We had a player web cam into our games for a few sessions.
* He eventually lost interest because it wasn't the same as "being there in person." So, look for ways to keep the player involved and interested.
* Assign the web cam to a player to manage. I was GMing, and the first session I was responsible for dealing with the cam. It was huge time sink. Connections were lost, the player wanted things repeated, etc. Get a player to be the web cammer's helper.
* Make the cam mobile. This let's the helper player pick it up and point it around the GM, other players, the battlemap, etc. My player reported a static view got boring pretty quickly, especially if things happened outside of view.
* Use an online chat client. It drastically improved communication.
* We used a wireless keyboard and mouse. That made it really easy to chat with the web cam player as we could pass the keyboard around during play for one-on-one communications.
* Consider lighting and default cam placement carefully. It's boring if the player is just seeing the GM all the time. It makes them not feel like a member of the group. We tried a ceiling position, but the player reported that we appeared too distant. I think the ultimate would be a player remote-controlled cam, or having several cams for the player to choose from at any given time.
* Prepare more player handouts. This helped our player connect better with the game. Paper handouts can be flashed in front of the cam for the remote player to take a screenshot of. Digital handouts can be e-mailed or IM'd to the remote player.
* Mapping was brutal with figs and minis. We didn't have RPM, Fantasy Grounds, etc. at that time. I would recommend experimenting with this.
* Try to establish some kind of physical presence for the remote player. We set up an extra monitor on a chair and the player could be seen at all times and it felt just like he was sitting at the table. Otherwise, we found the remote player was forgotten or neglected.
* Consider sound carefully. Our remote player said he found it very difficult to hear when we were laughing or when players were talking at the same time. We had two mics: one beside me so the remote player could hear the GM at all times. The other was given to the players to pass around.
* Our remote player had a hard time getting our attention. Find some way for the player to get the group's attention, such as holding up a red paper in front of the cam.
After several sessions, the cam player dropped out. His complaints were that he felt like an outsider because of the restricted view, sound issues, and lack of personal presence at the game table. It was also more work for me as the GM, regardless of how we tried to streamline things, though I would have continued without complaint.
My 2 cents.
