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View Full Version : We had our first game the other night...



richvalle
January 7th, 2005, 03:39
And it went pretty well and was quite fun (the game being run by the D20books game shop).

Just a couple of things:

I have a small problem with the characer sheet. The area for weapons and feats is kinda small especialy for fighters that get a lot of both (though I really like the skills section). Maybe there could be another tab for weapons and feats. If you add some of the other combat information (ac, hp's ect) it could be a general page to use during combat. I dont' mean to move the information there but to duplicate it...

Just a though. Great program!

rv

MarauderX
January 7th, 2005, 13:45
I scanned the chat log of the game and noticed that it seemed to take a bit longer to get rolling than a normal game. Is it mostly waiting for players/DM to type out info? Or will it speed up in time as everyone becomes more familiar with the program?

I noticed that there weren't any combats... do you think battles will be fast with the dice roller that has mods already applied? Or will the chatting/actions take more than a moment for each player? I know that when a fight occurs in a face-to-face game there are usually some questions to the DM before a PC moves and/or acts - do you think it's as fast in the program?

As a DM, I like to run a game that is smooth and fast, covering lots of ground per session, so speed of communication is important to me. Any insight as to how to keep the session moving?

I noticed that some are thinking to use a voice-chat for communication... any thought of using that for the d20books group? Or does it get in the way? And does everyone have machines that can handle FG and the overhead of the voice-chat? Also I noticed that 1 player had problems staying logged on... has that issue been resolved?

Renocide
January 7th, 2005, 14:44
I know Teamspeak is a great program. It supports full duplex(everyone can talk at once) and is takes up very little CPU cycles.

I was part of a Planetside(MMORPG) where you formed squades and such to combat other people online. We used Teamspeak to cordinate our attack plans and it worked really well. Planetside is a VERY demanding game on your computer(used about 900 RAM) and I ran it and Teamspeak and my computer never missed a beat.

If everyone has thier mic set up right then you come in clear as a bell and I never had trouble understanding most players. Sometimes we had as many as 20 people on at once. Ofcourse the squad leaders would dictate communication standards such squad members kept radio chatter to a minimum during a firefight so the leaders could cordinate better.

You set up a Teamspeak "server" for everyone to connect too. Dont let the word SERVER confuse you. I ran a Teamspeak server on my second machine and it worked fine while also running a Unreal 2K4 server aswell. It takes up very little system resources.

Anyway, I think Teampeak would work out really well with Fantasy Grounds. It would be like sitting in a room with the other players.

Matter-of-fact I think it would be ideal for playing RPGs online.

richvalle
January 7th, 2005, 14:59
I scanned the chat log of the game and noticed that it seemed to take a bit longer to get rolling than a normal game. Is it mostly waiting for players/DM to type out info? Or will it speed up in time as everyone becomes more familiar with the program?

Some of both I think. It definatly is a slower way to run a game and everyone was feeling their way around both the program and each other as none of us had played together before. I think it will speed up some but will still be much slower then a 'normal' game around a table as it is limited by typing speed.


I noticed that there weren't any combats... do you think battles will be fast with the dice roller that has mods already applied? Or will the chatting/actions take more than a moment for each player? I know that when a fight occurs in a face-to-face game there are usually some questions to the DM before a PC moves and/or acts - do you think it's as fast in the program?

Yeah, no combats yet. First game was pretty much characters 'finding' each other and starting to explore the town and figure out what is going on. Dm setting the scene and showing us maps. I don't even have my hp's rolled yet. :)

Combat... its going to depend some on the dm/players involved of course. But, my guess right now is that it will go a bit faster then around a table. This would be from having the mods added as you said and it just being easier to roll dice and apply damage. Also from how easy it is to see what is going on with the maps and tolkens. While you saw the chat log you did not see the visuals we saw as we played. When we were in the tavern we could see the location of everone as we played. We could see the waitress (lovely Della) move to the fire to get the stew and then move to the bar to get the drinks and then move to the tables.

Maybe I'll try to pick a fight next game to see how it goes. :)


As a DM, I like to run a game that is smooth and fast, covering lots of ground per session, so speed of communication is important to me. Any insight as to how to keep the session moving?

One thing to keep in mind when watching d20book's game is that he does not 'make adventures' and run the characters though them. He leaves it up to the characters to deside what they want to do and then just rolls with it. As such, its going to be different from many of the other games out there but so far I like it a lot. Its a really different feel to the game.

I've not looked at what tools a dm has available so my advice is going to be limited. I'd say to try and have as much of the adventure done and in place before hand will go far. Anytime you can just dump the text to the chat window without having to type it up will save a bunch of time. Try to have a map in place that the party can be located on at all times. What I mean is have a large scale map where travel will take days, a map of the town(s) they visit. Have some generic maps of inns, stores ect if you can pull up as needed. Maps of the adventure area of course. Having a map and a tolken on it showing the party/character location is a great focusing tool.

Then just the normal dm tricks of making sure the party does not wander too far off course and keeping them focused on the adventure instead of trying to have a horse race with the 2 horse tied up outside the tavern you put there for color... :)


I noticed that some are thinking to use a voice-chat for communication... any thought of using that for the d20books group? Or does it get in the way? And does everyone have machines that can handle FG and the overhead of the voice-chat? Also I noticed that 1 player had problems staying logged on... has that issue been resolved?

The d20books dm has not said anything (that I remember anyway) about using voice chat. On one hand it would speed up the play but... there is something about not having it that enhances the play. Its easier to role play somehow when you don't have to talk... and you get to imagine what the other character sounds like. In our game for example if we used voice software Della, the barkeep and the drunk veteran would all have sounded the same (mostly). When you read it you can supply your own voices as you think they would sound.

I don't know what the others machine specs are. I'm pretty sure I could. Also, d20books wants this to be an 'open' world where there are different groups playing. Just because 'our' group does not use voice-chat there could be groups that do. If you desided to run a game there for example you could say using voice-chat was a requirement (I'm guessing d20books does not care what other groups do).

>I< was the one having the issues. For some reason ever time he shared the tavern map my software exited out. It MAY have been because before the game started I was running the software twice.. once to connect with my character (Jik) and once to connect with his familaur. I like the idea of having a char sheet and tolken for that. It worked ok for a while and then I got a nasty blue-screen-of-death. I was able to resolve the issue by doing a fresh install of the software so all was well. I'll try the 2 connection thing again next time.

Whew... thats gotta be the longest post I've ever done.

rv