Any Story Telling Tips for FG DMing?

[Diana]

I've DMed my first FG D&D 3.5 game and it was very different from my past experiences both DMing tabletop D&D (2nd Ed) and DMing Neverwinter Nights 1.

On-line, with only voice chat, text, map, tokens, and images, along with no visual cues about players, it seems more challenging to create story immersion and to set the pace of events.

Would any one have any tips about how you make cooperative story telling engaging while gaming with Fantasy Grounds?

Thank you,

Diana

[Jingo]

Some tips that worked for me.
1 - Write up detailed description of NPCs, scenes, etc in advance. So you can drag and drop as needed. Use maps and tokens. Show pictures of monsters, npcs, etc.
2 - Use Text for role playing moments. For us, we tried doing voice for this, but I found it very difficult and we've had much better immersion using straight text for inter character role-playing.
3 - Use voice for combat. Text is very slow for that.

Good luck... :o

[Griogre]

You are right, the inability to read body language changes things. I've found you can't be as subtle because you can't tell if they are following you or not. Here is where Jingo's suggestion for good chat frame text that you can drop into the chat window can help alot. I've found it helps if you give them several obvious actions. IE "You want to head down the cliff or wait or something else?" There is some mild leading here, tempered by the something else. I'm not trying to force any actions but I am trying to set a frame of reference. After I say something like that I'll shut up and force them to respond.

I agree with most of what Jingo said. I run two online games and use voice in both and I do play in a game with no voice at all. Some people won't play with voice, some people won't play without it, most aren't that extreme -YMMV.

In one game I run, the Rappan Athuk dungeon crawl, I make the players type all in character chat. I don't require the players have a mic in that game only that they can hear me talk. I use voice mainly to speed combat and for some narration. Players who do have a mic can use them for any OOC. Like Jingo, my experience is that voice *greaty* speeds combat. IE with voice I say - "Green Statue attacks Vereoil" and at the same time I'm talking I've grabbed 3d20 and tossed them. With Voice - I'll say "Missed" or "Hit three times" and tap the monsters hotkeyed damage die as many times as needed. I'll then close on Voice with a general description of Vereoil, if needed - "Vereoil is lightly wounded, critically wounded, disemboweled or down". This is very fast compaired to having to put all this in text. *Moment of silence for poor Vereoil killed in the last RA game.*

In the other game I run, almost everything is done with voice by both the characters and me. Mostly the only thing in the chat window is die rolls. This is also fast but my experience is that many players are reluctant to speak for fear of speaking on top of each other, so I sometimes get a lot of “dead” air.

From my experience, typing works best for character roleplaying. Voice, pointes or graphics work much better than text for anything else.

Other tips:
In Combat have the players point at their targets with their arrow pointers. That way they don't have to type who they are attacking.

As a DM I found that it's not worth while to have hot keys for monsters to hit rolls. It is faster just to grab a handful of d20's and throw them. On the other hand it is faster to hot key their damage dies because this allows the players to drag the damage onto their character.

Make your players hotkey their damage (which seldom changes unless they have power attack) and throw their to hit and then immediately tap their damage key. You would be surprised how much time this saves in a long fight or with a bunch or players.

[grider]

Both of these tips can save you tons of time.

I am currently working voice and some players do some web cam stuff. I don't mind and sometimes I'll run a mulit-conferencing server. That does solve some of those visual issues. But, keep in mind only high bandwidth users for that kind of stuff.

Also, you can't just wear your underwear during those sessions! ;)

[kalmarjan]

O.o

I do not know what to say about that.

I am just conducting a poll to see if my players want to use voice chat, and thanks for the tips Giogre.

Sandeman

[Snikle]

Also, you can't just wear your underwear during those sessions! ;)

LOL....no wait, why not? :)

[Oberoten]

Also, you can't just wear your underwear during those sessions! ;)

Unless you are a really hot underwear modell in which case I doubt anyone will really mind...

[Griogre]

Gee, Snikle I didn't know you were an underwear model. :D

[Oberoten]

Gee, Snikle I didn't know you were an underwear model. :D

I suppose Victoria wanted to keep THAT very secret.

[Snikle]

LOL
You HAVE seen my avatar right? Hot sexy, potbellied little red demon. Come on, what is hotter than that?!

[LordTomar]

LOL
You HAVE seen my avatar right? Hot sexy, potbellied little red demon. Come on, what is hotter than that?!

Ohh man I dont think i can game with you anymore because of that visual you just put into my head.

[Oberoten]

1d6+2 San!!!

[Snikle]

Man, I so wish I was a good artist, you would be seeing a centerfold in a day or so......

[Craw]

That would make a wyrm flee.

[Craw]

Pre-prepared text is great, just keep it broken up into short sections. Three or four lines at most. This keeps attention from wandering, reduces read-speed differences in your players and allows for questions/comments that you might not anticipate.

[Griogre]

I agree with Craw, small sections of prepared text are often best. I think the only general exception would be area descriptions. Remember you can drap frame text up to a player's portrait to send just that player a whisper of the chat frame.

Another good thing to do is use the /vote command as a shortcut to typing whenever possible. There are many game mechanic/admin things you can do with it. One example is after you take a break you can have a "vote" on "Back from Break". Another might be when loading a large map - "Got Map?" The check marks are in player portrait order so you can see who has voted. These types of votes can save you and your players quite a few lines of typing in the chat window.