What's your favorite way to play D&D over the net?

[PK]

Skype plus Fantasy Grounds is an excellent combination. You use FG for the maps, visuals, and die rolls, and can speak in real time through Skype.

 

[S'mon]

I haven't much enjoyed Message Board play, I'd rather use Yahoogroups and get emails to my inbox. I ran an ok-ish game here on ENW but it felt a bit flat and restricted.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Skype plus Fantasy Grounds is an excellent combination. You use FG for the maps, visuals, and die rolls, and can speak in real time through Skype.

This is what I am thinking of doing, since I have Skype already set up. I'm having a hard time choosing between FG and Klooge though - both seem very nice.

 

[Pinotage]

I haven't much enjoyed Message Board play, I'd rather use Yahoogroups and get emails to my inbox. I ran an ok-ish game here on ENW but it felt a bit flat and restricted.

ENW Message Boards aren't really ideal for PbP games, IMO. No dice rolling, no ability to send private messages (I suppose you could PM people), everything ends up in one thread, different boards for IC and OOC conversations. There are better PbP forums out there, such as PlaybyWeb and rpol.net, which are much more suited to this kind of thing. PlaybyWeb gives you your own 'messageboard' and you can post as many threads on it as you like, there is private messaging, a dice roller, html compatibility etc.

Pinotage

 

[Storminator]

I haven't much enjoyed Message Board play, I'd rather use Yahoogroups and get emails to my inbox. I ran an ok-ish game here on ENW but it felt a bit flat and restricted.

The thing I prefer about PBeM to PbP is that I have the email addresses of everyone involved. If I don't hear from someone I can ping them. The times I tried here at ENWorld (currently 0 for 7 on successful games...) folks would disappear for multiple weeks at time, with no way to contact them.

Of course, I'm not going to expand my current gaming. There simply aren't enough hours in the day, nor days in the week!

PS

 

[Pinotage]

Other
I DESPISE trying to play D&D over the net.
You're better off just hooking everyone up for a game of Warcraft, or Diablo or something.

Yeah, I despise 'Trying' as well, but actually playing in a dedicated game is another thing Characterization in PbP or PBEM games is much better than you'd ever get out of a computer game.

Pinotage

 

[Thanee]

ENW Message Boards aren't really ideal for PbP games, IMO. No dice rolling, no ability to send private messages (I suppose you could PM people), everything ends up in one thread, different boards for IC and OOC conversations.

That is true. I have my own PbP game running on another site as well (tho, the main reason was, that I wanted to run it in german, so a german D&D site was an appropriate choice for it), they have one complete, seperate forum just for PbP gaming, which also allows all of what you mentioned. That's pretty useful for organisatoric purposes (own subforum with multiple threads, moderator rights, sticky and stuff) and to submit secret messages to single PCs (via PM), I can even store all kind of secret information there (PM to self), which I can access from different computers.

It's a bit more trouble to do the same here, but it can be done quite well, too, I think.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Pinotage]

It's a bit more trouble to do the same here, but it can be done quite well, too, I think.

Bye
Thanee

That's nice to know. Since these days I spend a lot of time here, I might as well play too, so I have been considering playing a PbP game here on ENW.

Pinotage

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I've decided I'm going with Klooge. The whole play by post/email thing is just way too slow for me. I think my whole gaming group is going online within the next week or two, and we will only do old-school tabletop gaming once in a while. As it is currently we game every Thursday and every other Saturday. With an online setup, we're hoping to get more gaming in.

 

[ThirdWizard]

IRC type situation is best for me. That plays out closest to an actual face to face game, it allows for private messaging between the DM and players, and it has dice rollers and such that are necessary for game play.

Another alternative is Neverwinter Nights with other players and possibly a DM. It's no replacement for tabletop but neither are any of the options in the poll.