Playing via Webcam?

[Kerouac]

My old D&D group wants to get back to playing, but we're pretty scattered at this point... the closest one lives about 40 min. away and the other one is stationed in OK (when we live in OH.) We've been trying to figure out the logistics of it... have any of you guys ever given this a shot?

[Gamerlord]

That seems a might difficult IMHO.

Have you tried PbP?

[Ichneumon]

My old D&D group wants to get back to playing, but we're pretty scattered at this point... the closest one lives about 40 min. away and the other one is stationed in OK (when we live in OH.) We've been trying to figure out the logistics of it... have any of you guys ever given this a shot?

Let's see. One problem is that it can hinder rp if 1 player is through a webcam and the others aren't. The one player not being there might feel left out. It might work better if everybody communicates through internet chat. I'm not sure there is a good way for everyone to see each other, but you should at least be able to make sure everybody sees you, so as long as you (the DM) have a webcam pointed towards the map, it should be possible and go quite well. You could maybe instead of chat, use skype if that goes any better.

[taltamir]

I see no problem with it at all... a webcam a large display and a mic and its almost as if he is there...

Use a large screen TV or a projector for ideal coverage (or two cameras at an angle, or a quality web cam with digital zoom placed further out back).

I wouldn't recommend play by post... I have tried 7 so far and none of them actually materialized... I am currently waiting on 2... been waiting for months now. And I have never seen a play by post game go to completion.

[Kerouac]

Well, we're ALL going to be on webcam. We've all got them and since none of us really live close enough to play in the room, we're going to have to figure out some kind of group viewing method... one of the players did mention Skype as a possibility.

I just thought that maybe I could upload a file to Google Docs with the terrain and player tokens and that way we could all edit that while we're in battle.

[Ozreth]

The best thing to do is everybody download the program RPGtools, or Gametable. This is a virtual tabletop. Then, everybody get on webcam so you can see eachother and hear eachother talk and whatnot. Ive done it and it works out great, this way the DM still gets to design awesome dungeons, you can use miniatures, see all of eachothers character sheets on your screen etc.

[Venerable]

Tried it over Skype, had some problems. Players have to talk one at a time; interrupting others can make the audio unintelligible.

For video, if you're going to be using miniatures, your table will need to be well lit so the camera will pick it up clearly. You'll also need good video resolution. At 320x200, many of the miniatures were indistinguishable unless the camera was a foot and a half away from them. Unfortunately, that's too close to show the whole battlefield.

So it's doable, but not a good substitute for being there. Anyone have a better experience?

[Swordgleam]

One of my players was gone last year, and he played via webcam while the rest of us sat at a table. It was fine- he just had to have someone move his mini for him. And if there was an RP-heavy scene, people would move the camera to face whoever was talking, instead of having it focused on the battlemap.

I'm not sure how easy it would be if everyone is scattered, though.

[Kyrthain]

I've played over skype with my cousins in the US, and it worked pretty well. things went slowly, but that may have been because the characters were 24th level gestalt

[Kerouac]

The best thing to do is everybody download the program RPGtools, or Gametable. This is a virtual tabletop. Then, everybody get on webcam so you can see eachother and hear eachother talk and whatnot. Ive done it and it works out great, this way the DM still gets to design awesome dungeons, you can use miniatures, see all of eachothers character sheets on your screen etc.

I gave it a dl and it looks awesome... kinda steep learning curve but it'll be dope when I get it working. Thanks. :)

[Ozreth]

I gave it a dl and it looks awesome... kinda steep learning curve but it'll be dope when I get it working. Thanks. :)

No problem! Gametable is much more simple than MAPtools so maybe you want to start with that, they are both the exact same concept but maptools can do everything that gametable can and so much more. So it really just depends how much depth you want out of the program. Gametable may suit your needs for now.