Table top rpgs off the table top

[Heart]

So I've been running a game for some friends for about a year now. Some live a few states over and we don't all have computers so we play over xbox live, the only medium we all have.

So I was just wondering, what are some of the odd ways to play have you guys employed over the years?

[Sorcerer Blob]

Out of curiosity, how do you play over XBL? Do you all connect to the same game or do you set up a group?

Secondary question, how does it work for y'all? I assume you play narrative heavy games?

[lady_arrogance]

I moved other side of the country about one-and-half year ago, and "lost" my old gaming group. We decided, that we'll still continue our ongoing Pathfinder campaign via webcams, Skype and MapTool. It works.. erh.. well. We are having quite often some techical problems - like bad internet connection or such - but we have worked around those, and the campaign is going nicely, I think. (As a player I can't surely say..)

Our game is more fighting/tactics heavy opposed to storytelling, but there have been some good RP moments too.

And for playing by XBL, isn't there some voice-chat possibility? At least you can talk to other players in multiplayer-game (like Halo)..

[Heart]

Out of curiosity, how do you play over XBL? Do you all connect to the same game or do you set up a group?

Secondary question, how does it work for y'all? I assume you play narrative heavy games?

It's not too different from a normal game, just a few hiccups. We have to join a party through XBL of course. We can't see each other, so sometimes it's a bit more difficult to describe actions and convey emotions. Sometimes they'll play (video)games during the game so there can be a lack of focus.

I have to have a copy of everyone's character sheet since the ones with computers are reluctant to use myth-weavers. This also makes anyone who is a prepared caster take forever whenever preparing is necessary. For the ones that roll their own die (i have to roll for a few, as they lack their own sets) I go off the honor system on their rolls, which angers a couple others because we're fairly certain one player is a bit too lucky.

For combat, we usually use the XBL arcade game Fortresscraft. It works extremely well I must say.

And I've never thought about it, but I suppose it would be more on the narrative side. Most nights we'll have one, if that, encounter.

[Heart]

I moved other side of the country about one-and-half year ago, and "lost" my old gaming group. We decided, that we'll still continue our ongoing Pathfinder campaign via webcams, Skype and MapTool. It works.. erh.. well. We are having quite often some techical problems - like bad internet connection or such - but we have worked around those, and the campaign is going nicely, I think. (As a player I can't surely say..)

Our game is more fighting/tactics heavy opposed to storytelling, but there have been some good RP moments too.

And for playing by XBL, isn't there some voice-chat possibility? At least you can talk to other players in multiplayer-game (like Halo)..

Yeah, from the xbox dashboard you can join a party with up to seven others and talk via voicechat. I would never even attempt a text game over XBL, their message setup is horrendous.

Edit: Sorry for double posting, I'm not very savvy on this website's tools as I'm only able to access it on my phone.

[Sorcerer Blob]

It's not too different from a normal game, just a few hiccups. We have to join a party through XBL of course. We can't see each other, so sometimes it's a bit more difficult to describe actions and convey emotions. Sometimes they'll play (video)games during the game so there can be a lack of focus.

I have to have a copy of everyone's character sheet since the ones with computers are reluctant to use myth-weavers. This also makes anyone who is a prepared caster take forever whenever preparing is necessary. For the ones that roll their own die (i have to roll for a few, as they lack their own sets) I go off the honor system on their rolls, which angers a couple others because we're fairly certain one player is a bit too lucky.

For combat, we usually use the XBL arcade game Fortresscraft. It works extremely well I must say.

And I've never thought about it, but I suppose it would be more on the narrative side. Most nights we'll have one, if that, encounter.

Now I'm curious as to how y'all use Fortresscraft?! That's quite awesome!

From my personal experience of taking the table top game off of the table: We used Skype quite successfully. The away player was able to see the mat and have a pretty decent idea of party location in relation to the monsters. There was a lot of in-good-faith movements. That player had their character sheet and dice with them and we went on the honor system because we all trust each other. That was easily the best experience I've had with digital gaming.

The second actually came from Wizard's Virtual Table Top... And it was... wrought with technological issues. Two of us got our connections dropped and only one of us was able to reconnect (me.) The map system, chat, and minis system all work wonderfully and I'm suspicious that it was just our local weather/cable/internet that evening (it was stormy) that made the experience less than wonderful.

[Heart]

Now I'm curious as to how y'all use Fortresscraft?! That's quite awesome!

From my personal experience of taking the table top game off of the table: We used Skype quite successfully. The away player was able to see the mat and have a pretty decent idea of party location in relation to the monsters. There was a lot of in-good-faith movements. That player had their character sheet and dice with them and we went on the honor system because we all trust each other. That was easily the best experience I've had with digital gaming.

The second actually came from Wizard's Virtual Table Top... And it was... wrought with technological issues. Two of us got our connections dropped and only one of us was able to reconnect (me.) The map system, chat, and minis system all work wonderfully and I'm suspicious that it was just our local weather/cable/internet that evening (it was stormy) that made the experience less than wonderful.

Fortresscraft is the least complicated part of the night. If time permits I can use it to create "maps" with easily created unique terrains and such. Sometimes the players will help with that. Each square represents 5' and units just designate a certain colored block and place it on the square.

The only issue is it cost a couple bucks, so some of the players who are too cheap are left in the dark and forced to rely on my "amazing" descriptive skills.

[Shyftir]

We played a game based on altering a map. using the voice chat function of Steam to include a friend once.

There is some talk of hooking up a laptop to a big screen in order to use the Wizard's virtual tabletop as our map at group games.

[Knaight]

I use IRC fairly heavily, and Skype some. This usually supplements my face to face group, as the IRC/Skype group is far more interested in actually role playing, in depth narratives, and similar.

[Yora]

We once played an IRC game, went really good. As usually, I ran the game without any minis and one of us scripted a bot that would reply with a random number if you entered the kind of dice you want to roll, like 1d6+5.

[Lonely Tylenol]

I've played sessions (but not entire campaigns) using Skype and Maptools. We would use Maptools for our weekly maps, but most of the time most of us would be able to make it in person; we simply used Skype for the people who lived across-island, too far away to drive.

We did a few games over Google+ when it was still in beta. It was interesting, but I don't think anyone was quite used to the technology yet. The DM of that game has done a lot of good work at adapting his DMing style to the new medium, though, and the game he's running on Google+ is pretty successful on the island.

[Maerok]

Minecraft and Skype voicechat would be interesting. I should be able to just barely run them at the same time on my laptop.

But think of this: a dedicated server with different locations for RP groups to roam around in and use for the settings of different scenes (village, dragon attack, forest, etc).

[Rorrik]

Skype has never been a very successful endeavor for me, basically killed the campaign we tried to bring a friend's brother into long distance.

Out of boredom on car trips we've done purely verbal Wod: Genius the Transgression scenarios using a die program on my brother-in-law's graphing calculator/ipod.

[suhkkaet]

I, myself, am pretty interested in this.
I've been thinking about doing IRC (for dice-rolls), something-with-maps (...For maps), voice chat, and something to keep track of character sheets. But I havn't been able to find anything that makes me say "wow, that's exactly what I'm looking for". It's more of a "Eh, I could potentially use that with this other thing and then ....".

So, I'm considering making something(/some software) myself.

[Bagelz]

xbox has a web browser doesn't it?
I use a program called screen monkey where I'm the only one that has to run a program (on my windows computer) and my players connect through a web browser (requires an active x controll, which should be available on a microsoft product like xbox).
It has a map and a die roller and text chat window. At the same time we either use skype or google+ hangouts for voice chat, which would be like your xbox live group chat. It works pretty well as long as i have all of the maps prepared.

I also have a little trouble with some players losing focus, because I can't see them get distracted I don't notice until they are gone... but for the ones that won't pay for fortress craft, it may be a great option.
http://www.nbos.com/products/screenm...onkey-lite.htm

[Tyndmyr]

It's not too different from a normal game, just a few hiccups. We have to join a party through XBL of course. We can't see each other, so sometimes it's a bit more difficult to describe actions and convey emotions. Sometimes they'll play (video)games during the game so there can be a lack of focus.

I have to have a copy of everyone's character sheet since the ones with computers are reluctant to use myth-weavers. This also makes anyone who is a prepared caster take forever whenever preparing is necessary. For the ones that roll their own die (i have to roll for a few, as they lack their own sets) I go off the honor system on their rolls, which angers a couple others because we're fairly certain one player is a bit too lucky.

Would you like a die rolling app on xbox live to solve this?

I'm surprised such a thing does not already exist in the indie games channel. If it does not, I can make it so and sell it for a buck.