Poll: Using voice chat?

[Answulf]

A poll to help GMs thinking about running a FGII campaign:

So, Skype vs. text chat... which do you prefer in your games and why?

Text Chat
Adds to immersion
Improves roleplaying
Limits OOC chatter
Slows the game downVoice Chat
Speeds up the game
Easier to explain rules
Reduces immersion
Increases "goofing off"I'm guessing most people use a combination of the two: what do you use voice chat for? Combat only? OOC chat? Story? Everything but in-character text? Do you prefer PTT (Ventrillo) instead of Skype?

Tell us, what has your experience been?

[Valarian]

I've not tried voice chat and have only used the text chat in games. I've been considering giving Skype a try for out-of-character and rule explanations. I'd still want to use text for character speech, actions and for description.

Text Chat
Adds to immersion
Improves roleplaying
Slows the game down (for combat especially)

[drahkar]

The only reason I might use skype is if I wanted ambiance music. However the plugins for that all cost extra money I don't want to spend.

[Answulf]

I've not tried voice chat and have only used the text chat in games. I've been considering giving Skype a try for out-of-character and rule explanations. I'd still want to use text for character speech, actions and for description.
Me too, and why I posted the poll - to find out what others consider the best solution. I have always been a text-only guy, which I think works fine with rules-light systems - but now I am starting to run 4E and am concerned about combat. My first thought was to use ventrillo, keep it off for most of the game and just turn it on/un-mute it for combat.

[Leonal]

Skype for RP and OOC.

And either [/whisper] in FG or text in Skype for private chats (or even muting everyone but one player if there's a lot to discuss between one player and GM).

For pre-made adventures I often translate descriptions and other stuff on the fly and I find it much easier and quicker when talking rather than writing.

Also, since our group consists of long time friends only, we'd rather talk with each other when we get together to play.

[joshuha]

I keep the stuff I would want logged in a campaign log (using my FG Log Scrubber for example) in text chat so I can have a history. I use voice for rules discussions, OOC, meta questions, and general banter. I like to keep emotes, RP chat, and combat descriptions in FG.

[Spyke]

Up until recently I'd always used Skype with my face-to-face group when playing online, for RP and OOC, and text chat whenever GMing with VT chums. However, I ran a game recently using Skype for RP and OOC and a VT (Battlegrounds rather than FG in this case) for maps, dice and handouts, and that worked well.

I'd agree with text chat for immersion and voice chat for ease and speed generally, but with my face to face group we know each other so well that the voice option is by far the best. This weekend I should be playing a one-to-one game with one of my face-to-face players over Skype but using Fantasy Grounds as the table for dice, character sheet and handouts, which I think will be ideal.

Spyke

[CampbellR66]

Skype all the way...

But we like a bit of ooc banter

[Darkfaith]

My group will probably be using Teamspeak 3 when we start this week. I'm actually got the server running on my computer (snagged a non-profit license, so I've actually got a large number of server slots). We intend to use it for out of character chatter, and use the chat interface in FG for anything IC so I can log it.

[wavecutter]

Ventrilo 100%

[sondermann]

Playing with friends, for me it's Skype all the way.

[tdewitt274]

I've thought about doing only chat to promote more IC conversations. However, still have yet to get the interest of the local group...

[bislab]

My group uses Skype or Skype like voice software. We record our sessions and podcast them so this is a must. Even if you don't plan on sharing your game sessions publicly, I've found that having your sessions recorded is an excellent tool for the GM to use to hone his skills, as well as keeping track of story consistency. Non-story horsing around is actually kept to a minimum and the opportunities to really role play your character abound. We allow 30 min. pre game to just chatter to get it out of our systems, from then on it's GO TIME.

[drahkar]

Well, FG logs the chat window itself so you get the same thing while using that as well.

I haven't decided which I prefer yet.

[mr_h]

My group has used Teamspeak and Ventrillo in the past. It does make certain things go faster, espically combat. It does take a bit away from 'in character' action a bit, but it's workable.

I'm planning on setting up a Mumble server sometime in the near future for gaming and fantasy grounds. Hoping if I can get it setup right I'll offer it up to the community if they need a voice comm server. (it's all free and open source stuff).

[Andugus]

I use Ventrilo like Joshuha does. OOC/Social in Voice, which is pretty limited but allows a sense of camaraderie beyond just the game. All character action, roleplay, emotes are typed in FG2. This produces the best immersion I've ever been able to produce. Better by far than face to face games.

[Invain63]

My group has used Teamspeak and Ventrillo in the past. <snip>
I'm planning on setting up a Mumble server sometime in the near future for gaming and fantasy grounds.
Can those who have chosen voice chat systems explain their reason for choosing one platform over the other? I am considering adding voice chat to my game, but haven't decided which way to go.


Hoping if I can get it setup right I'll offer it up to the community if they need a voice comm server. (it's all free and open source stuff).
Cool!

-Kevin McD

[Spyke]

We use Skype because we're all on it anyway and use it outside of gaming, it has very little lag, the quality seems to be improving year on year, and I've also bought an application called Pamela (https://www.pamela.biz/en/) which allows me to record the sessions direct to mp3.

Spyke

[mr_h]

In my case:
Teamspeak - cause that's what my gaming clan had setup at the time (and it's free)
Ventrillo - cause that's what they have setup now:) (but someone else is paying for it).
Mumble - free and appears to work on all platforms (I haven't verified Mac however as I don't have one). Seems to be combining the best of Vent and Teamspeak.

[Sorontar]

I started my current games (RPGA with close gaming friends) with the intention of using voice purely for OOC stuff, but it seems sometimes that it's too quiet for my players and more IC stuff is finding it's way onto voice chat.

I have all my modules ready with text to drop where needed but I drop it as I am reading it in case the players want to go over it again if they missed something (saves me repeating myself).

We started using GSC and it has some nice features but found we had issues with people crashing so I set up a free Ventrilo server on the PC downstairs (max 8 users I believe) and we have been happily using that since.

[Bumamgar]

I've been using the free Vent server for my weekly FG sessions for several years now, and pretty much never have any problems with it. Also, it helps immensely to have an 'out-of-band' communication method for when FG crashes :)

[Answulf]

Can those who have chosen voice chat systems explain their reason for choosing one platform over the other? I am considering adding voice chat to my game, but haven't decided which way to go.

-Kevin McD

I think one of the reasons to choose between Skype and Ventrillo/Teamspeak is whether or not you want push-to-talk. Skype mic is always on (although you can mute it).

[drahkar]

Another reason Skype is nicer over others is that its less bandwidth intensive due to how they implement the connections. With Ventrilo and Teamspeak the server has to have connection that is more and more powerful the more people who connect.

[Phystus]

My group uses Ventrilo. I GM and one of my players hosts Vent, and we haven't had bandwidth issues. We use Vent for most in and out of character talk, chat is mostly used for box text, whispers, and OOC chat when we're in the middle of a bit of roleplaying. But my group has been playing together for over 20 years, and we started out face-to-face, so voice just seemed more natural to us.

~P

[Brenn]

Vent 100%. I've been gaming with these people since the mid to late '80s, so not doing voice would be quite strange for us. I can see the advantage for keeping IC stuff in chat, but when you know the people so well it just slows things down and in our case I don't think it would add to immersion one bit. Plus one of our players is not so good with the typing ;)

I rent a Ventrilo server, so no one has to host.

[Bidmaron]

I used iChat on a Mac and my other remote players (some of the players were in the room with me and others were remote) used the AOL client that works with iChat. We had video chat going, although it was mainly just the audio we used. This worked great and didn't seem to have any big effect on FG2.

[Bidmaron]

Is there any thought with the new ownership to include voice chat in FG2? At the very least, it would be nice to build an interapplication communication protocol so you could use 3rd party music programs and synchronize/trigger it from with FG2.

[Brenn]

Speaking of video, I forgot- I ran a F2F campaign with one remote player years ago. We used a combo of video and FG1. The video wasn't so good though- Broadband then isn't quite what it is now, not to mention FG1 compared to FG2 ;)

[ionofrao]

We use teamspeak and I would argue that it reduces immersion perhaps because as a DM I am somewhat of a repressed actor I really enjoy role playing my NPC's with different accents and speech affectations and I think it really adds to the players and my enjoyment and immersion in the game.

Also it is much faster then typing, but we do text a lot also, especially if someone wants to say something but not interrupt the primary conversation or dialog going on they will put it in chat and the appropriate person will respond in chat or in voice when the current dialog is complete.

[osarusan]

I use Skype and love it. Combined with FG, it feels like we're actually sitting at a tabletop playing a game.