IRL Game - Thoughts on best setup?

[Gwydion]

Hey, all! So, I organized an IRL game in Denver in early November with Rob2e and a number of other guys. We will be using FG for most, if not all, of the games. There will be six of us in a house for 3 days. We will all have laptops and I think most all of us have an ultimate license. Its a rental house so I'm not sure how much direct access I will have to the wifi router user id/password but I do know where the wifi closet is (I've stayed there before) and will have direct access to the equipment I believe. One of us at least (probably Rob) will be streaming on twitch.

My question is can you all remind me since I've hardly ever played FG with an IRL group, what is the best way to set things up? Meaning, I think I have an 6 port switch I can bring, but is it best to just use wifi or should i try to connect everyone directly to the host computer with a switch? When I play with my two girls at home I typically just use wifi and have them login with my internal ip address. I know I will still need to figure out how to port forward since each person will want to DM some using their own computer. Or, we will have to use my PureVPN service but everyone would have to download it so they can use it when it is their turn to DM. I'm trying to consider the load on the wifi with six computers and one streaming and make sure I set this up in a way that makes it most effecient.

Anyway, any thoughts on how best to set up would be much appreciated. Might be reaching out to Damned as soon as we get there to have him help me with the portforwarding!

[damned]

Switch will be best.
Get PF setup on one Ip address and then have GM change to that IP address manually each time you switch...
hah - just saw you cast summoning...

[Gwydion]

Switch will be best.
Get PF setup on one Ip address and then have GM change to that IP address manually each time you switch...
hah - just saw you cast summoning...

Lol... Its still kinda early here in Denver and for the briefest of moments I'm thinking to myself... "why does he want me to setup Pathfinder on one Ip address? I mean, I play 5e?".... :) I think that makes sense to setup port forwarding on one machine and I think I recall how to manually change the internal ip address. So, just to be completely stupid for a second, I assume I will plug in the switch directly to the ethernet in the house and then everyone (including dm) will plug into the switch. Then we will all login to the host ip (absent the dm acting as the host) using not the alias, but the internal ip.

Is that basically right? We have time to prepare I just want to make sure I have a switch that will work and everyone has laptops that have an ethernet port.

Thanks, Damned!

[LordEntrails]

I didn't think you needed port forwarding if everyone was internal... Am I wrong? Or is that if using a switch and not wifi...

[damned]

lordEntrails is correct you will only need port forwarding if you have any external players.
Make sure you bring one long cable to connect your router to your switch if the router is not close to where you are gaming....
If you end up on wifi - only connect one client at a time and wait for the desktop and PHB to load before connecting the next.

[Gwydion]

lordEntrails is correct you will only need port forwarding if you have any external players.
Make sure you bring one long cable to connect your router to your switch if the router is not close to where you are gaming....
If you end up on wifi - only connect one client at a time and wait for the desktop and PHB to load before connecting the next.

Just a follow up on this as we get closer to our sessions. If we have six of us in person and one remote, can we still connect everyone locally through through a router and switch and then the remote player will connect as normal? So, would the local players use my internal ip address to connect to my table and the remote player uses my alias? Just want to understand how best to set up. Thanks!

[damned]

Just a follow up on this as we get closer to our sessions. If we have six of us in person and one remote, can we still connect everyone locally through through a router and switch and then the remote player will connect as normal? So, would the local players use my internal ip address to connect to my table and the remote player uses my alias? Just want to understand how best to set up. Thanks!

Bring an 8+ port switch.
Bring a long network lead to connect the router to the switch.
Bring 6x 2-3m cables so everyone at the table can connect to the switch
Check everyone actually has an ethernet port - some laptops dont...

When plugging into a new network windows may switch your network automatically to a Public network and automatically enable high security. Switch it back to Home.

The 5 local players will use the LAN/local ip address to connect to you.
Your remote player will use the ALIAS as usual.
Hopefully you wont need to manually do port forwarding but you know what to do if it doesnt work...
TCP 1802 -> TCP 1802

[Gwydion]

Bring an 8+ port switch.
Bring a long network lead to connect the router to the switch.
Bring 6x 2-3m cables so everyone at the table can connect to the switch
Check everyone actually has an ethernet port - some laptops dont...

When plugging into a new network windows may switch your network automatically to a Public network and automatically enable high security. Switch it back to Home.

The 5 local players will use the LAN/local ip address to connect to you.
Your remote player will use the ALIAS as usual.
Hopefully you wont need to manually do port forwarding but you know what to do if it doesnt work...
TCP 1802 -> TCP 1802

Awesome. That is exactly what I was looking for, Damned. Thanks! One of the guys is bringing an 8-port switch and I'll have a number of patch cables to connect everyone. I think the whole IRL session we plan to stream on twitch so should be fun.

[damned]

Awesome. That is exactly what I was looking for, Damned. Thanks! One of the guys is bringing an 8-port switch and I'll have a number of patch cables to connect everyone. I think the whole IRL session we plan to stream on twitch so should be fun.

You might need to experiment with your Mics with 6 speakers in the same room being recorded/broadcast...

[LordEntrails]

You might need to experiment with your Mics with 6 speakers in the same room being recorded/broadcast...
Yea, I would assume you could probably leave all the mics active if using PTT or having your threshold/squelch set high enough. But you almost certainly will only want one speaker turned on.

[Gwydion]

Yea, I would assume you could probably leave all the mics active if using PTT or having your threshold/squelch set high enough. But you almost certainly will only want one speaker turned on.

Yeah. I think we will all use headsets with PTT on and Rob2e will be the only one broadcasting and that is what will be live to the world. :)

[Gwydion]

Just wanted to pop in and say the weekend was awesome!!! We played from Thursday night through late Saturday evening/early Sunday morning with breaks only to eat and sleep a bit. We connected all of the players who were together via ethernet and a switch to the dm's internal ip address. For one of the games we had an individual playing remote so we used PureVPN to connect to the internet (we couldn't figure out port-forwarding due to the setup at the house). The players connected still through the switch with the internal ip address and the remote player connected through the alias. It worked perfectly and was very snappy.

If anyone is interested you can watch the stream replay on Rob2e's youtube channel which is available here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuHtXAS9yMqX0PqyGqUKULA

We had several dm's and a LOT of hours streamed. It was a great time!

[damned]

Awesome. Lots of Kidulting going on that weekend!