A distant company - using the internet to form a rpg group

[timb]

I'm sure on the old forums several people were using software (like Skype?) to form a rpg group and play TOR online via the software - the GM had the printed books and used them and used the software to talk to the group, and there was some form of online dice roller people were using to It was all fair and not someone rolling a d6 offscreen and declaring Gandalf runes all the way. What was it people were using? Was it just Skype? I'm curious because a colleague mentioned he used to play D&D with friends in their school days and of late they were talking about doing it again but time and distance were big restraints, they couldn't meet up for real, and then I remembered other people on here had the same problem and had found ways to get round the issue of distance. And also partly for myself, I'm not sure about local playing groups and I'd rather play with a mix of people from different places and get that flavour of cultural variety.

[Southron]

IIRC some were using Skype and others were (are) using PBEM. The former you have to be one at the same time, but the latter allows for posting whenever you can. PBEM is usually via forum post. For myself, I enjoy the creative writing aspects of PBEM. If you have decent writers it makes for great collaborative storytelling , but the social aspect of hanging out is not as strong.

SL

[Valarian]

Personally, I use Fantasy Grounds - a virtual tabletop. There's a number of online tabletop software offerings, plus things like Google Hangouts (though you'd need to find a dice roller). I've been running a weekly TOR game for about 18 months.

I'll also be running a demo game at the online convention next week. Still a couple of places in the game.

Fantasy Grounds in action:

[Southron]

Valarian,
Is it played solely in real-time?

SL.

[Chris Gardiner]

I'm sure on the old forums several people were using software (like Skype?) to form a rpg group and play TOR online via the software - the GM had the printed books and used them and used the software to talk to the group, and there was some form of online dice roller people were using to It was all fair and not someone rolling a d6 offscreen and declaring Gandalf runes all the way. What was it people were using? Was it just Skype?

I'd strongly recommend Google Hangouts. I've done online RPGs as voice-only and with video, and video is MASSIVELY better. You can do conference video with Skype too, but only by stumping up for a Premium account.

As for online die rollers: the online TOR character maker has one. You create a server, get everyone to log in and join the chat log, then all dice rolls are shared. Great piece of software.

I've been running an online game using these two tools and it works great.

[Chris Gardiner]

Personally, I use Fantasy Grounds - a virtual tabletop. There's a number of online tabletop software offerings, plus things like Google Hangouts (though you'd need to find a dice roller). I've been running a weekly TOR game for about 18 months.

I'm curous - can Fantasy Grounds handle TOR's custom dice?

[Valarian]

Valarian,
Is it played solely in real-time?

Yes, it's played in real-time. The GM hosts runs the software with a full or ultimate license and the players connect as clients. You could, theoretically, leave the server running, but you'd be leaving an open port on your computer. If anyone could somehow hijack the connection and exploit a hole to insert code then it's possible, not terribly likely though, that your computer could be comprised.

[Valarian]

Personally, I use Fantasy Grounds - a virtual tabletop. There's a number of online tabletop software offerings, plus things like Google Hangouts (though you'd need to find a dice roller). I've been running a weekly TOR game for about 18 months.

I'm curous - can Fantasy Grounds handle TOR's custom dice?

Yes, I'm using a custom die handler which translates the results from the d12 and d6s. Not got any handy screenshots showing this in action. I'm using a custom ruleset (the customisable interface between GM and the Fantasy Grounds engine) that I developed for TOR.

[Valarian]

Example of dice rolling

[sondern]

Hey Valarian, since English is not my native tongue and I even did not read the whole TOR book I won´t be able to attend your online TOR session Nevertheless I am VERY interested in how a TOR online session could work. So here is my question: would you mind to record your screen and the voice channel during the TOR online session and make it accessible for us folks who are interested in the experience? I would be very happy having a chance to view and hear such a session in action
Cheers,
Sondern