"Dungeon and Dragons online with friends: Anyone done it?" Topic

I am talking old school D and D over the internet using email or facebonk messaging or something. Has anyone attempted this fantasy feat? Any tips to give to an old gamer who hasn't played D and D for about 35 years or so with a group of former high school gamer friends who are now around 50 yrs old.

Hi there,

This is something my old group and I use to do a while back.

I remember the DM had a webcam for showing dice roles and showing maps, but other than that, it was all done via yahoo messenger.

I'm not sure what program you would use now, I know yahoo messenger still exists, but I'm certain there are better programs now.

We played Shadowrun, WHFRP and AD&D like this, but I'm sure anything would work.

Thanks, AmongLions!

You could do a multi-person video conference on Skype, or use a Google Hangout for the same purpose. Unless you want to do it via written text, rather than audio/video…?

I'll have to check with the friends. Good options, snodipous.

app.roll20.net/home

It has been my Pathfinder lifeline to find like-aged/minded gamers.

There are a few virtual tabletop programs available. You could find old copies of Neverwinter Nights cheap but it uses 3.5 rules.

Roll20 is you friend. I use it weekly. You can use Skype or Googlerooms for voice chat. Really just a t able that the DM can set up. Other Bells and whistles are nice but not needed

Thanks for pointing out Roll20. Its an amazing resource.

I've played some games online with Google Hangouts and it was pretty great… closer to the real thing than I would have dared hope for.
Having everyone on camera really helped the fun I think but isn't mandatory.

Maptool is another great VTT software with probably the most features. I have written a thread about my experiences using it with a F2F Dark Sun 4E campaign:

link

Webex shares the desktop of one player and and manages webcam of many.
Greetings

Cool experiences and advice, folks!

One thing that doesn't work well is to have some people getting together in person and the rest playing over the internet. It really messes up the group dynamics. So have everybody do it online, even if some of the players are local.

We try it two different ways because of our setups.

In one game, we do a Google Hangout With 2 Cameras/phones at the main location and a laptop. The laptop is placed at the end of the table with the screen facing the players there and showing the missing player(s). One camera is set to show the table facing the GM and angled to see most of the PCs if possible. The second camera shows the "battlefield" and we can pick it up to show the table better if needed.

In the second game we were using a battlemap program that had built in dice rolls. I think it was the DnD one in its Beta phase. You can log into the server and move your guy, it would show LOS for your character. It was neat but prone to crashing.

I ran a 4E game using MapTool for a couple of years. It worked great, but the workload for me (creating maps) was greater than tabletop. The things you can do -- hiding parts of the map, *real* invisible monsters -- make up for the extra work. Lots of fun (if you have the time).