Skype any good for gamers?

**RandomNPC** · 2012-12-01, 09:44 PM (ISO 8601)

I'm getting myself into DMing a BESM game over Skype. Is there anything to watch out for, things that may need tweaked, distractions to avoid?

My biggest concern is that someone may flake out on me, but that's fixable by getting a new gamer, I don't have an infinite pool of friends, but I should be able to do it. Anyway, like I said, any hints, tips, comments, or concerns?

**scurv** · 2012-12-01, 09:50 PM (ISO 8601)

Make sure to invite me?

**Anxe** · 2012-12-01, 10:45 PM (ISO 8601)

Do the game over google hangouts instead. Skype doesn't allow group video calls. Google does. As for tips... Pay attention to everyone, if someone says something and you miss it, keep listening to who was talking. After that, ask the interrupter person what they said.

**CarpeGuitarrem** · 2012-12-02, 12:14 AM (ISO 8601)

Presuming you mean group video, what Anxe said.

I've also played over Skype chat, and it works. There's challenges, though. You have to make sure that your players are actively engaged, and that they don't take their sweet time writing out the next great American novel, because that's very tempting to do when you're using chat...but it kills the pace of a session.

It's really nice to have that chat log, though.

**Zale** · 2012-12-02, 02:51 AM (ISO 8601)

Considering Skype doesn't work over my college's internet, I don't think it's very useful.

**Rallicus** · 2012-12-02, 10:17 AM (ISO 8601)

It has a fair share of problems. Skype's "press to talk" thing isn't really as good as ventrillo's or teamspeak's, so you might have a whole lot of people talking over each other or not realizing they're muted.

I'd use a teamspeak server over Skype for running a game any day of the week. There's still the occasional point where players talk over one another, but it's not as frequent as with Skype. And it's so, so nice to have players with crappy mics only talking when they push to talk.

**The Random NPC** · 2012-12-02, 11:06 PM (ISO 8601)

I think roll20.net has video chat, and I know it has maps and auras and such. It might fulfill your needs.

**DontEatRawHagis** · 2012-12-03, 10:31 AM (ISO 8601)

My group uses Google Hangout. There is an addon called Bones that allows dice rolling if you want.

We used Skype till two of our members moved.

**Knaight** · 2012-12-04, 12:18 PM (ISO 8601)

I personally quite like Skype, but I also place next to no value on the video portion in most cases. For group audio calls, it works, it works well, and it has a reasonably substantive text chat to back it up when necessary.

**DaTedinator** · 2012-12-04, 12:46 PM (ISO 8601)

I'll second Roll20.net. It's pretty slick and simple to use.

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