AlwaysToast]

I’ve been considering running a game eventually using something like OpenRPG and Ventrilo (for voice communication, it's a program used by a lot of people who play mmorpgs) at the same time. It would eliminate the need for a lot of the typing, but still allow for notes to the GM, and private conversations to be done in text.

While you probably end up with a few more technical issues, but I think it would be worth it for the added benefit of voice communication.

Has anyone tried using two systems in combination like that, and if so how did it work out for you?

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I’ve been considering running a game eventually using something like OpenRPG and Ventrilo (for voice communication, it's a program used by a lot of people who play mmorpgs) at the same time. It would eliminate the need for a lot of the typing, but still allow for notes to the GM, and private conversations to be done in text.

While you probably end up with a few more technical issues, but I think it would be worth it for the added benefit of voice communication.

Has anyone tried using two systems in combination like that, and if so how did it work out for you?

Considered it yes. Talked 80% of my group into the idea..the other 20% if resistant.

 

[Hussar]

I know that some people use Ventrillo - I passed the idea to my bunch and got a universal no. They all seemed to prefer reading to listening to my melodious tenor. (or would that be "malodious"?)

I got through to the OpenRPG forums. For finding players try the Players and GM forum. You could also try the gamers finding gamers forum here at Enworld.

 

[Festivus]

I play a mixture of tabletop and online with Fantasy Grounds. My preferred way to play is tabletop however the flexibility of the online play has made it possible to play D&D at least once a week, even if one of the players is travelling. Tabletop has that human touch, which is so much a part of the game.

Adding Ventrilo to the mix was esstenital for us. It allows us to run the action far quicker than typing alone, and if Fantasy Grounds crashes (which it does at least once a session) I can still communicate with the players and keep going with the game while things get restarted.

I do still track things like initiative order, player character sheets and other data outside the online game as we have had problems with this in the past as well due to data corruption or an errant mouse wheel maneuver.

Fantasy Grounds is supposed to be working on a newer version that will address all of this stuff, but communication from them has been sparse. I suggest strongly that you not purchase unless you can get an assurance of a free upgrade to the new version from the developers.