The Gaming Den

OgreBattle wrote:I've enjoyed PbP on TGD. Skype would be neat but I live in Beijing so there may be time zone conflicts

What kind of game are you going for?

I'm not looking to do any kind of PbP. I've done a lot of PbP in the past, and the slow resolution time is a deal-breaker. That's why I'm looking for real-time interaction instead.

I'm fine with Skype, although I'd likely be rolling audio only, at least until I got my laptop back. Besides, After Sundown has characters throwing enough dice that we might want IRC and a dice bot running as well anyway.

That was kinda my thoughts as far as rolls go as well. I'll see about getting Skype set up and make sure my audio is working OK (mic in my laptop is a little finicky with some programs, but I think I've got a USB one kicking around if needs be).

Whipstitch wrote:I'm fine with Skype, although I'd likely be rolling audio only, at least until I got my laptop back. Besides, After Sundown has characters throwing enough dice that we might want IRC and a dice bot running as well anyway.

I have no strong feelings regarding video as an addition to voice.

That said, the point about IRC is well-taken. One format I've heard recommended frequently (though not used personally myself) is voice for OOC, and text for IC (including dice and mechanics); this keeps everyone on the same page, and otherwise gives many of the advantages of a more personal meeting, while at the same time making logging and dice more convenient than they would be with pure voice.

Well, with skype, you can't do video on group calls unless someone has Skype Premium. Which someone might have I guess.

If we use IRC, the dice bot should be one that can track session stats and lifetime stats. Not like character stats, but like dice roll luck. It should be able to tell you how many dice you've ever rolled with it, and how many hits total you've gotten, and also per session totals. That'd be totally sweet.

Am fine with Skype, my current group uses Skype for chat and Roll20 as a game board / public dice roller.

The suggestion of voice OOC / text IC would make for easier book keeping, my attempts to keep a record of my group's doings are often stymied by being human and having a short attention span.

Even with 100% skype you can just record it with Audacity. Possibly making transcripts later, or just listen and jot down some summaries.

Personally I've always thought that, since OOC intent and IC wording won't match anyway most of the time, because most characters are either far more or far less eloquent than the player probably is, that it's better to just speak in terms of what you're going for during a conversation with a minor NPC, or even with a major NPC to assume that what you're saying isn't what your character is literally saying, but instead just the first draft that then gets handed to Frank Miller or Aaron Sorkin or J. Straczynski or Chris Carter or whoever your character is best written by. Maybe that's just me, but when you start playing RPGs at age 10 when everyone is stupid, and then even when you're older half your players are drunk all the time, that's how I rationalize all the stupid crap the players do.

All that said, I also used Skype + Roll20 for a game just this last week and it worked very well. Roll20 has a audio/video-chat system and all, but it's a little less able to actively cancel echo it seemed, when my group tested it.

My group's tended to do similar to Lokathor - if the dice have come out, your hamming might get a bonus (or a penalty, because our usual GM is harsh like that) but nothing that invalidates the RNG.

The issue with recording and making a later transcript is that someone has to actually make the transcript, whereas if it's been typed in the first place, it's already been typed.

I haven't personally done anything with roll20 yet, but it seems to have all the chat program I need/want for this, plus a clever enough dicebot, plus automatic logging.

I don't think I need the mapping/table stuff, since AS doesn't explicitly track distances and such like that, but we might figure out some worthwhile use for it, I guess.

People who have sent me a character concept will shortly be receiving a link to the roll20 game.

The only problem with Roll20 is that their audio system doesn't have echo cancellation like Skype does, so you get feedback more commonly.

And the problem with Skype is that talking over each other gets weird because skype will internally adjust people's volumes when two people speak at once to avoid confusion, but that causes more confusion half the time.

What might be best for audio is a mumble or vent server with push-to-talk. Skype is a strong second, once people get into the flow so that they're not interrupting each other constantly. Roll20's audio is about only as good as just using TinyChat.

The big advantage of Roll20 is that they have a campaign-long chatlog you can check the history of, and they also let you do dicepool rolls so we don't have to find some other dicebot or anything like that.