web 2.0 in your rpg games

[lotuseater]

hey,

as i'm living in china, and have been relegated to playing online, and being even further inhibited because i use a mac, i am very interested in how people use new web 2.0 technologies in their games.

first off, if there are already threads on this topic that i'm unaware of, please point me in that direction.

i have found some interesting blogs and such that people post on their campaigns, but most of these seem to be synopses of in person game sessions. not exactly what i'm thinking about.

what ways have people found to take their games online? what potential do you guys see? outside of subscriber based services like insider, what do you see is the future of rpg's? how have you incorporated wikis, if at all?

i'm excited about google wave, and it seems like there is a ton of potential there. i know a couple of people have started exploring the possibilities (you can follow along here) but it is still in its nascent stages.

in short, how have people already begun to incorporate new technologies into their games, and what do you hope/expect to be able to do in the near future?

 

[weem]

There is a thread here about the potential for Google Wave as a platform for playing games.

I myself have never played a D&D (or similar) game online in any form (be it play by post, etc). I have always wanted to try one though!

As it is, I have access to a lot of players and people who want to DM (7 of which live within walking distance from me) so I have never HAD to do so - as such I have not looked into it much.

Some ways I use technology in my games...

- I use wordpress, etc to relay information about my game/campaign setting etc (see sig), as well as to post thoughts on various game-related items.

- I use my Rhapsody account to pull in music for games.

- I have two 23" widescreen monitors for my computer and so when we play, the long table we play on is turned to face my desk and i use Photoshop to display my "NPC" file - basically a layer for each NPC as well as their names, and a picture - that way, as we play i can bring one or more of them up on the screen(s) to give the players a visual representation, as well as a few personality keywords so at a glance they have that feel again for who it is they are dealing with.

 

[Derulbaskul]

I've been gradually moving my campaign notes to obsidianportal.com and that's useful for my players in particular as a resource between sessions.

I also use my laptop (actually a netbook) to flash up pictures of scenes, NPCs, monsters etc... but, in due course, I really want to move to using the computer for all map-related functions, including as a battlemat.

I've been living most of the past ten years in Singapore but playing my games in Oz: it's been a lot easier to play for the past few weeks since I moved back but next year I suspect I will be moving into Asia again and then I expect to take advantage of Wave etc... and move to playing over the 'net.

 

[Prism]

We generally play an in person game but with a slight twist - one of the group plays remotely. The experience isn't quite the same for them as it is for us but over time it has felt more natural. For me at least its the use of webcams that help tie what would otherwise be a disjointed voice to a face. At our end we use a large screen TV to display map and webcam image so we can all see it

We have used/tried a variety of bits of software over the years. We currently use Skype for A/V but have also used Live Messenger. If two or more people were remote we would switch to something like Live Meeting which covers multi person A/V mixing along with data sharing.

For combat we used to point the webcam at a table battlemap and use figures. Then we switched to Screen Monkey which was ok but now we use RPG Maptool which is awesome. This lets us build/import great looking maps, add a grid and have great visual combats. We use the condition tracker tools so everyone is aware of various buffs/states however we don't use any dice rolling tools. Thats done by trust just like it always has been.

I have also played the odd session using this setup as a 1 to 1. We usually find we have stuff we want to do on our own at mid to later levels. I have tried a pure roleplay session over just text and Live Messenger which works well - about 30 mins or so long.

One of our group is loving iplay4e at the moment and is playing purely with a laptop at the table. I could see no problem taking that online.

For out of game activities we have used forums and wikis for a number of years. We tend to use a wiki for world information and posting character sheets. As a DM I had good success using a wiki to get the entire group to build the starting village. Everyone contributed several fully detailed buildings, families and hooks. We use forums for pre game decision making and planning and after game splitting of treasure. I like the look of the new WotC groups as they include all these tools in a nice looking format

Saying all that, last we had had a session where we didn't even get the computers out and had two 4e combats without a battlemap

 

[theskyfullofdust]

I run a 4th edition game on-line using Maptools (which, as Prism says, is very good) and Teamspeek, which works almost as well as my face-to-face game does; in fact, in some ways it works better as there are less distractions.

I have used Google Groups and Google Sites (see sig) for campaign details too.

 

[lotuseater]

For out of game activities we have used forums and wikis for a number of years. We tend to use a wiki for world information and posting character sheets. As a DM I had good success using a wiki to get the entire group to build the starting village. Everyone contributed several fully detailed buildings, families and hooks. We use forums for pre game decision making and planning and after game splitting of treasure. I like the look of the new WotC groups as they include all these tools in a nice looking format

this sounds good, exactly the kind of thing i'd be interested in. i haven't seen the wiki on wotc groups. do you have to be an insider? or have i just not come across them?

 

[Prism]

this sounds good, exactly the kind of thing i'd be interested in. i haven't seen the wiki on wotc groups. do you have to be an insider? or have i just not come across them?

I have created a group, although not used it yet. I get a blog, forum, wiki and photo library at the bottom left. However I am an Insider so not sure if that changes things. Have a look at the main D&D group - they have a wiki option not in use

D&D Group

 

[Gilladian]

I've been using a wiki for several years for my campaign notes, and such. It's here: Vishteer Campaign / FrontPage

and I play in an online 4e game which is carried out exclusively with maptool. I found that the maptool client for mac was fairly crash prone, but your experience may be different, I don't know. After the crashes happened every 20 minutes or so for several weeks in a row, I picked up a cheapo win laptop that I use exclusively for that game.