Nightchilde-2
First Post
Deekin said:
Seconded, though I didn't find it had a very steep learning curve at all, personally.
The other free program that I'm aware of out there is WebRPG, but OpenRPG is, IMHO, superior.
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when there is no other way than online
- Thread starter SorvahrSpahr
- Start date
Seconded, though I didn't find it had a very steep learning curve at all, personally.
The other free program that I'm aware of out there is WebRPG, but OpenRPG is, IMHO, superior.
My main 3.X campaigns have all been online, over basic IRC (we started over 5 years ago before most of these tools were even under development). When we use grids, I tell everybody how big it is, and we use the number/letter thing to do it (Knight to H4!). But for the last several years, we rarely bother with a grid in combat; we use what amounts to an honor system. The players trust me to keep track of where everything is, and ask questions like "How many can I catch in this fireball? Can I get all six?" I happen to have a good head for spatial reasoning, so for me it's easy to track everything mentally- others might find it difficult, but then again a DM can always use a battlemat on his/her own side to track stuff.
Communications happen by using basic quotes "" for any words spoken by the characters, () for any out-of-character comments (often coupled or prefaced with an OOC), the usual /me command to denote in-character actions (players always change their nick to match the character name, to make this work), ## to enclose any telepathy (happens a LOT in my games due to the presence of PC illithids among other things), and finally the tildes ~~ are used by me to denote any special mode of communication that doesn't fall into the other categories. An example of the latter is that when an Uvuudaum "speaks" in my game, it's described for flavor purposes as the thousands of mental voices making up the cacaphonic mental "noise" that constantly surrounds the creature (thus explaining its Confusion aura among other things) suddenly synching up and thinking the same thought all together, and then inexplicably doing it again and again to form a complete sentence. One can't really use the normal telepathy marks for something like that.
Good luck with your online game- having done both online and offline, I can honestly say that there are many advantages to doing a game online that can help make up for the disadvantages. I'll expound on my two favorite ones below.
The biggest advantage by far, IMO, is logging- running the game in IRC means you can set your chat client to log the chat, and thus save a complete record of everything that happened in a game session without any effort- even the OOC comments and timestamps to show delays if that's important for some reason. There is thus no arguing about what happened last session, or what exactly was said to launch the characters on their current quest, or the like- because you can just go into the old logs, find the appropriate text, and cut'n'paste. It also helps get players back into the mood of the game, because the DM can copy a partial chat log of the last game to remind everybody of what was going on- sort of a "Previously, on D&D Game" episode opener. I really don't know what I'd do without my game logs- the next time I run a face-to-face game I'm certainly going to miss it, perhaps enough to come up with an alternative.
The ability to start up subchats with other people in the channel is another big plus for RPGs- no more worrying about the effect of passing secret notes around the table. Yes, I know one can pass blank notes for psychological effect, but let's face it- it's a lot more interesting if nobody who isn't in on the secret even has an inkling that there's a secret to know about, isn't it? Of course, players are perfectly capable of passing secret notes between themselves behind the DM's back this way, but on the whole if your player group has built a trust this shouldn't be a problem. It also helps when you have to "take a player aside" to describe something that happens only to that character, like the destination of a one-time teleport trap or the fact that a doppelganger just cold-cocked him and took his place.
Communications happen by using basic quotes "" for any words spoken by the characters, () for any out-of-character comments (often coupled or prefaced with an OOC), the usual /me command to denote in-character actions (players always change their nick to match the character name, to make this work), ## to enclose any telepathy (happens a LOT in my games due to the presence of PC illithids among other things), and finally the tildes ~~ are used by me to denote any special mode of communication that doesn't fall into the other categories. An example of the latter is that when an Uvuudaum "speaks" in my game, it's described for flavor purposes as the thousands of mental voices making up the cacaphonic mental "noise" that constantly surrounds the creature (thus explaining its Confusion aura among other things) suddenly synching up and thinking the same thought all together, and then inexplicably doing it again and again to form a complete sentence. One can't really use the normal telepathy marks for something like that.
Good luck with your online game- having done both online and offline, I can honestly say that there are many advantages to doing a game online that can help make up for the disadvantages. I'll expound on my two favorite ones below.
The biggest advantage by far, IMO, is logging- running the game in IRC means you can set your chat client to log the chat, and thus save a complete record of everything that happened in a game session without any effort- even the OOC comments and timestamps to show delays if that's important for some reason. There is thus no arguing about what happened last session, or what exactly was said to launch the characters on their current quest, or the like- because you can just go into the old logs, find the appropriate text, and cut'n'paste. It also helps get players back into the mood of the game, because the DM can copy a partial chat log of the last game to remind everybody of what was going on- sort of a "Previously, on D&D Game" episode opener. I really don't know what I'd do without my game logs- the next time I run a face-to-face game I'm certainly going to miss it, perhaps enough to come up with an alternative.
The ability to start up subchats with other people in the channel is another big plus for RPGs- no more worrying about the effect of passing secret notes around the table. Yes, I know one can pass blank notes for psychological effect, but let's face it- it's a lot more interesting if nobody who isn't in on the secret even has an inkling that there's a secret to know about, isn't it?
Of course, players are perfectly capable of passing secret notes between themselves behind the DM's back this way, but on the whole if your player group has built a trust this shouldn't be a problem. It also helps when you have to "take a player aside" to describe something that happens only to that character, like the destination of a one-time teleport trap or the fact that a doppelganger just cold-cocked him and took his place.
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Merkuri
Explorer
Deekin said:
See, I never noticed a steep learning curve in OpenRPG. It has a lot of features, but you don't need to use them all. You can get used to the simple features and then start using the more advanced ones as you need them.
At its simplest, OpenRPG is a chat program with a map. You don't even have to use the map if you don't want to. The chat portion is simple. What you type comes up on the screen for all other players to see. If you want to roll a die, type it into your chat in square brackets, like this:
I swing my sword [1d20+5] for [1d6] damage.
What will show up is something like:
Jiru: I swing my sword [1d20+5]: [12,5] -> 17 for [1d6]: [2] -> 2 damage.
And those are the basics about the chat. There are more things you can do (like emotes or whispers), but there are other OpenRPG tutorials and command lists out there.
The map has a bunch of options, but those are largely intuitive. Select the tab for what you want to do (draw on the map, move a mini, etc.) and do it.
There are tons of servers up that are open to all, and you can join a quick game with some more experienced players to better learn how to play. Most people (in my experience) are willing to help a newbie through the basics.
Arc
First Post
I've been playing in an online campaign run by demiurge1138 for the past two years, and it's gone swimmingly. We use IRC for dialogue, actions (/me does XXX), and combat. A seperate client running an excellent dicebot (the Standard version is preferable to the D&D version, imho) makes combat and general dice rolls fast and easy, and the already mentioned Gametable works splendedly. It's also very easy to make new minis in Gametable with some basic Photoshop knowledge - one of our players is fast enough now that he can turn almost any image or photo into a good looking mini in under 2 minutes. Combine that with the Wizards.com Art Gallery, a semi-legal .pdf version of the MM, and you've got minis for almost every monster in the game.
In many ways, I prefer IRC gaming over pen & paper, simply because of the seperation between in character and out of character. It's much easier to create a complex character when you can play with your dialogue for a few seconds before you say it. The ability tocommunicate non-verbal actions with /me makes for a deeper character - subtle habits and mannerisms are a lot easier to portray with text than an attempt to act them out. Of course, having everyone pay attention becomes much more difficult with the ability to Alt+Tab, but it's easier to catch up when you can just scroll upwards. As a final note, make sure to enable logging with mIRC (it's off by default), or any other program you use. When a player misses a session, we send him the .log for it, and 10 minutes of skimming later, he's caught up. It also helps with remembering NPCs/plot details from many sessions ago - a simple search of the logs gets everyone up to speed.
Playing online does tend towards a different sort of game structure, at least for us. We've been treating the campaign like a TV series - everything is episodic, and most adventures last a single session or two. Demi runs a great detective campaign set in Sharn - each episode is a mystery that needs to be solved by the party, and most sessions consist of a few hours of gumshoeing it up (looking for clues, gathering information, tracking down witnesses), and an hour or two of climactic combat. It's great fun, and Demi really needs to get up and write us a story-hour sometime, I swear.
In many ways, I prefer IRC gaming over pen & paper, simply because of the seperation between in character and out of character. It's much easier to create a complex character when you can play with your dialogue for a few seconds before you say it. The ability tocommunicate non-verbal actions with /me makes for a deeper character - subtle habits and mannerisms are a lot easier to portray with text than an attempt to act them out. Of course, having everyone pay attention becomes much more difficult with the ability to Alt+Tab, but it's easier to catch up when you can just scroll upwards. As a final note, make sure to enable logging with mIRC (it's off by default), or any other program you use. When a player misses a session, we send him the .log for it, and 10 minutes of skimming later, he's caught up. It also helps with remembering NPCs/plot details from many sessions ago - a simple search of the logs gets everyone up to speed.
Playing online does tend towards a different sort of game structure, at least for us. We've been treating the campaign like a TV series - everything is episodic, and most adventures last a single session or two. Demi runs a great detective campaign set in Sharn - each episode is a mystery that needs to be solved by the party, and most sessions consist of a few hours of gumshoeing it up (looking for clues, gathering information, tracking down witnesses), and an hour or two of climactic combat. It's great fun, and Demi really needs to get up and write us a story-hour sometime, I swear.
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ZSutherland
First Post
I'd also recommend using Teamspeak or Ventrillo. Software is free and you can get a Teamspeak server to up to 8 people, I think, before you have to pay. Even if you need more, it's pretty cheap. Saves you the trouble of typing everything, though it probably will bring a bit more chatter and off-topic discussion back to the game.
SorvahrSpahr
First Post
hmm I've been checking them and gametable looks pretty good. we really just need a grid, we trust on each other's rolls and that is rarely an issue (only when our cleric got a 40 on a attack roll, and we ended up discovering she was doing alll wrong, using the strength score instead of the modifier...) thx for all the tips, the only thing we'll need to watch out for is AoOs, but that's my area on the party. I usually take care of the combat stuff, when it is an AoO, reach, movement, everything
Excel
I've done PBEM for years:
-- Excel for the battlemap
-- Each email gets long, being a "chapter" of our story, written collectively from DM and player mails.
-- Players "talk" by mail, DM puts it in an order that makes sense -- it can get a little confusing when everyone is mailing at once on overlapping topics and replying to each other. I convert it to something that sounds like a natural conversation by cutting and pasting.
-- In battle, Players tell what cell they want to move to, DM moves them
-- Players give their moves each round, DM rolls the dice and checks the rules
-- Fights take a LONG time, especially if someone is being slow about their moves. When someone is on vacation, they're supposed to have someone else do their moves.
I've done PBEM for years:
-- Excel for the battlemap
-- Each email gets long, being a "chapter" of our story, written collectively from DM and player mails.
-- Players "talk" by mail, DM puts it in an order that makes sense -- it can get a little confusing when everyone is mailing at once on overlapping topics and replying to each other. I convert it to something that sounds like a natural conversation by cutting and pasting.
-- In battle, Players tell what cell they want to move to, DM moves them
-- Players give their moves each round, DM rolls the dice and checks the rules
-- Fights take a LONG time, especially if someone is being slow about their moves. When someone is on vacation, they're supposed to have someone else do their moves.
SorvahrSpahr
First Post
wll i tested the excel thing a while ago and I'm going to give it a try. just gotta talk with the DM and we're ready to go
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