Out of State player wants to join session via webcam. [help!]

[killem2]

So we have a couple different 3.5 sessions going. I have a good friend who wants to join, has the time, but lives nearly 600 miles away.

I have a laptop with a web came, he does too. We need more than this I'm sure.

I personally would like to have his face up on a monitor just like you would see it with any webcam setup, but I would also like him to be able to have a nice view of the map on the table and of the players.

[darklink_shadow]

http://roll20.net/

I play with people in the same city as me on this now. It's pretty great.

[razorback]

You can use Skype, too.
We've also used Facetime on iPhones.

[Friv]

Based on a certain amount of experience with this system, here is what you're going to need.

1) You both need super-stable internet connections. This really can't be stressed enough; with good internet, it's totally doable, but good internet is a must. Otherwise small delays and sound difficulties cause disasters.
2) I suggest having something you can put your webcam on that's a bit behind your computer, to give him a wider view of the table. The webcam should be set up directly opposite the GM, because the GM is the one that he is most likely to need to always see. Seeing as many other players as possible is also good, but less critical.
3) He should probably get a pair of headphones with a mic on them. It drastically reduces feedback if one party is able to do this, and your side is going to have multiple people so it can't be you.
4) Having a web site of some kind to act as campaign information is equally useful. I don't mainly play games with maps, so I can't speak to that aspect.

[Dr Bwaa]

I have a couple of groups spread out all over the place (frequently trans-continental). By far the most difficult thing is scheduling, especially across time zones (though 600 miles shouldn't give you too much trouble). We are always experimenting with new tools; here are some of the things we use and what we use them for (all are free; all should be the first result in the appropriate google search).

Skype: great for roleplay-heavy sessions where you don't need a battlemap.

Google Chat or any other chat client: having a medium for "private" information between the GM and one player, or between a few players but not all, is great. Bonus feature: if you do private roleplaying here, you get part of your session notes without having to do anything more than copy/paste.

Google Hangouts: like Skype, but includes free video conference calls as well as add-ins

Roll20: You can use this as an add-in to a Google Hangout, which is very nice. Includes game chat, battlemaps, dice rolling, and so on. Occasionally buggy but very usable and currently in active development, which is definitely nice.

Twiddla: Multiplayer Paint. Good for battlemaps and that sort of thing, as long as you don't need to do anything too complex.

Myth-Weavers: All my character sheets live here. Online character sheets are (imo) critical to running a successful long-distance campaign. Use in conjunction with...

Google Drive: Obviously very open-ended but the thing we use this for most often is storing spellbooks, and sometimes backpack contents, etc. Lots of things in D&D tend to overflow a single character sheet, and everyone has their own preferred way to keep track of spells know/prepared, etc. Spreadsheets for spellbooks work pretty well here, or you can also use...

SpellGen 2: This is the most glorious D&D spellbook program I've ever found. Contains almost every 3.5 source book and allows easy addition of new spells. Does all calculations on the fly for you and can generate PDFs of your spellbook for easy viewing. No longer in development and crashes occasionally--back up your spellbook often!!

OpenRPG: Python-based full-featured RPG environment. Includes extensive saveable character sheets, sheet-based dice macros, layered maps, group chat, private chat, and basically anything else you might want. Can be a little fiddly to set up the first time, but there's plenty of documentation/support. Windows only!

I hope that gives you enough stuff to go on! I'll try to check back to answer any questions--good luck!

[AttilaTheGeek]

I use a Google spreadsheet in drive set as a battlemap. Set all the rows and columns to be an equal size (we use 40 pixels), set it so anyone with the link can edit, and then send it off to the other players. They don't even need google accounts.

I do, however, use Skype premium. Only one person has to pay, you get it for a year, and group video + IM works well. I've heard nothing but praise for google hangouts, but my group sticks to skype because that's what everyone has and not everyone uses google.

[killem2]

words..


Thanks for all of that. You are actually only 3 hours away from my friend, he's in Trinidad. :P

I'm over in iowa though. I have a monitor with a web cam as well as a laptop with one, so I'll play around with all these to make sure I get it right.

[valadil]

I played in a couple sessions with a webcam PC. It was more effort than it was worth. We couldn't hear the player very well (better speakers could have fixed this) and the player couldn't view the other PCs and the battle map at the same time. It was just awkward.

I think tech could have solved the problem. If we used Maptool or something for the map, all the local players could have viewed the map on a projector or big screen. Then the webcam could be focused on different people and the remote player could view and interact with the map in a different window. Never tried playing this way though, it's only speculation.

[Dr Bwaa]

not everyone uses google.

http://dairyofawhinyguy.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/raisins.jpg?w=489&h=293


It was just awkward.

One of the biggest concerns is definitely monitor/webcam real estate. The more monitors (even separate computers/netbooks/whatever) are available, the better. That's also one reason I prefer some variety of online battlemap to a physical one--it's just awkward to set up a webcam to deal with physical battlemaps and so on.

That actually reminds me of something else that I meant to mention. If you've got a situation where several people are in the same place, plus one person over the internet, it is not possible to spend too much time at the start making sure the remote player can (A) hear everyone, (B) see everything, and (C) be heard/seen by everyone. Tabletop RPGs are very social games. You want to be absolutely sure that everyone feels as much as possible like the remote player is present. I honestly recommend everyone at the local session having their own laptops out (assuming most of you have headphones or at least good microphones to reduce the echo). It's really important to keep anyone from feeling like the remote player is separate somehow, because if you don't, attention will drift and you'll just have a much harder time in general.

[bbgenderless100]

So we have a couple different 3.5 sessions going. I have a good friend who wants to join, has the time, but lives nearly 600 miles away.

I have a laptop with a web came, he does too. We need more than this I'm sure.

I personally would like to have his face up on a monitor just like you would see it with any webcam setup, but I would also like him to be able to have a nice view of the map on the table and of the players.


Get the neccessary stuff and programming that will make this possible.

[valadil]

Get the neccessary stuff and programming that will make this possible.

Can't find the article, but I read something a while back about someone who was trying to telecommute to work. While he had to problem accessing his files he felt completely out of the loop. The solution was to put an old laptop with a webcam on a turn table or motor or some such and give him remote access to rotate the screen. This gave him a presence in the office and let him actually look around. Apparently that was all it took. It sounded like it didn't take more than a couple hours for the programmers there to set up, but I think they already had all the necessary components and knowledge.

[Slipperychicken]

Can't find the article, but I read something a while back about someone who was trying to telecommute to work. While he had to problem accessing his files he felt completely out of the loop. The solution was to put an old laptop with a webcam on a turn table or motor or some such and give him remote access to rotate the screen. This gave him a presence in the office and let him actually look around. Apparently that was all it took. It sounded like it didn't take more than a couple hours for the programmers there to set up, but I think they already had all the necessary components and knowledge.

You could probably get advice on this from an IT guy at work, if your workplace allows telecommuting. Obviousy, one should search up "how to telecommute" first, to make sure it wasn't painfully easy all along.

And you may want to run "test sessions" before the game, to make sure the connection and technology are adequate for him to hear and participate in 4 people shouting over each other.

[cosmicAstrogazr]

If it's only one person that's at a distance, it's really not difficult. I Skype into a game that's... IDK, a few thousand miles away from me, and that's all we use, is the Skype. But I second the good internet connection. A few times, it's caused issues for us, because I live in an area that sometimes has spotty internet. It's... Annoying. Especially when the connection drops in the middle of combat.

[Rakmakallan]

I've been participating in Shadowrun sessions of my old group over skype ever since I moved away. Admittedly, it's a lot of effort, with problems covering poor audio and video quality, misinterpretations, bad connection. Things tend to move slower for everyone and the player living away might have to resort to typing things out sometimes. In another case, we played a diceless 3.P hack with another group and I used share screen to display a battlemap or an overhead webcam with a dry-erase board. Note that either side using linux in this will complicate the situation further with minor hardware incompatibilities or bugs which need to be addressed ahead of time.