Anyone have tips or equipment suggestions for playing remotely?

[zioth]

I recently moved, and I'm trying to stick with my in-person RPG group. We played one game with me on Google Hangouts. It worked okay, but my field of view and sound quality weren't great. I've seen wide angle webcams and omnidirectional microphones on Amazon. Anyone have recommendations for specific models which could work well for this? I'm going for a nice (and unrealistic) mix of low budget and high quality.

Any other tips for being the one player who's not there in person?

Thanks!

[sir_argo]

My friends and I began remote playing a number of years ago. At first, we just used Google Hangouts with a camera pointed at the table with the map and figurines. On my turn, I'd draw on the screen and tell them where to move my figure. That wasn't a very good set up though. I don't know if you're entertaining other options, but we tested out Fantasy Grounds and Roll20. I can't say anything bad about Fantasy Grounds. Really, I think we went Roll20 just because of some logistical issue that I can't recall. Maybe it was how they did their pricing. Regardless, we ended up using Roll20 and we've been using it for, I think, 2 years now. It's been working fantastic. It has a steep learning curve, but once you're past that, it actually improves the experience.

So I recommend Roll20.

[zioth]

Thanks for the tips. We don't use maps or miniatures for the most part, so roll20 would be overkill, and I'm the only one currently playing remote.

My main question was about equipment. Has anyone done the one-player-remote game? Any good webcam or microphone recommendations?

[Finger6842]

Thanks for the tips. We don't use maps or miniatures for the most part, so roll20 would be overkill, and I'm the only one currently playing remote.

My main question was about equipment. Has anyone done the one-player-remote game? Any good webcam or microphone recommendations?

Microphone = Blue Yeti is what I have. https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yeti-USB-Microphone-Midnight/dp/B01LY6Z2M6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1500444629&sr=8-5&keywords=blue+yeti+microphone

Cam = Logitech C920 HD Pro

[Beelzebubba]

Any other tips for being the one player who's not there in person?

One of our players is touring through Southeast Asia while we game in Sweden.

Can't answer your questions about the speaker/camera, someone else brings those.

We use an iPad with a free white boarding web page/app to draw out stuff that the remote person needs to see. We're mostly 'theater of the mind', so the drawings are basically a few scrawls to show the general layout of a room and a few colored dots to show the players/monsters. But it has saved a lot of explanations in complex battles. He just loads it up on a browser tab and draws on it with his mouse when he needs to.

[Bahamut7]

Microphone = Blue Yeti is what I have. https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yeti-USB-Microphone-Midnight/dp/B01LY6Z2M6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1500444629&sr=8-5&keywords=blue+yeti+microphone

Cam = Logitech C920 HD Pro

I have these for podcasts and other AV projects and they work great.

[JAL_1138]

Microphone = Blue Yeti is what I have. https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yeti-USB-Microphone-Midnight/dp/B01LY6Z2M6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1500444629&sr=8-5&keywords=blue+yeti+microphone


Never used one but the Blue Yeti has a really solid reputation. I just ordered a Shure MV5, which is sort of midway between the Blue Snowball and Yeti in price. Not as many built-in features as the Yeti. It hasn't arrived yet but I'll post up my thoughts on it when it gets here and I've had a chance to use it a bit. Sweetwater has MV5s for half-price as "b-stock" (sort of like scratch-and-dent or floor-model).