How to run a 3.5 game over skype? (Answered)

[Kothar_Harroc]

Hello everyone! I'm Kothar and I have a question for those of you who have figured out a way to successfully run D&D 3.5 over skype, without a webcam, and I am here seeking your help. You see I want to play in/help set up a 3.5 game, basically the game would be like a normal PBP game, except you aren't posting, but rather you sign up and join a skype chatting group, then you set up meetings like you would a normal irl game of D&D, except its not face to face.

Now here are my main questions, to get to the point, on how to run/set this thing up: How do I propose the idea to someone wanting to DM (as in he wants to do a play-by-post and I like his campaign idea and want to join, but I dislike PBP), not as in force him to do skype but more or less just pitching the idea (basically solved)? How would we do a battle mat (solved)? How would we roll dice without having to rely on a honor system(solved)? How would we advertise/get more people to join who have never done this sort of things before?

Alright thank you for reading this and hopefully you are on your way to answering. Thank you and have a nice day.

[Gotterdammerung]

Hello everyone! I'm Kothar and I have a question for those of you who have figured out a way to successfully run D&D 3.5 over skype, without a webcam, and I am here seeking your help. You see I want to play in/help set up a 3.5 game, basically the game would be like a normal PBP game, except you aren't posting, but rather you sign up and join a skype chatting group, then you set up meetings like you would a normal irl game of D&D, except its not face to face.

Now here are my main questions, to get to the point, on how to run/set this thing up: How do I propose the idea to someone wanting to DM (as in he wants to do a play-by-post and I like his campaign idea and want to join, but I dislike PBP), not as in force him to do skype but more or less just pitching the idea? How would we do a battle mat? How would we roll dice without having to rely on a honor system? How would we advertise/get more people to join who have never done this sort of things before?

Alright thank you for reading this and hopefully you are on your way to answering. Thank you and have a nice day.

I'm not 100% sure but I thought I overhead a friend saying skype had a random roll generator. Not sure if it is something already built in or if you have to d/l it.

As far as grid goes, you can either go no grid, or you can use one of the map building programs floating around online.

Or the GM could get a web cam and point it at a set up map and just move the pieces for the players kinda like a one sided chess by mail game.

You could probably find a suitable advertising forum somewhere on the boards. I am not sure which forum it would go in but if you put it in the wrong one accidentally, it will be moved to the right one.

I personally would be interested if you manage to get the kinks worked out. But I can't guarantee the final times will fit my schedule, or that the final rules will fit my palette.


As far as selling the idea to a PBPer GM. It shouldn't be too hard. I mean I know people who do skype games and they say it is like PBP but better.
I would just get all the kinks you can get worked out before you present it to them.

[Kothar_Harroc]

-snip-
Thanks for the reply, I'm glad some intrest is being shown here. The kinks are rather extensive, extending out to everyone not having a microphone or a complicated schedule, or something along those lines. I know of a website that works as a table top over your browser. It has almost everything we need. There are still some kinks to be worked out, but we got the first major answer now.

[Manly Man]

If I'm not mistaken, Google has a multi-user chat function, and not only a dice roller, but also a grid for mapping that's visible to everyone.